How do you teach about Israel today?

Do you focus on the destruction of Oct. 7 or on the rebuilding that follows? Do you speak about the wars or the yearning for peace? Do you focus on the failures of the government or on the spirit of the people? Do you talk about despair or about hope? 

The answer to all of these questions is “Yes.”

Israel is complicated. It is a land of contradictions. How best to teach and talk about it is the objective of the “Mifgash that Matters,” an iCenter program that has been running since February 2024. It brings educators and Jewish professionals to Israel to see for themselves what is happening on the ground, hear the stories from people who have been impacted directly by the horrors of Oct. 7 and learn how the people are responding to it. 

The ninth and 10th cohorts of the program spent four days in Israel earlier this month, and I had the privilege of participating. The experience was meticulously curated to immerse us in the emotional and thoughtful richness of the struggles in Israel at this time.

We saw the finest 100 documentary photographs of this terrible year, the “winning” entry being a Zaka search-and-rescue volunteer on his hands and knees lovingly searching for tissue fragments in a home attacked by Hamas terrorists. Nearby was a photograph of an Israeli Olympian who had just won a medal.

We toured Kibbutz Kfar Aza guided by longtime resident Shachar. While the group sat on his porch, he pointed to the homes of neighbors who were killed on Oct. 7 and described how he was evacuated under cover of an Israeli tank. He then took us to the gate through which the terrorists entered, now-destroyed buildings of Gaza visible in the near distance, and said we need to figure out how to live together since neither of us is going anywhere.

We met Youssef Alziadna, a Bedouin minivan driver who dropped off a group at the Nova Festival and when called by the group in a panic for a ride out, he drove through the whistling bullets to take them and 20 others to safety. He said he did that because we are all people, and we must all look after one another. He added that he since took the same group to seven other music festivals including one up north near Hezbollah and one near Eilat facing Houthi rockets, joking that he has now completed the trifecta.

An Arab guide took us through an art tour in a mixed neighborhood of Haifa. We heard the struggle of poet Bacol Serlui putting words to the feelings of the time and listened to her poetry and shared our own. Israeli musician and songwriter Aya Zahavi Feiglin showed how musicians and other entertainers pitched in to raise the spirits of internally displaced Israelis, grieving and in shock living in hotels. That is what Israel’s entertainers could do to help, she said, and reminded us that everyone can do something. Fittingly, she ended her set with “We Shall Overcome.” We shall indeed.

As if our heads and hearts weren’t already full, we met Maayan Snapir, whose grandparents were taken hostage by Hamas, with her grandfather still in Gaza. Her anger at the failure of the government was matched by her appreciation for the efforts, both inside and outside Israel, of regular people to bring all of the hostages home. The visit to Tel Aviv’s hostage square that  followed resonated in a very personal way.

We met active religious soldiers working to balance their commitment to the country and to their faith and those helping them to do so. The challenge of Israel’s religious community respecting army service was explained, making us more understanding of the issue even though many of us may still not agree. Like many issues here, it’s complicated.

We concluded with author Etgar Keret, who illustrated that Israel is a country of contradictions. It is religious in that buses don’t operate on Shabbat. It is liberal in that the nation was once represented at the Eurovision song competition by a transgender performer (who won!). He charged us not to simply share on social media snippets created by others, calling them “selfies with history,” but to be our authentic selves and share that.

It is the many contradictions that make Israel hard to explain, making the role of educators and Jewish professionals on the front lines both critical and very difficult. There were amazing people The iCenter arranged for us to meet (many more than those listed above) and unique places we went (more than those mentioned). The highlight however was being guided and mentored by The iCenter professionals and meeting the other participants on the trip who are dedicated to their calling, singularly motivated to inspire people at home about Israel the way we have been inspired on the Mifgash, and up to the task of sharing their love for Israel despite its obvious challenges and challenging characters. 

We came as strangers. We left as a group. We return home equipped to share with our home communities and institutions what we have seen, heard and experienced, with tangible tools and program ideas to share our learnings on a broader scale.

In a processing session after an emotional day, one of the participants expressed how back home in North America it is lonely work teaching Israel with its complexities and facing the challenges that the world throws at those who share a more nuanced view of the country. 

None of us are feeling lonely anymore.

David Matlow is a retired lawyer and a board member of The iCenter. He is also the founder of the Herzl Project, which uses his collection of over 6,000 items of Herzl and Zionism memorabilia to inform and educate about Theodor Herzl, Israel and Zionism.