H eadlines
Hebron Strengthens Ties with Local Help
of the Judea and Samaria
Chamber of Commerce Ashraf
Jabari, with whom Fleisher has
shared glatt kosher Iftar meals
in Jabari’s home. Jabari agreed
to buy and set off a series of
fireworks for Fleisher’s daugh-
ter’s bat mitzvah.

Earlier this month, Fleisher
received a call from a teacher
in Israel hoping to bring her
students to the Cave of the
Patriarch and Matriarchs, but
who couldn’t afford transpor-
tation. Fleisher called the bus
company and paid the class’
bus fare.

Fleisher and Barrack met
through Melissa Jane Kronfeld,
founder of Passion for a
Purpose, a New York-based
social impact consultancy.

Kronfeld has worked with
Fleisher for three years, when
she made aliyah, and is inspired
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
YISHAI FLEISHER,
the international spokesperson
for the Jewish community
in Hebron, is working to
strengthen that city with the
help of Philadelphia-based
attorney and philanthropist
Jeffrey Barrack.

In late October, Barrack
met Fleisher and suggested
he erect a Chanukiah on top
of the city’s Beit Hadassah
Visitors Center and Museum.

Hebron, a city nestled in the
Judean Mountains in the West
Bank, is host to only 10,000
Jews among more than 200,000
Palestinians. The day after Barrack
suggested the idea, Fleisher
came back to him with a price
estimate from a local metal
shop. “And within three weeks,
we have this giant, gorgeous
Chanukiah at the very top of
all of Hebron,” Fleisher said.

Israel President Isaac
Herzog visited Hebron on
the first night of Chanukah
and lit the Chanukah candles
at the Cave of the Patriarchs
and Matriarchs. Fleisher said
there was “no question about
it” that Herzog would have
seen Fleisher and Barrack’s
Chanukiah. “Putting up that menorah
was a celebration of Jewish
life and coexistence in Judea,”
Barrack said.

But Fleisher’s job is more
than just putting up a
Chanukiah for the city’s Jewish
population. Since assuming
the position in 2015, Fleisher
has been responsible for
maintaining Jewish-Palestinian
relations in the city, advocating
for Hebron as a place of
profound Jewish import and
encouraging aliyah.

“My job is, on the one hand,
to push off some of the negative
imagery that is associated with
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM by his “doer” personality and
“endless capacity to find the
humor in any situation.”
“The end goal is to make
sure that there is a future for
Hebron where the world is
inspired by us the same way
they’re inspired by Jerusalem,
by the Kotel,” Kronfeld said.

Barrack hopes to further
Fleisher’s mission in the U.S.

He’s developing an Israel
mission trip called the No
Lines Tour to show Jews what
Jewish-Palestinian coexistence
looks like. Beta testing for the
trip will take place this spring.

“My hope is that many
people can get lit like a candle
from this trip,” Barrack said,
“and then come home and light
up our community.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
From left: Jeffrey Barrack and Yishai Fleisher in October
Courtesy of Jeffrey Barrack
Hebron,” Fleisher said. “There’s
Fleisher frequently interacts
a concerted effort to delegiti- with his Palestinian and Arab
mize Israel constantly, and we neighbors, including co-chair
all know that, but Hebron is
one of the main ways through
which that delegitimization
happens.” Hebron is home to the Cave
of the Patriarch and Matriarchs
— the tomb of Abraham, Jacob,
Isaac, Rebecca, Sarah and Leah
— making it the second-ho-
liest city to Jews behind only
Jerusalem. But its West Bank
location and the reputation of
terror attacks occurring there
has taken it off many Jews’
to-visit lists.

Fleisher and Barrack want
to change that narrative.

“In Judea and Samaria, there
Philadelphia-based is an amazing phenomenon philanthropist
Jeffrey Barrack
that most American Jews only and International Spokesperson
the Jewish Community In
see on a bumper sticker, and for Hebron
Yishai Fleisher erected a
that is coexistence,” Barrack Chanukiah which could be seen
throughout the city of Hebron
said. during Chanukah.

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DECEMBER 23, 2021
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