Since October 13, just 8 months ago, my life has been changed, forever influenced by the places I saw, the people I met, the stories I heard, the questions I asked, and the relationships I formed. Far and away, the most important lesson I've learned from this year has been the power that one person has to affect change in entire communities and groups of people, that no dream is too big or too crazy. In Morocco, we met Rafi, who returned to his Jewish Moroccan roots after living outside of Morocco for an extended period of time, studying in England and Israel. Upon arriving to Israel, where his brothers had been living for years, both of whom he had not seen in a long time, he was questioned by a certain airport security official who asked about his Moroccan roots and his purpose of visiting Israel. Upon telling the security officer that he was trying to find his brothers, Rafi found out he had already bumped into one; he was talking to his brother at that very moment. Since that chance run in, Rafi has been the man behind the resurrection of the various Moroccan Jewish communities. He has found countless artifacts and reinvigorated communities with energy and the means to have active synagogues. He even found an 850 year old little synagogue that had not been in use for years but had been kept up by Harim. Harim was a local Muslim who had been given the key to the synagogue decades ago when the Jews left for Israel. He was told to hold on to the key until the Jews came back. After years of waiting for the Jews to return, Harim could have just taken the synagogue for his own storage place – who would have cared? But when Rafi eventually came to this small village to find the synagogue, Harim greeted him with open arms and returned the keys to the synagogue to the Jews. Harim not only shows the power of compassion that each human possesses, but also highlights the incredible coexistence that Moroccan Jews and Arabs and Berbers shared for years before the Jews fled to Israel. Because of Rafi, Jewry across Morocco, while still less active than it once was, is being resurrected. So Rafi is just one example of the power one person can have to influence countless lives, but there were countless more. Take the Rabbi of the orthodox synagogue in Berlin, the city that housed the Nazi headquarters, where they planned the Final Solution to the Jewish people. He was born in Israel, where his family had been living for over 200 years; he was the 7th generation born there. Instead of doing the easy thing and continuing the family legacy in Israel, living among many more Jews like himself, this Rabbi came specifically to Berlin because of the Holocaust. He would not let the Nazis win. The Jewish community, he assured, would come back and thrive in the very place that planned their demise. He had this sense of purpose that was as palpable as I have ever seen in anyone, and truly believed he was on a mission. He was doing everything he could to make the community more involved and feel welcomed in his synagogue. In Berlin, there are these gold stones that are a bit raised up from the regular stones on the sidewalk that are called stolperstein, or stumbling stones. These stones, which are all over Germany, and all over Europe, are placed in front of houses where Jews were violently forced out and often eventually killed in the death camps. The stones are ingrained with their names and their eventual fate. It has influence all over Europe as the world's largest monument, spanning 610 places in in eight countries, and is thanks to one person who started the project, Gunder Demnig. While some may have called him crazy for trying to do something so large, he still sought it out because he knew the power of one and the power of memorializing even just one name. Spain has not had a Spanish Rabbi in 500 years. At this point in time, it's down right crazy to try and make this happen, right? It's been too long and there's probably not a community to lead? Haim Casas will tell you differently. Haim is what they call a judeoconverso, meaning he had Jewish ancestry who had been forcibly converted during the inquisition, yet somehow they were able to pass on a certain detail generation to generation that Haim would later look into, a detail that made him Jewish. After converting to Judaism and being engaged to his future husband, who did the same, Haim, a young man, is about to be ordained this summer after years of study as a Rabbi. He is going to be the first Spanish Rabbi in literally 500 years. By just doing that, he has already done so much, much more than one person can be expected to do. He has opened the door to the resurrection of the once thriving Spanish Jewish community. Having a Rabbi that is homegrown is different than importing one from Israel. It connects the community in a way that only a local can. It gives the local community a sense of purpose and potential for who they could be. Only time will tell exactly what this ordination will do, but for the time being, Haim has already made history, and he's just getting started. In Bulgaria, Maxim is a 30ish year old man who is quietly and determinedly bringing the young Jews of Bulgaria back to their ancestral roots. He is the unofficial head of the Jewish community there that lived through communism and anti religion just a couple decades ago. How could one person return religion to a place where the parent generation had no practice or understanding of their Judaism, let alone their kids? By starting with the kids. The kids now know more than their parents and are bringing their parents along for the ride. He plans programs at the JCC and BBYO events. He knows how to connect with people and is doing everything he can to legitimize this community. This next year he will be studying in israel to return to Bulgaria the following year to bring back what he learned Jewishly to further his community. He doesn't have to do this, but he doesn't feel like he has a choice, it's his life passion and something larger than himself. It'd be much easier for him to just go about his life, and if he really wanted a thriving Jewish community, he could move to Israel, but that's not who he is. He, too, is a shining example of the power of one. Look at the leaders of the Women of the Wall, a group that is fighting for gender equality at the Kotel, or Western Wall in Israel, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Once a month in the early morning, they hold a women's service at the Wall where they try to bring in Torah scrolls to the woman's side. They are met by ultra Orthodox Jews who spit at them, call them Nazis and try to rip the holy Torah scrolls out of their hands. They are not treated as a fellow Jew by these incredibly religious men and women, but as a disgrace to the Jewish people, yet they fight on amidst controversy. Going at almost every chance I got gave me just a glimpse at to what they have been able to do. It also showed me that someone had to bring all these people together for the common cause, and they succeeded in organizing events every month. Chances are, if you have a feeling that something needs to change, there exists a group of people who feel the same way as you do, which is why change is always possible; you just have to put in some effort. As David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister and founding father said, "In order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles." There is no such thing as impossible or dreaming too big. Click here to see a video of our year! Another great lesson I learned this year is that there is no such thing as a normal way to live life. There's the "normal" way we as Americans like to live our lives, but even that is regionally very different. And one way is no better than another just because it has more technology or is "more developed or civilized." In the Negev, the desert in southern Israel, Bedouins live a way of life that we might consider outdated and underdeveloped. They don't all have Wifi, TVs, and built up houses, and they cook differently than we do. That being said, the Bedouins we met are a close knit family, without distractions such as Snapchat or Spongebob to take them out of their surroundings. Instead, they are always present and conversing with the people around them, leaving unnecessary stresses and burdens out of their lives, while substituting in deeper bonds and connections. Some may call it a simple life. Others call it a better life. Again, there is no such thing as a normal or regular way to live life. Lastly, this year, I found out exactly how influential asking questions, especially uncomfortable questions, can be in every facet of one's life. At the beginning of the year, the founder of the program, Peter Geffen, asked us after days of being with him how no one could ask him about his prosthetic leg. It clearly affected his life, and while some would ask questions about his background or where he grew up, no one ever dared to ask such an uncomfortable question regarding an issue that affected every moment of his life. After learning that it would be okay to ask him about it, as he could just say I'm uncomfortable answering that question if he was indeed uncomfortable, our group took asking questions to another level. We would meet these incredible people that were once in a lifetime encounters and dared to ask them anything, whether it be asking a special adviser to the King of Morocco about the Western Sahara occupation or challenging our most respected teacher in front of everyone on if he was asking a fair, unbiased question. More than just asking the speakers questions, we interrogated each other every day about who we were and what motivated each one of us to be the way we are. It was not uncommon to be walking in the streets abroad and have someone on Kivunim come up to you and ask a question like, "what is your deepest insecurity?" or, "How do you think your relationship with your parents affects your relationship with other adults?" Or anything in between. And everyone was just so ready to fully go into the answer to whatever deep questions were asked. As a result, some of the deepest relationships between such a large group of 18-19 year olds were formed in a way I had never seen before. I learned that not only is asking teachers and tour guides uncomfortable questions incredibly rewarding because it opens them up to you, but moreover, asking peers and friends these uncomfortable questions builds a more intimate connection that is hopefully more lasting. These people know more about me, and I about them, than any other group. It is truly special. While seeing the Ganges and the Sahara and all these incredible landscapes would be amazing and memorable regardless of who you're with, the 45 members of Kivunim, as well as the staff of Jay, David, Dani, Barry, and Peter, made this year not just memorable, but life changing, and I could never thank them enough. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for making this year so special, I really can't imagine this year without any one of you. The memories we share will be something that will forever bond us. Kivunim did not end on June 13, it was just the end to chapter one, and this is a multi volume book that will only grow as our life does. I am beyond thankful for this year and excited for how it will affect my college experience and beyond. Thanks again to everyone who made it possible! Shoutouts: The 45 members of Kivunim 2016-2017
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AuthorDan Rosenzweig-Ziff Archives
June 2017
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