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As the current health crisis further illuminates global injustice and inequalities, it feels as if more than ever we are in Mitsrayim/Egypt/The Narrow Place. The holiday of Pesach calls on us to remember and imagine liberation. Jewish tradition and the Hebrew calendar are a never-ending source for guidance and wisdom in pursuing personal and collective transformation and liberation. With the help of Achvat Amim alum and Hebrew College Rabbinical student Micah Friedman, Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim has created a Pesach discussion guide for your Pesach table or your next zoom call! Using Jewish text, wisdom from alumni and partners, and words from justice leaders, we invite you to join us in Remembering and Imagining Liberation. You can download the discussion guide below. 
Here is the Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim Pesach discussion guide at a glance! Download a PDF version for full resolution.
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Dear Beloved Achvat Community and Friends of Achvat Amim,
We write you as we continue to build the movement for self determination from our homes. It has been an intense few weeks of transition and refocusing as we bravely continue forward. What does remain clear, is the strength of our community and the bonds we have built as Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim. We are taking it one day at a time here at Achvat Amim, with our cohort learning and working remotely from Jerusalem and London. In a time of continued occupation, economic insecurity, global pandemic, and political coups, we must hold to each other tightly and continue working towards the world we want to live in. The great Sufi poet Hafiz once wrote exactly this, Out Of a great need We are all holding hands And climbing. Not loving is letting go. Listen, The terrain around here Is Far too Dangerous For That. Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim is centered on building relationships, trust, and care across borders, boundaries, and divisions. We are excited for the ways our community will expand and embody these values in this time. We are here with you as friends, as comrades, as movement partners. Holding Hands with You, Julie, Dana, and Erez On January 10th, 2014 the first cohort of Achvat Amim kicked off this journey. On January 10th, 2019 we celebrated five years and ten cohorts of movement building through critical education, communal living and human rights work in and around Jerusalem!Here are some photos from the evening. Check out some of the highlights from the evenings program including blessings for another five years of movement growth and beautiful songs! And finally, a slideshow with photos from these five years of Achvat Amim! These are the beautiful words of one of our current participants, Ana Dorotea, to her community, and beyond.
I am talking to you, reader. From human to human. I am calling out to you about what is happening right now in our world and in this society. As you may have heard, Masa announced it would stop funding Achvat Amim (Solidarity of Nations). Achvat Amim “gives "voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights", connects participants to projects that aim to end racism, violence and inequality as an essential building block for a society based on values that are central to Judaism, such as justice, equity, and peace”[1]. I call it a tragedy, because I believe that censoring the truth and denying brotherhood and solidarity to our fellow brothers and sisters is indeed a tragedy. I call it a tragedy, because denying to help end racism, violence, and inequality, is to act against justice, equity, and peace. I am writing this to you, whoever this is, because I want to call out to you, from human to human. We need to wake up and rise against what we are doing to each other and understand that we are all partners of a race, a human race. Acvhat Amim is made up of people who help out, really giving out a hand, focused on bettering the conflict; a situation that, in terms of humanity, shouldn’t even exist. What I am trying to say, and thank you for sticking with me so far, is that you and me are brothers and sisters of the same race. It is our obligation to give a hand to those brothers and sisters who need it, and end oppression, racism, violence and inequality. The good prevails. For whatever political reasons this decision has been made, nothing can stop the rising of the good. So, as a reader, as a participant of the human race and thus of this conflict, I ask you to support the program with a donation. With your donation, you help Achvat Amim to continue on helping to better our community and giving a space for voices who speak about finding solutions and improving this situation. Let yourself be an accomplice of the good to our fellow human beings. Donate at www.youcaring.com/achvatamim [1] http://www.achvatamim.org/the-details.html Support here: www.youcaring.com/achvatamim
After nearly four years of supporting Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim, Masa Israel has pulled its support for the program under its current leadership. Masa’s decision comes on the heels of the release of an inaccurate and misleading investigative report on the program and its directors conducted by the extreme right wing organization Ad Kan, which has become known for targeting left wing organizations committed to human rights. In the report, which was repeated in several Israeli media sources, Ad Kan attempts to paint Achvat Amim as beyond the bounds of legitimate engagement and opinion on Israel and the conflict by presenting false assertions and disinformation about the program’s activities. This report is apparently an attempt to push the Ad Kan agenda, which it would appear seeks to delegitimize any criticism of the occupation and preclude Jews from around the world from making meaningful contributions to creating a more peaceful and just society. Masa’s decision to withdraw its support for Achvat Amim represents a sharp deviation from its principle of advancing pluralistic discourse and education and a wide range of identities and viewpoints within the Zionist world. Unfortunately, Masa’s decision excludes many young Jews whose identities involve real engagement with Israel, and narrows the scope of acceptable thinking and engagement on the issues most pressing to Israel today. Achvat Amim is a 5-month volunteer program in Jerusalem that directly engages with the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through human rights work and critical education, based on the core value of self-determination for all peoples. Participants volunteer in group projects and in individualized placements, while traveling extensively, and learning with leaders in the field. Together, we build a dynamic learning community in which we explore and shape Jewish culture and identity as individuals and as part of a greater whole. Participants learn Hebrew and Arabic in a creative framework, and have diverse opportunities for religious and spiritual learning and practice as part of our Ruchani track. We bring Jews from around the world to Israel to take part in making it a better place and provide a space where they can honestly wrestle with one of the most pressing challenges facing Israel - the conflict, and the occupation. We have always been fully transparent about this. Many Achvat Amim participants come to the program from a place of very deep connection with their Jewish communities and with Israel. At the same time, we are highly successful at engaging participants who have, or are close to, turning their backs on Israel and their Jewish identity because they haven't found room to have a deep, critical, and holistic relationship with this place and the people that call it home. The program creates a safe space for constructive and nuanced education where participants can bring their full identities in all their complexity. The program is rooted in the values of Hashomer Hatzair - Zionism, Socialism, and Solidarity of Nations, and our participants are intelligent and critical thinking adults, who are exploring and finding their own voice, vision, and values. When participants come to Achvat Amim they experience both the beauty and the hardships of this place and through genuine experience, solid and long-lasting connections are built. The Sumud camp referred to in the false and misleading Ad Kan report was a six-week event that brought together Israelis, Palestinians and Jews from around the world to take part in entirely legal activities - clearing, cleaning, and making livable the area of the cave home of a local Palestinian family who were working to bring life back to the land they had left two decades ago. Despite claims in the Channel 2, and other subsequent media reports, which shockingly appear to have unquestioningly accepted Ad Kan's misinformation, this was a completely legal activity for the local family to be present in their lawfully owned property and to bring guests to work with them. Achvat Amim participants who took part did so independently in time that was not organized by the program, and were not present for anything that could be construed as civil disobedience or disobeying authorities, as is consistent with our policy and commitment to the safety and security of our participants. While Ad Kan, through fallacious accusations and misinformation, is trying to silence critical thought, education, and actions that support human rights or self-determination for the Palestinian people, we are committed to continuing our work and including more voices in building a brighter future for all. This is an initiative that Masa had found to be valuable and important, and we are deeply disappointed that they have accepted the narrative of an extreme right wing organization and chosen to vilify leading educators and activists who care deeply about this place and the people who call it home. The founders of the program, Karen Isaacs and Daniel Roth, have consistently worked to build creative and justice-seeking Jewish communities and made Aliyah nearly six years ago to continue that work in Israel. We are confident that with the support of the many people who understand how significant this work is for the Jewish people and for Israelis and Palestinians, we will be able to move forward without letting this needless attack harm the important framework we are actively building. We are continuing to build Achvat Amim as a deeply educational space, connected to, and actively engaging with the movement for a just peace. Our fall cohort is already underway, and we look forward to welcoming the next amazing cohort in the spring, and to the coming years of work in partnership with all those who believe in a shared and peaceful future. Support here: www.youcaring.com/achvatamim Feature on Achvat Amim Ruchani in the Jerusalem Post.       Already in the full swing of orientation! Having fun, learning tons, getting cracking on the work, eating well, and getting ready for the road ahead!  The following was written by Oriel Eisner, a participant in Achvat Amim from September 2015 - February 2016.  When I arrived in the Israel/Palestine 9 months ago I was filled with questions and doubts. What is my relationship to this place, individually and emotionally? What is my relationship to this place politically? How am I/should I be related to what's happening here? What do I even think about what's happening here? I had some semblances of answers and thoughts which guided my responses to these questions, but I was fairly open and excited to wrestle with these things. I also had a strong feeling that I wanted to be actively and positively involved in fighting for social change here. During my first few months I spent time with family and allowed myself to settle into life here. I then began searching for ways to become involved and to engage with these questions.
I eventually came across Achvat Amim, emailed Daniel to get more information, and then we met in a coffee shop and spoke for an hour and a half. Pretty much immediately after leaving the meeting I decided that this program was exactly what I was looking for. It gave me a chance to be directly involved in activism and grassroots work, and the questions I was struggling with were the same ones that guided the learning process which is central to Achvat Amim. What follows is a reflection on theories of solutions and theories of social change, core issues which Achvat Amim—through the learning process and my volunteer placement—allowed and prompted me to think through.  The following was written by Katie, a participant in Achvat Amim from September 2015 - February 2016. This is an excerpt from a more detailed post on https://katiegoestoisrael.wordpress.com
Since it started in September, this spate of violence has been called the "youth intifada." I want to offer a completely different experience with youth in this land. The kids I encounter every week are smart, funny, honest, and inspiring. They are doing what so many adults are too scared to do - meeting, listening, empathizing, and collaborating. They give me hope. I recently celebrated my 28th birthday in Israel as a volunteer with Achvat Amim. The whole experience was surreal – especially that it happened in Jerusalem. I realized that, ten years ago, I was 18-years-old - the same age as many of the kids I work with in this city. When I was 18, I was deciding between college at Purdue University or Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. When I was 18, if you had told me that I’d be living in Jerusalem in ten years, I would have told you that you had the wrong girl. I was so far removed from my Jewish upbringing by the time I graduated high school that it wasn't even a possibility. All I cared about was going away to college, and that’s what I did. Today, in my Jerusalem life, my favorite few hours every week are those that I spend at the Jerusalem International YMCA with the kids in the ACTV Youth Program. They are anywhere from 14- to 18-years-old, and they are from both East and West Jerusalem. These teens are amazing, and many of them already speak two or three languages. They are smart, honest, interesting, funny, and sweet. They continually impress me with how they behave as if there are no boundaries between them. They talk to each other in whichever language they have in common, even if it's limited English on both sides of the table. These kids appreciate each other, share their artistic creations with each other, and create new things together. This coming year (Spring 2017), we are launching Achvat Amim: Ruchani, a Religious/Spiritual track. In addition to the core Achvat Amim program of volunteering and learning, this track provides an opportunity for halachically rooted Jewish living and spiritual practice, as well as rigorous and reflective Jewish learning, as a foundation upon which to engage with issues of the conflict, justice work and human rights. Learn more at achvatamim.org/ruchani!  |
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