Trip to See Rabbi Adam Frank in Jerusalem

June 8, 2007

Last weekend I was able to join my friend, Rabbi Adam Frank who made Alliah (became and Israeli) about seven years ago. He is now married with two beautiful kids and a dog. I felt so fortunate to be able to spend the weekend with him.

Adam is the Rabbi of the main Conservative Synagogue in Jerusalem, a prestigious position in a beautiful building. Few Israelis are Conservatives and the Synagogue is located near the tourist hotels. Thus, most people that are there for Shabbat services are tourists. He gives the sermon on Saturday in English. Adam has explained to me that he is inspired that he touches so many from around the world and that his sermons get spread around so much.

I took the 45 minute bus ride to Jerusalem and took a local bus to his neighborhood where he met me with the kids in a double baby carriage. We walked to his home where I was incredibly impressed. It is state of the art, tasteful, and elegant. He is on the bottom floor of a renovated house and has a lush garden surrounding it all. The cool dry breeze of Jerusalem, being at a higher altitude than sea level Tel Aviv, was more than refreshing. Tel Aviv’s crumbling obsolescence next to the rustic but purely stoic Jerusalem architecture makes for a drastic shift in awareness of being somewhere special. Tel Aviv is the 1940’s and 50’s buildings decaying and ready for replacement, not just renovation. Jerusalem is 18th and 19th century architecture that looks like it did when new. Tel Aviv centers on fun, fashion, and looking good where Jerusalem is about fulfillment, community, and spirituality. I immediately noticed that most conversations that I heard were in American English. Not so in Tel Aviv. (OK, I also noticed the women were not as thin or hot as in Tel Aviv.)

So, after an hour or two with Adam and his kids playing on their back patio in the cool breeze and the setting sun, Adam took me over to his parent’s apartment that was a 5 minute walk from his home. They live in Atlanta but visit often. They are there as of the writing of this entry. They had purchased two large 2-bedroom condos on top of one another and added a spiral staircase between the two. I had the whole thing and it was a sweet shot of lavishness compared to my 380 sf flat with broken A/C on a noisy street in Tel Aviv.

Adam and drove to and walked back from the Synagogue for Erev Shabbat (Friday night) services. It’s about 1.5 miles to his house. We had a quiet dinner with his wife and kids and I returned to his folks' apartment for the best night’s sleep I’ve had in Israel so far. I walked to the Synagogue (fashionable late) for the Shabbat service on Saturday morning, attended the Oneg Shabbat afterward for the best kosher pastries of my life and walked back with Adam. Adam explained that competition makes the pastries better. There are not many kosher bakeries in the ATL.

Adam is a good man to talk with about life philosophies. I spoke a little of my choice of believing that good/bad/true/false/right/wrong/etc. are all subjective. I want to live my life out of the context of compassion and that everyone’s reality is real – to them. We don’t know anything. We just choose to believe and we have to choose. Did something really happen in the past or did it just happen because we made it real in our words? Adam believes in ultimate truth beyond what we believe or don’t. Of course, he is right. But, so am I…

Adam took a nap while I walked up to the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Inside was a carnival of cultures right at the entrance. It was like a movie where a traveler in the middle ages walks and walks and enters into a walled city to the bustle of shopkeepers, performers, beggars, dirt, etc. In the 10 minutes I spent I felt the Old City was Hasidim in fur caps from Poland, Arabs selling wares, Ethiopian Jews, Priests, and American tourists.

The highlight of the weekend was the Shiva Broche (7 Blessings) party at his neighbor’s house. It is a Jewish tradition to give a party for newly weds for 7 days after the wedding. Since they traditionally did not know each other well before the wedding, they could get to know each other’s family and friends this way. There were about 30 people, and great food. It was at Adam’s wife’s friend’s house who is a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor. For a while at the party, I spoke with Linda Gradstein, a 20-year veteran reporter for NPR from whom I have listened to goings on here and in the West Bank for years. I didn’t get into what I have written about to NPR’s Ombudsman for so long: that NPR always portrays Israel in a bad light.

Everyone was Anglo at the party – from the USA or England. When the bride and groom arrived, there were so many touching songs and traditions from the songs sung after the meal the Havdallah songs. There was a moving Havdallah ceremony where the bride and groom held the Havdallah candle in the dark while the living room echoed with song from 30 people. I thought of filming it with my camera but I was caught up in the moment. This is a feeling I used to get at the home of my friends, Debbie and Stuart Wiston before they moved to Tennessee. It is the joyful communal part of Judaism, rich with ritual and tradition. I could see the authentic joy in everyone’s faces as they sang and joined in the traditions. All wished Shavuah Tov to each other as the Sabbath ended on Saturday night and the new week began.
A note about Rabbi Adam Frank: He is an immediately impressive 40 year old man. He is an inspiring fearless leader and puts action behind his passions. He is an ardent Zionist, Vegan, Observant Jew and compassionate liberal. The world is so much better with him in it. He pushes me and others to stay in action, not just in our feelings. He is as passionate as I about our responsibility (especially the Jews’) to the people of Darfur as well as our duty to better the planet. He is a Vegan for animal rights’ reasons http://www.abolitionist-online.com/_06frank.html. I can learn a lot from him and hope that we can stay in touch. He negotiated a work schedule that is not too demanding but he is a loving father and dedicates a lot of time to raising and playing with the children. I know I have a lot to learn from and about him. I hope I can help him refresh his energies sometime soon as he has inspired me.