Submitted by Betty Robbins (Trustee Spouse) & Moses Silverman (Trustee)

On April 16, members of Central Synagogue’s Board gathered in Jerusalem to join a five-day trip led by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein and Central’s Board of Trustees President David Edelson.  Our group consisted of 16 trustees, 11 spouses, and of course Rabbi and Kerry Rubinstein, Senior Director Livia Thompson and former Development Director Daniel Nadelmann.

We journeyed through a whirlwind of activities that provoked thoughtful conversations about inspiring and challenging developments in Israel today.  Through this, we cemented relationships with each other, with the Synagogue, with Judaism, and with Israel.

Most daily activities began after an early breakfast and continued until midnight. We met with an Israeli journalist (Itai Anghel); the head of the Political Science Department of Hebrew University (Prof. Reuven Hazan); a Member of the Knesset from the new Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid that made a surprisingly successful debut in the 2013 election (Rabbi Dov Lipman); representatives of the Reform Jewish world in Israel (Rabbi Michael Marmur, Rabbi Naamah Kelman and Rabbi Gilad Kariv); and the author of a best-selling book about Israel’s start-up companies (Jonathan Medved). 

With Danny Seidman, an Israeli attorney, we traveled through East Jerusalem, exploring political and diplomatic complexities and observing the difficulties faced by the Arab residents.  And we traveled by jeep through the Judean Hills on Israel’s Burma Road in an effort to understand the human cost in ferrying food, water, and support to the besieged Jews in Jerusalem during Israel’s War of Independence.

We attended an Erev Shabbat service at a Reform synagogue in Modi’in, and a moving Shabbat morning service led by Rabbi Rubinstein in a small room in our Tel Aviv Hotel, overlooking the churning Mediterranean on a stormy morning.  There we shared Trustee Emily Steinman’s “second” bat mitzvah as she chanted from the Torah; and we shared David Edelson’s d’var Torah on the unexpected gifts of a Leviticus parasha.

The trip ended with two very different emotional and hopeful stops: one at a “gap-year” pre-army program for young potential leaders; the other at an educational “village,” Yemin Orde, established for the children who, as recent immigrants, experience emotional and linguistic challenges to entering Israeli society.  While at Yemin Orde, we met with intelligent, articulate teenagers from Ethiopian and Russian families, and left with a sense of hope and amazement for those devoted to changing Israel and the world by saving children, one child at a time. 

We feel fortunate to have shared this experience with this group.  Below are a few of the email comments that Rabbi Rubinstein received after the trip, reprinted with permission from Rabbi Rubinstein and the writers. 

Peter Jakes, Trustee:

… Our sense of bonding with our fellow trustees and their spouses, which this short trip generated, and which your participation with us, in particular, nurtured, will last with us all for a long time—both in our roles as trustees and simply as better friends within the Central Synagogue community.

As always with Israel—a mixture of sheer amazement, exhilaration, warmth, love and, yes, some measure of frustration.  So much achieved, and yet still so much to do.  But that’s what being engaged with Israel is all about.  So, we look forward to building on what we have learned, passing it along to others and then starting again to learn even more.

Lee Stettner, Trustee Spouse:

We are at the airport and reflecting on our fourth trip together and the eighth (or so) for members of our family with Central over the past three years. Each mission has been so special and, together, Beth and I have strengthened our relationship, grown closer with our children, built new friendships especially with both of you, other members of the clergy and the administration, and strengthened our bonds with our closest friends.  What excites me most is that each mission has increased our commitment to Central.

So I’m excited now to go home, and see how our lives will change—what we’ll do about Israel, the American Jewish community, and our commitment to Central. Most immediately, I know that [Shabbat] services and events at Central will be more intimate and will be filled with even more friends than ever…

Mindy Schneider, Trustee:

Traveling with you is really something special—you add a dimension to every conversation, every interaction, every experience that is truly unique. You open my eyes to see things from angles and perspectives that I would have otherwise not seen. You understand my emotional moments when I think of my father and all of the special moments I shared with him in Israel.  I am grateful to everyone at Central who had a hand in the organization and planning.