On February 21st, Rabbi Joe and Corinne Wolfson held a unique and inspiring evening in their home hosting thirty Druze guests who drove from their homes in the north of Israel – among them high ranking military officers and mayors – to spend Shabbat with the JLIC TLV community. The Druze community are known for their astonishing commitment to the wellbeing and security of the state of Israel yet have often felt marginalized or under-appreciated, especially on account of the 2018 Nation State Bill.
The JLIC TLV community initially connected with the Druze community after visiting multiple mourning houses of Druze families who had lost sons fighting in Gaza. JLIC TLV community members Isaac Singer and Ariel Blum, along with Rabbi Joe and Corinne and enthusiastic partners in the Druze community, took upon themselves to grow and continue the relationship and to move it from coming together in tragedy to partnering together in joy.
The first half of the evening took the form of a 60 person Shabbat dinner at Rabbi Joe and Corinne’s with a 1 to 1 ratio between Druze visitors and JLIC TLV community members learning about one another and one another’s culture over a beautiful Shabbat meal followed by a community wide oneg in which the whole JLIC TLV community was able to learn from and sing and share with our new Druze friends.
JLIC TLV community members are hosted at the home of Radi Najam former head of the Bet Jaan city council and IDF colonel (res.) after having visited the shiva of Wassim Mahmoud in June 2024
Fadi Mula, Druze deputy battalion commander in the IDF and co-organiser of the evening, spoke at the dinner,
“Terror doesn’t distinguish blood from blood. We all paid a heavy price. We are all hurting and we are here because we are all committed to a shared future. Yes, there are laws that left us behind and government decisions that divided us. But this night proves that no one can decide for us how we go forward. We are proving that the covenant between Druze and Jews is alive, breathing, and depends upon us alone.”
Isaac Singer, one of the JLIC TLV organisers who had been inspired to work on the shabbaton after visiting a Druze shiva reflected afterwards:
“To see these two different cultures come together in the name of unity and love for Israel was something beautiful and inspiring. The Druze have really shown up for Israel, especially since October 7th, and it’s so important the we Jews recognize and appreciate them for everything they do for us. This dinner could be the start of something momentous.”
Tel Aviv city councilman, Noah Efron, a friend of the JLIC TLV community, shared afterwards on The Promised Podcast (one of Israel’s most widely listened to English language podcasts):
When the night was over and the people from Beit Jaan and Yarka started their 2-hour drive home, it felt like something remarkable, something magical had happened. This meeting of peoples who were all of us so eager to feel what with challah and wine and Friday night Shabbat dinner table conversation. It was so easy to feel on that night that for all that we are two peoples, we are also one people which made the challenges that the Druze experience feel all the more awful and exhausting but it also made you feel like maybe in the fullness of time what with the arc of history bending as it does that that stuff is the stuff that will pass and that this Shabbat dinner is the stuff that will survive which is maybe too pretty a thought but it was Shabbat and in the dinner we’d all seen something of a miracle and what was maybe most miraculous about it was that it felt like this may not be a miracle at all. This may just be our future. Like Fadi Mula said, it depends on us alone.
It was agreed afterwards that in addition to making the Shabbaton an annual event, leaders from both communities will work together on projects that will help bring the Jewish and Druze communities together with one another, building towards a warmer and stronger society in Israel.
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