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News from the Region

Olive Harvest Delegation
Report #3: “Hope Resists”
November 10, 2006

Friday in Jerusalem

By Hilary Krivchenia

Friday in Jerusalem. To feel Shabbat approaching was a profound experience.  The police and soldiers posted on so many corners were roughly juxtaposed with my awareness that Shabbat was coming – the celebration of the world to come – an ideal time – a time of peace and perfection.  Around us were the evidences of how far we are from that world of perfection – not heaven apart – but heaven on earth.

My heart was still heavy from hearing reports of 19 innocents killed by Israeli shelling in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip.  It seemed, from the security presence, that the Israelis were prepared for the retaliation that Hamas called for.

Yad Vashem Photo: Lois Mastrangelo

We drove across Jerusalem and approached Yad Vashem.  It is an austere place – no large signs – clean, light lines.  At Yad Vashem I was struck by the absence of real security – we walked in with no metal detector or searches. 

This was the first Holocaust Memorial.  Inside it is also simple – dark, concrete with simple images – films, photos, piles of shoes, suitcases, striped outfits.  The brutality of the Holocaust was downplayed – you had to really stop and read to learn the stories of the pits where the women were taken and shot in groups of ten and would fall in and pile up – body upon body.

At the end of the museum you emerge onto an expansive view of forested mountains and valleys – the Promised Land.  As though the story ended there – but there the complexity really begins. 

From there we went to lunch at the Restobar Café. It is on the site of the Moment Café that had been hit by a suicide bomber in 2001. Lunch was delicious and then we rushed up the street to catch the Women in Black demonstration.  This protest against violence and occupation has been going on for 19 years – and while this did not inspire optimism, it fostered hope – it is a weekly witness for peace in signs on black hands of God in English, Arabic, and Hebrew calling for an end to the Israeli Occupation.

A great surprise was that this protest was joined by a few people from the Open House Lesbian and Gay demonstration that had been forced inside by threats from the Orthodox community.  They wore bright pink along with their black and signs that resisted both the occupation of lands and the colonization of bodies through repressive ideologies and policies.  The atmosphere was serious and playful at the same time.  It was very moving to be there with these risk-taking people.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman Photo: John Treat

Later we went to Kol HaNashema synagogue where we met with Rabbi Arik Ascherman before services.  He spoke with us about his work with Rabbis for Human Rights and told a story about a demonstration in the West Bank at which a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was dragged away by IDF soldiers and strapped to the front of a jeep to stop Palestinians from throwing stones.  Arik rushed forward to intervene and was also handcuffed and strapped to a Jeep.  Later, when providing a statement for B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the boy described the abuse to which he was subjected and then ended by saying that a tall Jewish man in a Kippah came to tell him not to be afraid – because he was not alone. It was a brutal and disturbing story – but here was one man willing to assume some of the risks that Palestinians have to live with day after day.

After that we attended Shabbat services.  It was a beautiful service – deeply spirited and for me amazing to sing the Shema (the Jewish prayer affirming belief in one God) IN Israel.  I could have stayed there forever.  To have seen Yad Vashem earlier in the day I was haunted by the images of Kristalnacht, and the felt relief that here were Jews worshipping again.

There was no sermon, and the only English was the reference to page numbers. At the same time the experience was mingled with all the experiences and images of the week.  The checkpoints, the demolished homes, the separation wall.  We sang the familiar words of psalms and prayers calling up the peace of Shabbat – calling up peace and for me such a call is profound one – shalom is for all the world, for all the people – praying the Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning).  I said mine for the people killed in Beit Hanoun and I wondered if anyone else there was praying for them as well. 

The service seemed to be moving for others in the delegation as well – and I suspect that for everyone the paradoxes and inner conflicts were also very real – but I have not yet heard from everyone.

Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh – a very holy day for me – may we make Olam Habba – (the world to come) – real – here, now. Amein.

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