An Interfaith Visit to Israel

Hello, friends.

I recently returned from a very intense, extremely busy nine-day trip to Israel. This visit was part of my fellowship, so it was the first trip in a while where I barely had to think about logistics at all as we were shuttled from place to place and fed huge buffets of delicious food constantly. I imagine over the next few weeks I will reflect on the trip in more detail, but I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts here before I completely over-think everything (which will happen, trust me).

The first is that Israel felt like a dream. For years, in Hebrew School, in conversations, basically every conversation having to do with the non-political side of things has involved talking about the wonders of Israel. How they serve dried fruits and nuts and all fresh things for meals. How wonderful it is to be in a place where, for once, the Jewish people are not a minority. How the weather is amazing. Well...it was all kind of true. The first night, after our flight over from Rome, we had a huge meal with great wines and fresh cheeses and little bowls of nuts. We spent hours over the next few days walking through the old, limestone, cobblestone marketplaces of Jerusalem, seeing countless little stalls selling various religious chachkas (I have never seen so many hamsas in my life). Orthodox Jews and Arabs and others walked around the city, and mezzuzahs graced almost every doorway of every building (including our individual hotel rooms). My first few days there, I was convinced I was not actually in Israel, but in some kind of Jewish theme park that couldn't be real. It did not hurt that we had near-perfect weather for much of the trip (no rain!).

We also saw some of the reality of the difficulties in the country, though. Like on our last day, when we noticed a group of twenty-year-old girls, looking like mere children, walking around Tel Aviv in their army uniforms with huge black guns casually strapped across their backs. Or when we crossed through the wall to visit Bethlehem, which was a completely surreal experience. We also drove by some of the West Bank settlements that are causing so much controversy. All in all, we only had limited discussions about politics (this was by design--since our group is about religion and interreligious dialogue, politics was not meant to be a focus), but we still saw some of these things firsthand.

The interfaith and Jewish aspects of the trip were extremely interesting. We spent five half-days studying at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish pluralistic research center. Pluralism, of diversity within Judaism, is very important today. I often find that greater strife and judgment actually comes from people without our own faith traditions, and so specific places that bring together members of different strains of Judaism--Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist--are really exemplary. During our time there, we would hear lectures on different topics, such as one on feminism in Orthodox Judaism and another on the different Christian groups living in Israel. We would then spend the other half of those days touring around Jerusalem.

Personally, going to the Western Wall was very moving. For those who are unaware, the Western Wall is the most holy site on Earth for Jews because it is close to where the ancient Temple once stood. I have to say, though, I never expected my first time approaching it to be with a group of five practicing Christians--not a better or worse experience than I had expected, just different. Many Orthodox Jewish women prayed intently around us (genders are separated for prayer by the Western Wall, in accordance with Orthodox prayer practice, since Israel is run by Orthodox authorities). So I was not 100% like the Orthodox women, but nor was I 100% like my female Christian friends...I felt somewhat far away from my egalitarian, liberal, Reform Jewish community in New York at that moment. Also, in the main gender-separated area against the wall, I noticed that the women's section is smaller than the men's, even though there was open space against the wall in the men's section while women were two deep trying to just get close enough to touch the wall.

I felt I could've been more emotional, if I'd had more time than just a few rushed minutes at the wall. As it was, my group quickly shuffled off from the women's section to find the newly-opened mixed-gender prayer area. While I applaud the Orthodox governance for (finally) opening up a space for more liberal visitors, this section was difficult to find--outside of the security complex surrounding the main part of the Wall, around enormous construction works, through a gate that is not marked as the mixed prayer section in any way (we had to ask), down a long flight of stairs to what looks like an archaeological site and not a prayer site, to an empty platform, with no way to get close enough to touch the wall. Plus, there was no one there except for us. I can only hope that one day Jews of all types can pray in their own way--and properly--at the Western Wall. That said, cannot deny that I was moved at finally making it to the Western Wall. In a true example of interfaith relations at work, one of my Christian friends asked me to say a prayer, and so I sang the Shema while we were in the mixed-gender section.

After Jerusalem, our group ventured up to the Galilee, to Akko (right on the Mediterranean!), the Sea of Galilee (very peaceful), Capernaum, and Tel Aviv for the remaining three days of the trip. During these few days, we met with a gentleman at the main location for a fascinating, seemingly pro-interfaith branch of Islam known as Sufism, visited the center of the Baha'i faith just outside of Akko, and learned about the Peres Center for Peace (a grassroots organization working to improve relationships between Israelis and Palestinians) in Tel Aviv. All in all, a very interesting end to our trip.

So what will I take away from all of this? First of all, a strong desire to go back to Israel. I think going back with a Jewish group specifically, hopefully Birthright, will give me more time understand how I should feel as a Jewish person in Israel, and what it will mean for me as a Jewish person living elsewhere. Another shocking thing I have taken away from the trip was to realize that the stories of the Bible, of the Torah, they all happened in an actual place, and not some fantasy land as I guess I subconsciously thought. I mean, to be brought into the tiny basement of a church and told that Jesus was born there, was a pretty incredible thing, even for me as a Jew. I think I could not really believe Israel existed until I saw it, and I am fairly certain this will affect how I read Biblical stories in the future. I also feel inspired by the work that is going on to improve religious relations in Israel, and I pray that soon those efforts will be successful in bringing peace to this tiny nation.

So now, as the sun sets on a beautiful day back in my current city of Rome, as ever,

(Look! A present from a good friend!)

<3,

Allyson