Someone I'm Indebted to

Dear Friends,

I’ve met many wonderful people this year, and they’ve enhanced my life in lots of measurable an immeasurable ways. I want to introduce you to someone I work with: Uri. Uri is an American Jew of Ethiopian descent and has worked for the Jewish Agency for 29 years; his brother worked for us before him. Imagine giving 29 years of your life to an organization? That’s a lot of loyalty. And it’s rare to find these days.

Uri plays many different, critical roles in this organization. He works in the mailroom and also picks up our visiting guests but has always been flexible in helping us no matter what the need. Uri often picks me up from the airport during busy travel times. If Uri is picking me up, I’m met with a warm smile and a genuinely caring personality.

Sometimes you work with people for years, and you know very little about them. Sometimes you learn something about them that makes you rethink everything you know about them. I learned something about Uri. He and his wife raised three Jewish children, and his son Joel just left last week for his third tour of duty in Iraq. Joel repairs artillery, often in places of battle.

I want to take a few minutes to salute Joel’s commitment to the United States and to our safety. Every Shabbat, synagogues around the world include prayers for our governments, our soldiers and the soldiers of Israel. It’s a very old Jewish tradition. Uri, we pray for Joel’s safe return. May he not come in harm’s way, and may God watch over his patriotic service and bring all our soldiers home soon.

Take time to get to know someone in your office or someone you volunteer with. There are many miracle makers and heroes among us. We just need to take the time to find out.

Misha

My New Friends from Germany

Dear Friends,

As the year comes to an end, I want to introduce you to my newest friend, Arye Shalicar. Arye is a remarkable young man currently living in Israel. He grew up in Berlin-Wedding, highly conscious of how little he fit in physically and emotionally with those around him. He was called a filthy Jew and was beaten numerous times, often at the hands of German immigrants. A young Turk Arye played soccer with once said, “Jew, I don’t want to see you here again. When I see you the next time, it will be bad for you.”

Life in Germany is different now. Far from “it will be bad for you,” the German-Jewish community is fast–growing, multi-lingual and vibrant. I recently met with a group of young couples in Munich who have a "trialogue" with Israelis from Holon and couples from Brooklyn. The German group had a German native, an American, a Brazilian, Israelis, a Czech, a Slovak, a South African, as well as Azeri and Ukrainian immigrants.

Raising children as Jews in Germany was bringing them close together. I can’t remember ever being with such a disparate group of people who, at the same, time were powerfully united by common interests: advocacy for Israel, Jewish pride in a Europe that has not always been kind to Jews, and the desire to raise children with a strong Jewish identity. It is peoplehood at its best.

Arye Shalicar lived in all those worlds yet decided to leave them for an Israel where he never had to worry that he would hear the words, “I don’t want to see you again.” We all make choices about how to manage our Jewish experience.

My new friends in Germany are banding together from all corners of the world to raise a new generation of Jews. Arye, on the other hand, decided to make his Jewish identity positive and central by making aliyah to Israel to join with other Jews from around the world. The movement of our Jewish world can sometimes feel unpredictable. For me, it has certainly been a year of motion: new job, new city, new challenges and new blessings. And now I have a new friend.

We are blessed to live in a Jewish world where we have choices and use those choices to keep the flame of Jewish life alive. This year, if you make any new resolution, resolve to make a new Jewish friend outside of your normal social circles. It will help you grow. Thanks, Arye.

Shabbat Shalom and “Shana Tova,”

Misha

Let’s be a light to others in need.

Dear Friends,

I had intended – and written – a different Chanukah message, but I cannot, with fires still burning in the Carmel forest, simply send out a message of good cheer. Over forty lives have been sacrificed. Many of us helped plant trees that are now scorched earth.

Tragedies like these tend to bring out the best in people. Not only have emergency relief funds been pouring into Israel, some of Israel’s harshest critics in these past months have sent aid and assistance. Israel has always been there for other countries in their time of need – from teaching irrigation techniques in Africa to urgent medical care in Haiti – and now that good will is being reciprocated.

So what’s our personal responsibility? I’ve heard critics, even Jewish journalists, say that this is the fault of the Israeli government so we should give no charity to help. Insufficient fire protection led to the country being ill-prepared for a fire of this scale. Why help out when the government is to blame? It’s a good question, but not the right response.

We’ve seen levies in America, not built to standard, fail with disastrous consequences during Hurricane Katrina. We’ve seen homes and schools world-over flattened by tsunamis and earthquakes because they were not built to code. Bridges not appropriately strengthened have collapsed, taking victims with them in a spiral into the sea. Terrorists not caught by our security systems have taken their causalities. Do we say to any of the victims or their families – we can’t help you because the government made a mistake?

Of course, we feel angry and even betrayed, at times, by these errors. We have to learn from error and pay attention to issues that are important, even if - at the time - they don’t seem urgent. But not for one moment do we stop the beating of a human heart that tells us that where there is pain, there is kindness. We feel compassion and do our part. In a world where inexplicably bad things happen, we respond with a thousand small kindnesses.

This Chanukah, let’s respond to a big fire with 8 small flames. Let’s be a light to others in need.

Thank you,

Misha

Engagement: What I'm Thankful For

Dear Friends,

In thinking about the New York skyline, my son Ezra recently asked me if the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building were cousins. I guess in a way they are. I was struck by the sweetness of the question but more generally, about the importance of asking good questions.

Every year at Passover time, we are obligated to ask 4 questions at the Seder. If this is a night of memory and story-telling, then the best way to begin is with a set of questions. Questions are inspired by curiosity and inspire more curiosity.

I’ve been thinking a lot abut the art of the question. In the past few weeks I’ve been at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in New Orleans and traveling across the United States. I field and encounter important questions wherever I go. People want to know how the Jewish Agency is changing, the nature of our new strategic plan, and if our core mission has changed. Each question requires time and thoughtfulness.

Far from cowering at these questions, I welcome them. Asking questions is a form of engagement. It shows that we care, that the future matters to us and that we are personally invested in outcomes. I worry when the Jewish community does not ask questions. It shows a level of apathy and disinterest.

I worry that one of the symptoms of disengaged Jews is the failure to ask questions. Why does Judaism matter? Why should I care about Israel? What is meaningful to me and how can Judaism inform that meaning? What does peoplehood mean? All of these questions need to be asked and answered by each of us to make our Jewish lives more vibrant and exciting.

This week, many of us will celebrate Thanksgiving. With everyone at the table, it’s a great time to ask some good questions, and not just how do you cook a turkey? What are you grateful for? How have you changed since last year? What does your country mean to you?

They say of a Jewish Nobel Prize winner in science that he credits his own accomplishments to something his mother said every day when he left the house for school: “Ask good questions.”

Misha

Israel Advocacy

Dear Friends,

The holidays have just finished, but our work has just begun!

What work tops my list for the moment? Israel advocacy on American college campuses. Taglit Birthright and Masahave sent tens of thousands of young people to Israel for a transformative Jewish experience. But when these inspired students return to their respective colleges, they often realize that the place that brought them so much joy and growth is under constant attack.

As I travel across the United States, I speak regularly with college students and Jewish professionals working on campus who feel alone and often unprepared to deal with the deligitimization of Israel sweeping the country. Many times, it is Jewish professors and university administrators who badmouth Israel and push for divestiture and other harsh measures.

Our chairman, Natan Sharansky, has made a point of visiting college campuses to equip people with both the information and the inspiration to defend Israel and be a great ambassador for our homeland. The Jewish Agency sent 19 shlihim, educators with Israel’s message,to campuses across North America last year and doubled that number this year in a joint program with Hillels.These talented advocates work directly with students and campus staff on a long-term basis to provide much needed resources.

The presence of such leadership on campuses has and will make a real difference. It tells young people across America that when they love Israel, they’re in great company. And, beginning today - October 12th - the Jewish Agency will take a more pro-active role in PR for Israel in Israel itself with a fabulous new campaign: “Meshugah L’Yisrael” the “Crazy for Israel” campaign.

Let’s face it: you’ve got to be crazy when you care about Israel. It’s crazy that a nation so young can hold so much powerful history in its small borders. It’s crazy that a country that has to spend so much energy on defense can also produce 35 Nobel laureates, huge advances in science and medicine, and the swimsuit model on the cover of Sports Illustrated. That’s us.

So we all have work to do. We have to help college students develop the passion and the language to defend Israel. And to learn more about out our “Meshugah L’Yisrael” click here. Join me in helping our emerging generation of leaders find the love, the words and the inspiration to be crazy about Israel.

Thanks for your help,

Misha