January 27, 2022
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Why I Commit
By Fidda Abuhamdiya
To keep Palestine alive in people’s memories
News Worth Sharing
JewishInsider: Congresswoman Leger Fernandez Charts Unique Path in Community Relations
Good Reads
Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel - reviewed by Steve Sheffey
Poor People’s Campaign Watch Night Service Sermon - delivered by Sheila Katz
Jewish Journal: Protecting the Right to Vote - by Halie Soifer
Help Promote
Emerge: New Leadership Development Program - by A'shanti Gholar
Worthy of Support
FeelBeit is now a year-round physical venue and not just a seasonal arts festival
Upcoming Events
February 9-10: Arava Institute International Conference
February 21: Givat Haviva Teen Summit
March 3: Mikudeshet Dinner
March 20: Adath Israel Roundtable
June 26-July 3: Leadership Mission
Heart2Heart
Amanda Gorman's inspirational poem "New Day's Lyric"
Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" translated into English, Hebrew, and Arabic
Uriya Rosenman and Sameh Zakout create a mutually beneficial narrative
News Worth Sharing
Congresswoman Leger Fernandez Charts Unique Path in Community Relations
By Marc Rod
Click here to read
In early December, a diverse group gathered around a Zoom screen in a living room in Northwest Washington to hear from a perhaps unusual set of speakers — two officials from Givat Haviva, a nonprofit run by Israel’s Kibbutz Federation, and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM), a first-term New Mexico congresswoman who has not been particularly outspoken on Middle East issues during her time in office
The event earlier this month, organized by Heart of a Nation, a progressive group launched earlier this year by former AIPAC official Jonathan Kessler to bring together progressive Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, appears to be one of Leger Fernandez’s first forays into the national arena.
The congresswoman’s remarks focused primarily on her personal background and New Mexico’s history of mixed indigenous, Spanish and Sephardi backgrounds and cultures.
Kinney Zalesne, a former general manager of corporate strategy at Microsoft and member of Heart of a Nation’s executive committee, has been friends with Leger Fernandez since they served together as White House fellows in the mid ’90s, and organized her appearance at the recent event. Zalesne told Jewish Insider that ‘it occurred to us that Teresa, in her role as chair of the House Subcommittee [for] Indigenous Peoples, could be such an interesting addition to this conversation.’
Good Reads
Twelve tribes, two peoples, one land
By Steve Sheffey
Click here to read
You cannot begin to understand Israel and the Palestinians without understanding the diversity of Israeli and Palestinian society and the divisions within each society. A good place to start would be by reading Twelve Tribes, Promise and Peril in the New Israel, the new book by Ethan Michaeli. On four trips to Israel over four years, Michaeli interviewed a broad cross-section of Israelis and Palestinians and allows us to see, through his eyes, the real people who compose each society. Reading Michaeli’s book won’t necessarily give you a better understanding of the political issues we read about every day, but it will remind you that you are reading about real people, different from each other, whose humanity is often obscured by the headlines.
Dismantling Systems of Injustice Together
By Sheila Katz
Click here to read
No great movement for liberation happens because of one single leader.
It always takes a great, holy community–a Beloved Community, as Rev. Dr. King would put it– to bring transformative change into being.
Each person, using their skills or talents, their position or capacities, whatever they had in the moment that could be of service in the work of justice. Every single person showing up with what they have to offer.
We need leaders who can focus on the human beings who are suffering. Who see the women, children and families that have been impacted hardest by these systems, and who can take action to address their needs now. To offer them care, now.
Protecting the Right to Vote
By Halie Soifer
Click here to read
President Biden [has]... declared the January 6 insurrection “an existential crisis, and a test of whether our democracy could survive,” and noted that the central challenge of our time is ensuring that America’s democracy will endure.
As American[s], we have an obligation to heed President Biden’s ominous warning to Congress that, “if we are to truly restore the soul of America — we need to protect the sacred right to vote.”
WLE: Leadership Development Program
By A'shanti Gholar
Winning Leaders Emerge is a new sibling organization in the Emerge family centering the leadership development of self-identifying women and nonbinary people in the New American Majority.
Applications for the WLE Gathers leadership development training pilot are due by Monday, February 7. https://www.wle.us/wle-fellow
Contact A'shanti Gholar at ashanti@wle.us.
Worthy of Support
Cultural project brings Jerusalem's complicated communities together
The FeelBeit project is trying to harness art to forge ties between Jerusalem's Jewish, Palestinian, secular and religious communities. Participants push each other's most sensitive buttons – but the experience is transformative.
Upcoming Events
FEBRUARY 9-10, 2022: International Conference on Energy, Poverty, and Climate Change hosted by Arava Institute https://bit.ly/cbperspectives
FEBRUARY 21, 2022: Teen Summit hosted by Givat Haviva
MARCH 3, 2022: Leadership Dinner hosted by Mikudeshet
MARCH 20, 2022: Adath Israel Roundtable, Cincinnati Ohio
JUNE 23-JULY 3, 2022: Leadership Mission to Israel and Palestine hosted by Heart of a Nation
Heart2Heart
Heart of a Nation Welcomes New Year with Three Evocative Videos
By Amanda Gorman
New Day’s Lyric
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters in English, Hebrew & Arabic
When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I'll take your part
Oh when darkness comes
And pain is all around
Powerful video and online community inspire social awakening among Americans/Israelis/Palestinians
Uriya Rosenman is an educator from Israel and Sameh Zakout is a singer from Palestine. Together they are an artistic duo of content creators using music and education to inspire social awakening, promote straight talk, and build a community of young Israelis/Palestinians/Americans who believe in a new mutually beneficial narrative.
About Heart of a Nation
We are Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians building relationships across diverse backgrounds to learn, think, and work together to advance progressive solutions to issues of mutual concern.
אנחנו אמריקאים, ישראלים ופלסטינים אשר בונים ויוצרים קשרים במגמה ללמוד, לחשוב ולעבוד יחד כדי לקדם פתרונות פרוגרסיביים בנושאים החשובים המשותפים לכולנו.
نحن أمريكيون وإسرائيليون وفلسطينيون نبني ونكوّن روابط من أجل التعلم والتفكير والمشاركة معًا حتى نشجع الحلول التقدمية بشأن القضايا التي تهمنا جميعًا.
