Today was Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the month) of Elul: the month of soul introspection that precedes the Jewish New Year. Apropos of the season, I thought I’d share this remarkable new year’s greeting: a clip of the Palestinian partners of the Geneva Initiative wishing their Jewish friends a Shanah Tovah. Though the clip seems to have been prepared last year before the Annapolis summit (and even though the promise of those days have been largely squandered) I still receive it in a spirit of hope.  For me, at least, this greeting offers the perfect New Year’s message for our dark and disillusioned times.

PS: Listening to Palestinians offer Jewish New Year greetings in Hebrew reminded me once more of the irony that a significantly larger proportion of Palestinians speak the Jewish native language than Jewish Israelis speak Arabic (or than the world’s Jews speak Hebrew itself, for that matter…)