Ma Hadash Blog from CSH

Picture a beautiful sunset and the promenade on the beach in Tel Aviv, with a group of 19 travelers singing Eli, Eli and Shecheheyanu. This is how we began a week of mitzvot and connection, of listening and engaging our Israeli mishpachah (family). The beauty and the pain, the love and the challenges will draw us closer to each other and provide us with stories we want to share back home.

There will be many different stories, but we were grounded in the possibility of hope by beginning our visit with Noa (Achinoam Nini), the international singing phenomenon and passionate peace activist. Just WOW. I have been a huge fan so just a bit awestruck.

As with every visit we are embraced with gratitude for coming at this time for solidarity rather than tourism– this heartfelt appreciation cannot be over emphasized. These are not sentimental people by nature. But they feel our solidarity deeply.

Noa comes from a Yemeni family, raised Modern Orthodox in NY, moved to Israel as a teenager. She started her singing career at 20, and it exploded. A highlight was singing for the Pope @the Vatican. She has performed in 55 countries, and particularly popular in Italy.

Noa's life changed forever in 1995, when she sang at the peace rally supporting the Oslo Accords and stood nearby as Itzhak Rabin was assassinated. For the rest of her career and even now, she has been dedicated to speaking into reality the possibility of peace. Even now as she worries about both her children serving in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force).

You cannot help feeling inspired as she stretches out her arms toward a future peace. She feels as an artist her role is to “make toxic situations less toxic”, but she implored each of us to generate hope in any way we can. If we speak about it, it will be manifest.