34 | JUNE 24 • 2021

15 Cities; 3 Days

I went to 15 cities in three days:
My quarantine day in Jerusalem;
Netanya and Ramat Poleg; then Tel
Aviv (meeting the mayor of Umm
al-Fahm); Lod: where I saw a torn,
scruffy city that has not given up the
goal of the 70% Jews and 30% Arabs
building a flourishing city together
— with the help over the years of
Detroit philanthropists; Kfar Kassim

— a charming Arab town that tried to
help me find my destination, Givat
Haviva International School; Tel Aviv
— the Namal, the Old Port — one of
the coolest places on earth; night
in Hadera and then to Nazareth, to
meet the mayors of Nazareth and
Migdal HaEmek; then on to Migdal
HaEmek “Shehechiyanu” restaurant
to meet local community activists
— Jews and Arabs — working in

Nof HaGalil, and small Bedouin
and Jewish towns to build a shared
society for all. Then to the small
Arab town of Manshiya Zabda to
meet with local leaders — Jewish
and Arab — from all over the Jezreel
Valley, in the Al-Ro’aa special needs
Arab school. Of course, how could I
go to Israel without visiting relatives
in Modiin, and then on to the Ben
Gurion Airport.

ground, Yoav Raban, Naomi Miller
Rockowitz and Noa Noff. Together,
this incredible team set up a miracle
trip for me for my two days in search
of shared society.
I am also deeply grateful to Consul
Daniel Aschheim of the Israeli
Consulate to the Midwest, who
helped set up a great meeting with
the mayor of Umm al-Fahm, the
third largest Arab city in Israel.
I came to Israel to show solidarity;
to show that we in Detroit care about
our Jewish brothers and sisters in
Israel and for all those in Israel — Jewish,
Muslim, Christian or Druze — who are
building an incredible state together.
What I found in Israel was inspiration:
People who were not giving up on shared
society in Lod, despite the violence and
the breakdown; mayors, teachers, heads
of schools, community activists, high-tech
folks and entrepreneurs, all committed to
Jews and Arabs making the modern Jewish
state work.

I came back energized and inspired that
we, too, in Detroit, can work together with
diverse communities and build a shared
society right here in the Motor City. Israel is
a land of miracles; the Galilee is a region of
wonders — from the days of Elijah to today.
May the great accomplishments of shared
society and mutual respect that I found
amongst the students of the Al-Qastal
Arab elementary school in Nazareth, to the
high school students — Arab, Jewish and

Christian — in the International
School of Givat Haviva permeate our
divided world and teach us how people can
work together despite different narratives
and different histories.
Israel with all its challenges, external and
internal, will always be the land that pushes
us to be better, to dream bigger and to be
proud of who we are as Jews — Jews who
are a light onto the entire world.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin is executive director of the JCRC/

AJC.

TOP LEFT: Arab Mulsim fourth grad-
ers. In the back right is Head of School,
Dr. Sirin Magli-Knana. ABOVE: In
front of the Arab Israeli elementary
school, Al-Qastal in Nazareth with
Samia Basul, head of the Education
Department of Nazareth; Samia Abu-
Alrab, Deputy Mayor of Nazareth;
Lior Scher, programming director
for “A New Way,” which sponsored
the shared society; and Noa Noff,
Partnership Director, Central Galilee.
LEFT: Adorable kids from the Al-Qastal
school.

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