I am blessed to be writing this week’s column from Israel, where I have been privileged to take part in Kivunim, a program of the JCC Association’s Mandel Center for Jewish Education and Mandel Center for Excellence in Leadership and Management. Kivunim means “pathways” or “directions” in Hebrew, and is a program designed to deepen the Jewish learning and understanding of JCC CEOs, so that our Jewish centers can best fulfill their mission to strengthen Jewish life.
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The invitation to join this cohort of JCC and Jewish Federation professionals felt like an affirmation that our young Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center had found its place in the larger global JCCA movement. That although we, in Greater Naples, are still discovering the pathway on which we are journeying, we have proven partners, successful models, and experienced colleagues, who are here to support us as we fulfill our purpose in our community.
This morning (Israel time), while I was walking the streets of Jerusalem’s old city, I found myself thinking about the divide between ancient Israel and from where our people have come, and our group’s visit yesterday to the Negev desert and to Ben Gurion’s home and burial place where his vision for our people’s future was born. And then of course, there is this week’s Torah portion hero, Noah, who was also on my mind, who was a man given direction yet with no destination.
Noah was told, “Make yourself an ark” (Genesis 6:14). Gd gave Noah dimensions and instructions, but never a destination. The Torah says only, “Noah did so; just as Gd commanded him, so he did” (6:22). Noah built for a world he could not yet see, and only after months of uncertainty did the ark come to rest on the mountains of Ararat (8:4).
Standing at Sde Boker, we saw similar faith. Ben Gurion left the center of power for a simple home in the empty Negev, convinced that people would come and make the desert bloom. Ben Gurion is buried there with his wife at his side, overlooking the wilderness he believed in, still facing a future he did not live to see.
And then there are our Naples leaders who in 1981 had the same kind of vision. They are the ones who laid the groundwork for today’s Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center, not for themselves but for generations they would never meet.
Author, speaker, and consultant, Simon Sinek, writes, “Fulfillment is not born of the dream. Fulfillment is born of the journey.” Noah’s fulfillment was not found on dry land, but in the faithful, daily work of building. That is the lesson I have discovered of Kivunim: a pathway that matters as much as the destination, and this week I walk it together with my colleagues in Israel.
May we keep building with faith, trusting that those who follow will find shelter in what we dared to begin. Because we are Stronger Together… even if that strength comes from the leaders of yesteryear.
Shabbat Shalom,
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