Any community is more than its leadership; at its foundation, a community consists of its people. ALL of its people. After our stay in Jerusalem, we set out to explore other communities in different parts of the country.

The city of Lod has a mixed Jewish and Muslim population, including a large Ethiopian-Jewish immigrant community. The city's history goes back to Biblical times, it has some beautiful Roman mosaics, and it is associated with the Christian St. George. A Greek Orthodox church there was eventually split in two, and one half is now a mosque; a Jewish synagogue is just around the corner.

Interior of St. George Church	Entrance to the El-Khidr Mosque	Olive oil factory

We visited Mosaic: The Chicago Community Center in the Jewish-Arab Ramat Eshkol neighborhood, whose director told us about the programs they provide for local children. And we also spent time at Tech Center, a post-secondary school established specifically to train new Ethiopian Israelis to develop entreprenurial skills and build successful careers in high-tech and computer-related fields.

After leaving Lod, we headed for the Kinneret — the Sea of Galilee — in the north of Israel. On the way, we stopped at the Yemin Orde Youth Village, which provides full education and social services for children from at-risk environments. By evening, we had arrived at the Ein Gev Resort, located across the Kinneret from the city of Tiberius, just below the Golan Heights.

View of Tiberius from Ein Gev	Agriculture on the Kinneret (Golan Heights across the lake)	Fertile lands

Our two days and nights in and around Tiberius gave us the opportunity to learn about several organizations and individuals working to improve the lives of ALL people living in the region, regardless of religion or income. The staff of the Poriya Medical Center consists of both Muslim and Jewish professionals who serve the area's diverse population of Jews and various minorities of all religious denominations. (Poriya also, for a period of time when the border could be crossed, treated Syrians injured in that country's civil war). We then spent time at Kinneret College, offering undergrad and masters degrees in a range of subjects; many of their students are the first in their families to attend college. The campus will also soon be home to the Kinneret Innovation Center, whose organizers hope to improve employment opportunities in the region. And we had the privilege of spending a few hours at a small youth activity center that serves a lower-income neighborhood of Jews from a mix of cultural backgrounds (Russian, Ethiopian, some observant, others secular). The program is run by a man who grew up in the neighborhood and wants to help the children who live there now, often in single-parent households, giving them after-school activities as well as social service and counseling resources for their parents.

Green fields in winter	Our guide Yossi discusses Rachel the Poet	Bustling Tiberius

Our second day in Tiberius included a visit to the grave of Rachel the Poet in the Kinneret Cemetery, where we discussed some of the different ways that Jews in the past, and today, view the traditions of Judaism and their relationship to the Land of Israel, from passionately secular, socialist Zionists to passionately ultra-Orthodox religious fundamentalists. We also spent several fascinating hours at Kibbutz Hanaton, the only kibbutz in the country associated with the Masorti movement and the location of the only mikveh in the country that is open for use by any person, rather than under the control of the national (Orthodox) rabbinate. The mikvah is run by Havina Ner-David, who is yet another of the passionate individuals we met who strive to create more tolerance and inclusivity in their immediate community and use that as a steppingstone to larger-scale improvements in people's lives.