I'm profoundly changed and so grateful for the opportunity to travel with other Bay Area civic leaders on a 10-day study seminar to Israel, hosted by the JCRC of San Francisco.
It was an invitation to grapple with the human capacity for beauty and brutality. A question lingers about our own responsibility to our families, communities and country: How we will create healing, peace, and justice. ☮️
A brief summary of our itinerary:
Tel Aviv
>> Stav Shaffir, former member of Knesset Labor Party
>> Walking Tour of Jaffa
>> Deputy Mayor Chen Arieli, LGBTQ Rights Activist
>> Belaynesh Zevadia, former Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia & Rwanda
Kfar Blum
>> BINA, refugee nonprofit
>> ANU Museum of Jewish People
>> Baha'i Terraces
>> Mohammed Darawshe, Shalom Hartman Institute Faculty
Lebanon & Syrian Borders
>> Lt. Colonel Sarit Zehavi, co-founder ALMA
>> Druze hosted Tel Shifon Winery
Jerusalem
>> Sea of Galilee
>> Alon Shachar, LGBTQ Center
>> Tal Becker, advisor to Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
>> Knesset Tour
>> Old City Tour
>> Yiscah Smith, spiritual activist
>> c.a.t.a.m.o.n. Dance Group
>> Yad Vashem, Holocaust Memorial Center
>> Yad B'Yad, Hand in Hand
>> Dr. Micah Goodman, Shalom Hartman Fellow
West Bank
>> Roots (Shorasim)
>> Walking Tour of Ramallah
>> Dr. Khalil Shikaki, director of Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
>> Dr. Mustafa Kamel Barghouthi, director of Palestinian Medical Relief Society
Dead Sea
>> Dan Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel