CSP Virtual Israel Adventure
Digging Deeper: Touching the Spirit & Soul of Israel 2020
Co-sponsored by Congregation B’nai Israel of Tustin,
Temple Beth El of South Orange County and
Jewish Community Foundation of Orange County
In 2012 Ruth Calderon surprised many Israelis, and perhaps even herself, when she was elected to the Knesset. Her party, Yesh Atid, won 19 seats, and Calderon was 13th on that list. But the bigger surprise was Calderon’s first speech in the Knesset. True to her pluralistic beliefs and excellent reputation as a Talmud scholar, Calderon gave an impromptu Talmud lesson that impressed even a Knesset member from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox political party, Shas. Posted on YouTube, the speech went viral, igniting the hope that Calderon could reconcile religious and secular factions in Israel, as well as bring together those on the right and the left. In her speech, Calderon called on Israelis to participate in Torah study, the military and civil service. She challenged the ultra-Orthodox domination on all religious matters in the state by asking the government to fund Torah study across the religious spectrum. Join us for a conversation with Dr. Ruth Calderon about her vision of a pluralistic Israeli society. Dr. Ruth Calderon is one of Israel’s leading figures spearheading efforts to revive Hebrew Culture and a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish identity. In 1989, she co-established ELUL in Jerusalem, the first beit midrash in which secular and religious women and men studied and taught together. In 1996, she founded ALMA in Tel Aviv, which is a Jewish liberal arts program for advanced learning. Dr. Calderon is the author of A Bride for One Night (2001), a personal homiletic reading of Talmudic legends, and Talmudic Alpha Beta (2014). From 2013-2015, Dr. Calderon was a Knesset Member from the Yesh Atid Party, where she was Deputy Speaker, member of the education and state control committees, and Chairperson of the Lobby for Jewish Renewal. Dr. Calderon holds a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Talmud from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2700 years ago, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel were exiled by the Assyrian empire. Ever since, mystics, historians and explorers have sought them out. As Chairman of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund has spent over 15 years seeking out lost tribes and hidden Jews to help them reconnect with the Jewish people. He will discuss his globe-trotting work with various far-flung communities such as the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, the Bnei Menashe of India and the Hidden Jews of Poland from the Holocaust, and what this says about Jewish memory and destiny. Michael Freund is the Founder and Chairman of Shavei Israel. Born and raised in New York, Freund moved to Israel in 1995, and was appointed shortly thereafter by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as his Deputy Communications Director at the age of 28. After leaving the Prime Minister’s Office following the 1999 Israeli elections, Freund worked for the Jerusalem branch of Ruder Finn, the global public relations firm, and went on to found Shavei Israel in 2002. In addition, for the past 15 years, he has been a syndicated columnist for The Jerusalem Post. For his work at Shavei Israel, Freund has received a number of prizes and awards, including the Jerusalem Prize and the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism. Freund holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the co-author of the books “Do you have Jewish roots?”, which has been published in three languages, and “A Drop in the Ocean” and has recently completed his rabbinical ordination.
The City of Tel Aviv is the First Hebrew city in modern times. From ancient ports to pulsating people, Tel Aviv is another beating heart of the State of Israel. Erez Kaganovitz founder of Humans of Tel Aviv will share his story, his perspective and his lens, in more ways than one. We will also uncover the origins of the city, and perhaps what led to such a pulsating heart, with our resident tour-guide, Uri Feinberg. During the past five years, Erez Kaganovitz, a Tel Aviv photojournalist and the human behind Humans of Tel Aviv had documented the lives of Tel Aviv residents he meets on the streets. Through photographs, interviews and a large social media presence, Erez offers an inside look into the rich and diverse lives of the people of Tel Aviv while showcasing Israel’s vibrant, multi-cultural society. What Erez loves most about this project is that it reaches others, not through his own ideas, but through the photographs and stories which speak for themselves.
A personal crisis invoked by the 2014 war in Gaza motivated Udi Goren to set out on a two and a half month’s journey through the Israel National Trail – renowned as one of the world’s best and toughest long-distance hikes. Join Udi as he shares his stunning photos and personal stories of the people, natural wonders, and unique landscapes that moved him from despair to hope. Udi Goren has always been fascinated by the secrets this world holds. Growing up watching National Geographic with his dad, it was always clear to him that when he grew up, he would have to do some exploration of his own. He’s spent the bulk of the last ten years outside of his native Israel, and after several years of traveling, documenting and collecting stories from around the world, professional photography became the next step for him. Three years later he graduated with honors from the visual journalism program of the Brooks Institute of Photography in California. During his studies, he interned with National Geographic Television and with world-renowned photojournalist Ziv Koren. Udi is now back in Israel, documenting its varied cultures, people and natural beauty. His work has been viewed in several exhibitions and published in magazines both in and out of Israel.
Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Lydia Aisenberg – Journalist, Educator, Activist
Lydia Eisenberg is the embodiment of a true Chalutza, a pioneer. Having dedicated her adult life to dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, she will introduce us to her passion as we traverse lines and boundaries in the center of the country, entering into the home of others and into hers. Lydia Aisenberg is a journalist, informal educator and special study tour guide. Born in 1946, Lydia is originally from South Wales, Britain and came to live in Israel in 1967 and has been a member of Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek since. The mother of five and grandmother of twelve (so far) Lydia has been involved in shared citizenship projects of the Givat Haviva Institutes International Department for the last 25 years, and involved in informal education projects since her first visit to Israel in 1965 and volunteering during the 1967 war.
Join us as Ayelet Gundar-Goshen discusses her second work of fiction, Waking Lions, the first Israeli novel to engage with African refugee experiences in Israel. A clinical psychologist and award-winning author, Ayelet Gundar Goshen won the Sapir Prize in 2012 for One Night, Markovitch as well as the Italian Adei-Wizo Prize, and the French Adei-Wizo Prize. The novel was long-listed for the Italian Sinbad Prize, and for Grand prix des lectrices de Elle and has been translated to 14 languages. Gundar-Goshen’s second novel, Waking Lions, won the 2017 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize. The New York Times Book Review picked Waking Lions as “Editors’ Choice”, and The Wall Street Journal selected it for its “Best Summer Reads” list. Her critically acclaimed third novel, The Liar, is forthcoming in English in fall 2019. Gundar-Goshen is a contributor to BBC’s The Cultural Frontline, Financial Times, Time Magazine and The Telegraph. Ayelet has lectured at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, UCLA, and Carleton College, among other institutions.
Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Naftali Aklum – Co-Founder, Yerus Project
Naftali Aklum immigrated from Ethiopia on the shoulders of his parents during the period which preceded Operation Moses in the late 1970s. He is a passionate activist and will share the story of the Israeli Ethiopian community from his hometown of Be’er-Sheva. As is often the case in Israel, the communal story and the personal story will intertwine. We will hear not only of Naftali’s brother, Farede Aklum, a leader of the Israeli-Ethiopian community, and an Israeli Mossad agent, responsible for Operation Moses, but of Naftali’s own journey, much of which unfolded, long after her arrived in Israel. Naftali Aklum was born in Ethiopia in 1979, the youngest of 12 siblings. His brother Ferede Aklum z”l was determined to reach Jerusalem, and set out from Ethiopia in 1978 on a long, dangerous trek through the desert, ultimately reaching Sudan. From there he wrote a letter asking for help to make aliyah. The letter found its way to Menachem Begin, who then set in motion the remarkable, secret operation that came to be known as Operation Moses, an operation in which North American Jewry played a crucial role. One of the over 8,000-12,000 Ethiopian Jews to literally follow in his brother’s footsteps, Naftali reached Israel with his family in 1980, at age one, thus fulfilling a dream that had been kept alive for 2,500 years. The family settled in Be’er Sheva, where Naftali was raised and educated. After completing his army service as a firefighter, he went on to study politics, government, history, and Middle Eastern studies at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, graduating in 2008. Naftali took part in several delegations, including a visit to the United States with the Anti-Defamation League in 1996, and in 2002 spent a year with the Israel at Heart organization sharing the story of Israel and Ethiopian Jewry. He is a committed volunteer, helping children at risk in Be’er Sheva through the city’s Council for the Well Being of the Child, and is a mentor to other Ethiopian-Israeli academics, helping them in their job placement efforts. He was an image consultant for a movie on Netflix “The Red Sea Diving Resort”.
With Melila as our guide, we will study the strange story from the Talmud about King David and the tehom. God told King David that he could not build the Jerusalem Temple, because of his role as a warrior. It was impossible, God said, to build a house of peace with blood-filled hands. So instead of building up, David, ever stubborn, decides to dig down, to at least build the Temple’s foundations. And when he digs deep, he uncovers the abyss; the deep; the tehom – that primordial chaos which, the Talmud tells us, is only kept down by a rock. David, being David, against all warnings, lifts the rock, and so, the Talmud tells us, “the deep arose and was about to submerge the world.” Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute and the Director of Maskilot, an intensive two-year program for female doctoral candidates, now opening its fourth cohort. She also founded and co-directs the Rabbinical Students Seminar, an interdenominational program for rabbinic students spending a year in Israel. She has been a professor of Jewish mysticism and Zohar in the Department of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for over two decades. She received her degree from Hebrew University under the tutelage of Professor Yehuda Liebes. At the Hebrew University, Melila also taught in the honors teacher-training program Revivim and in the Amirim honors program for liberal studies. For the past three decades, she has been a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of study of Jewish texts by Israeli adults of all paths of life in various frameworks. She has been teaching and working with Jewish communities in North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union for many years. Her publications include A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, (Hebrew, Alma and Am Oved Publications, 2005 and English, Stanford University Press, 2009). Her book Seekers of the Face – From the Secrets of the Idra Rabba in the Zohar was published in Hebrew in 2018, forthcoming in English from Stanford University Press. Melila also serves on the faculty of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality in the U.S. and is active in the ‘Sulha’ – a reconciliation project that brings together Israelis and Palestinians.
Uri Feinberg adventure with appearance by David Mendelsohn – Educator and Judo Champion
Since the end of WW2, world Jewry has had to grapple with the meaning of the Holocaust. Israel society is dealing with this question in its collective memory, education system, political and social life. Reading Yad Vashem as a text, we will explore what it tells us about the development of the Holocaust narrative in Israel. Dr. Rachel Korazim is a powerful speaker and a freelance Jewish education consultant specializing in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. She is involved with Jewish education world-wide; creating and implementing in-service training programs for educators, writing educational materials, counseling and teaching. As one of the founders and directors of a special program for Israeli soldiers from disadvantaged backgrounds, she was responsible for creating the educational framework and training teachers for the implementation of the program. Born in Israel, she served in the I.D.F. as an officer in the central training base for women and was later a member of the I.D.F. delegation to Niger (West Africa). She is a graduate of Haifa University with a Ph.D. in Jewish education.
Join Hana Bendcowsky in the alley ways of the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Hana is the director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations and will be our guide. We will experience the secrets of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, its religious fervor for the Christian community and historical significance in the city of Jerusalem. Hana Bendcowsky has an M.A. in Comparative Religion from Hebrew University and 16 years of practical experience in interfaith activities in Israel and abroad. She is the Director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations in the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, coordinating and teaching in the Center’s various educational programs, as well as producing educational materials, consulting and doing advocacy work. In addition to her position with the Rossing Center, Hana works as a freelance tour educator in Jerusalem for groups involving over 1,500 individuals a year, mainly Israeli Jews and primarily study tours in the Christian Quarter.
Who’s who and who should we know? In this session we’ll explore works of a few central Israeli artists of our century looking at the works that made or launched their careers. We’ll do all this alongside understanding the historical, political, economic and social climates which have direct influence on who makes it into the pantheon of great artists. This is a way to deepen your knowledge of Israeli art while touching on key changes in Israel in the last twenty years and peep into the mostly hidden mechanisms of the art scene. The artists we’ll explore include – Sigalit Landau, Yael Bartana, Gal Weinstein, Zoya Cherkasky, Vered Nissim and more. Using drawing, sculpting, video and sound, Tel Aviv based artist Shirel Horovitz, creates performances and installations exploring cities, communities and the relations between people and space. She earned her BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and her MA (with distinction) from The Interdisciplinary Art program in Tel Aviv University. Shirel exhibited in major galleries and art festivals in Israel and across the US and is currently exhibiting a sculptural installation in Bat Yam Museum of Art. Alongside her art practice, Shirel lectures, leads art tours, teaches art and is an art consultant to a variety of private groups and institutions among them Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Alma Hebrew college, Classrooms Without Borders, Ashdod Museum of Art, Azrieli LTD, Hartman institute and more. Drawing from multiple fields of knowledge, Shirel weaves into each experience aspects of social issues, politics, economy, religion and more to create a vivid and nuanced image of the Israeli reality. Her knowledge, passion and love of all that is Art, Tel Aviv and Israeli history are nothing less than contagious.
Join us for a conversation with Israeli bestselling novelist Dorit Rabinyan, author of All the Rivers – a modern tale of love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man. Rabinyan found herself at the center of a political scandal when her book was banned by Israel’s ministry of education from being taught at high schools. Rabinyan was born in Israel to an Iranian-Jewish family. She is the recipient Itzhak Vinner Prize, the ACUM Award, The Prime Minister’s Prize and the Jewish Wingate Quarterly Award (London). Her first two novels Persian Brides and A Strand of a Thousand Pearls were both international best sellers and translated into fifteen languages. In 2014 Rabinyan published her third novel, All The Rivers, an immediate best seller in Israel. Named one of the ten best books of the year by Ha’aretz newspaper, the novel was also awarded the prestigious Bernstein Award for Literature. All the Rivers spent more than a year as #1 bestseller in Israel and has been translated into 17 languages.
The birth of the State of Israel in 1948 was a miracle on many accounts. In its wake, the Jewish People had the ability to embrace its own and welcome them home. In the first decades of its existence (and other decades as well), Jewish immigration to Israel was motivated by both push and pull factors. This is true of the waves of Jewish immigration that arrived from Arab countries and North Africa. We will visit the Negev development town of Yerucham with local activist Debbie Goldman Golan and engage with local Israelis from a variety of backgrounds as the incredible efforts of the State to take care of its own and the many challenges and even mistakes that were made along the way. Debbie Goldman Golan has BAs from University of Illinois and Spertus College of Judaica, and an MA from Touro College. American-born, Debbie made Aliyah in 1972, worked as a freelance researcher, writer, editor, and teacher, and developed curriculum materials on Jewish values for secular schools at the David Schoen Institute for Creative Jewish Education. Debbie was Projects Coordinator of the Negev Center for Regional Development (1993-2000) and co-founder of the Midreshet Beyahad Seminar Center and the Teudat Zehut community documentation project, both in Yeroham, where she has resided with her family since 1987. Debbie received the New Israel Fund Fellowship for Leadership in Religious Pluralism (1987), Avi Chai Study-Sabbatical (2000), Liebhaber Prize for Encouraging Religious Pluralism and Cultural Openness in Israel (2006), Ministry of Education’s Torah Culture Department Citation of Excellence (2009), and lit a torch at Mt. Herzl on Israel Independence Day (1988).
I am Divided in Two is the title of one of Ayat Abu Shmeiss’ poems – indeed, this young Palestinian citizen of the state of Israel, gives voice to the complexity of her reality. She writes her poetry in Hebrew, lives her life in Jaffa in both Hebrew and Arabic. Our session will include her poems as well as her story of a feminist activist! In a recent article in the Tel Aviv Review of Books, interviewer Jnan Bsoul notes that Abou Shmeiss, “an observant Muslim from Jaffa, writes in Hebrew without disavowing her Palestinian identity. Gentle and unobtrusive, her writing nonetheless challenges her religious and socially conservative background”. And the larger community in which she lives. Abou Shmeiss, an Arab-speaker who writes in Hebrew in part because she was educated in that language, and in French, at a Christian school in Jaffa, married at 17 and is the mother of a high school student. Like many poets, she has been writing since she was a teen. In her second book, her subjects include an examination of her life as the mother of [only] one child (“sorry/ to disappoint”), and as a student at the Open University, where she is now finishing a degree in political science. The poet has a clear grasp of her position. “I’m this and that” she told Bsoul. In December 2019, Abou Shmeiss was awarded the Shulamit Aloni Prize for emerging artists, earmarked for those whose creative work advances human rights, social justice and co-existence. In January 2020, Haaretz poetry columnist Ilan Berkowitz selected “If I were a Jewish mother” as the most significant Israeli poem of the decade. Dr. Rachel Korazim is a powerful speaker and a freelance Jewish education consultant specializing in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. She is involved with Jewish education worldwide; creating and implementing in-service training programs for educators, writing educational materials, counseling and teaching. As one of the founders and directors of a special program for Israeli soldiers from disadvantaged backgrounds, she was responsible for creating the educational framework and training teachers for the implementation of the program. Born in Israel, she served in the I.D.F. as an officer in the central training base for women and was later a member of the I.D.F. delegation to Niger (West Africa). She is a graduate of Haifa University with a Ph.D. in Jewish education.
We conclude our 2020 virtual Israel adventure with a program on “The Jews are Coming” (Yehudim Baim) – an Israeli Academy Award-winning satire now in its fourth season, airing on Kan 11, one of the official channels of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. The sketch comedy covers the history of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present, from Moses to Barbie and everything in between. Join us for a lively conversation with the show’s creators, Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser. The program will also feature clips from the new season, which have never before been translated for an English-speaking audience! Asaf Beiser: Based in Tel Aviv, Asaf Beiser has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire and drama shows for over 15 years. He is the co-creator and head writer of the award-winning sketch show The Jews are Coming. Asaf was a writer for Fauda, The Good Cop, Eretz Nehederet (The Israeli version of SNL), and many more award-winning programs for Israeli television. Natalie Marcus: Natalie Marcus is a highly acclaimed, award-winning, screenwriter and director based in Tel Aviv. For the past 10 years, Marcus has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire, and drama series. Marcus is the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed historically themed sketch show The Jews are Coming. She teaches comedy writing and lectures about writing and Jewish history all around the world, and lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and two kids.
Digging Deeper: Touching the Spirit & Soul of Israel 2020
Co-sponsored by Congregation B’nai Israel of Tustin,
Temple Beth El of South Orange County and
Jewish Community Foundation of Orange County
Starting on Sunday October 18th and continuing through Thursday October 29th, we will be offering online programs at 10:00 AM PDT and at 12:30 PM PDT every day other than Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th. The AM series features programs with amazing Israelis, including Ruth Calderon, Michael Freund, Udi Goren, Ayelet Gundar Goshen, Melila Hellner, Rachel Korazim, Shirel Horovitz, Dorit Rabinyan, Ayat Abou Shmeiss, Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser. On the PM track, join us for guided adventures with Uri Feinberg in Tel Aviv, the Negev, Jerusalem and the Galilee. Though this series in no way can replace the actual visit we were planning (which visit has been postponed to next October), we do hope that it gives you a taste of what a CSP Israel travel adventure is like – thought-provoking, eclectic, deep, with lots of options.
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Our trips are definitely demanding (physically and intellectually), but they are immensely rewarding. So, pack some snacks, dress in comfortable clothes and lets go (to your chairs)! This travel adventure is free of charge, but we ask that you consider making a donation of $36 or more to CSP to underwrite one or more musical events with Israeli musicians who are in desperate need of funds due to the cancellation of their concerts and events as a result of the pandemic. Donations can be made at this CSP LINK or by check to CSP at 5 Klamath, Irvine, CA 92612. For more information about our CSP adventure next October, check out this link. At the end of our trip, consider staying longer and joining all or part of the excellent spiritual tour curated by Rabbi Kvod Wieder of Temple Beth El.
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About our Guide:
Uri Feinberg has been a Jewish Educator for 25 years. Born in the US, Uri immigrated to Israel when he was ten, grew up in Jerusalem served in the IDF and then, traveled the world. Uri has a Masters’ Degree from the Hebrew University in Contemporary Jewish Studies and was a Jewish history teacher for North American teens, in semester programs in Israel, for many years. Uri spent three years in the US with his wife and three daughters where he served as the Interim Director of Education of Temple Israel of Boston. A licensed tour guide since 1999, Uri has worked as a tour educator for a wide range of groups including synagogue, Federation, URJ and CCAR leadership, interfaith and more. He has guided Jewish heritage trips throughout Europe and has lectured on Israel and Jewish identity across North America. In the current climate engulfing the world, Uri has re-harnessed what he does, and has taken his knowledge and his passion ‘on-line’. He continues to reach out, and partner with the North American Jewish Community.
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Uri and his family live in the city of Modiin, and are active members of their Reform congregation, YOZMA. Uri’s experience has been driven by a clear desire to share the power of the Land and State of Israel, to strengthen Jewish identity and a connection with the Jewish People. With his unique perspective, Uri recognizes that this process includes building bridges and having the ability to inspire and to be inspired.
** This travel adventure is free of charge, but we ask that you consider making a donation of $36 or more to CSP to underwrite one or more musical events with Israeli musicians who are in desperate need of funds due to the cancellation of their concerts and events as a result of the pandemic. Donations can be made at this CSP LINK or by check to CSP at 5 Klamath, Irvine, CA 92612. For more information about the types of musicians we will host, visit this Youtube Link featuring 9 musicians.
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Previous Events:
Sunday October 18, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
The Renaissance of Israeli Judaism – View
Dr. Ruth Calderon – former Knesset Member, founder of Alma
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In 2012 Ruth Calderon surprised many Israelis, and perhaps even herself, when she was elected to the Knesset. Her party, Yesh Atid, won 19 seats, and Calderon was 13th on that list. But the bigger surprise was Calderon’s first speech in the Knesset. True to her pluralistic beliefs and excellent reputation as a Talmud scholar, Calderon gave an impromptu Talmud lesson that impressed even a Knesset member from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox political party, Shas. Posted on YouTube, the speech went viral, igniting the hope that Calderon could reconcile religious and secular factions in Israel, as well as bring together those on the right and the left. In her speech, Calderon called on Israelis to participate in Torah study, the military and civil service. She challenged the ultra-Orthodox domination on all religious matters in the state by asking the government to fund Torah study across the religious spectrum. Join us for a conversation with Dr. Ruth Calderon about her vision of a pluralistic Israeli society. Dr. Ruth Calderon is one of Israel’s leading figures spearheading efforts to revive Hebrew Culture and a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish identity. In 1989, she co-established ELUL in Jerusalem, the first beit midrash in which secular and religious women and men studied and taught together. In 1996, she founded ALMA in Tel Aviv, which is a Jewish liberal arts program for advanced learning. Dr. Calderon is the author of A Bride for One Night (2001), a personal homiletic reading of Talmudic legends, and Talmudic Alpha Beta (2014). From 2013-2015, Dr. Calderon was a Knesset Member from the Yesh Atid Party, where she was Deputy Speaker, member of the education and state control committees, and Chairperson of the Lobby for Jewish Renewal. Dr. Calderon holds a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Talmud from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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Monday October 19, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
Bringing the Lost Tribes Back to Israel: From India to Nigeria – View
Michael Freund – founder and chair of Shave Israel
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2700 years ago, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel were exiled by the Assyrian empire. Ever since, mystics, historians and explorers have sought them out. As Chairman of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund has spent over 15 years seeking out lost tribes and hidden Jews to help them reconnect with the Jewish people. He will discuss his globe-trotting work with various far-flung communities such as the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, the Bnei Menashe of India and the Hidden Jews of Poland from the Holocaust, and what this says about Jewish memory and destiny. Michael Freund is the Founder and Chairman of Shavei Israel. Born and raised in New York, Freund moved to Israel in 1995, and was appointed shortly thereafter by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as his Deputy Communications Director at the age of 28. After leaving the Prime Minister’s Office following the 1999 Israeli elections, Freund worked for the Jerusalem branch of Ruder Finn, the global public relations firm, and went on to found Shavei Israel in 2002. In addition, for the past 15 years, he has been a syndicated columnist for The Jerusalem Post. For his work at Shavei Israel, Freund has received a number of prizes and awards, including the Jerusalem Prize and the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism. Freund holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the co-author of the books “Do you have Jewish roots?”, which has been published in three languages, and “A Drop in the Ocean” and has recently completed his rabbinical ordination.
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Monday October 19, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
Welcome to the Old and the New/Welcome to Tel Aviv PT 1 – View
Welcome to the Old and the New/Welcome to Tel Aviv PT 2 – View
Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Erez Kaganovitz, Photojournalist
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The City of Tel Aviv is the First Hebrew city in modern times. From ancient ports to pulsating people, Tel Aviv is another beating heart of the State of Israel. Erez Kaganovitz founder of Humans of Tel Aviv will share his story, his perspective and his lens, in more ways than one. We will also uncover the origins of the city, and perhaps what led to such a pulsating heart, with our resident tour-guide, Uri Feinberg. During the past five years, Erez Kaganovitz, a Tel Aviv photojournalist and the human behind Humans of Tel Aviv had documented the lives of Tel Aviv residents he meets on the streets. Through photographs, interviews and a large social media presence, Erez offers an inside look into the rich and diverse lives of the people of Tel Aviv while showcasing Israel’s vibrant, multi-cultural society. What Erez loves most about this project is that it reaches others, not through his own ideas, but through the photographs and stories which speak for themselves.
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A Walk of the Land: The Israel National Trail
Udi Goren – photojournalist and activist
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A personal crisis invoked by the 2014 war in Gaza motivated Udi Goren to set out on a two and a half month’s journey through the Israel National Trail – renowned as one of the world’s best and toughest long-distance hikes. Join Udi as he shares his stunning photos and personal stories of the people, natural wonders, and unique landscapes that moved him from despair to hope. Udi Goren has always been fascinated by the secrets this world holds. Growing up watching National Geographic with his dad, it was always clear to him that when he grew up, he would have to do some exploration of his own. He’s spent the bulk of the last ten years outside of his native Israel, and after several years of traveling, documenting and collecting stories from around the world, professional photography became the next step for him. Three years later he graduated with honors from the visual journalism program of the Brooks Institute of Photography in California. During his studies, he interned with National Geographic Television and with world-renowned photojournalist Ziv Koren. Udi is now back in Israel, documenting its varied cultures, people and natural beauty. His work has been viewed in several exhibitions and published in magazines both in and out of Israel.
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Dialogue and Understanding: Crossing the Green Line
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Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Lydia Aisenberg – Journalist, Educator, Activist
Lydia Eisenberg is the embodiment of a true Chalutza, a pioneer. Having dedicated her adult life to dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, she will introduce us to her passion as we traverse lines and boundaries in the center of the country, entering into the home of others and into hers. Lydia Aisenberg is a journalist, informal educator and special study tour guide. Born in 1946, Lydia is originally from South Wales, Britain and came to live in Israel in 1967 and has been a member of Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek since. The mother of five and grandmother of twelve (so far) Lydia has been involved in shared citizenship projects of the Givat Haviva Institutes International Department for the last 25 years, and involved in informal education projects since her first visit to Israel in 1965 and volunteering during the 1967 war.
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Upcoming Events:
Wednesday October 21, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
The Roar of The Desert: A Journey to Israel’s Back Yard
Ayelet Gundar Goshen – Israeli Novelist
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Join us as Ayelet Gundar-Goshen discusses her second work of fiction, Waking Lions, the first Israeli novel to engage with African refugee experiences in Israel. A clinical psychologist and award-winning author, Ayelet Gundar Goshen won the Sapir Prize in 2012 for One Night, Markovitch as well as the Italian Adei-Wizo Prize, and the French Adei-Wizo Prize. The novel was long-listed for the Italian Sinbad Prize, and for Grand prix des lectrices de Elle and has been translated to 14 languages. Gundar-Goshen’s second novel, Waking Lions, won the 2017 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize. The New York Times Book Review picked Waking Lions as “Editors’ Choice”, and The Wall Street Journal selected it for its “Best Summer Reads” list. Her critically acclaimed third novel, The Liar, is forthcoming in English in fall 2019. Gundar-Goshen is a contributor to BBC’s The Cultural Frontline, Financial Times, Time Magazine and The Telegraph. Ayelet has lectured at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, UCLA, and Carleton College, among other institutions.
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Wednesday October 21, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
From the Red Sea Resort to “B7”: A Personal and Communal Story
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Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Naftali Aklum – Co-Founder, Yerus Project
Naftali Aklum immigrated from Ethiopia on the shoulders of his parents during the period which preceded Operation Moses in the late 1970s. He is a passionate activist and will share the story of the Israeli Ethiopian community from his hometown of Be’er-Sheva. As is often the case in Israel, the communal story and the personal story will intertwine. We will hear not only of Naftali’s brother, Farede Aklum, a leader of the Israeli-Ethiopian community, and an Israeli Mossad agent, responsible for Operation Moses, but of Naftali’s own journey, much of which unfolded, long after her arrived in Israel. Naftali Aklum was born in Ethiopia in 1979, the youngest of 12 siblings. His brother Ferede Aklum z”l was determined to reach Jerusalem, and set out from Ethiopia in 1978 on a long, dangerous trek through the desert, ultimately reaching Sudan. From there he wrote a letter asking for help to make aliyah. The letter found its way to Menachem Begin, who then set in motion the remarkable, secret operation that came to be known as Operation Moses, an operation in which North American Jewry played a crucial role. One of the over 8,000-12,000 Ethiopian Jews to literally follow in his brother’s footsteps, Naftali reached Israel with his family in 1980, at age one, thus fulfilling a dream that had been kept alive for 2,500 years. The family settled in Be’er Sheva, where Naftali was raised and educated. After completing his army service as a firefighter, he went on to study politics, government, history, and Middle Eastern studies at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, graduating in 2008. Naftali took part in several delegations, including a visit to the United States with the Anti-Defamation League in 1996, and in 2002 spent a year with the Israel at Heart organization sharing the story of Israel and Ethiopian Jewry. He is a committed volunteer, helping children at risk in Be’er Sheva through the city’s Council for the Well Being of the Child, and is a mentor to other Ethiopian-Israeli academics, helping them in their job placement efforts. He was an image consultant for a movie on Netflix “The Red Sea Diving Resort”.
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Thursday October 22, 10:00 AM PDT
David and the Tehom
Melila Hellner- Eshed – accomplished scholar of kabbalistic literature
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With Melila as our guide, we will study the strange story from the Talmud about King David and the tehom. God told King David that he could not build the Jerusalem Temple, because of his role as a warrior. It was impossible, God said, to build a house of peace with blood-filled hands. So instead of building up, David, ever stubborn, decides to dig down, to at least build the Temple’s foundations. And when he digs deep, he uncovers the abyss; the deep; the tehom – that primordial chaos which, the Talmud tells us, is only kept down by a rock. David, being David, against all warnings, lifts the rock, and so, the Talmud tells us, “the deep arose and was about to submerge the world.” Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute and the Director of Maskilot, an intensive two-year program for female doctoral candidates, now opening its fourth cohort. She also founded and co-directs the Rabbinical Students Seminar, an interdenominational program for rabbinic students spending a year in Israel. She has been a professor of Jewish mysticism and Zohar in the Department of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for over two decades. She received her degree from Hebrew University under the tutelage of Professor Yehuda Liebes. At the Hebrew University, Melila also taught in the honors teacher-training program Revivim and in the Amirim honors program for liberal studies. For the past three decades, she has been a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of study of Jewish texts by Israeli adults of all paths of life in various frameworks. She has been teaching and working with Jewish communities in North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union for many years. Her publications include A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, (Hebrew, Alma and Am Oved Publications, 2005 and English, Stanford University Press, 2009). Her book Seekers of the Face – From the Secrets of the Idra Rabba in the Zohar was published in Hebrew in 2018, forthcoming in English from Stanford University Press. Melila also serves on the faculty of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality in the U.S. and is active in the ‘Sulha’ – a reconciliation project that brings together Israelis and Palestinians.
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Thursday October 22, 12:30 PM PDT
strong>Identity and Belonging: A Walk in Arab East Jerusalem
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Uri Feinberg adventure with appearance by David Mendelsohn – Educator and Judo Champion
Identity, Language and belonging will be explored today in the heart of East Jerusalem. Dr. David Mendelsohn will share with us his insights, his friends and his perspective as we uncover the ‘Palestinian street’ in Jerusalem. Dr. David Mendelsohn supervises the entire academic program of Kivunim. His areas of expertise include Islamic Studies, History and Culture of Arabs with Israeli Citizenship, Bedouin Law and the relationship between language and culture in Arabic and Hebrew. His current research examines the influence of Hebrew on the dialects of Arabic spoken in Israel. Mendelsohn also lectures on the history and relationships between Middle East countries and militant organizations. David holds advanced degrees in diverse fields: a Ph.D. Classics / Linguistics, an M.A. in Archaeology / Linguistics and an Honours B.A. in Classical Studies. David is the recipient of one of Canada’s highest academic honors, The $200,000 Trudeau Prize and a world class Judo Gold Medal winner. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Roni and 3 children.
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Sunday October 25, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
Notions of Commemoration – A Tour of Yad Vashem
Rachel Korazim – master educator
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Since the end of WW2, world Jewry has had to grapple with the meaning of the Holocaust. Israel society is dealing with this question in its collective memory, education system, political and social life. Reading Yad Vashem as a text, we will explore what it tells us about the development of the Holocaust narrative in Israel. Dr. Rachel Korazim is a powerful speaker and a freelance Jewish education consultant specializing in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. She is involved with Jewish education world-wide; creating and implementing in-service training programs for educators, writing educational materials, counseling and teaching. As one of the founders and directors of a special program for Israeli soldiers from disadvantaged backgrounds, she was responsible for creating the educational framework and training teachers for the implementation of the program. Born in Israel, she served in the I.D.F. as an officer in the central training base for women and was later a member of the I.D.F. delegation to Niger (West Africa). She is a graduate of Haifa University with a Ph.D. in Jewish education.
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Sunday October 25, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
The Beautiful Complexities of the Christian Quarter
Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Hana Bendcowsky – Educator, Advocate
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Join Hana Bendcowsky in the alley ways of the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Hana is the director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations and will be our guide. We will experience the secrets of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, its religious fervor for the Christian community and historical significance in the city of Jerusalem. Hana Bendcowsky has an M.A. in Comparative Religion from Hebrew University and 16 years of practical experience in interfaith activities in Israel and abroad. She is the Director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations in the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, coordinating and teaching in the Center’s various educational programs, as well as producing educational materials, consulting and doing advocacy work. In addition to her position with the Rossing Center, Hana works as a freelance tour educator in Jerusalem for groups involving over 1,500 individuals a year, mainly Israeli Jews and primarily study tours in the Christian Quarter.
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Monday October 26, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
Israeli Artists of the 21st Century
Shirel Horovitz – artists and educator
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Who’s who and who should we know? In this session we’ll explore works of a few central Israeli artists of our century looking at the works that made or launched their careers. We’ll do all this alongside understanding the historical, political, economic and social climates which have direct influence on who makes it into the pantheon of great artists. This is a way to deepen your knowledge of Israeli art while touching on key changes in Israel in the last twenty years and peep into the mostly hidden mechanisms of the art scene. The artists we’ll explore include – Sigalit Landau, Yael Bartana, Gal Weinstein, Zoya Cherkasky, Vered Nissim and more. Using drawing, sculpting, video and sound, Tel Aviv based artist Shirel Horovitz, creates performances and installations exploring cities, communities and the relations between people and space. She earned her BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and her MA (with distinction) from The Interdisciplinary Art program in Tel Aviv University. Shirel exhibited in major galleries and art festivals in Israel and across the US and is currently exhibiting a sculptural installation in Bat Yam Museum of Art. Alongside her art practice, Shirel lectures, leads art tours, teaches art and is an art consultant to a variety of private groups and institutions among them Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Alma Hebrew college, Classrooms Without Borders, Ashdod Museum of Art, Azrieli LTD, Hartman institute and more. Drawing from multiple fields of knowledge, Shirel weaves into each experience aspects of social issues, politics, economy, religion and more to create a vivid and nuanced image of the Israeli reality. Her knowledge, passion and love of all that is Art, Tel Aviv and Israeli history are nothing less than contagious.
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Tuesday October 27, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
On Literature and Censorship
Dorit Rabinyan – Israeli bestselling novelist
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Join us for a conversation with Israeli bestselling novelist Dorit Rabinyan, author of All the Rivers – a modern tale of love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man. Rabinyan found herself at the center of a political scandal when her book was banned by Israel’s ministry of education from being taught at high schools. Rabinyan was born in Israel to an Iranian-Jewish family. She is the recipient Itzhak Vinner Prize, the ACUM Award, The Prime Minister’s Prize and the Jewish Wingate Quarterly Award (London). Her first two novels Persian Brides and A Strand of a Thousand Pearls were both international best sellers and translated into fifteen languages. In 2014 Rabinyan published her third novel, All The Rivers, an immediate best seller in Israel. Named one of the ten best books of the year by Ha’aretz newspaper, the novel was also awarded the prestigious Bernstein Award for Literature. All the Rivers spent more than a year as #1 bestseller in Israel and has been translated into 17 languages.
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Tuesday October 27, 2020, 12:30 PM PDT
Desert Dreams and Reality: The Evolving Story of Yerucham
Uri Feinberg adventure with special appearance by Debbie Goldman Golan of Atid Bamidbar
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The birth of the State of Israel in 1948 was a miracle on many accounts. In its wake, the Jewish People had the ability to embrace its own and welcome them home. In the first decades of its existence (and other decades as well), Jewish immigration to Israel was motivated by both push and pull factors. This is true of the waves of Jewish immigration that arrived from Arab countries and North Africa. We will visit the Negev development town of Yerucham with local activist Debbie Goldman Golan and engage with local Israelis from a variety of backgrounds as the incredible efforts of the State to take care of its own and the many challenges and even mistakes that were made along the way. Debbie Goldman Golan has BAs from University of Illinois and Spertus College of Judaica, and an MA from Touro College. American-born, Debbie made Aliyah in 1972, worked as a freelance researcher, writer, editor, and teacher, and developed curriculum materials on Jewish values for secular schools at the David Schoen Institute for Creative Jewish Education. Debbie was Projects Coordinator of the Negev Center for Regional Development (1993-2000) and co-founder of the Midreshet Beyahad Seminar Center and the Teudat Zehut community documentation project, both in Yeroham, where she has resided with her family since 1987. Debbie received the New Israel Fund Fellowship for Leadership in Religious Pluralism (1987), Avi Chai Study-Sabbatical (2000), Liebhaber Prize for Encouraging Religious Pluralism and Cultural Openness in Israel (2006), Ministry of Education’s Torah Culture Department Citation of Excellence (2009), and lit a torch at Mt. Herzl on Israel Independence Day (1988).
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Wednesday October 28, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
I Am Divided in Two
Rachel Korazim and Ayat Abou Shmeiss
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I am Divided in Two is the title of one of Ayat Abu Shmeiss’ poems – indeed, this young Palestinian citizen of the state of Israel, gives voice to the complexity of her reality. She writes her poetry in Hebrew, lives her life in Jaffa in both Hebrew and Arabic. Our session will include her poems as well as her story of a feminist activist! In a recent article in the Tel Aviv Review of Books, interviewer Jnan Bsoul notes that Abou Shmeiss, “an observant Muslim from Jaffa, writes in Hebrew without disavowing her Palestinian identity. Gentle and unobtrusive, her writing nonetheless challenges her religious and socially conservative background”. And the larger community in which she lives. Abou Shmeiss, an Arab-speaker who writes in Hebrew in part because she was educated in that language, and in French, at a Christian school in Jaffa, married at 17 and is the mother of a high school student. Like many poets, she has been writing since she was a teen. In her second book, her subjects include an examination of her life as the mother of [only] one child (“sorry/ to disappoint”), and as a student at the Open University, where she is now finishing a degree in political science. The poet has a clear grasp of her position. “I’m this and that” she told Bsoul. In December 2019, Abou Shmeiss was awarded the Shulamit Aloni Prize for emerging artists, earmarked for those whose creative work advances human rights, social justice and co-existence. In January 2020, Haaretz poetry columnist Ilan Berkowitz selected “If I were a Jewish mother” as the most significant Israeli poem of the decade. Dr. Rachel Korazim is a powerful speaker and a freelance Jewish education consultant specializing in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. She is involved with Jewish education worldwide; creating and implementing in-service training programs for educators, writing educational materials, counseling and teaching. As one of the founders and directors of a special program for Israeli soldiers from disadvantaged backgrounds, she was responsible for creating the educational framework and training teachers for the implementation of the program. Born in Israel, she served in the I.D.F. as an officer in the central training base for women and was later a member of the I.D.F. delegation to Niger (West Africa). She is a graduate of Haifa University with a Ph.D. in Jewish education.
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Thursday October 29, 2020, 10:00 AM PDT
Hayehudim Baim – “The Jews are Coming”
Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser – award-winning writers and show-runners
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We conclude our 2020 virtual Israel adventure with a program on “The Jews are Coming” (Yehudim Baim) – an Israeli Academy Award-winning satire now in its fourth season, airing on Kan 11, one of the official channels of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. The sketch comedy covers the history of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present, from Moses to Barbie and everything in between. Join us for a lively conversation with the show’s creators, Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser. The program will also feature clips from the new season, which have never before been translated for an English-speaking audience! Asaf Beiser: Based in Tel Aviv, Asaf Beiser has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire and drama shows for over 15 years. He is the co-creator and head writer of the award-winning sketch show The Jews are Coming. Asaf was a writer for Fauda, The Good Cop, Eretz Nehederet (The Israeli version of SNL), and many more award-winning programs for Israeli television. Natalie Marcus: Natalie Marcus is a highly acclaimed, award-winning, screenwriter and director based in Tel Aviv. For the past 10 years, Marcus has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire, and drama series. Marcus is the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed historically themed sketch show The Jews are Coming. She teaches comedy writing and lectures about writing and Jewish history all around the world, and lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and two kids.
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