Inside Israel

JDC Entwine and
The Well offer local
group a deeper
look at Israel.

ALLISON JACOBS DIGITAL EDITOR
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL MATZ

Jews in the D

L

ate this November, Rabbi
Dan Horwitz of The Well
invited 17 Metro Detroit
participants to experience Israel
with JDC Entwine, the young
adult division of the American
Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee.
Also known as “The Joint,
”
JDC is the largest Jewish
humanitarian organization,
working in 70 countries to
uplift lives and strengthen com-
munities.
The common thread among
our Inside Israel group was
a desire to experience Israel
not just through the eyes of a
tourist. All of us were hungry
to learn about the country’
s

complex cultural, social and
economic challenges.
As we learned about JDC’
s
efforts, more than one Israeli we
encountered said “it’
s compli-
cated” when describing Israel’
s
hardships. While JDC provided
a better picture of the complex
issues in Israel, that sentence
reverberated throughout our
seven-day journey.
Our trip was led by Jessica
Katz, a Metro Detroiter finish-
ing her year as a JDC Entwine
Ralph I. Goldman (RIG) Fellow,
and Shachar Beer, a native
Jerusalemite and operations
manager for JDC Entwine’
s
Israel programs. Each day, we
became more aware of Israel’
s

complex issues by exploring
JDC-led programs.

SUNDAY, NOV. 24
After arriving in Jerusalem, we
convened at our hotel. Despite
the jet lag, I was excited to start
the journey and get acquainted
with members of the group.
We first set kavanot (inten-
tions) for the trip in small
groups. I chose to keep an open
mind and to not hesitate to ask
questions.

MONDAY, NOV. 25
On our first full day in Israel,
we dove right into learning “the
what, why and how” of JDC. I
had heard of JDC peripherally,

continued on page 14

TOP: The Inside Israel group at
Beit Hansen: (back) Jessica Katz,
Erin Savage, Nicole Reich, Leah
Josephson, Zach Frick, Dan Horwitz,
Garrett Dixon, Renee Liberman,
Brandon Lefkowitz, Ian Gross,
Shachar Beer; (front) Brooke Ben-
dix, Allison Jacobs, Emiko Hayashi,
Angela Reich, Rachel Kestenberg,
Mimi Marcus, Rachel Matz,
Simonna Matz and Evan Samuels.

12 | DECEMBER 26 • 2019

s
t e

on the cover