Rabbi’s Message: March 24, 2026: “Next Year In Jerusalem”
A five-minute walk from the Tomb of King David and the room traditionally associated with the Last Supper sits an unassuming office, run by my friend Daniel Hasson. Inside, the Jerusalem Intercultural Center quietly serves the intricate mosaic of people who call this city home — a city held sacred by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike.
As I chatted with Daniel, the Center’s Executive Director, he reflected:
“There is the spiritual Jerusalem that we dream about—and then there is the Jerusalem where people have to catch the bus. It is a spiritual city, but it is also deeply down-to-earth. As the Jewish people, we live our spirituality in daily life, hour by hour. That is true for us here, too.”
The Jerusalem Intercultural Center (JICC) works at that intersection of vision and reality. It supports residents across cultural and religious lines — from Arab Israelis and Palestinians to Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish communities — helping them access essential, everyday resources. At the same time, it partners with Jerusalem’s municipality to extend services more equitably across the city’s diverse populations.
In this way, JICC acts as a bridge: connecting communities who share common urban challenges with the systems designed to support them. They teach residents how to access their rights, and help city institutions better understand — and serve — the full breadth of Jerusalem’s population.
In a time that often feels defined by intractable conflict, this work is both practical and profound. It is grounded in a simple but radical idea: that every person deserves dignity.
Right now, that mission is especially urgent. For the first time in recent memory, Jerusalem has come under heavy rocket fire. In such moments, access to shelter becomes a matter of life and death. Yet not all communities receive — or trust — the same channels of information. JICC steps into that gap, translating safety protocols into the languages and cultural contexts of the city’s many communities, ensuring that life-saving information is both accessible and actionable. At the same time, they are partnering with the municipality to offer emotional resilience workshops, helping both Haredi and Arab Israeli communities build tools to navigate fear, uncertainty, and trauma.
As Daniel shared with me: “At the end of the day, people need to live their lives with dignity.”
JICC’s work is rooted in that truth. By honoring cultural differences, strengthening communication, and expanding access to vital resources, they are helping to lay the groundwork for something larger: the possibility of peace. Not all at once — but step by step, relationship by relationship, moment by moment.
As we approach Passover — one of the most widely observed rituals in Jewish life — we prepare to gather around our tables for first and second night Seders, and later, for Mimouna. Each year, we end the Seder with the words: “Next Year in Jerusalem.” We are meant to say these words with hope. Not only as a longing for travel or return, but as a vision of what Jerusalem might yet become. The name “Jerusalem” itself gestures toward wholeness and peace — a city not only dreamed of, but lived in with dignity.
This year, as Jerusalem faces both violence and deep internal strain, I find my hope grounded in the work of organizations like the Jerusalem Intercultural Center — and in people like my friend Daniel, who choose, every day, to build bridges in a place that so often feels divided.
Next Year in Jerusalem.Next year with dignity.Next year with peace.Next year with wholeness — for each and every one of us.
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