Consulate promotes plan to connect with Israel while enjoying its delicacies
Is there anything more Jewish than celebrating Israel’s 68th birthday by getting together to eat and discuss all the things that are right – and wrong – with the Holy Land?
The Consulate General of Israel in Toronto is marking Israel’s Independence Day on May 12 by encouraging the Toronto Jewish community to have a broad conversation about Israel over some shakshuka – or any other quintessential Israeli fare – to help the community connect with Israel and generate ideas for the future.
DJ Schneeweiss, Israel’s consul general of Israel for Toronto and Western Canada, spoke to The CJN about Israel on the Table, an initiative that he believes is unique to Toronto’s Jewish community.
“To my knowledge, it is the first time something like this is being done in Toronto in connection with Yom Ha’aztmaut,” he said.
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“We’re trying to reach more people… We see this as an opportunity for people to celebrate and acknowledge their connection to Israel, but also to explore that connection and to explore it with their friends and family… It creates an opportunity for lots of people to engage on Yom Ha’atzmaut and to connect with Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut in a way that they wouldn’t necessarily have. In Israel, the whole country stops and everyone celebrates, but here, it is just another workday.”
According to the program’s website, participants are asked to register for the program and dedicate a meal between May 12 to 15, the weekend of Yom Ha’atzmaut, to discuss Israel with family, friends or colleagues.
The website offers a basic guidelines, Israeli recipes and conversation topic suggestions, including, “What does Israel mean to you? What excites you most? What upsets you most? What is the most pressing challenge Israel faces today? What is one idea you have to solve it? What ideas do you have to bring Canadians and Israelis closer together?”
In the days following, they’ll be asked to reply to a questionnaire about their experience and list any ideas that were generated from the conversations.
By registering and completing the questionnaire, participants will be entered into a draw for a free trip for two to Israel, courtesy of El Al airlines.
Schneeweiss said people can choose to have an informal discussion around the Shabbat table with their immediate family, or Jewish community organizations and synagogues can sign on as “super hosts” to have more formal discussions.
“It can be done on a community level. A congregation can get together… and take the opportunity to explore how the institutions, how the community can connect to Israel. What’s working? What are some new ideas? Maybe the younger generation has new ideas that we haven’t canvassed before,” he said.
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Schneeweiss hopes the questionnaire will provide useful ideas that come from the discussions.
“Once we get it all together, hopefully this will give us a snapshot of what is on people’s minds when it comes to Israel. Hopefully it will generate some interesting, practical ideas. What we’ll do with that is then prepare a poll which we will share with the participants and will share with the relevant organizations in the community and in Israel who need to think about how the Jewish world relates to Israel and so on.”
Photo: Flickr