This week I participated in the cornerstone laying ceremony for a new synagogue in the Neve Nof neighborhood of Lod.
Neve Nof is a very mixed neighborhood.
Jews and Arabs live in it densely.
The religious community is old, large and developing.
This is the first time in decades, said the mayor, that a new permanent synagogue is being built in the city.
A large elephant stood at the heart of an extension full of parents and children.
No one spoke to him, but he was just there.
Neve Nof may not have been the neighborhood most involved in the May riots last year, but it was part of the events, including a shot fired not far from where we were standing.
The newly established neighborhood is named after the late Rene Shenrev, who was murdered about three years ago. .
Large speeches were given on stage.
Disorders were not mentioned in a word, but there was great power in the air.
The children's laughter and the parents' singing rose together with the clouds of dust over the sandy field and a great wind rested on them all.
And what I have left of this whole incident is one small picture that took place even before the incident, and in my opinion no one, except me, looked at it at all: The new.
Such is the custom and it is beautiful.
Where does concrete come from?
Both development works have not yet begun at all.
Well, in the designated corner stood a small concrete mixer, next to it a cement sack, a sand sack and a gravel sack and a pile of boys from the community crowded around in heated arguments.
It says the sand first and it loads the cement first!
It means such speed and he insists on another speed.
Eventually a fine concrete pulp was formed in the mixer, which although I hope will not really be the cornerstone for the new building, it did look like concrete.
And the question is: boys who were born and raised in Lod and study in municipal institutions in Lod, boys most of whom will continue their studies in Torah or computers or economics or maximum management or finance - how do they know how to pour concrete?
What about them and cement and building blocks?
The answer probably lies at the top of the story.
A true Zionist answer is determination and devotion, building and planting and a new, beautiful and developing generation of children, with one hand learning and protecting and one hand building and building.
In the city and in the village, in Acre and Lod.
kobiarieli@gmail.com
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