A Tour To Be Paid for in Psalms
Sometimes when green ideals and zealous Orthodoxy meet, the results are a little bizarre.
The Haredi media is reporting that Eliezer Zahavi, a green-inclined resident from the coastal Israeli city of Bat Yam, has been salvaging reusable items from people’s trash for months — wooden boards, scraps of plastic, bits of metal. He has constructed a wagon, on which he’s about to start offering rides to the public.
But this is no normal seaside pleasure ride, paid for with money: He demands spiritual reward. The fare is paid in Psalms — he will transport people in the donkey-drawn wagon without expectation of monetary reward, rather they must read from the Biblical book of Psalms for the duration of the journey.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
