Showing Up is 80% of Life

By Gary Greene

One afternoon we toured Jaffa looking at it through the lens of leadership.  Jaffa’s history can be divided into two periods.  Until the 19^th century, Jaffa was a gentile port city.  Its leaders were divine right kings who had absolute power.  Not a very good model for us in the 21^st century no matter how we might fantasize about it.

The second period is the Zionist era.  Our tour guide Steve Israel suggested that Jews demonstrated three different types of leadership while developing Jaffa. Life in Palestine was bone crushing hard during the Second Aliyah.  “Many despaired of the difficult economic and health conditions and returned to Russia.” (Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 9 page 302)  Over 50% of these Jews left Palestine, but enough persisted to lay the foundation of the modern State of Israel.  Many of the future leaders of Israel like David Ben Gurion came from this era who showed up and remained.

In Jaffa there was a grocery man named Yechezke’el Sokovolsky. He was the community’s connector represented the second type of leadership.  When he saw a need, he immediately filled it without a moment’s hesitation.  He volunteered his services, his connections, and his money to make sure that Jaffa would become a thriving Jewish city.  The third type of leadership became the elected official like a city council person and mayor.

I appreciated the different kinds of leadership because not all of us can be an elected official. I also realize not all of us have the time, money, and inclination to step up to meet every need.  Nevertheless, everybody can just show up from time to time and that too is a form of leadership.  The Celebrate Israel Parade is a wonderful example.

At least in my community, too many parents with their families are reluctant to participate in the Celebrate Israel Day Parade for many reasons including the fear that such a rally will draw a terrorist attack.  Although their fears are real, they are unfounded.  There has never been a terrorist attack in all the years of the Parade’s history and the New York police force does an outstanding job protecting us and securing the parade route.

We need Jewish leaders supporting Israel.  As Woody Allen once said, “80% of life is just showing up.”  All we want are families just to show up at the Parade, Sunday, June 3^rd.  By doing so, they will step up to a valuable position of leadership in our community.  These leaders will lead the rest of us by their example.

BTW, if you want to show up at my synagogue’s screening of the Israeli movie Cables (Irit recommended this movie to me while we were in Israel), please do so.  It is free and begins at 7pm.  Marathon JCC, 245-37 60 Ave, Douglaston, NY 11362.