Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Poverty and Plenty — Two Israels

“By the time they hit seven years old, most Jewish children perceive Israel as a place of poverty and of danger.” So laments super-researcher/educator Sivan Zakai, of the University of Judaism.

It makes me sad. I know that there are dangers in Israel, of course there are. But what of the danger on the streets of America? And I know that there is poverty in Israel, but there’s also a great deal of wealth. Like in America.

Sivan and I began discussing how it is that even by this early age kids have learned that Israel addresses only two of our four questions, and only in a narrow way. They are learning (from parents? From school? From fundraising campaigns?) that Israel lives under a permanent existential cloud (To Be), and that Jewish Peoplehood requires that we pity the poor Israeli. Freedom, creativity, democracy, even the beauty of the Land – these aspects of Israel don’t make it through to these kids.

It’s love. It’s connection. But from a place of anxiety, concern, and burden.

I went to synagogue on Shabbat morning. (It’s my minhag when I’m in the Diaspora.) IKAR is an inspirational community, led by the wise, ideological and charismatic Rabbi Brous. Prior to reading the Prayer for the State of Israel, the Rabbi called attention to reports of a stabbing in Israel that morning. The timing was careful and deliberate. She did not want the reading of the prayer to be a dry ritual, but a heartfelt prayer from a place of meaning and compassion. It totally transformed the recital of the Prayer itself.

Later, we talked about this prepping for the Prayer for the State of Israel. Of how she would sometimes set up the prayer with other social justice news from Israel. I got to imagining how great it would be if communities’ pre-prayer of the Prayer for the State of Israel could touch on all four questions. If, prior to the Prayer, the Rabbi were to raise awareness of Israel not only in the “To Be” mode, but also – I don’t know – mention a cool new song that’s been released, or talk of the latest social justice protest, or the attempts to fix the damage done to the Dead Sea.

We talked about Makom working with IKAR on coming up with a weekly Israel pre-prayer for rabbis.

The Rabbi thought it could be fun. Me too.

More work for Makom when I get home…

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.