Israeli educator: ‘Rise to the challenge’

By Andrea Waxman
of The Chronicle staff

In 2001, Manchester, England-native Jeremy Aron traveled to Jerusalem with “Israel Connect,” the Zionist group that he helped to set up in London. After attending a week of sessions at the World Zionist Congress and meeting some 3,000 other Jews from Israel and the Diaspora, Aron said, “the penny dropped.”

During a session with the Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua, Aron felt a powerful shift.

The heart of Yehoshua’s message was, “We don’t need your money, we need you,” Aron said during a visit to Milwaukee last week. He recalled a moment when Yehoshua held up his Israeli identity card and said, “If you really care about Israel and the Jewish people, you will get one of these.”

Five months later, Aron arrived in Israel with his own Israeli identity card.

Five years later, now 32 years old, Aron visited Milwaukee and La Crosse as an educator for the Israeli independent non-profit agency Melitz. During his weeklong visit sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, he met with several groups to talk about various aspects of Israel and Israel-Diaspora relations.

In an interview at The Chronicle offices, Aron noted that though he was in Wisconsin as an official representative of Melitz, his personal story touches on many issues at the heart of Melitz’s mission.

Founded in 1973, Melitz provides informal educational services and is “committed to Jewish unity, continuity, partnership and a democratic Israel,” according to its Web site.

Aron was raised in the Habonim-Dror movement, a worldwide labor Zionist youth movement that originated in the U.K., which he said his parents chose in an effort to “keep [him] Jewish.”

That choice succeeded in creating “a life-changing influence” on Aron, supporting a strong Jewish identity and love for Israel, he said. And, he said, he toyed with the idea of making aliyah from the age of 18. “I was just waiting for the right time.”

That time came almost 10 years later, after Aron started the London organization of Israel Connect, which, according to its Web site, is for “young professionals from all over Europe, who wish to take a proactive stand in support of Israel.”

For Aron, all that he had learned and experienced in Habonim and as part of Israel Connect came together as he listened to Yehoshua in Jerusalem. “You can’t be a leader of a movement without being an agent of change,” Aron now says of his decision to move to Israel.

“It’s the idea of moving in and out of ideology. I can’t do that. I choose to live [Zionist] ideology everywhere I go,” he said.

“When I decided to make aliyah, I knew I would never be wealthy. I like the Maya Angelou quote, ‘If you can change something in the world, then go ahead and do it. But if you can’t, then change your thinking about it.’”

Aron is now a member of Kvutsat Yovel, a group of Habonim-Dror graduates who made aliyah from the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Australia in a renewal of kibbutz life, but in the northern development town of Migdal Ha’Emek. While their financial structure is not based on a strict socialist model, they are striving to work for a better Israel through social activism.

While in Milwaukee, Aron spoke to children in Jewish day schools and synagogues and to audiences from a variety of community organizations and public forums.

He moderated discussions about Israel, its policies, and its democracy, and led a community-wide session titled, “Constructive vs. Destructive: An Instructive Look at Criticizing Israel.”

He said that his main message to the Jews here in Wisconsin is two-fold. “The issues that face the Jewish people are not problems, they are challenges and instead of looking to solve problems, let’s look at rising to the challenges. Enough with this criticizing; let’s rise to the challenge.”

“Israel is not perfect. If we work together as Jews… Rather than talking about what divides us, let’s talk about what unites us.”

Sponsored by the Israel Center as part of the preparations for the community celebrations of Israel’s 60th anniversary, Aron’s visit was hosted in collaboration with The Academy (Hillel), B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, the federation’s Coalition for Jewish Learning, Congregations Beth Israel and Sinai, the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Hillel Foundation, Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, the federation’s Weinstein Fellowship and the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.