Chaverim y'karim - dear friends,

I arrived in Israel last Friday afternoon - just in time for Shabbat’s arrival. Amy and I had made our flights about six months ago, hoping we would have a trip of congregants who might join us. We had a small interest of committed travelers, which was not surprising at all, given the reality of travel to Israel today. So we REscheduled the trip for May 2025. If you would like to learn more about our congregational trip to Israel please be in touch! See below for an upcoming informational meeting.

We kept our plans to travel given the reality of our need to be in Israel, in no small part because of Nina, Amy's youngest daughter, who is currently serving as a combat soldier in the army in the Israel Defense Forces. We had promised Nina a visit in the Fall, and we didn’t have the heart to disappoint her. The army is tough and Nina was really looking forward to our visit. We couldn’t let her down, and honestly, Amy and her daughter needed each other's hug and among the hardest parts of this war, for me, is being away from Israel.

In the next few weeks, I will share further insights from the trip. For today, I want to tell you about our visit to Jerusalem. We were there for just Sunday/Monday this week. Things have really changed for me. While I have always loved all of Israel, Jerusalem was my base. Twice in my life I have lived there for a year, so I know several neighborhoods well and return there regularly - though far less of late. I now know Tel Aviv much better and that is both to my liking and a reflection of what has happened to the Jewish people's Eternal Capital. I still love Jerusalem but the complexity of its traffic and its population leads me more readily to other places for my visits.

Nonetheless, a visit to Israel feels incomplete without going to Jerusalem and as with anywhere - I go because of the people I want to see who are old or new friends and acquaintances and there are always new things to see and do! In fact, Jerusalem, like everywhere else in the country, is going through a major building boom - though slowed mightily by the war.

I want to highlight three of our goals for Jerusalem earlier this week: a visit to the National Library, check out THINKERS (a distillery), and meet a man who helped us to purchase $40,000 worth of protective gear for Nina and the soldiers in her unit.

The Israeli National Library

Situated between the Knesset and the Israel Museum in the very heart of western Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel is both an architectural icon and a vibrant center of culture. The library has become another feature of Jerusalem’s “Museum Mile,” which includes the Supreme Court, the Knesset, the Israel Museum, and the Bible Lands Museum. Designed by world renowned Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron, the new building and campus of the National Library offers a stunning visual and physical manifestation of NLI’s mission and vision of openness and accessibility, welcoming audiences from Israel and around the world to engage with the Library’s priceless treasures.

I had forgotten that the library opened to the public just weeks after October 7, 2023. The timing of the opening is a real reminder that at the very heart of both Jewish and Israeli culture is learning, an appreciation for the arts and beauty and a deep love of Jewish books on all sorts of varied topics and from throughout the world where Jews have lived. Especially in this last year — when so much of our talk about Israel has been about hostages, the many fronts of this horrific war, the many aspects of Israeli society that are broken and in need of real repair — it was a stark contrast to be in a beautiful new building that captures the very best of what Israel offers. This video will give you a sense of the aesthetics of the library.