A thousand years ago, when it was still summer, I got a phone call on my cell while visiting my parents in New Jersey. It was an unfamiliar number and I let it go to voicemail. The voicemail revealed that the caller was a friend of mine whom I have not been in touch with for about a decade. We used to be neighbors when I lived in Israel way back in the previous millenium.
She was calling me because a current neighbor of hers, an Israeli girl from a Chassidic family, was planning a trip to Cleveland, arranged by the State Department, to participate in a conference that brought together Jewish and Muslim women of varying degrees of religiosity. The initiative was intended to further peaceful relations between the groups.
In any event, the woman would need a place to be for Shabbat, and my old friend thought of me - the only person she knew in Cleveland. Would I host her?
Of course I would! I was actually really looking forward to meeting her and learning more of this fascinating endeavor.
The shuttle from the hotel dropped her off shortly before Shabbat. After spending the whole week in the hotel, subsisting on crackers, fruit and sandwiches, she was overcome with the familiar smells of challah, cholent, and roast chicken wafting through the house. My kids were dressed for Shabbat and were playing in the living room. She was almost choked up at the familiarity and comfort while traveling so far from home and family, and from the familiar life.
She shared with me that the other women in her conference were utterly shocked that she was coming to us for the weekend. "You never met them?? You don't even know them?? And you're going to spend a whole weekend together??"
But it was so great. We really bonded. She is a fascinating person, and we learned a lot from one another. We ARE all family. We ARE all brothers and sisters. No matter where you roam, there's a whole Jewish network out there willing to reach out. It's really something that I, for one, am proud and grateful to be a part of.
