JUNE 16 • 2022 | 9

Old Faithful eruption. I have 
always heard about Old 
Faithful, but after seeing it 
erupt, I can talk about my 
experience, too. 
Sightseeing in Yellowstone 
was definitely a highlight of 
the Freshmen Montana trip, 
but what was even better is 
that I spent all that time with 
my friends, which means a 
lot to me. I can now see my 
friends at school and talk 
about all the exciting things we 
saw together. If I hadn’t shared 
my experience with them, 
then I don’t know how the trip 
would have turned out. 
By the time Yellowstone was 

over, we were able to spend 
Shabbat on a ranch, where 
we all spent our last days in 
Montana together, remember-
ing all the good times we had. 
Learning about the 
Cheyenne people and seeing 
all the gorgeous scenery of 
Montana left so much in our 
heads. It was a really great way 
to end the trip at HardScrabble 
Ranch because it gave us two 
days to relax and chill together 
after an impactful and inspira-
tional trip. 

Emmanuela Arkashevsky is a fresh-

man at Frankel Jewish Academy. 

en Jerusalem’s Arab residents. 
They shouted hateful slogans 
like “Death to Arabs” and 
“Mohammed is dead,
” while 
banging on doors of Arab 
shops and physically accosting 
Arab locals. Yair Lapid, Israel’s 
foreign minister, said of last 
week’s events, “Instead of a day 
of joy, extremists are trying to 
turn Jerusalem Day into a day 
of hate. Jerusalem deserves 
better. Israeli society deserves 
better.
” 
We, as part of both Hadassah 
and Team Israel, need to call 
out hate and bigotry wherever 
we find it, even if it’s in our 
own backyard. It would be true 
to say that those perverting the 
joy on June 1 into hate, those 
intent on harm, were in the 
minority. 
Most attending the Yom 
Yerushalayim events did so in 
a spirit of joy and celebration. 
That fact doesn’t absolve us of 
the obligation to recognize and 
condemn what this minority of 
extremists did. 
What’s most troubling about 
the events are the questions it 
raises about the direction of 
Israeli society — are extremist, 
nationalist views on the rise 

both politically and socially? 
And what can we, as American 
Jews do, not Israeli citizens but 
spiritually tied to our home-
land? One thing we can do 
is support organizations that 
build bridges and promote 
peaceful co-existence and edu-
cation. 
For example, Hand in 
Hand is a bilingual network of 
schools educating Israeli and 
Arab children together. Givat 
Haviva, awarded the UNESCO 
Prize for Peace Education in 
2001, is an organization, found-
ed in 1949, dedicated to bridg-
ing the gap between Jewish 
and Arab Israelis through edu-
cation, language instruction, 
culture and art. And there are 
many, many more.
Israel is such a wonder-
ful, confusing, complex and 
multi-layered entity. And while 
we stand with Israel, our home, 
our heart, we need to work 
hard from this far shore to help 
make Israel the best it can be. 
Hatred, bigotry and intoler-
ance have no place there, or 
here. 

Mandy Garver is president of 

Hadassah Greater Detroit.

 
 
 
 

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