SPECIAL COMMENTARY
Voices From The Heights
kibbutz lunch of soup and schnitzel,
other members of the kibbutz seemed
igh drama is brewing on
markedly less cavalier. There was plen-
the Golan Heights. Ever
ty of gut-level speculation going on:
since Israel gave up the
Would giving up the Golan really
Sinai 20. years ago, many
mean that Israel could safely withdraw
settlers on the Golan have sensed deep
from Lebanon? Maybe even that the
down that it was only a matter of time
Arab-Israeli wars would finally come
before Israel would also trade the
to an end?
Heights for peace with Syria.
"I trust Barak to bring
On my visits to the Golan
about the best possible
over the years, I got the
peace," said Yonatan, a kib-
impression that nobody quite
butznik in his early 50s.
believed it. All was quiet on
Yonatan, who has lived on
the Syrian front, the proxy
the Golan since 1970, said
war in Lebanon notwith-
he would leave if that was
standing. With the sudden
the nation's will.
announcement of renewed
"Just like he looked out
peace talks between Israel and
for the old woman in the
Syria, I joined the army of
ST UART
hospital in Yeroham,"
journalists trekking north,
SCHO FFMAN snickered Kobi, a 30ish,
anxious to take the settlers'
Spe cial to
goateed kibbutznik, refer-
pulse.
the
Jew ish News
ring to Barak's campaign
This time, things looked
promise to improve the lot
different.
of underprivileged Israelis.
With many thorny issues to be
It is understood, of course, that the
negotiated, the talks could surely fall
17,000 or so Israelis who would be
apart, and a good number of the peo-
uprooted from the Golan would
ple I met were assuming, betting and
receive compensation from the gov-
praying that they would.
ernment, and help with relocation.
"Come back in 20 years, I'll still be
Some would just as soon go elsewhere
here, talking to the Christian Science
and start over, but few, I think, would
Monitor," cracked Mild, a member of
do so without regret.
Kibbutz Mevo Hama. Over a generic
Many, many Israelis would agree.
When
the day of reckoning comes —
Stuart Schoffinan, associate editor of
Barak has committed himself to
the Jerusalem Report, is a monthly
putting any proposed peace plan to a
columnist for the Jewish News. He can
national referendum — Israeli voters
be reached via e-mail at
will have to weigh their hopes for
steart@netvision.net . it
Jerusalem
EC
peace not only against their natural
distrust of Syrian President Hafez al-
Hassad, but also against a strong senti-
mental attachment to the Golan and
its people.
The West Bank, with a vast Arab
population, this is not; the Golan's
Druze residents are friendly to Jews
and to Israel. Israelis adore the rugged,
wide-open landscapes of the Golan,
the world-class Cabernets of the
Golan winery, and as for the settlers,
in the public mind (and in reality)
they are a different breed from the
nationalist ideologues of Judea and
Samaria.
Toby, who hails from Brooklyn,
has lived on a Golan moshav for 23
years. The mother of three girls, she
is married to Shaul, who grows
olives and works as an earth-moving
contractor.
"They talk about peace? It's been
peaceful here as long as I've been here!
"The Golan Heights is the Israel I
came to, out of Zionism. Religious
and secular, left and right, living
together, no drugs, not much alcohol,
my daughter can walk home at 3 a.m.
— would you let your daughter do
that?
"Instead of tearing down this com-
munity, Ehud Barak should think
about how to make Israel into this
community!" she says. "I came to
Israel out of Jewish pride, to raise Jew-
ish children, and now my kids will
become refugees in their own coun-
try?"
For Shaul, a burly man in a base-
ball cap, the issues are clearly drawn:
"If we lose the referendum, I'm turn-
ing in my identity card, my army-
reserve card, and I'm leaving Israel.
"The Arabs are all getting ready,
just like before the Yom Kippur War.
Even the Israeli Arabs. They hate us. I
was born in Israel, I know the Arabs.
They will wait till we're weak, and
then they'll trample us."
As Shaul spoke, Toby leaned over
and whispered to me, one Brooklynite
to another: "Is he scaring you?" No, I
replied, "but if I felt the way he does
about Arabs, I couldn't live in Israel."
Which is what it comes down to
for me. Listening to these good folks
is positively heartbreaking. I can't
imagine being pushed out of my
home. I have no way of knowing for
sure that a treaty with Asad, replete
with security guarantees, will meet the
test of time. But if giving up the
Golan offers a real shot at a compre-
hensive peace, can we really afford,
after so many decades of conflict, to
say no?
The details must be very well
thought out. In the colorful words
of Yohi, a mango farmer from the
southern Golan who is ready, if need
be, to pull up stakes: "No horse-
trading, no Persian bazaar. Asad is a
dictator, and yes, if you read the
Arab press, there's plenty of hatred
pointed our way.
"But despite all that, it's worth tak-
ing the chance." ❑
encounters between neighbors and a
web of casual friendships not bur-
dened with emotional demands.
Is it just me, or does that sound
like a terrific synagogue?
There are as many reasons for going
to synagogue as there are synagogue
goers — tradition, obligation, guilt,
commandment, spiritual attachment,
professional advancement, study,
mourning, celebrating, social climb-
ing, a deep connection to God.
What brings me every week is the
company of other Jews. What else is
the morning minyan, that daily gath-
ering of mourners, aging regulars and
young firebrands, but the Jewish ver-
sion of the corner bar?
I've been lucky to find synagogues
that have served my need for a third
place. But how many Jewish leaders, at a
time of much talk about "re-engineer-
ing" the synagogue and 21st-century
religious institutions, think of the "third
place" function in designing new shuts
or community centers? How many of
them, during their research, belly up to
a neighborhood bar and imagine the
Jewish alternative?
How many have been to Starbucks?
After all, Starbucks is encroaching on
community building activities once
reserved for churches and synagogues.
The Seattle-based corporation has
been sponsoring social-action projects,
particularly children's literacy, and
boasts of its socially responsible com-
merce with third world, coffee grow-
ing nations.
The shops have begun hosting live
music, poetry readings and other com-
munity events. Combine that with the
number of customers who speak of
their daily coffee as a "ritual," and you
The Starbucks Synagogue
ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
New York
ecently in the subway, I saw
an ad for Starbucks, the cap-
puccino conglomerate. On
the poster was an arrow
pointing to "Your Home," another
pointing to "Your Work" and a third
pointing to a Starbucks.
Terrific, I thought. No longer content
with gobbling up mom-and-pop coffee
shops, Starbucks has now set its sights
on co-opting sociological trends. The
trend, in this case, is a focus by urbanol-
R
Andrew Silow-Carroll is communica-
tions director of CLAL, the National
Jewish Center for Learning and Leader-
ship.
ogists, anthropologists and political sci-
entists on the role played by so-called
"third places" in creating vital, democra-
tic, socially cohesive communities.
A concept popularized by sociolo-
gist Ray Oldenburg of the University
of West Florida, in short, it is a place
where everybody knows your name. In
Oldenburg's view, the third place is
the cream in the coffee, the olive in
the martini, of our neighborhoods and
democratic society. Clean, well-lighted
places create the habit of association,
drawing people out of their suburban
anonymity and weaving them into the
broader fabric of community life.
They are settings where people can
meet across the barriers of social dif-
ference, and in face-to-face conversa-
tions that counter the homogenizing,
monopolizing voice of the media.
Here, we find refreshing accidental
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