Long but very fun day

Started the day at Bina, the first and only secular yeshiva in (economically depressed) South Tel Aviv. The goal there is linking Jewish learning with social action. Students study there 10+ hours a day, 3-4 days a week and spend 2-3 days a week working in the area community.

Very satisfying, strong teaching from Eran Baruch, the director of Bina, talking about reclaiming the Jewish heritage and resources that were regrettably ceded to the Orthodox rabbinate and community by Ben Gurion in 1948.

I was surprised to learn just how little exposure to Jewish learning Israeli Jews receive in their secular, public schools. It wasn't news, but it was important to be reminded by an Israeli talmud teacher (also an IDF reserve commander -- which matters to me in this context, although I'm not sure why) that the roots of modern Zionism are secular. Any remnant confusion in my mind of the concepts of "Jewish" and "Israeli" were completely demolished by the conversation.

I think because American Jews organize so much around our synagogue communities, we often don't sift out the terminology thoroughly. It is possible to be fully Israeli, literate in modern Hebrew, and to be Jewishly thoroughly uneducated. As Eran said, "In the beginning, Zionism was both secular and profane. They knew the Talmud by heart, but they rebelled. They wanted to create a generation of apikorsim (heretics), but they created instead a generation of ignoramuses."

The purpose of the Yeshiva is "not to make people religious, but to make them aware of their tradition." (Something for me to ponder as a rabbi -- how different is that from my goal?)

Fab shwarma lunch near the Carmel Market today (and great dessert on Sheinkin Street).

Two wonderful and contrasting museum visits:

• The Josef Bau Museum -- a Schindler Jew (in the movie, the one who gets married in the camp) who became Israel's first animation artist and graphic designer. Wonderful stories told by his daughter; witty, moving, and provocative artwork (cartoons, books, cards, posters).
  
• Ruven Rubin -- Roumanian immigrant artist whose work I (embarrassingly) had never known before. Gorgeous paintings, influenced by Van Gogh and Rousseau (among others), charting the history of Tel Aviv and the Zionist enterprise. One final self-portrait of the artist in dialogue with his inspiration/subject, the dove of peace, in a dream-like painting, brought me to tears.
  

Napped at the end of the afternoon, watched the sunset from my hotel room, and had a drink with an opera director colleague and late dinner with a civil-rights lawyer friend.

Morning comes disturbingly soon, so that's the whole report for today. Lailah tov!