In just under two weeks, we will be sending our largest ever cohort of students and staff to Israel for their fabulous Yesh experience. “Yesh” has a dual meaning. It literally translates to “have” but is used in Hebrew as a celebratory exclamation akin to “awesome!”. Its second meaning is as a compound of Yisrael Sheli – my Israel. This year to make up for last year’s missed trip during the period of COVID restrictions, we have invited both Year 10 and Year 11 students to participate.

We are tremendously excited for our students to see firsthand what they have spent their school lives learning about. They will have extraordinary access to carefully curated opportunities that will develop their understanding of Israel’s land, people, politics, culture and challenges. They will be exposed to varying religious, cultural and political ideas and will come back engaged and informed. We hope that Yesh will augment a deep and abiding sense of connection and belonging with Israel.

The backdrop to this trip will be the initial days of the 37th government of Israel which is being sworn in this week. The Israeli people have expressed their democratic voices in yet another round of voting and the Knesset will be the expression of the majority will. Unfortunately, early indications are that this government will likely afford cabinet positions to politicians who express openly hostile and hateful views to Progressive Jewry, Arabs and Israel’s LGBTIQ+ community. I do hope that the more moderate voices in the coalition will take account of the centrality of Israel for Jewish people across the world and will prevent the marginalisation of non-Orthodox Jews and other citizens.

The most controversial figures in the new coalition are the Religious Zionism Party’s MK Itamar Ben Gvir and MK Bezaliel Smotrich. Ben Gvir is regarded as an extremist who is infamous for frequent racist rhetoric. Similarly, Smotrich has advocated for segregation of Arab and Jewish women on maternity wards and has voiced his opposition to the Jerusalem Pride March by declaring that he is “a proud homophobe.”

This week Ben Gvir suggested that he would challenge the acknowledgment of reform conversions in relation to the Law of Return.

The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, lamented that the recent Knesset election outcomes mean that “the Israel we knew is gone.” While Israel’s President, Chaim Herzog, rejected this claim, Jewish leaders across the world have voiced concern about the implications for Israel-Diaspora relations and the rights of the non-Orthodox.

I hope that the Israel that our Yesh students fall in love with remains one committed to striving to achieve the beautiful vision that was expressed in the 1948 Declaration of Independence. May Yisrael Shelahem, their Israel, live up to the promise that it will “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions”.

Shabbat Shalom,

Marc Light