A Bittersweet Jerusalem

by Sarah Stern 

I am biting into a Hanukah sufganiyah, a seasonal jelly doughnut, in the middle of the outdoor market of West Jerusalem, coming home from the Telos office. I am holding the bright red pole of a squeegee mop that I just purchased. It’s an innocent picture, but during these tense days in West Jerusalem, it looks like I grabbed just anything I could find in the house and called it a weapon.

It’s not far from reality. About two months ago, the mayor made a statement encouraging us to carry weapons – that I did not imagine. About a week ago, two Palestinian teenaged girls were shot dead on the ground by the police for stabbing an old man with scissors, Palestinian by mistake, meters from where I am standing – that I wish I had imagined.

I am covered in doughnut powder. This December, the strawberry-filled pastry is served with another helping of blood-shed.

So, finding sweetness is difficult for me this holiday season. In looking to my religion through my current lens, I read Hanukah as a story about reclaiming and rededicating the Jewish temple, reminding me that the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif are at the core of the violence here in Jerusalem.

I have to look beyond the most-told portion of the Hanukah story to get at what resonates for me this year.

According to the holiday story, when the Maccabees, the heroes of Hanukah who redeemed Jerusalem, gathered their forces, they recruited from unlikely places. The band of ordinary people that rose to the task gave up their ordinary lives as merchants, farmers, and tradesmen at an opportune moment, believing in a cause greater than themselves.

Wielding a doughnut and squeegee pole, it is hard to believe myself a modern-day Maccabee. But I am inspired by the women and men that I work with here, who undeniably look the part. Like the members of Breaking the Silence, who risk personal relationships in an Israeli society that values army-service deeply and give honest testimony about their time in the military. Or the Shehades, founders of the House of Grace, who gave up a normal apartment and life, not only to establish, but to actually reside in the only prisoner rehabilitation center for Arab Citizens of Israel.

Telos chooses to partner with those who make significant sacrifices in a mission to redeem Jerusalem, and this country. Your decision to come on a Telos trip, pausing your day job, your obligations, your time with your family, is also a sacrifice towards this goal. Every delegation I meet is reinvigorating for me, and for my Telos partners on the ground.

You’ve heard a handful of the alternative stories that we are telling together as peacemakers in Israel/Palestine during this cold December. You’ve learned that sometimes here, that which is bittersweet is better than that which is sweet.