In the midst of the depressing turmoil of the election campaign and the continual killing and shootings on the roads, a very encouraging and heartening thing happened. Though it was dutifully reported in the press and on radio and television, I don't think it was given its proper due and analysis. The event was the dedication of a new synagogue in Moshav Margaliyot, in northern Galilee, hard by the Lebanese border.
New synagogues are regularly dedicated here without much public notice and fanfare.
But the leading citizen of Margaliyot is Yossi Sarid, the head of Meretz, a group not usually identified with synagogues. Not only was Sarid present at the dedication, black kippa and all, but he was the prime mover behind the drive to build the synagogue. The chief rabbis journeyed up to Margaliyot to participate in the dedication ceremony. But it was Sarid's statement that caught my attention. At first glance, this statement appears to be the perfect oxymoron.