My Trip to Israel

By Debbi Kaner Goldich, International President

Four weeks ago today I left for the trip of a lifetime to Israel. Waiting for me in Israel was our Executive Director Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields. I stayed eleven days and although I have been home almost two weeks, I still feel so excited and as though I just left. I arrived Tuesday afternoon and was met at the airport by my friends Debi and Jon Bruce. Debi is the International Recording Secretary and I stayed with them for two nights before the conference. My negative Covid test results came in the middle of the night. Over the next three days Rabbi Ellen and I met with our WLCJ database manager Joyce Levitas, our wiz events manager Rich Levitas, visited Neve Hanna where we both sit on the Board, had lunch with Naomi Graetz who teaches at the Masorti Women’s Day of Study, visited with Avner Moriah, the artist whose paintings hang in the WLCJ Educational Pavilion at JTS at his studio, prayed at Nava Tehilla, had lunch on Shabbat at the home of Rabbi Paul Freedman and his lovely wife Nina and on Wednesday met with Tehila Ruben, the Deputy Director of Masorti.

Before Shabbat Rabbi and I moved to the Inbal hotel which was the site of the conference. The conference began Sunday morning. As a participant in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations 47th Leadership Mission, I was thrilled to return to Israel. This was my fourth trip and very different from all the rest. The purpose of this Conference of Presidents is to hold an assembly for all American Jewish leaders of 53 major organizations to have one place when a group or official want to contact those leaders. It is a place for professionals and lay leaders to hear from and interact with Israel’s political and military leaders while networking with each other. The conference was canceled last year and extra safety measures were in place to ensure our safety.

Over the five days, the COP met with President Isaac Herzog, at his beautiful residence, Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej, Member of Knesset Mansour Abbas, Justice minister Gidon Saar, Ambassador of Morocco Abderrahim Beyyoudh, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai, Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan, Pnina Tamano-Shata the Minister of Aliya and Integration and other Members of Knesset (MK) at the Knesset building. Other celebrated speakers included Natan Sharansky, journalists, business leaders and military leaders.

We visited Jerusalem City Hall and met with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. We visited the Gaza Border and the new IDF Home Front Command Headquarters. The opportunity to network with leaders of other organizations was integral to the conference. Rabbi Ellen and I were a presence at the conference. We shared as well as learned from the leaders who have the same challenges and successes. We both chaired a session and Rabbi lead the delegation in Havdalah on Saturday night.

What a trip! The highlight of a challenging year and a half of my presidency during this Pandemic. It was truly an honor to represent Women’s League for Conservative Judaism at the conference. The trip lasted eleven days and the jetlag lasted almost a week but the memories will last a lifetime.

Shabbat shalom,

Debbi

Debbi Kaner Goldich

WLCJ International President

dgoldich@wlcj.org