JUNE 24 • 2021 | 33

ERETZ

J

ust days after the rockets 
stopped flying over our 
brother and sisters in Israel, 
I received a call from the Israeli 
Consulate to the Midwest asking 
if I could possibly head to the 
Holy Land to show solidarity. The 
Israeli foreign minister had called 
the Consulate asking for as many 
leaders of Federations and JCRCs to 
show that the Jewish community in 
America has Israel’s back.
After I got the thumbs up, I 
booked my flight. Little did I know 
that there were PCR COVID tests 
to take, forms to fill out, and an 
antibody serology test in Israel that 
would need to be positive to avoid a 
two-week quarantine. 
In fact, I first booked the trip for 
just one day, but my wife, Rachel, 
persuaded me to extend it, and I 
rebooked for three days: Arriving 
Monday morning — in order to test 
and quarantine till the results came 
back — and then having two days 
to explore my second reason for 

going besides solidarity: to deter-
mine for myself that Israeli shared 
society — between the Jews of Israel 
and the Arabs of Israel — was alive 
and well and meeting the challeng-
es of riots in mixed cities all over 
Israel. 
Hamas had said: “Shared society 
and coexistence in Israel has been 
destroyed.
” I went to prove them 
wrong.
We are blessed in Detroit to have 
the perfect Partnership Region 
for exploring coexistence — the 
Central Galilee: the largest Arab 
city in Israel, Nazareth, nestled in 
the Galilean hills right next to Nof 
HaGalil, Migdal HaEmek and a 
host of other small Jewish and Arab 
towns, villages and kibbutzim in the 
Jezreel valley.
We are also blessed to have 
the most amazing leadership in 
the Israel and Oversees office of 
the Jewish Federation: Jennifer 
Levine leading the department 
from Detroit, and our folks on the 

FROM THE TOP: A 1,000-year-old hotel in Lod. With Yuval 
Bedolah and Sharon Avis of Totzeret Haaretz. With Eyal Betzer of 
Jezreel Valley Regional Council and his wife, and Federation’s 
Yoav Raban. With Nazareth Mayor Ali Salam, and Eli Barda, 
mayor of the nearby Jewish city Migdal HaEmek.

My lightening mission to Israel to show 
solidarity for a shared society.

Three-Day 
Whirlwind

RABBI ASHER LOPATIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

continued on page 34

