Rabbi Paskind’s Bulletin Column January – February 2026
Jan Feb 2026
Encounter trip
Dear Friends,
Every trip to Israel is special, and there are a million ways to connect to our people’s
homeland. Since I’ve been your Rabbi, I have traveled to Israel 4 times. In the summer of
2016, I participated in an AIPAC Progressive Rabbis’ mission. In the summer of 2023, I
spent the 6 weeks of my Sabbatical there. In February 2023, I went on a very short
rabbinic solidarity mission. And in December 2023, I participated in the Rabbinical
Assembly convention in Jerusalem. It has been special and meaningful to travel to Israel
with such frequency, a frequency which I have not had since leading teen trips many years
ago.
I will travel to Israel this year as well, during the second week of February. I will participate
in a small-group mission, sponsored by the Rabbinical Assembly and the Jewish National
Fund-KKL, to explore the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will sleep in
West Jerusalem and spend most of our daytime hours in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The program is run by Encounter, which “equips Jewish leaders to reckon firsthand with
the Israeli–Palestinian reality” 1.
I share this with you now for a few reasons. First, I won’t be here during the second week
of February; not to worry, I’ll arrange for a clergy colleague to be on call should something
serious happen. Second, I want you to know how seriously I take this decades-long crisis
and how committed I am to learning the history and the current realities. And thirdly, I
want to give you a heads up that a major component of this cohort is developing and
leading conversations and programs in our home communities, with the support of other
participants and the leaders of the program. So our spring months will bring those
opportunities to speak, discuss, and learn together. I invite you now to plan to participate.
I have to be honest with you. I’m both excited and quite nervous to be participating in this
program. I dread the realities I know I will hear from people who have been living them for
years. Conflict makes me uncomfortable, and yet that is precisely the core of this mission.
And honestly, I worry about the potential rifts these conversations may cause here at home,
in our beautiful and supportive community.
And yet. This issue is too pervasive and too important to turn a blind eye. As lovers of the
State of Israel, it is actually our duty to grapple with the hard parts, even as we celebrate all
of its achievements. I will do my best to bring back information, skills for challenging
conversations, and my deepest compassion for all those who suffer… and we will work
through it all together.
Bivracha,
Rabbi Ita Paskind
[1] https://www.encounterprograms.org/
