Letters from Israel-Palestine
Pre-trip Update! Featuring The Encounter Program
Date: Friday, the 22nd of February, 2008
Hi folks,
You may or may not know it, but I'm flying to Israel/Palestine on March 8. Also to Uganda via Egypt.
I wanted to write an email to tell you about a project that I like a lot, whose conference I just went to.
The project is called Encounter [http://www.encounterprograms.org],
and their focus is bringing Jewish leaders to visit Palestine over a
couple of days, fully loaded with opportunity for people to process and
reflect on their experiences. At the moment, they run trips to
Bethlehem and Hebron, either one day or overnight trips, and they visit
different people in the communities and hear their stories, and meet
with community leaders and politicians, and work in tandem with the
Holy Land Trust out of Bethlehem to organize their trips.
This project is currently extraordinarily successful within the Jewish
community; over 400 people have gone on 17 trips. It's a very inspiring
thing how much this project affects Jewish leaders, and by connection
the American Jewish community. A friend of mine anticipated that within
two years, fully 1/3 of all rabbinical students will go on an Encounter
trip to Palestine. It's amazing to consider what sort of impact this will have on the organized Jewish community.
I had the opportunity to go on an Encounter trip
to Bethlehem last year, and what was most impressive about it was their
use of dialogue, small groups, and dyads for the sake of processing.
Since I have been to Palestine many times before, that aspect of the trip
was not so striking to me; to me, what was new and exciting and moving
was seeing a whole bunch of Jewish, not to mention future rabbis,
making the same journey that my activist paths had brought me on
several years before.
Many people on the trip were hugely moved
by their experiences in Bethlehem, people from across the Jewish
spectrum. These people are taking their work forward in hugely varied
ways; one Yeshiva student, who is now at U Penn, is starting a
microlending program based out of Ramallah [http://www.lendforpeace.com].
Others are starting Jewish-Arab dialogue groups throughout the United
States. (There are major efforts right now in Boston and LA)
My hope is to help people who have taken that step: to connect with
Palestinian people, and really hear their narratives, create a deeper
connection by spending larger amounts of time in Palestine (like two
weeks, instead of overnight). And for people who haven't before, I hope
to help bridge people into Palestinian life, introduce them to my
friends, give them a cultural crash-course.
With so much hope,
Jacob Rosenblum
from a house in West Philly
A quick outline of my trip:
today - March 8 USA
March 8-15 flying to Israel with the JNF's Alternative Spring Break--
doing Economic Development work in the Negev. Some interesting
projects.
March 16-29 My father and stepmom will be in Israel. I'll be
travelling with them, and taking friends to meet Palestinians in the
Bethlehem and Ramallah districts, and hanging out with people I love,
and such. Purim!
March 30-Apr 5 Israel/Palestine, then to Egypt for Shabbat, before
flying to Uganda
April 5-16 Uganda!! Visiting a friend in the peace corps there.
April 17-May 12? Back to Egypt, then Israel (fittingly) for Passover.
I plan to leave around May 12, although I don't have the return flight
set yet.