Shabbat

Friday morning was spent discussing serious domestic and foreign issues that concern Israel. While in the USA we may see the threat from Israel's neighbors, within Israel, citizens are just as concerned with social issues like affordable housing, cost of food increases and mandatory conscription of the ultra religious into the military. There is never a shortage of issues to discuss pertaining to Israel. From our morning discussion we drove to visit new Ethiopian immigrants. The largest group of Ethiopians was brought to Israel in the early 90's. But there are still more today that are being brought to safety in Israel. When I was in college, I spent my junior year studying in Israel. The favorite part of that year was the time I spent working with Ethiopian children in an absorption center. It was a very different time and Israel has become so much more sophisticated in the process of integrating Ethiopians into Israeli life. When I was in college, we used to bring our cameras with us to take pictures of the children. They would eagerly wait a whole week for us to bring the pictures back that we had developed. In contrast, what a great time I had taking pictures digitally with the kids! The whole absorption process has been streamlined and the last group of Ethiopian Jews will be in Israel by Ocotber 2014. We interacted with the excited children in the absorption center by playing music, coloring and making ice cream.

Looking back on Operation Moses, which we made possible in the early 90's by generosity of the American Jewish community and other countires around the globe. The children that I met then are now in their 20's. I often wonder about where they are and what they are doing. At lunch, we had the opportunity to find out. We divided into small lunch groups and met with Ethiopians who are leading successful productive lives in Israel. They have all suffered much hardship and overcome challenges. Today many of them work to help new immigrants adjust to life in Israel. The second Ethiopian member of Knesset spoke to us about lunch about the sitution with the current immigration and challanges facing this population as they work to intigrate intonIsraeli society. Sigal, below, was a woman whom we had the pleasure of meeting with over lunch. She was born in 1979 and was just a baby when her father left the family to walk to Sudan to come to Israel. She did not see him again until 1990 when she was 11 years old. She shared her struggles with us, and there were many, but today she helps Ethiopian parents learn how to raise their children in Israeli society. She is married to a French man and has three young children of her own. She is just one of the Ethiopian success stories that brought me to tears. The Ethiopian resuce and absorption is unprecedented. We are the only people to have taken people out of Africa to bring them to freedom and integrate them into society in meaningful, productve and dignified ways. It is miraculous.

We took some time to get ready for Shabbat and then we headed to the southern wall excavations for a lively kabbalat shabbat service with lively music and dancing. A breeze gently blew in the spirit of shabbat as the melodies filled the air with joy. It could not have been a more beautiful setting to feel the spirit and peace that comes with shabbat in Israel. The spirit moved me and I felt so very grateful for all of the wonderful blessings in my life. The sun began to set over the Western Wall and the last minute frenzy of Shabbat preparations became a rush of music and prayer. A palpable Shabbat calm began to spread as we all began to relax from our hectic week and wished each other a Shabbat Shalom.

Our new week has begun as beautifully as the last one ended. We said goodbye to shabbat as we sang shavuah tov from the balcony of the hotel looking over Jerusalem. The smell of fresh rosemary, the beautiful music, and the twisted light of the havdalah candle separted us from Shabbat to begin a new and productive week. The memories we are making on this trip will certainly shape this week and many many more. Shavuah tov from Jerusalem.