Barak Hermann, chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, is currently traveling through northern Israel and the West Bank as part of the Schusterman Family Philanthropies Senior Leadership Fellows trip, which focuses on diversity and interfaith relations.
Herman, who next month celebrates his 10th anniversary at the JCC in Baltimore, recently wrote this column about how he has been processing his experiences on the trip during this time of societal divisiveness.
I recently wrapped up an incredible three days in the city of Haifa in northern Israel with 110 Senior Leadership Fellows of the Schusterman Foundation. These Fellows — representing the United States, Israel, Europe, South Africa and Australia — explored multi-cultural neighborhoods, diversity and interfaith relations while considering how we can use our leadership to make the world a better place.
Haifa is a place of overall healthy coexistence and respect between Jews, Christians and Muslims. Spending three days at Beit Ha’Gefen, The Arab-Jewish Cultural Center in Haifa, it was inspiring to see how Arabs and Jews can learn and build empathy and respect for each other by having experiences together that empower opportunities to explore identity through art, theater, dialogue, classes and more.
At a time of such divisiveness in our own country, and the recent spewing of Jew-hatred by Kanye West, the rap artist now known as Ye, society can be, and is, very scary for Jews as it is for so many vulnerable groups in our society — African-Americans, LGBTQ and so many others.
I’ve been thinking often about the work and communities we form at the JCC. We have leaned into being more diverse and welcoming. We can clearly go deeper and do more as we strive to make Baltimore a better place.
I’m very proud of the companies, athletes and artists that have severed their ties with Ye. It shows — especially young people — that hatred and spewing of vile comments from perceived role models cannot be tolerated.
But that’s not enough. Not when Ye seems to have more followers than there are Jews in the world. We need to engage in dialogue, find ways that are authentic and not tokenized. We need to bring diverse people together for genuine dialogue and experiences, and to build awareness, relationships and empathy.
The JCC of Greater Baltimore is primed for this kind of work because of our committed board, our diverse and talented team, and our diverse membership and users.
Four years ago yesterday, Oct. 27, in a brutal act of antisemitism, 11 members of the Jewish community were murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Clearly, we have more work to do to combat antisemitism.
Last night, I joined a smaller group of 14 Fellows to travel to the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the Israel Policy Forum. IPF works to educate political and communal leaders on pragmatic policy ideas, developed by credible security experts, for the realization of a viable two-state solution.
Among many stops today within the West Bank and East Jerusalem was spending time at a community center in East Jerusalem where Palestinian and Israeli women come together to learn both Arabic and Hebrew. They have conversations, programming and experience the major holidays of each other’s religions. This work is very inspiring and spotlights the importance of bringing people of diverse experiences and opinions together and learning about each person’s unique and complex narrative.
As we strive to build and sustain a strong community, there doesn’t need to be always agreement. Yet we must strive for respect, tolerance, curiosity and kindness. That’s what I experienced these past few days watching diverse people and faiths coexist. Our present society needs it, our children deserve it and we’d better focus on this so future generations can benefit from it.
For information about the JCC, please visit jcc.org.
The BCO, founded in 1984, will perform the works of Frank Zappa, Beethoven, Mason Bates and Karena Ingram.
For more than 130 years, Sol Levinson & Bros. has been woven into the fabric of Baltimore’s Jewish community.
Led by local Israel-American cellist Amit Peled, the Mount Vernon Virtuosi aims to inspire people beyond musical enjoyment.
As he gets ready to leave for California, Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg looks back on his time in Baltimore and his 10 years writing for Jmore.