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raffiti artist Elyasaf Miara is painting roadside 
bomb shelters, turning them into calming 
oases. Vered Glass is helping families coping 
with crisis to create networks of communal support. 
Adi Rozen is putting together pampering gift packages 
with offerings of Israeli products from communities 
bordering the Gaza strip. Yarin Sultan has created a 
forum to help Israelis influence policy makers and 
implement strategic policy changes.
They are among the 15 Israelis from cities and vil-
lages near the Gaza border whose projects are being 
funded by Kolot, an Israel-based nonprofit dedicated 
to helping the State of Israel realize core Jewish ethical 
principles and spiritual ideals. The Restart program 
aims to help revitalize Israeli communities on the bor-
der with Gaza.
In mid-September, a delegation of Restart partici-
pants spent a week visiting Chicago, Ann Arbor and 
Detroit, where they shared information about their 
projects and learned how American Jewish communi-
ties have responded to the Hamas attacks of October 
7, 2023.
Kolot (“voices” in Hebrew) was started in 1997 after 
the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzchak 
Rabin. The organization invites leaders into its beit 
midrash (house of study) to learn from Jewish sources, 
to engage in constructive disagreement and to share 
with one another responsibility for Israeli society. 
Participants represent both religious and secular 
Jewish, Bedouin, Druze and Muslim Israelis, who 
work together to ensure that Israel maintains its iden-
tity as both a Jewish and a democratic state.
Kolot CEO Shlomo Weinish said that after Oct. 7, 
the group’s leaders decided to focus on projects in the 
Otef, sometimes called the “Gaza Envelope.
” They put 
together the Restart group to help promote healing. 
Launched in mid-May, Restart honors the memory 

of Ofir Libstein, the mayor of the Sha’ar HaNegev 
Regional Council and a graduate of Kolot’s local gov-
ernment leadership program who lost his life on Oct. 
7. 
The Restart members are civic leaders and entre-
preneurs from different backgrounds committed to 
rebuilding the region through innovative social ini-
tiatives empowered by Jewish values. Their projects 
include business development, educational outreach, 
tourism, welfare, community building and the arts.

AN IMPROMPTU MURAL
Fourteen Restart members (the 15th was unable to 
travel at the time), along with Weinish and Kolot 
Beit Midrash Director Leon Wiener Dow, arrived in 
Chicago on Sept. 9 and traveled to Detroit on Sept. 12. 
They spent the following day in Ann Arbor. On Sept. 
14, they met with leaders of the Jewish Federation of 
Detroit. Adat Shalom Synagogue, Chabad of West 
Bloomfield and Temple Beth El hosted the group for 
Shabbat, and they spent Saturday evening with The 
Well (see story on page 26.). On Sunday, they toured 
Jewish sites in the city of Detroit, and on Monday 
they visited Hillel Day School, where, in an impromp-
tu move, Elyasaf Miara painted a mural on a wall. 
They also met with a team from the Michigan Israel 
Business Accelerator before flying back to Israel.
Weinish said the trip was intended to help Israelis 
learn about American Jewish life, to enable American 
Jews to hear stories about life in the Otef and to create 
partnerships. 
Federation CEO Steve Ingber told the group that 
Detroit’s emergency fundraising campaign in the wake 
of Oct. 7 brought in $28 million from 3,800 donors; 
nearly 40% of the donations came from what he 
described as “non-traditional donors,
” including many 
non-Jews. 

David Kurzmann, Federation’s senior director of 
community affairs and Federation’s liaison to Jewish 
Community Security Inc., noted that there has been a 
big uptick in antisemitic incidents in the United States 
since October, making Federation’s community rela-
tions efforts more important than ever. 
He lamented the fact that Jewish-Muslim interfaith 
work, traditionally strong in Southeastern Michigan, 
has pretty much frozen since Oct. 7, with poisonous 
language and no public engagement between the two 
groups. 
Daniel Buxbaum, community relations associate for 
Federation, said bringing Israeli voices to non-Jewish 
communities was a priority. 
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of the Jewish 
Community Relations Council of Ann Arbor, said 
one of the greatest tragedies of Oct. 7 is that it greatly 
diminished American Jews’ belief in the possibility of 
a shared society in Israel. 
But Lopatin said he feels interfaith dialogue is not a 
lost cause. “We have to keep trying,
” he said. “I don’t 
think there’s a choice.
”
During their meetings, the Israelis distributed honey 
from Israel and bumper stickers and pins featuring 
the red poppy anemone (kalaniyot in Hebrew), Israel’s 
national flower, which symbolizes renewal, resilience 
and the vibrant spirit of the Israeli people. 

Visiting artist creates mural at Hillel Day School.

Kolot ‘Restart’ 
Members Visit Detroit

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY
Elyasaf Miara painted a mural on a wall at Hillel Day 
School. In Israel, she paints roadside bomb shelters, 
turning them into calming oases. She was here with a 
cohort from Kolot, an Israel-based nonprofit dedicated 
to helping the State of Israel realize core Jewish ethical 
principles and spiritual ideals.

The inaugural meeting of Restart, a program focused on 
rebuilding the Gaza Envelope through innovative social 
initiatives and leadership empowered by Jewish values.

COURTESY OF KOLOT

