Midway through a Feb. 18 forum with rabbis and communal leaders recently returned from a week in Israel, Rabbi Adam Starr of Congregation Ohr HaTorah said, “Take a moment and see what’s taking place here. We shouldn’t take this for granted.”
Starr appeared to be addressing both his fellow travelers and an audience of about 200 people at Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs.
Seated alongside Starr, whose congregation is Modern Orthodox, were rabbis from Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Judaism, and leaders from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, and Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta.
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Over an hour-and-a-half, they talked about what made this trip to Israel unique from previous visits, highlighting moments of significance, be it a place they visited, a scene they witnessed, or a conversation that moved them.
The rabbis acknowledged the diversity of opinion among them, as well as the diversity of the movements they represent.
Rabbi Binyomin Friedman of Congregation Ariel said that many years had passed since he took a similar, multi-denominational trip and he wanted to know “where other rabbis are at these days,” particularly after the Oct. 7 Hamas led terror attacks in Southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent military retaliation in Gaza.
Putting theological differences aside, “We walked away with a certain sense of knowing each other and learning about nice people,” Friedman said.
Eytan Davidson, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said that he was struck by “the vulnerability, the way we were able to share and support each other. It was truly special . . . a sense of Jewish peoplehood in a way that I’ve not really felt in my life.”
Echoing that, Rabbi Brad Levenberg of Temple Sinai praised a “vulnerability on the trip from each of us and a caring to…
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