A Farewell Letter of Nico Sokolovsky, the former director of the Human Rights Center in Hadera. ›

For several days I have been busy thinking about how to convey in a few words the tremendous experience of being here.  Perhaps the coupling of the words “being here” is the beginning of the solution…

The centre in Hadera is our opportunity to be here (that not by chance is one of the names of God).  It is an expression of our stand on the side of a population which does not get a hearing owing to its position, its location… Indeed “here” we get an opportunity to be present!

Being present, after two years in this position is, to my understanding, a mitzvah of the highest importance – maybe it should be included in the Ten Commandments.  “I amthe Lord your God” is interpreted by the Rambam as a command to know God, I interpret it as an invitation to be present.

My job gave me the chance to visit and to accompany the sick, to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, to care for the weak, for those beaten by the system, and to try to improve on the experiment of realizing the dream of a Jewish state, to feel that I am engaged in the Jewish-Zionist enterprise, to raise my voice and shout against the loss of way that our country suffers from…

To leave (perhaps for a minute) the small closed reality that I live in and to meet the other (in terms of economy, social grouping, religion, etc.) and – at this meeting with him or her – to widen  my knowledge of my God.

As a result of my work for this organization, my understanding of justice has deepened, thank you!

O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever. Who can express the mighty acts of the LORD, or make all His praise to be heard? Happy are they that keep justice, that do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O LORD, when Thou favourest Thy people; O think of me at Thy salvation; That I may behold the prosperity of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation (Psalms 106).

From a deep understanding that God exists in the combination of justice and benevolence, between the pursuit of righteousness and the preservation of law, I wish to congratulate RabbiSigal Asher,the new director of the Human Rights centre and to wish her every success: be present, and when your attraction is needed be there because it is the place where one of God’s faces is revealed.

Sincerely,

Nico Sokolovski