Our Israel Committee helps nurture our connection to Israel by fostering education and promoting meaningful engagement with the Jewish homeland through programs, activities, and fundraising.
If you have a question about Israel and our congregation, or if you’re interested in getting involved in the committee, please reach out to israel(at)societyhillsynagogue.org.
Resilience and Return: Segev Kalfon’s Survival of Captivity in Gaza
Sunday, April 26 @ 3:00 pm at Society Hill Synagogue
Segev Kalfon was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, and survived 738 days of captivity in Gaza before his return home. Join us as Segev shares his remarkable story of the resilience, determination, and faith which sustained him in captivity. He will discuss the strength, purpose, and hope that can emerge even in the darkest of circumstances.
After Segev‘s talk, we will have a brief commemoration of Yom HaZikaron, Remembrance Day for Israel‘s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism, which this year is just a few days before Segev‘s visit.
The entire program, with Segev’s talk and the brief ceremony, will be held in Society Hill Synagogue’s Sanctuary, with a reception and Israeli hors d’oeuvres to follow in the Social Hall.
$18 Members of Society Hill Synagogue and/or Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel • $36 General Public • $180 Sponsorship • Free for Students with ID
* All Proceeds Support Segev’s Recovery
This program is presented by Society Hill Synagogue’s Israel Connections Subcommittee in partnership with Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Read some of Rabbi Kamesar's Divrei Torah (words of Torah) about Israel:
Jewish Wisdom on Character and Leadership Amid Political Change
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Yet again, I write in response to unfolding developments in one of the most eventful months in electoral politics in modern American history, with reverberations for the Jewish community, for Israel, and for the
The Power of Hope: A Cornerstone of the Jewish Experience
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar There’s one part of my previously emailed d’var torah that I kind of want to take back. In it, I shared the truism that “hope is not a strategy” (juxtaposing it to the notion
Balancing Compassion and Critique: A Yom Kippur Perspective on Israel
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I’m sometimes reminded of the adage about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that it has the capacity to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. That is, some of us go
The Jewish Story
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I wanted to share just briefly a bit about the mentality I’m holding each week when I write about Israel, Gaza, and the Middle East. I’m Jewish. I’m not breaking any news here when
Identity, Israel, and Shared Humanity
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, Each week I reflect, professionally, on a couple of fronts: for Friday nights, I try to write in a spirit that reflects the spirit of Shabbat—a poetic sensibility angled towards Shabbat as a palace
Pesah, Protest, and Poetry
We just got finished celebrating beautiful, if painful, Passover Seders in our homes and in community.
I wanted to begin by sharing the words with which I opened our Seder here at Society Hill Synagogue, with over 150 people across the generations crammed warmly in our social hall: