Israel, From the Diaspora

Israel,
our ner tamid, our eternal light,
burns in every Jewish heart,
kindling hope and promise and redemption,
fulfilling the yearning of our people
for their ancestral homeland.
A modern miracle
whose creation story is told in scripture,
whose people were exiled from their land,
and whose population was gathered
from every corner of the world.
A nation made from threads of diverse textures and hues
to form a uniquely Jewish tapestry:
a vibrant culture,
a people displaying tenacity, vitality, courage, and blunt honesty,
and a fabric whose origins were woven
with values of education, equality, ethics, and justice.

Israel,
where lessons of the past have made it all too clear:
whenever we’ve put ourselves in others’ care,
we’ve been deprived of our rights, our jobs, our land,
then forced to move behind the gate,
by those who were set to seal our fate.
A land where we put ourselves in our own care,
where we can go when no other place will have us,
and where, when ‘none is too many’,
too many is not enough.

Israel,
where Jewish identity
doesn’t have to be explained or negotiated
in every moment of every day-to-day,
whose edges don’t have to be softened,
or lines blurred or colours made monochrome.
And where, the music of Jewish life,
carries you along a current of time
stretching back to creation and forward to eternity,
and can be felt in the rhythm of the calendar,
in the sound of an ancient language revived,
and in the sight of your own reflection,
seen in the faces of other hearts.

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