Year: 2026

Israel Trip Blog Day 4: What Next?

Rabbi Ben Herman , , ,

Our last day of the trip began by visiting a Palestinian Education Bookshop in East Jerusalem. Out of all the Palestinian speakers, Mahmoud Muna best spoke my language. He began by talking about the fragmentation of 5 different types of Palestinians: Inside Israel, East Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza and Palestinian Disapora. Of the first 4, each has a different ID card issues by Israel, and there are different license plates as well. What made Mahmoud compelling is he talked about the heinous, unacceptable and scary nature of October 7 (Khaled on Day 2 went even further by saying he understood Israel needing to respond for weeks or even a couple months, just not for 2.5 years). Mahmoud also said one need not use the academic jargon (occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide) but then one must find another term to describe what happened. Mahmoud and his nephew Ahmed were arrested by Israeli police but after finding no crime against them they were released. I bought two books from Mahmoud: Daybreak in Gaza from Gazan writers after October 7 and Life Under Occupation by a Spanish journalist who travelled throughout the West Bank and Gaza. It’s important to hear others’ narratives and stories even when one disagrees with the facts or things which are being conveyed.

We returned to the hotel and heard from Tal Becker, who indicated that one can basically know nothing for certain (i.e. did Israel deliberately cause famine in Gaza? To get an answer one needs access to the Israeli Cabinets’ wartime remarks). Tal’s words were very emotional: that he had come up with a plan to kill/martyr his children should Hamas reach his house. Tal’s main theory was that western, liberal values were viewed as the solution to all of Israel’s problems, just as Adam thought Eve, his Ezer K’negdo, was the answer to all his problems. Romantic love/romanticization looks for simple solutions; being in the therapy room is where you work things out in all their complexity.

We had small groups throughout the 4 days to process what we heard and how we will bring this information to our home communities (which I am still working on). Here is our group picture from the end of the trip.

My last few hours were spent frantically shopping and exploring the Shuk, Ben Yehuda and Nahalat Sheva. On my way back to the hotel I ran by this relatively new museum, which I hope to see during a future trip.

Thank you for reading. I am open to discussing my adventures with any of you in the coming weeks.

Israel Trip Blog Day 3: Neutral Ground/No Man’s Land

Rabbi Ben Herman , , ,

On the third day of the trip we had to meet on neutral ground: a Greek Orthodox monastery outside Jericho. The Palestinians we met with could not get visas to enter Israel, and it was not viewed as safe for us to meet in an Area A city like Jericho (to find out more about Areas A, B and C please look up the Oslo Accords). The monastery grounds were beautiful.

We met with a Palestinian social scientist who shared with us that the younger generation of Palestinians are more progressive and pragmatic than their parents. 2/3 of them want either a civil and democratic state or a secular state as opposed to a religious state under Sharia law. Unfortunately over 50 percent of them are unemployed, a statistic that goes up to 85 percent in Gaza, and the average job is only 3,000 shekels (approx. $1000) a month.

We then met with Father Jack, a Greek Catholic priest in Taybe, the sole remaining Christian city in the West Bank. Father Jack talked about the hilltop youth coming through disrupting the olive harvest, their taking over sheep populations and displacing Palestinian farmers and their burning Taybe. With these disruptions, Taybe cannot harvest their olives, their main source of income. He said “As a Christian I don’t have enemies; my enemy is the policy, not the human being.”

Next we went to the American Colony in East Jerusalem. We met with Sundus El-Khot, the first Palestinian to qualify for the Jerusalem municipal government. As a Jerusalem Palestinian, Sundus is a resident; she cannot vote in Knesset elections but she can in municipal ones, and she rallied Palestinians, amidst difficulties, to help support her. Most Jewish and Muslim politicans did not-the former felt she was better with the Arab List or they would put her so low on their list that she’d be an “Arab ornament”; the latter felt why bother with these elections. Sundus’ main line was “I just want to live peacefully, respectfully and with dignity-I’m not a politician.”

I missed part of a session to meet up with former Mosaic Law Rabbi Yossie Goldman, who gave me a copy of his new book Just Do It!

At the end of the day we went to Feel Beit Cafe on the Seam Line (the line of separation between West and East Jerusalem in 1947-48 before the Green Line was established in 1949). The Cafe is a joint venture between Israelis and Palestinians. We heard from the founders and saw a show there.

Israel Trip Blog Day 2: Two People One Land

Rabbi Ben Herman

Today started with visitng the Jewish Agency for Israel (in Hebrew called the Sochnut) the largest Jewish non-profit in the world. We heard a panel of 3 Israelis. One is head of J Street in Israel, another wants nothing to do with Palestinians and the third was the vice chair of the World Zionist Congress and the head of Mercaz Yizhar Hess.

We studied Israel’s Declaration of Independance and we met in the first room where the government of Israel met.

Following the discussion and lunch we went near the Gush Etzion Junction to the headquarters of Roots, an organization that I brought to Mosaic Law in 2022 which focuses on shared dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

I can only share the speakers who gave me permission. One of them was Khaled Abu-Awwad, co-founder of Roots, who had a heart-rendering story that was difficult to hear. I am grateful to Khaled and to the other Palestinians I met for their embrace of non-violence resistance.

That evening we met with Israeli Rabbinical Assembly colleagues at Beit Ticho to ask them questions about their work (if any) with Palestinians. I decided to walk back on my own to the hotel. This sign which I saw, Ahavat Hinam (full love-as opposed to Sinat Hinam-baseless hatred) said it all to me.

Israel Trip Blog: Day 1 Beginning the Journey

Rabbi Ben Herman , ,

I I am on a rabbinical assembly trip with Encounter. I last was with Encounter as a rabbinical school student in Israel, spending 2 days in Bethlehem and staying with a Palestinian family. 

This trip is different as it began in West Jerusalem with Israelis. After speaking about the goals of the trip, we went to the Center for North African Jewry.

We heard from Israelis from three different walks of life: one of whom was a founder of Smoli Emunah (the halachic left), another was a speaker for Hartman and the Tikvah Fund and a third

is the director of the Israel Center of the San Francisco Jewish Federation, Barak Lozoon. In addition to sharing their stories, these 3 shared how their perspectives have changed since October 7.

Next we heard from a woman from Efrat and Rabbi Benny Lau from Jerusalem

about their experiences working with encounter-and how they balance being a major general and having 6 children in the Israeli army respectively and their reaching out to Palestinians. 

Finally we heard personal stories and a beautiful concert from the Jerusalem Youth Chorus

a group of Israeli and Palestinian students working together to express themselves through music. Out of respect for the participants, who have been attacked by BDS, we did not photograph them.

There are many questions, not all of which will be answered.

Tomorrow we will be headed to the Gush Etzion area

Ran Gvili z”l

Rabbi Ben Herman ,

843 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes. That is what the clock on Hostage Square stopped at after Ron Gvili’s body was found and returned to Israel. 700 Israeli soldiers and volunteers participated in the search for Ran, including a major who had been wounded and lost an eye on October 7th and Idan Ademi, one of Israel’s leading singers and Fauda military hero who was very badly injured during the war. They opened 149 graves and the 150th was Ron (interesting side note-that’s the Gematria for רן). People were excited for the closure this brought. As soon as it happened, I removed the hostage chair that we have had in the front of our synagogue for over 2 years.

          In Israel they said עד החוטף האחרון “until the last hostage.” This is why we kept the chair and kept saying the prayer until the last hostage was returned. This is the first time since 2014 that there are no Israeli bodies in Gaza.

I remember in 2014 having just married Karina and attending a Sephardi synagogue in the same building as Chabbat in University City. The sermon was in Hebrew. I recoiled in horror hearing about 3 teenage backpackers who were abducted and taken to Gaza-later to be returned in body bags. Since Operation Protective Edge we have always had a body in Gaza. What a momentous moment to no longer have that.

          Yet it is a bittersweet moment. Of the 251 hostages who went into Gaza on October 7, 40+ of them came in live and came out in body bags, murdered by their captors. We cannot forget the potential that was lost of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Eden Yerushalmi. At the same time, we must take a moment to honor the achievement of something many of us, including myself, did not think was possible-the return of the 20 remaining live hostages as well as of all the bodies. Jacob said to Joseph, אל נא תקברני במצרים-“Do not let me lie in Egypt, that place of constriction.” We would have preferred all these hostages return alive yet we must mention that there is honor in those who did not make it being brought to Israel for proper burial.

          Please rise and join with me in saying the שהחיינו, marking this historic moment of no more hostages.