Most of the time, because life is so intense and day to day living is so busy, we do not see "the forest." Indeed we always see some "trees", sometimes even many of them, but we fail to really see and absorb the larger picture. Only in rare, usually unplanned occasions, one has the opportunity to widen their perspectives, to see an entire scene or understand a historic process. It happened to me coincidentally this past weekend:

Kshatot (Arches) — I went to visit one of our Religious Pluralism projects, Kshatot. It is a group of 15 community activists, many of them from our MetroWest partner communities, who are studying together and experiencing Jewish identity and religious pluralism for a year. They meet for a full day of studies once every three weeks and will visit the New Jersey community in May. I entered the tiny room in which their session was held last week, at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Jerusalem and suddenly it hit me: they were sitting in the exact same room that used to be my personal office some 20 years ago. I wouldn't make a big nostalgic deal out of it; after all it is only four walls. But this time it was not just about the location, it was about the content.

Twenty years ago religious pluralism and non-orthodox Jewish renewal in Israel were totally foreign concepts. The atmosphere was such that any attempts to present alternatives to the religious establishment and the liberal streams were not tolerated and were conceived by most as a poisoned import from the USA. I was appointed to be the founding director of a new organ that was trying to change this reality: The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). From my tiny office, in this very room where I met Kshatot, I was counting the trees. I was involved in many struggles, experienced lots of failures and saw many success stories. I then went to serve in MetroWest, where I was involved in the creation of the Religious Pluralism subcommittee and watched it closely.

Rationally I know that the situation is now totally different and that Israeli society is much more open and pluralistic. However, it was this unplanned visit to my old office, where it all started for me, that made me see the forest. When I stepped in and saw the community center directors and activists (many of whom I have known for a long time), studying Torah together, discussing their Jewish identity and dealing with religious pluralism issues in such a natural way, it all came together. Pluralism is not a foreign concept anymore in Israel.

Adis Tasfa — Sunday night we celebrated the graduation ceremony of the first Adis Tasfa course. This is another project that MetroWest initiated and conducted, thanks to the generous support of the Jewish Helping Hands foundation. Adis Tasfa means "New Hope" in Amharic. Through our project, a group of about 30 men and women, Ethiopian Israelis from our partnered city of Rishon Letzion, were given tools to become business people and received loans to open their own businesses.

The successful integration of the Ethiopian community into Israeli society is a huge challenge. Most of the support they get is related to welfare, social, and educational assistance. It is totally a foreign concept for Ethiopians to open their own businesses here. While in Ethiopia most of them were self employed farmers; the reality in Israel is so different that they simply lost motivation to go in this direction. We were trying to change it through Adis Tasfa.

We have been involved in absorbing and integrating the Ethiopian community in Israel for many years. Our own Project Atzmaut is one of the largest trees in this dense forest. I knew that we were doing well in spite of all difficulties. Yet only when I saw the “entrepreneurs” coming every week to their business study sessions, when I heard that some of them are ready to take a loan, and when I visited their new businesses, only then did I realize how much we were doing. We were changing the culture and breaking the stereotypes. We were planting Adis Tasfas.

Super Sunday — It is only symbolic that MetroWest’s Super Sunday was held during the very same weekend of the Kshatot session and the Adis Tasfa graduation. Here again, for you all, the NJ readers, the term is clear. However, for we Israelis, Super Sunday (not to mention “Terrific Tuesday”) was always conceived as a very strange phrase and a very foreign concept. Previously, when I was asked to explain Super Sunday, I would usually say something like: “a community-wide fund raising event”. Today I see it a bit differently: The many hundreds of volunteers on UJA MetroWest’s Super Sunday are joined by hundreds of thousands in other communities. They are joined by a growing number of Israelis like our Kshatot group, who are reclaiming their Jewish identity and working on building a stronger Jewish community. They are joined by the Ethiopian Jewish community who is becoming part and parcel of our collective. We are not just raising money on Super Sunday. This event is only a tree in the forest of building a world-wide, strong and vibrant Jewish community.

Kshatot, Adis Tasfa and Super Sunday are not three foreign concepts, although they use three different languages. They are all part of our Jewish heritage, values and tradition of “Kol Israel Arevin Zeh Bazeh”, which means, "All of Israel are responsible for one another".