Our team has just returned from JCRC’s first Israel Study Tour since 2019. (Trips in 2021 and 2023 were canceled due to the pandemic and the war.)

For 11 days, my colleagues absorbed the stories of Western Negev communities devastated on October 7—like Kibbutz Holit, where Hamas terrorists murdered 15 members, and whose rebuilding our local Jewish community proudly supports. In the Golan Heights, they stood where a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Druze children on a soccer field. They also heard testimony from a young couple who survived the Nova massacre and whose resolve to keep dancing inspired us all. 

Everywhere they traveled, grief, resilience, courage, and life were palpable. 

The return of the last living hostages brought relief, yet as of this writing, the bodies of three slain hostages remain in Gaza. Our joy and sorrow, our relief and our resolve, remain inseparable. 

After two years of war, Israel is entering a fragile period of healing—united in some ways, painfully polarized in others. Across these divisions, Israelis are working to repair their society. 

At home, our community faces its own tests as the global antisemitism unleashed on October 7 continues to assault our story. This ancient, libelous pattern—once confined to the fringes—has entered the American mainstream. As throughout history, antisemitism threatens both Jews and the liberal democratic values whose roots are found in Jewish civilization. 

Meeting this moment requires clarity about who we are and whom we represent. Jews belong to Am Yisrael—a joinable tribe with a shared history, homeland, and culture. JCRC represents this collective story and responsibility. 

As ambassadors for the Jewish people, relationship-building is central to our mission. We recently marked the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate with our Catholic partners and announced contributions from the Minnesota Private Business Council for Jewish and Catholic community security. This is the essence of interfaith partnership. 

I am proud of our impact and of rising to the moment in hiring Rabbi Jill Avrin as our inaugural Director of Campus Affairs, who has quickly become a trusted resource amid an extraordinarily difficult campus climate. 

Our sages teach: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Together, we are meeting this moment on behalf of Am Yisrael.