“Everywhere Together Now” - Join Our Week of Interdependence

Dear Lab/Shul Family and Friends,

“Not the peace of a cease-fire,
not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb,
but rather
as in the heart when the excitement is over
and you can talk only about great weariness…
A little rest for the wounds — who speaks of healing?”
~Yehuda Amichai, ‘Wildpeace’

I was mid flight back to NYC yesterday when a breaking news flash reported a possible breakthrough with the ceasefire negotiations. I closed my eyes, let the tears come and the words of Yehuda Amichai’s beloved poem, like ancient prayers, echoed in my head like a sigh. By the time we landed at JFK the wave of hope for a dramatic shift subsided — at least for now.

There are fewer and fewer words with which I feel I can keep facing this cruel crisis that is far from over, the fighting that will continue to ravage lives in Israel, Palestine, and everywhere — until enough exhausted and brave people will insist on new realities not fed by the hurts of history but focused on radical repair and the freedoms of the future.

Our words build worlds. Our words can alienate or bring us closer, escalate or dissolve tensions, raise up hope or dash our aspirations. What we have right now are words, even if few, inadequate, battered and baffled. We have words that can cast spells of wishful thinking, that can console, imagine brave new worlds; Words of poetry and protest, peace prayers, hymns of healing, whispered and shouted and sung together in between the sacred silence of every exhale. We have words at the heart of the rituals that can bring us closer together, despite our different fears and viewpoints, to honor the hurts and lift up visions of yearning – together. What we have beyond despair is our collective power to name our pains and lift up our interwoven hope with every word.

These coming days we focus on the truth of our interdependence. I invite you to join the Lab/Shul community at a series of rituals and gatherings that mark this annual season of remembrance and grief, resilience and pride, commitment to peaceful co-existence in the dreams of ancestral homelands – and building it better.

We’ve already navigated complex holy days and nights these past six sorrowful months – and now we come upon the week on which Israelis celebrate the 76th birthday of the state, as Palestinians lament the loss of lands, lives, homes and independence. We can and must show up for both. For several years now we have stood together with both narratives, co-creating rituals that focus on our inevitable and critical interdependence, teaming up with activists and artists whose visions for collective peace and justice continue offering people on all sides a glimpse of relief and redemption.

This year, in the midst of this tragic mist of the unknown, we continue to commit to this shared space of the possible, holding multiple narratives, standing in solidarity with peacemakers and change makers who remind us that there must be, and there will be, another way.

See our full week of programs and rituals HERE

It’s a packed week of events and I hope you can show up for whatever speaks to you:

This Friday, we will gather for our monthly Sabbath Queen ritual. May 10th’s new moon of Iyar has healing power to weave our broken parts back together and seal them with joy. The evening will be a combination of healing and celebration complete with special honors:
- 6:00pm – 8:30pm – Happy Hour with Open Bar 21+ followed by Live musical liturgy, poetry, and contemplative pause
- 8:30pm – Community Feast
- 10:00pm – 11:30pm – Dance Party + Horah with DJ Party Girl in honor of our beloved Executive Director’s – Sarah Sokolic – birthday and the upcoming nuptials of our own Director of Community and Culture – Sam Hipschman – and Skye Nunke.

Register for Sabbath Queen

On Sunday, 5/12, we will be in Brooklyn + online, at two different ceremonies that remember all the lives lost during these many decades of battles and terror:

Register for Yom Hazikaron: NYC Joint Memorial Satellite Ceremony

Register for Yom Hazikaron Across Brooklyn

On Monday, 5/13, Lab/Shul Partners are invited to an intimate storytelling event at a private home in Manhattan, featuring highlights from In-Between, the one-man show by Ibrahim Miari, exploring his Jewish-Palestinian identities.

Register for Make a Wish – Marking Israel’s 76th Birthday

On Wednesday, 5/15, we will be online, in solidarity with the Palestinian community and partners for peace at the Nakba Day vigil with American Friends of Combatants for Peace.

Register for Nakba: Joint Remembrance Ceremony

On Thursday, 5/16, you’re invited to join us in person for an artistic event celebrating 76 Moments of Hope with Downtown Jewish Life.

Register for Yom HaAtzmaut: 76 Minutes of Hope

Words will help us name the hurt and hopes, and lead the way to our deeds and actions. This is how we build a better world even when our dreams are as tired as our wishes.

I end this invitation for interdependence with the words of another revered poet, the Palestinian-American Noami Shinab Nye, reminding us that we are each other’s hopes:

“Everywhere together now.
Even scared together now
from all points of the globe
which lessened it somehow.
Hopeful together too, exchanging
winks in the dark, the little lights blinking.
When your hope shrinks
you might feel the hope of
someone far away lifting you up.
Hope is the thing …
Hope was always the thing!
What else did we give each other
from such distances?
Breath of syllables,
sing to me from your balcony
please! Befriend me
in the deep space.
When you paused for a poem
it could reshape the day
you had just been living.”
~Naomi Shinab-Nye, Every Day As a Wide Field