Takeaways from the JFNA 2024 General Assembly
By Arlene D. Schiff / President, Jewish Federation of the Berkshires
Today, a colleague posted a picture on Facebook of a cartoon elephant sitting under a black raincloud against a rainbow-colored background, with the caption: “Heaviness and Hope Can Coexist.”
This captures the essence of my experience attending the 2024 General Assembly, the national meeting of the Federation system, this time in Washington, DC. Over 48 hours, I experienced a range of emotions: sadness, grief, pride, hope, gratitude, helplessness, camaraderie, fear, and optimism.
From the opening reception, where I connected with people I have met over the 20-plus years I have been engaged with Federation, to the closing ceremony, where tears flowed as a result of remarks by Bari Weiss and Sheryl Sandberg, I was grateful for the opportunity to represent the Berkshire Jewish community and join with 2,500 others who are determined to ensure flourishing Jewish communities and a bright Jewish future.
We heard from individuals who had been held hostage, as well as from those whose family members are still being held by Hamas, individuals whose loved ones were murdered on October 7, 2023, those who have experienced antisemitism, and those working to support members of our community dealing with all this trauma. Chants of “bring them home,” Israeli music expressing sorrow and optimism, and examples of the power of the collective to provide support to our Israeli brethren were themes throughout.
The highlight of Monday’s opening plenary was a panel discussion with Eric Fingerhut, president & CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and political commentator George Will. Sen. Gillibrand expressed her outrage that so many college campuses are unsafe for Jewish students, stating, “I think any college president who cannot keep all her students or his students safe should be fired, and any professor that celebrates October 7 and lifts up the actions of Hamas as a good thing should be fired.”
George Will said, “I am afraid that 30 years from now, historians are going to say the Israelis and the Ukrainians were fighting as the first defenders in a war, in the Third World War.” He then went on to note that the Second World War was a cluster of crises that began in 1931, and that we must learn from the past and recognize that the Ukrainian fight and Israeli fight are identical. When asked about the current political environment, Will noted that the American people are not angry and that optimism is our duty. He shared a story: “Mark Twain and his good friend, the novelist William Dean Howells, were staying at a hotel one day when they decided to go out for a walk. They stepped out on the veranda, and it was pouring rain. Howell asked Twain, ‘Do you think it’ll stop?’ Twain replied, ‘You know, it always has.’”
The Monday afternoon plenary’s highlight was a conversation among Rabbi David Wolpe (the Max Webb Rabbi Emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles), Rabbi Sharon Brous (senior rabbi of IKAR in Los Angeles), and Rabbi Ari Berman (president of Yeshiva University).
Rabbi Wolpe spoke about being at Harvard and seeing a place of higher education turn into one of vituperation and hatred. The most memorable part of his year, however, was traveling to Israel, meeting with hostage families, and hearing from a friend whose son was serving in Gaza that many of his friends have a sign on their door that reads “Do Not Knock,” because they know what a knock means. He acknowledged not only the pain that Israelis have endured, but also the pain they fear and anticipate each day by living in a land where their children are on the front lines.
Rabbi Berman experienced that anxiety firsthand – on October 7, he was with his son, a reservist in a combat unit, when the call came summoning the young man to report for service. Rabbi Berman then described a moment of “tremendous partnership and hope.” Last year, Yeshiva University’s basketball team was ranked number 1 among Division III schools. On the road for a game in Pennsylvania four hours from New York, the team didn’t expect anyone to be in the arena to support them. However, when the team showed up, the stands were packed with their fans. Rabbi Berman asked the fans where they were from. They responded that they were members of the local Reform synagogue out to cheer on “their team,” Yeshiva University. “That is when our team realized we are not playing for a school, we are playing for a people,” Rabbi Berman said. “That is the sense that I have felt across this country, across this world… that we are all playing for something larger than ourselves and we are not defined or cornered by hate – we are defined because we support each other by love with a shared mission and a shared purpose.”
One of the six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza in August was Almog Serosi. Rabbi Brous’s brother in Israel went to Almog’s funeral. There was not enough room in the mourners’ tent and hundreds of people packed together in the surrounding streets. At some point, someone started reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish, and people responded “amen.” When Rabbi Brous’s brother shared this story with her, they spoke about the incredible power of being part of a family and part of a people that shows up for one another – strangers who are like family. “I want to affirm the power of community and what it means for us to be with one another in the dark,” Rabbi Brous said. “Not to fix each other, not to make it okay – because we can’t – but just to grieve together.”
Rabbi Brous shared a second story, about attending an event in Israel for non-profits operated by Israelis and Palestinians. The arena was packed with 6,000 people and, one after the next, speakers got up to speak about their pain, their broken hearts, and their sorrow. Rabbi Brous said she was so moved that the people closest to the pain could stand up and say there must be a different future and that together we can heal.
Isaac Herzog, president of the State of Israel, provided another highlight by asserting: “We fight for our hostages. We fight for our people. We fight for our Jewish values. We fight for our Jewish communities.” He noted that failure to bring the hostages home would leave Israel hemorrhaging and scared for generations, tearing through the fabric of our people. He further emphasized that the Israeli people had two options following October 7 and they chose life. He stated: “The American Jewish community also made a choice. You chose to mobilize for Israel – like a family with no ifs, ands, or buts – instantaneously with no questions asked. You chose to show up for us when we needed you to. The warmth, affection, and love expressed by world Jewry gave the Israeli people a lifeline and the strength to persevere.”
Tuesday’s closing plenary was powerful. Anastasia Fursova, a Ukrainian refugee who chooses to remain in Ukraine despite not knowing if her home or the homes to which she delivers food packages to the elderly will be bombed at any moment. She begged us not to forget Ukrainians while we focused on supporting our Israeli brethren.
Sheryl Sandberg, the founder of “Lean In,” shared how October 7 transformed her life, not only because it spurred her to document the sexual violence that took place, but because it led to her increased engagement in the Jewish community. She stated: “I sit on this stage a proud Zionist and a proud Jew in a way I wouldn’t have a year and a half ago.”
The most powerful address at the GA was delivered by Bari Weiss, founder and editor of The Free Press and host of the podcast “Honestly.” She began by asking: “When did you know? Looking back now that we are on the far side, I wonder, when did you realize that things had changed? When did you know that the things we had taken for granted were suddenly out of reach? That the norms that felt as certain as gravity had disappeared. That the institutions that had launched our grandparents in this country had turned hostile to our children. When did you notice what had once been steady was now shaky ground?”
Weiss then went through a long list of milestones – starting with the September 11, 2001 attacks through to recent events in Amsterdam, where Jewish soccer fans were hunted in the streets by organized gangs. “Perhaps at the time, each one of these events felt like a nightmare or an illness,” Weiss said. “Something terrible to be endured until, in due time, it passed. Until things would go back to ‘normal,’ as they surely would. But those whose parents fled Tehran and Moscow and Beirut and Baghdad — they knew better. The Persians. The Russians. The Cubans. They never didn’t know. And that is because they came from a world where to be Jewish required knowing. They understood tyranny, because they have lived it. And so, they have been alive to the threats against us and against liberty that left too many comfortable American Jews asleep.”
Weiss went on to say that “The task for the rest of us in this moment is to learn this state of mind: the resilience, the vigilance, the mental strength, the courage, and the pride not just to survive but to thrive in this new world… What this moment requires is the truth. The hard truth. The uncomfortable truth. It means not backing down from telling it — to yourselves and to others. It means holding your leaders to account when they fail to deliver — and not just following them blindly out of convenience or convention. It means realizing that good ideas and good people don’t just win on their own — they need others to defend them and to promote them and elevate them…If this moment that we are in feels deeply uncomfortable, that is because it is….but we have choice…we have agency and we have power and we have the blessing to live in America….We can accept what this moment requires and figure out how to forge a world anew.”
The most challenging session I attended was titled “From Pain to Purpose: Advocating for 10/7 Sexual Violence Victims.” I chose this session from a list of other important discussions in order to bear witness to the brutal acts of sexual violence committed by Hamas as documented in Sheryl Sandberg’s film, Screams Before Silence. I knew I didn’t have the fortitude to watch the film alone at home and was grateful for the opportunity to view the abbreviated screening this session provided while surrounded by others who felt the same way. The session’s panel – Julie Platt (Chair, Board of Trustees, JFNA), Sheila Katz (CEO of National Council for Jewish Women), Ayelet Razin Bet Or (co-founder, Dinah Project 7/10), and Lee Yaron (author of 10/7: 100 Human Stories) – described how sharing survivors’ experiences honors their legacy, strengthens community resilience and emphasizes the need to speak out against sexual violence as a tool of terrorism. The panelists shared their deep commitment to breaking the silence around the use of sexual violence as a form of terrorism. If this resonates with you, I urge you to check out these websites: ncjw.org and dinahproject.org.
Dr. Mijal Bitton, scholar in residence of the Maimonides Fund, closed the GA with the message that possessing courage is the one characteristic that Jewish tradition holds as critical to not only survive, but to thrive. She noted that we have forgotten how hard it has been throughout most of history to be a Jew. She ended with a blessing: “In the days ahead may we have the courage to stand up for truth even when we stand apart. May we have the courage to know our values and to stake everything to defend them. May we meet whatever obstacles come our way in this remarkable journey of Jewish peoplehood with faith, with courage, with love for our mishpocha here, in Israel, and around the world. As God told Abraham, ‘be fearless.’”
Heaviness and hope can coexist. It did at the GA and it will continue to do so in the days ahead. Attending the GA has further inspired me to do my best to be fearless, optimistic, and courageous and to use my power to maintain the flourishing Berkshire Jewish community we are blessed to be a part of.
Photo: Arlene Schiff (right) with Federation's Executive Director Dara Kaufman and Ann Falchuk.