This week I'm writing from Israel! I'm traveling with 18 other women from MetroWest as part of the Heart 2 Heart Mission, a national women's mission sponsored by the National Women's Philanthropy of the Jewish Federations of North America. The weather has been cool and rainy, but our enthusiasm hasn't been dampened at all. Although this is my 13th trip to Israel, we are doing and seeing things I've never done or seen before. Yesterday we visited an Israel Defense Force army training base – and we participated in some of their exercises! My favorite part of the day was riding in an armored personnel carrier, attired in army issue flak jacket and helmet. The APC was driven by two young women soldiers who were very proud of their vehicle and their abilities to pilot it over rough terrain. The top of the APC was open and the soldiers encouraged us to stand up and look out. When I decided that this was a better choice than bouncing around inside the APC, I was rewarded with the sight of a rainbow after one of the rainstorms we encountered. Another "only in Israel" moment.

We had dinner with the members of a new movement that is growing across Israel called Young Communities. These are idealistic young people who are committed to making Israeli society stronger. This particular group, called Kehillah Cama, lives in Beersheva; they work as social workers, are graduate students at Beersheva University, teachers and all kinds of helping professions. As a Young Community, they meet weekly to plan projects such as a sustainable garden for the neighborhood in which they live.  They have started a small cafe, where we had a delicious dinner.  The cafe serves two purposes: girls who are identified as being "at risk" are the servers (and also receive individual counseling) and the profits from the cafe are turned back into the projects of the Kehillah.  In addition to raising their own funds, they are also funded by the Jewish Agency for Israel, one of our overseas partners.

It was inspiring to meet the young women soldiers who help defend Israel from outside attack as well as the young pioneers who believe in Israel's future. For more on this exciting mission, go to the mission blog at www.JewishFederations.org. More stories to follow in the weeks ahead!

With love from Israel,
Leslie

The pictures can’t possibly tell the whole story, and yet they are heartbreaking and horrifying. The stories, in print and on videotape, tell of unbearable loss and unfathomable goodness. We will be living with the tragedy of the Haitian earthquake for a very long time – and, I hope, with the possibility of helping this poorest nation rebuild and emerge stronger, eventually.

I knew one thing for certain as soon as I heard the terrible news. I knew that the Jewish community would be involved. I knew I could count on the Joint – the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee – to be a central point for the ingathering of funds and the distribution and coordination of aid. (UJC MetroWest had a mailbox link to the Joint up and on our website within hours of the quake – www.ujcnj.org, right on our homepage.) I knew the Israel Defense Forces would bring their special rescue expertise to the scene. I knew that individual American Jews would respond generously, through the Joint, through American Jewish World Service, through each of the movements of organized Judaism and through individual acts of tzedakah.

And a review of the Jewish (and non-Jewish media) confirms that indeed, the Jewish world was responding. My email inbox has been flooded with the stories of the work of the IDF in setting up a field hospital – even delivering a baby – and performing rescue operations. The reports of your generosity are also coming in and are remarkable. Just check www.haaretz.com, or www.jta.org/philanthropy/ for updates. You can also find out more about the work of the Joint by going to www.jdc.org and click on “crisis response.”

We are such a small percentage of the world’s population and yet we insist on making a difference. Why is that? It is part of our social compact with ourselves, our covenant with God and our obligation as part of humanity. It is putting into action throughout the year the clarion call we hear on Yom Kippur: Through Isaiah, God asks us not for a meaningless fast, but to “learn to do good…devote yourself to justice; aid the wronged, uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17) And that is what we do when we take action, even if we can’t be there ourselves. It is tikkun olam, repair of the world. We can include the people of Haiti in our prayers and in our actions. It’s what we do.

Wishing strength to the people of Haiti –
Leslie

When I was in college, I found that at some point in any given semester my courses in one way or another would all be addressing the same ideas or topics. I’ve had a similar experience over the last few days in grown-up life. The topic I’m finding in the atmosphere in my world is spiritual meaning. I’ve been monitoring an email conversation among my fellow Oheb Shalom congregants about mitzvot and meaning within the Conservative movement. The comments have been so meaningful and erudite that I have hesitated to participate, but I think I now know what I want to say. I’m also reading “Have a Little Faith,” Mitch Albom’s most recent best-seller about the search for spiritual meaning as seen through the life of Albom’s childhood rabbi and the life of a Detroit minister, Henry Covington – and the affect of these stories on Albom. The book is by no means a “heavy lift” but it does touch on the issues I find so many Jews (and non-Jews) raising in this challenging time of war, economic hardship, and human loss. Is there anyone “up there?” What is our concept of God? How do we reconcile the Sunday school pictures in our heads with the difficult situations we encounter as adults? Why perform mitzvot if we aren’t sure there’s an ultimate authority keeping score? What meaning do we derive from these commandments?

So here’s my personal take on whether there is a higher spiritual authority: While it’s easy to revert to the “Sunday school” version of an elderly man with a flowing white beard, making notes in the Book of Life, I look at the world around me and think that there is something beyond the quotidian daily life, a higher force, a greater consciousness without namable form or shape. But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about spirituality on that level. I truly believe that we have to focus on what we can do to create good between human beings – that true holiness happens when we seek to repair the world in the name of whatever power we believe in – or simply for the sake of doing good. This is why I am so committed to the work of the MetroWest community – its synagogues, its agencies, and of course UJC MetroWest. In the day to day life of this Jewish community, we each create moments of holiness – in a visit to a friend in the hospital, in celebrating a simcha in the congregation, in paying the shiva call, we connect in ways that are the real meaning of spirituality.

The concept of doing good between people being the creation of holiness came to me again today, as I attended the funeral of a great woman in this community, Golda Och, z”l. Golda had many, many connections throughout MetroWest and indeed around the world. She was my teacher, although I never attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, which she helped to found, but she was still my teacher. She was my teacher in matters of leadership, as I was privileged to sit on the Maxine Fischer Scholarship committee with her as its chair. She was my teacher in matters of Jewish learning, since the Maxine Fischer Scholarship is awarded to young women from MetroWest who study in the area of either Jewish studies or women’s studies – her breadth of knowledge was astounding but she wasn’t seeking to impress, but simply to teach. Golda was my teacher in matters of philanthropy; the quiet direction of resources to where they are needed to do the most good with not a whole lot of fanfare. Mostly, Golda was my teacher in matters of human connection. She always had time for a greeting, an inquiry into the family, my work, and so on, whether I ran into her at the JCC or the David Intercontinental Hotel lobby in Tel Aviv. I will miss her wise counsel and quick wit. May her beloved family be comforted and may her memory be for a blessing.

Did you miss me?  I took “Leslie’s Laptop” with me on vacation, but decided to take a break.  I had been thinking of writing about the secular New Year from the Jewish point of view, but it seems that my friend Alia Ramer got to that topic first, or rather someone making a guest appearance on Alia’s blog, Our Tribe and Joy (www.njjewishnews.com/tribe) did.  My take was going to be on how great it is to have one New Year observance for thinking seriously about our internal lives and our obligations to our fellow human beings, vowing teshuvah and repentance and to have another one for simple celebration and perhaps a resolution or two about more superficial self-improvement (weight loss, closet cleaning and checkbook resolution come to mind and disappear just as easily.)

I am looking forward to the start of 2010 – although I’m wondering just how long it will take for me to get used to the new numbering (I know it’s not really a new decade, but still, it feels different this way, doesn’t it?)  There are lots of things to look forward to in this new year- and not much to miss about 2009, was there?  I’ll be going to Israel soon, as part of the national Heart 2 Heart Mission sponsored by the National Women’s Philanthropy Board.  For those of you who have been reading all along, you know that Israel is a very special place for me and I can’t wait to go on this trip, especially because there will be many women on this mission who have either never been to Israel or who haven’t been in many years.  It is always a privilege to be in Israel, and there is nothing to replace one’s first visit, but the opportunity to be with someone as they experience Israel for the first time is very special.

There are lots of other things coming up on the Women’s Philanthropy calendar – Philanthropy 101s, Women’s Awareness Day – keep your eyes on the UJC website and on Leslie’s Laptop – no more breaks for a while!

Have a wonderful first week of 2010!
Leslie