On Sunday April 27, the Mandel Leadership Institute hosted a book launch for Tribal Trap: The Battle for Israel’s Soul and How to Win It, authored by Chen Artzi Sror, journalist and director of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, and Amichai Danino, an expert in public policy and strategy. The book provides an in-depth analysis of tribalism in Israeli society, and explores forms of language that might extricate Israeli society from this dangerous spiral and move us toward a solution.

Held at the National Library of Israel, the event was attended by some 130 people, and was moderated by poet Shlomit Naim Naor, a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. The evening began with welcoming addresses from Yael Hess, director of the Mandel Leadership Institute, and Dov Eichenwald, CEO and publisher of Yedioth Books. Yael spoke of the importance of argument and the necessity and urgency of non-partisanship and shared commitment to Israeli society as a whole, and offered a prayer and a call for peace. Dov Eichenwald noted the book’s importance for shaping policy and its impact on key figures in Israel.

Next to speak was Justice Noam Sohlberg, deputy president of Israel’s Supreme Court. Justice Sohlberg offered a close analysis of the book, and spoke of how much it is needed in the current public discourse in Israel: “Those who are at the extremes, who are constantly engaged in holy war, imagine that they are the ones who perceive the harsh realities and face them with courage, in contrast to the soft-hearted compromisers. While they set out to fight the dragons and monsters of the ’other side,’ armed with shield and sword, those of us who inhabit the gray zone in between prefer to try our strength again in dialogue and reconciliation meetings. The authors remind us that this quest for unity, search for compromise, and pursuit of peace in a hostile climate, against deep-rooted tendencies, and in the face of the spirit of the times, is a noble, daring, and heroic struggle. The authors have committed themselves to this struggle and have made an important contribution to it; may they be blessed.”

The second part of the evening featured a panel discussion in which five graduates of the Institute’s programs each addressed their own particular “tribe.” In these powerful and reflective speeches, the speakers asked for honesty and responsibility from their community.

The poet Bakol Serlui, a graduate of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, addressed the religious Zionist community:

“We think we speak for the people and know what they need because we once spoke to someone on the train to Tel Aviv who admitted that the Jewish settlements protect Kfar Saba. We know all about the Arabs among whom we live, without ever learning their language; we laud the beauty of the Haredi sector without seeing its flaws; and we love the commandment of settling the Land of Israel so much that we are willing to commit sins for it. We educate our children toward health, freedom and redemption to such a degree that we are helpless when they become ’hilltop youth’, chasing highs and rejecting boundaries and restrictions. We read only our sectoral press, and we’re certain that we know what everyone thinks and what the solution to every problem is, and that solution is always that we should have been more insistent and less compromising, because we’re the ’battered woman’ of this country. Like every other sector in Israel, we know everything, but unlike everyone else, we truly know, and everything that happens proves that we were right, and perhaps the solution is simply to dismantle everything. We confuse a window with a mirror; we look in the mirror and think it’s a window, and believe that the entire nation looks and thinks like us. When we try to look in the mirror, we see only the flaws of others, not our own.”

Next, Saar Gamzo, a musical producer, artistic director, and graduate of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, spoke to the secular tribe:

“I want to tell my tribe that I love you etcetera, but you killed that. You killed it with what we are not. I’ve heard, and we’ve all heard, what we are not enough times and for long enough. We are not Haredi, because Haredi means ignorance and regression. We are not from the periphery, because the periphery means backwardness and inability to progress. We are not religious Zionists, because religious Zionism means messianism and irrationality. We are not like these and we are not like those. So if we are not that, then what are we? At this point, it is already quite clear that we have gone so far with the desire to differentiate ourselves from others that we have lost the place from which we started and have become the complete opposite.

“We are secular because purist academic ideas can excite us, but we know how to give them pragmatic interpretations that can actually be applied to life. We are secular because secularism is science and criticism and questioning, both (and perhaps mainly) of our ideas and our way of life, in order to be sure that we are taking the right path. We are secular because we aspire to progress and go far, but we don’t forget anyone or leave anyone behind. We are secular because it is our way of shaping our lives ourselves, according to the values we have chosen, and this choice requires us to take on enormous responsibility – the responsibility to formulate an alternative, the responsibility to create connections, the responsibility to produce leaders, the responsibility to lead, and the responsibility to say what we are in favor of, not just what we are against.”

Third to speak was Sabrin Hojerat, a past participant of the Mandel Lab for Senior Leadership, who was the head of policy planning and strategy for Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Sports from 2020–2024:

“We were always required to choose a side. To be either Arabs, or Israelis, or Palestinians, or citizens. But our lives don’t work that way. And me, I’m all of the above. Not out of confusion, but based on a committed and complete choice. On October 7, the pain exploded in all of our faces, and suddenly we had to explain again who we are, why we kept quiet, and why our expression of pain was different. I know how hard it is to hold an identity that doesn’t fit into pre-constructed slots. I know how painful it is to stand in front of looks that ask you – just because you are an Arab – to apologize for who you are, to apologize for the pain you are carrying (and the pain is not different; it is the same pain), to apologize for the complexity that you don’t apologize for. But it is precisely now, in the face of all the doubts and demands, that I remind myself and everyone else: I have long since chosen to be a part of all this. Not out of coercion, not because I was forced to, but out of a deep and determined choice. I chose to be part of Israeli society. I chose to take responsibility. I chose to influence, to act, and to build a future.”

The fourth speaker was screenwriter and poet Eden Abitbol, a graduate of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, who addressed his Haredi community:

“I won’t give up my identity as part of the Haredi tribe, even though sometimes it seems that the tribe has given up on me. And I can understand why. I’m not the Haredi person you members of the tribe prayed for. I don’t have five children, as I should at my age; I don’t have a discount on my municipal taxes; I didn’t get an apartment from my wife’s parents in exchange for a long-term commitment to Haredi yeshiva study. But despite this, I want you to know that I’m not giving up on you. No matter how you see me, I insist on defining myself as Haredi: Israeli Haredi, new Haredi, modern Haredi, liberal Haredi, hybrid Haredi, token Haredi, traditional Haredi. All these epithets that you consider derogatory, are beautiful compliments in my eyes. They tell the most fascinating story – the one that contains the most hope. I want to tell my tribe that I’m not giving up on it. I believe it has something to give, that it has something to say, that it has something to contribute.”

Last to speak was the artist and musician Yagel Haroush, an additional graduate of the Jewish culture program, who addressed the traditional population of Israel’s periphery. Yagel referred to the fact that in the periphery, great cultural treasures were saved from the melting pot and have been preserved. These assets have the power to reach the Israeli center and help it rebuild itself.

After Yagel spoke, he and Yonatan Amir, a faculty member of the Jewish culture program, performed the song “Shekshenavo" (“When We Come") by Arik Einstein, accompanied by kamancheh and electric guitar – a refreshing and innovative combination of east and west, traditional and cutting edge.

During the third part of the evening, Dr. Jeremy Fogel, a faculty member of the program, spoke with Chen and Amichai, the authors of the book. They discussed the need to renew a broad Israeli covenant, and the acute need for people across the spectrum to dismantle tribalism and counter global trends of polarization and division.

At the end of the event, singer Livnat Ben Hamo, an additional graduate of the program, read the end of the book, which tells the story of Dr. Alex Dancyg. A teacher and farmer at Kibbutz Nir Oz, Alex was a leading educator and one of the founders of Israel’s educational tours of Poland, who raised generations of instructors in the field of Holocaust remembrance. Alex was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and was murdered in captivity. The last section of the book deals with his inspiring character, his tragic story, and the need to work for the future without despair – just like educators and farmers who believe in the power of human action to make an impact.

At the end of the reading, Livnat sang the song Shetaltem Nigunim (“You Planted Melodies in Me”). Throughout the reading and singing, artist Rachel Shalev drew an illustration that was projected onto a large screen in real time, while musician Orian Shukrun accompanied Livnat on the piano. Rachel and Orian, like Livnat, are graduates of the program.

The uplifting event was full of hope, and presented a significant call for action to the country’s various tribes and to Israeli society as a whole. It faithfully and deeply represented the spirit and goals of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, the urgent need for a deep, connective, rich, and diverse Jewish culture – one that creates an Israeli language relevant to the enormous challenges we face.