Today is the second day israelis go to the polls in a few months and there seems to be both apathy towards these ejections and depression around it – both that new elections are here and a sense nothing will change politically. It feels like people are voting for who they like less rather than anyone they like. Election Day is also a national holiday and people are happily enjoying the day off school and work and we’re heading to the beach with a friend of mine from when I did sabbatical with my family when I was in 9th grade.
This morning, I joined a gathering organized by a couple local Israeli rabbis and poets wanted to create a space for people to come together in prayer and song and support for the elections. There were a number of prominent Israeli activists, poets and prophetic rabbis and it was interesting here what was on their minds (or as much as my hebrew allowed) at this soulful gathering of folks fighting hard to build bridges amongst all residents and citizens of israel.