Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem

In late March, David Ehrlich, founder and owner of the ‘Tmol Shilshom‘ legendary coffee house in Jerusalem, passed away suddenly, and we’d like to take a minute to pay homage. We’ve known and worked with David for almost 15 years, and he will be sorely missed.

David Ehrlich, from Tmol Shilshom’s Facebook page

On Wednesday, May 27, 2020 the Ha’aretz daily newspaper published an article about him. You can read it in Hebrew here. Without knowing our joint history, journalist Nir Hasson called us and said that David’s views and approach to others were so much like ours, that we must know him.

We didn’t just know David, he was our long-time partner.

Our first encounter with him was when he was on the board of the Jerusalem Open House (a Jerusalemite community center serving people of all sexual orientations and gender identities) in 2006, when the Eidah Haredit section of the Ultra-Orthodox community was staunchly against holding the World Pride Parade in Jerusalem.  We at the JICC led a deep and emotionally-charged process, together with the Open House and senior members of the Eidah Haredit. It was a difficult and emotional process. David was the one who did not give up his fellow board members and made them understand that they must speak with those opposing them, that they must seek peaceful solutions, even when there were those who said that there was no one to talk to. He insisted that the Jerusalemite spirit could bring about creative solutions that were appropriate for everyone. And the result was a huge and hugely important success, for the Open House and for Jerusalem as a whole.

Hasson’s article recounts that time:

The leaders of the Open House needed to go around with body guads, but Ehrlich and other activists in the community decide to try and meet with the leaders of the Eidah haHaredit. The connection was made by Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, Director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, which specializes in making connections above and beyond ideological and identity gaps. “David led the approach that we speak with everyone who wants to talk. There’s no such thing as ‘there’s no one to talk to,'” remembers Agmon-Snir. “He was the most sensitive and sympathetic person in the meetings, he broke the ice in minutes. Remember that this was a situation in which both sides were really afraid to come to the meeting. Members of the Open House thought that they’d be physically assaulted, and the Haredim were very afraid – they were sure that the homosexuals would arrive naked to the meeting. The Haredim, who knew the Pride Parade up close, were convinced that people have sex as they march down the street. David and Noah Satat told them, ‘Look, it’s not San Francisco here. The real gap isn’t even with you [the Haredi community], the real cultural gap is with the LGBTQ community in Tel Aviv. We’re nerds, and it’s cold here in Jerusalem.”

Even after the work on the Pride Parade, David continued to be a valued partner of the JICC and our efforts to advance tolerance in Jerusalem. He hosted numerous events at Tmol Shilshom – from those of Jerusalemite Day of Diversity, Mental Health Week, Tolerance Week, 0202-Points of View from Jerusalem, and much more – discussions, panels, performances – and even birthday celebrations for 0202… What we understand today, the importance of being a mensch in Jerusalem, taking care of everyone, listening to everyone, accepting the ‘other,’ David understood decades ago.

Here’s JICC Director Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir’s Facebook post (in Hebrew) just after David passed away in March:

And here’s another one, this week, as the article was published:

David, you’ll be sorely missed.

“I was happy and proud to continue the tradition for the fifth year in a row as part of Jerusalemite Day of Diversity…Hope we stop digging into who the bells are ringing for, and understand that they’re for each and every one of us.” Itamar Farhi, Tour of the Nature of Politics

“A great initiative of online events that advance tolerance in the city for Jerusalem Day.” President Reuven Rivlin

This was the fifth year in which tens of thousands of Jerusalemites took part in Jerusalemite Day of Diversity events. Since many events were online due to the coronavirus crisis, they were open to anyone interested worldwide. This year’s festivities included 71 events that took place during Jerusalem Day, emphasizing grassroots action for a diverse and multicultural Jerusalem. Each initiative was completely autonomous; the activists dreamed, and the activists created, and the JICC provided logistical, strategic, and at times, financial support. The JICC remained completely behind the scenes, assisting where necessary and providing the framework for echoing the authentic Jerusalem voices that call for tolerance and diversity in our complex city. Adjusting to coronavirus-influenced restrictions, events were tailored and adapted to the government health guidelines, ,with many online and outside-only in-person events requiring pre-registration.  While challenging, it also provided an opportunity for a great deal of creativity.

Jerusalemite Day of Diversity in numbers

Despite the restrictions and the public’s preoccupation with the coronavirus and its implications, the Jerusalem activists for tolerance invested a great deal of time and energy in a wide variety of projects, which provided a welcome change from everyday matters. Events included:

• Online lectures on Christians in Jerusalem, the Arabic language in the Jerusalem public sphere, the Ultra-Orthodox community, and LGBTQ community, and the Jerusalem diversity in general.

Christians in Jerusalem lecture

• In-person activities: Tours of Mount Zion, Mamilla, Bayit VaGan – and broadcasted some online (in Ein Kerem and Mount Zion, for example); outdoor breakdance workshop at the First Station.

Tour of Mount Zion

• Workshops about different art media and its relationship to the other – music, cinema, Islamic art, plastic arts.
• Online workshops about getting to know myself and the ‘other;’ personal stories and stories about communities.
• Online concerts by Jerusalem musicians told about Jerusalem’s multiculturalism through music.

Songs of Praise, by Hallel Moran

• Movies about historic Jerusalem and contemporary Jerusalem were uploaded to the Jerusalem Tolerance web site;
• Community games and activities for children that emphasized accepting the ‘other,’

Meeting Point Shira Banki’s Way

Attached is a full list of events in English. Here is a link to Jerusalemite Day of Diversity’s web site.

Important Points for 2020

 “Thank you so much! It is a great honor to take part in such a nice venture! May we come together to ‘do good’ again!” L., Hartman Institute

Dissemination well beyond Jerusalem. Jerursalemite Day event often reaches beyond Jerusalem through our online PR, social media and advertising efforts. However, this year, the Internet-based world that the coronavirus crisis forced us into, amplified the Jeursalemite Day of Diversity’s online reach. The combination of online PR and advertising, Facebook events, content on the Jerusalemtolerance.com web site and numerous events available on Zoom and Facebook Live enabled us to reach broad audiences. We saw that many people, many of whom we had not seen online, participated in a wide range of web-based activities.

Women influencers in Jerusalem, by Women Wage Peace

A large number of participants, beyond Jerusalemites: Because many of the events and activities were online, more people, as well as people from more distant places, could take part. The ability to take part in events from the comfort of one’s home enabled many more people to participate and be engaged in many more events. While it is not ideal to hold all events online, this year showed us the possibilities of events on Zoom or Facebook Live, and we believe that in the years to come many more events will take advantage of online possibilities and their potential in involving many more people in the events.

Engaging audiences from around the world

Going international: The online nature also enabled many events to include speakers from abroad, which further enriched the programs and emphasized Jerusalem’s worldwide importance. Examples included a panel of rabbinical students from different streams of Judaism, a lecture by Yisca Harani and a monk, which included lecturers and panelists from all over the world. In coming years we will be able to utilize these online tools to engage speakers and participants from around  the world, together with Jerusalemite activists.

Rabbinical students from around the world, from diverse streams

Wider range of content: This year, 15 events took place as online content that went live on  Jerusalem Day – videos, shows and activities, which gave participants an opportunity to participate in Jerusalemite Day at their leisure, and provided an additional, deeper layer to the multicultural content available.

Lion Workshop

Tours: Last year tours had a a relatively low attendance, but this year the tours were packed. This was due to a number of factors. First, because they were held outside, these were among the few in-person events we could offer, and many people jumped at the chance to get out of the house after the coronavirus lockdown. Because of the Ministry of Health restrictions, registration was mandatory, which enabled us to keep track of all attendees, open up additional tour sections according to demand, send Zoom links or links to Facebook Live (for the tours that were broadcast simultaneously online). As we look toward next year we will examine was we can integrate these methods into activities, hopefully without the necessity for health-based restrictions.

Tour of Mamilla

Publicity

In addition to advertising and distribution on the web, we were interviewed on Radio Voice Jerusalem about Jerusalemite Day. In addition, Jerusalemite Day was mentioned at noon on the Israel Military Radio News Station, Galei Tzahal, a huge accomplishment.

Kol Ha’ir article

In written materials, an article was published in Hebrew about the events on the MyNet Jerusalem news web site here, and here is the article that was published in Kol Ha’ir about the amazing initiative of the Nefashot and Moshe organizations on mental health for the individual and for the community. In this article, Nefashot initiator Roni Diller noted:

“The Jerusalem Intercultural Center has held Jerusalemite Day of Diversity for the past five years, which supports activism that advances tolerance in the city. We, as Jerusalemite activists in the field of mental health, we see great importance in raising awareness in creative ways about a population that is often transparent in our city…”

Nefashot produced this video:

In addition, the Jerusalem Municipality website recommended taking part in Jerusalemite Day of Diversity events and was active in announcing and circulating a significant amount of publicity. Even President Rivlin wrote about us on his story and recommended participating in Jerusalemite Day events!

Conclusion

Despite the challenges presented this year, Jerusalemite Day of Diversity was again wildly successful. Many activists continue the tradition from year to year, and there are already a number of events that make up the Jerusalemite Day of Diversity tradition, taking place every year. At the same time, there were also a number of initiatives for whom this was the first time participating, and they fell in love at first sight, deciding that their event will also become part of the Jerusalemite Day of Diversity in years to come.

Here’s the full photo album from Facebook:

And, of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Natan Fund and the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Branch Office and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem for helping us to advance tolerance and cross-cultural activism in Jerusalem.

One of our events during Tolerance Week was a workshop on Palestinian cooking. It was hosted by our good friend, Dr. Diana Lipton, and was fully Kosher, to enable those who often aren’t able to enjoy this type of cooking because they observe Jewish dietary laws. Afterward Diana wrote about her experience in her blog in the Times of Israel. Here’s where she described her experience, and described Tolerance Week:

Food bridging cultures

Feeling Hungry in Jerusalem

Last week was the fourth annual Jerusalem Tolerance Week, timed to coincide with International Tolerance Day. Not surprisingly, many of the events organized by institutions and individuals in partnership with the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center (JICC) revolved around food.

Most of the food-related activities involved participating restaurants, but one of them took place in our apartment. Our event was called Kosher Palestinian Home Cooking. We invited Magda, a wonderful cook who also cleans for our friends Naomi and Jonathan, to prepare a range of traditional Palestinian dishes that kosher-keeping Jews could eat. Magda bought all the products at Rami Levy, a supermarket where all the products are kosher, and prepared the food in Naomi and Jonathan’s kosher kitchen in pots that belonged to them or were purchased specially.

Displaying the wonderful tastes of Palestinian cooking

Through the JICC’s Tolerance Week advertising, mainly on social media, we invited anyone who, because of dietary restrictions or mere lack of opportunity, could not enjoy Palestinian home cooking, to come to our apartment and make up for lost time. We promised wonderful food, an opportunity to meet the cook and to hear about her life and the role of food within it, and live music!

Ahead of the event, a few people asked me if I was worried that people would simply come to eat free food and leave. I wasn’t worried, and as it turned out, I didn’t need to be. As these photos attest, the 60 plus people who came to our apartment last Thursday night, most of whom we didn’t know and didn’t know each other, certainly had an appetite for Magda’s amazing food, but they were hungry for a lot more.

You can read her entire column here.

Accompanied by a little music as well

Thank you Diana, and thank you for a wonderful event!

And, of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Natan Fund and the Schusterman Family Foundation for helping us to advance tolerance in Jerusalem through Tolerance Week.

There are some things you don’t learn in school –  backgammon, capoeira, Debka glue dances and rap. – and certainly not with neighboring schools, [especially between Jewish and Arab schools]. This week we [Kulna] held a special event at the Natural History Museum, Tolerant Double Jerusalem, attended by 100 students, 10th graders from the Comprehensive High School in Beit Safafa and Keshet High School. We hope and believe that this activity will lead to more joint activities during the year between the two schools and other schools in east and west Jerusalem….The event took place as part of Jerusalem Tolerance Week 2019, proving yet again that Jerusalem is the world capital of tolerance.

This is how the Kulna organization summed up one of their events  – their Jerusalem Double backgammon tournament – during the 4th annual Tolerance Week in Jerusalem. The week included 50 events in the week surrounding International Tolerance Day (November 16). Events took place between November 14 – 24.  Click here for a full list of events. You can find the full list in three languages on the Jerusalem Tolerance Website.

This year, 50 events took place throughout Jerusalem as part of the Tolerance Week, and each one was attended by 20 to 40 people. The events were as diverse as Jerusalemites – tours, lectures, community bonfires, home hospitality that included Kosher Palestinian food, the first conference of Jerusalem’s Tolerance Coalition, and more.

Palestinian Kosher cooking

Community centers also participated widely, and, with assistance from the Municipal Mediation Center, 12 events were held in different neighborhoods. In addition, there was a “What a Dish Tells” festival, in which restaurants throughout the city served a “tolerance dish”, and took part in raising awareness of the issue in the public discourse. This festival was even featured on the Jerusalem Municipality’s Facebook page:

A number of tours took residents to behind the scenes in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa

And a tour about Haredi – non-Haredi relations in Rehavia and Sha’are Hesed:

Holding events in the public space, and recruiting restaurants and businesses in Jerusalem, helped us to reach audiences outside our ‘usual suspects’ and create more of a presence in the city.

‘Pleased to Meet You’ event at the First Station

Schools also took part in Tolerance Week. Below, for example, the Kulna organization organized a special event that included backgammon, capoeira, Debka dancing and rap for Jewish and Arab students from the Beit Safafa and Keshet high schools.

And in closing:

Want to see more pictures? Here’s the week’s photo album, from the Jerusalem Tolerance Facebook page:

And on the Jerusalem Tolerance Website you may find the Photo Gallery of the week!

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Natan Fund and the Schusterman Family Foundation for helping us to advance tolerance in Jerusalem.

World Mental Health Day is commemorated every year on October 10. The Nefashot (souls) team has been working for the past 3 years in Jerusalem to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental health issues, and has created a whole week of events in Jerusalem. The week of 27.10-2.11.2019 included many diverse events, all of which were initiated by Jerusalem activists, organizations, and cultural institutions, all who have a common goal: to raise public awareness of mental health issues in the city, and to reduce stigmas. Events included lectures, performances, tours and more.

We’ve been working with the Nefashot team since the beginning, and are so proud of their accomplishments, and so proud to watch – and be a part of – their development. Here’s a summary of that fascinating and important week.

Making Souls: Events to raise awareness about mental health issues

Here are what team members wrote, introducing the events:

So why do we make this big a deal of this? And are we calling it a festival, if we’re talking about people’s struggles? And what are we so excited about? After all, are there many art and publicity events that raise awareness of the issues we are talking about? It’s true, we’re not making huge breakthroughs. We’re just inviting everyone to make ‘positive noise’ together, in a big, loud voice that proves once again that the whole is greater than its parts.

Because we believe. Believe that the more our society gets to know people who are dealing with mental health issues, the more we’ll be able to look around and identify when someone close to us is suffering and in need of help, and we will know that when we’re suffering, we should seek help and treatment, just as we do with physical suffering. And we’ll know we’re not alone in this story – it’s just normal. And we won’t be ashamed – because there is no reason, and we will not hide it – that we will then lose the support that our community can give us. And we believe that art and culture are our means because art in its expression is a language. A language of the soul, a language of the heart. That is why we can all connect with her through ideas, inner experiences, and meet with ourselves, and with each other, precisely.

Among the events: a card workshop for acquiring tools and improving the communication and relationships between family members, lectures by parents, community karaoke, tour of the Israel Museum and the Old Yishuv Court Museum, playback theater, evening reading of poets and therapists and memorial evening for friends who committed suicide.

Memorial evening for those who committed suicide at the Van Leer Institute

There were very emotional reactions from the participants and the organizers. Here are a few:

When you see so many people talking and sharing their point of view about dealing with mental health issues with others … It’s hard to be stigmatized about it. The more we talk about it, the more we’ll understand that we can’t be stigmatized about something that affects one third of the population personally and directlry. It’s not a matter of mental illness but mental health, something every person should strive for.

Poets reading their material at the Tmol Shilshom coffee house

And from Michal Miriam Waldiger, who led one of the activities:

How can one not join a project so correct and so precise, that its purpose hits the bullseye – reducing the stigma, raising the issue and normalizing it. Last night I led a discussion in an Ulpana in Israel and one of my two subjects was mental health and the girls. Listen well and it seems that we’re on the right track, the ground is fertile for change.

Workshops at the Jerusalem Clubhouse

Towards the end of the week of the “Making Souls” festival, and as Shabbat was coming in, the Nefashot team called the general public’s attention to the link between the upcoming Torah portion, about Noah and the Ark, to mental health issues:

Shabbat Parshat Noah, Shabbat ‘Making Souls’

What is more appropriate than this parsha to describe the collective and personal sense of “after the flood”. We had a week full of events – emotional, funny, painful and especially, connecting. A fantastic spectrum of people who listened, hugged, cried, laughed and were simply part of the experience. So on Shabbat we rest, and each of goes back home to say something about the soul. You can chat with the children, or with friends at a meal. You can share experiences from the events of the past week that you attended. There are those who wrote a column in a weekly newsletter published for Shabbat, some who will come to share a personal story, lecture at the end of the synagogue services, or give a sermon. Whatever you choose – it’s appropriate.

Here’s the Facebook post in Hebrew:

Ruthie Levi: Parents dealing with mental health issues tell their stories

Ruthie Levy, who focused on the families of those dealing with mental health issues, wrote the following moving words:

“On maternal loneliness. As a mother, I respond to Nefashot’s request, as Saturday’s Torah portion of Noah and the Ark nears, in order to increase awareness of the circles of loneliness circles in areas of mental health. Mothers of those with mental health issues often feel lonely. My experience has been that loneliness is felt in the questions in which the answers are very personal and no one can offer me the answer. In this writing I want to describe to you one facet of maternal loneliness – when you are alone in the search for the answer, how much to support and how much … not to support.

Faced with the struggling son who is fighting for his balance, I, as a mother, seek my balance. My maternal movement for my coping son is characterized by a step forward, a step back. Step forward looking for closeness, connection, giving and contribution to advancing his recovery. A step back that seeks to differentiate, respect for the son’s freedom of choice, his different preferences, his independence, his subjective recovery journey. I’m careful not to go too far forward, I’m careful not to go too far back. Like a daredevil on a tightrope holding a balancing pole, trying to identify the balance point at any moment according to the situation

Here’s an overview of the entire week in Hebrew, from Nefashot’s Facebook page:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Natan Fund and the Schusterman Family Foundation for helping us to advance tolerance in Jerusalem.