What do racism and shared society have to do with Yom Yerushalayim?

May 19, 2020 by Community newsdesk
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As Israel enters its 53rd year of control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem NIF Australia speaks with Tag Meir founder Gadi Gvaryahu and field manager Ruth Klein about the contentious day of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).

Ruth Klein

In normal times anti-racism organisation Tag Meir organises dozens of volunteers to hand out flowers in Jerusalem’s Old City in response to the often violent and racist celebrations of flag-waving Jewish nationalists.

With Covid-19 there are no planned parades this year, but Tag Meir will share the important work they are doing to build bridges between Jews and Arabs in Israel on Thursday 21 May @ 7:30 pm.
Register today at https://www.nif.org.au/yom_yerushalayim_2020
The interview will be aired on Zoom and Facebook.
Basing its actions on the traditional Jewish values of loving one’s neighbours and justice for all, Tag Meir combats racism in Israeli society. They are one of Israel’s leading anti-racism voices.

A strong cohort of volunteers hold hundreds of demonstrations, meetings, vigils and activities every year. This includes condolence visits to victims of terror and violence to both Israeli and Palestinian families, repainting over racist graffiti and offering material support to defaced religious places.

Founded in 2011, they meet with politicians and decision-makers to work to end incitement and inflammatory rhetoric and often comment in the national media on racially motivated violence.

Dr. Gadi Gvaryahu grew up in a politically moderate, Orthodox Jewish household and has spent his career in developing products for farm animals based on their physiological and behavioural needs. For years, he felt sad and frightened by the trend towards extremism in Israel’s Orthodox communities. An inflammatory book purporting to elucidate Jewish law’s relation to killing non-Jews published and endorsed by influential rabbis in 2009 was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After establishing the NGO “The 12th of Cheshvan” Gadi launched Tag Meir (Light Tag). He is the chairman and founder.

Ruth Klein is Tag Meir’s field manager. She grew up in a religious Zionist home, studied Political Science and Communications at Bar Ilan University, including a semester in New York University as a part of an Israeli-Palestinian leadership program. Ruth, a peace activist, joined Tag-Meir in 2018.

Comments

One Response to “What do racism and shared society have to do with Yom Yerushalayim?”
  1. Brian Wiener says:

    Any possible good that could have emanated from this article has been spoiled at the outset by the very biased, loaded and and anti-Zionist introductory words ” the contentious day of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day)”.
    To any Zionist, supporter of the State of Israel, there is nothing contentious whatsoever about Yom Yerushalayim.
    It is a day of pride, happiness, fulfillment.To quibble on this huge milestone is very sad thing to see among Jews, and especially Israelis.

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