Monthly Archives: November 2011

64 Years Ago Today – Now What?

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

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On November 29, 1947, 64 years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by 33 votes against 13 (with 10 abstentions) the “Palestine Partition Plan” advocating a two-state solution to the Arab-Jewish conflict, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jews were exuberant. The Arabs rejected the plan. Nearly six months later Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel: “…AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, (WE) HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.” The next day 7 Arab armies attacked Israel killing 6000 Jews, 1% of the entire Jewish population.

The borders proposed by the UN Partition Plan gave the Jewish minority 55% of the country, though half was the Negev desert, and in that portion 50% were Arabs.

Once the War of Independence began, Ben-Gurion promoted “Plan Dalet” as a strategic necessity and as a solution to two problems: it added 22% more land to the Jewish State and drove out much of the Arab population.

The myth that Arabs fled because their leaders told them that the Jews would rape and kill them is only partly true. The Haganah also drove out many thousands of Arabs. In the end only a small part of the Arab population remained in the new State of Israel and they became citizens. That number has now grown to 1.5 million inside the Green Line.

The question debated in Israel today concerns the meaning of a “Jewish State.” Israeli right wingers reject a two-state solution and claim that the “Jewish State” belongs exclusively to Jews regardless of the fact that thousands of Arabs have lived there for centuries. Most Israelis support a two-states for two-peoples solution, affirm the democratic character of the Jewish State and believe that all its citizens (Arabs included) have equal rights under the law according to the Declaration of Independence.

In a recent piece on this 64th anniversary since the UN Partition plan, the Israeli journalist and peace activist, Uri Avnery wrote the following:

“THE 1947 partition plan was an exceptionally intelligent document. Its details are obsolete now, but its basic idea is as relevant today as it was 64 years ago: two nations are living in this country [and] they cannot live together in one state without a continuous civil war. They can live together in two states. The two states must establish close ties between each other.

Ben-Gurion was determined to prevent the founding of the Arab Palestinian state, and with the help of King Abdullah of Transjordan he succeeded in this. All his successors, with the possible exception of Yitzhak Rabin, have followed this line, now more than ever. We have paid – and are still paying – a heavy price for this folly. On the 64th anniversary of this historic event, we must go back to its basic principle: Israel and Palestine; Two States for Two Peoples.”

Such, of course, is more easily said than done. To shine a bright light on the essence of the problem I recommend three important articles:

[1] An opinion piece in Al Jazeera (September 30, 2011) by Sari Nusseibeh, Professor of Philosophy and President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem entitled “Why Israel can’t be a ‘Jewish State’” – www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion (once on the site, type in the title of the article in “Search” and it will come up). Nusseibeh is considered a leading Palestinian “moderate” (after reading this peace one has to ask what “moderate” means!”

[2] A thoughtful and sober response to Nusseibeh’s piece by his friend, Uri Avnery (noted above), an Israeli journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset, and leader of Gush Shalom, called “We are a People – A Response to Sari Nusseibeh” http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/we-are-a-people-a-response-to-sari-nusseibeh-1.389543. As a member of Israel’s left wing peace camp, Avnery is not hopeful for a settlement anytime soon not because of Israel’s right wing extremist government, but rather because the Palestinian identity and narrative has led them to regard Jews as nothing more than a religion and not a people.

[3] A blog by Bernard Avishai, an American-Israeli journalist and contributing Editor to the Harvard Business Review, taken from a much longer Atlantic article (November 23, 2011) (subscription only) called “The Return of ‘The Right.’” Avishai recasts the conflict based on the necessity for mutual understanding of the Israeli and Palestinian narratives – http://bernardavishai.blogspot.com/2011/11/return-of-right.html

As I ponder the complexity, intractability and politicization of this conflict I am reminded of what President John F. Kennedy said relative to the Soviet and American nuclear arms race – “This is not rocket science. These problems were made by human beings and they can be solved by human beings.”

Amen!

 

 

 

 

One more Reason the Israeli Reform Movement is so Important to Israel and World Jewry

28 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel/Zionism, Life Cycle, Stories

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The following letter was sent by Anat Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (IRAC), the social justice arm of the Israeli Reform movement.

Anat is one of my personal heroines. She is not only brilliant but indefatigable in striving to fulfill the mitzvah – Tzedek tzedek tirdof (Justice justice shall you pursue – Deuteronomy 16:20). The injustice and indecency of this Orthodox Rabbi and this regressive and inhumane practice that is growing in Israel should outrage any one with a conscience.

Dear Friends of IRAC,

Rosie, a teacher who lives in a small town in the Negev desert, is a single mother who lost her father at the beginning of the year. The family decided to bury him in the nearby town of Ofakim. Rosie spent the night writing a eulogy for her father that she was going to read at the funeral

When they arrived at the cemetery there was a mechitza, a barrier, separating her from her brother and all the other men attending the funeral. When her turn came to speak, the officiating rabbi asked her brother to read the eulogy instead because he said “In our tradition women are not allowed to speak at funerals.” Rosie’s brother refused, saying that she should be the one to read it, since this is what their father wanted but the rabbi refused and suggested to read the eulogy himself. Rosie protested and cried from behind the partition “Are you going to say ‘My beloved father’?”

Rosie did not keep quiet and told her story at a Knesset conference on segregation this month. She wept sharing her pain and frustration at not being able to say goodbye to her father and at having her own words, written during one of the hardest moments of her life, taken away from her. Though missing a day of work was a financial burden for her, she came to testify because she never wants women to be humiliated like this again. With the help if IRAC’s lawyers she is suing the chevre kadisha, burial society, of Ofakim to show that this practice must stop immediately. This past Thursday Rosie went on the most popular radio show in Israel to talk about her upcoming court case. The broadcaster asked her to read her eulogy on air. Millions of Israelis got to hear her words and her voice.

Segregation and exclusion of women has spread like wildfire to many aspects of public life; post offices, buses, and supermarkets and now it has even reached the arena of public death. We at IRAC have been like firefighters, vigilantly putting out fires wherever they pop up. Unfortunately, Rosie’s story is not an isolated one. We have received complaints about segregation in cemeteries from Netanya, Petach Tikva, Tiberias, Yavne, and Jerusalem. Some of these women are not even allowed next to the gravesites of their loved ones because some rabbis see it as inappropriate. IRAC is collecting stories from other women so we can deal with this issue on a national scale. Segregation at funerals affects all Israelis and they are not willing to stand it anymore.

These new fires will not stop us. My helmet is on and my water hose is ready.

L’shalom,

Anat Hoffman

 

 

 

“In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson – A Book Recommendation

27 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Book Recommendations, Jewish History

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This book was a great read as it has all the elements necessary for an exciting suspense novel. The story covers the first year of service (1933-1934) of the newly arrived American Ambassador to Germany, William E. Dodd, and is told from his and his family’s perspective. We witness Hitler’s solidification of power, the Nazi subjugation of Germany, the obsessive anti-Semitism of the 3rd Reich, the strained relationship between Ambassador Dodd and the German government, the suspicion, hatred and jealousies among Nazi’s top officials, and the class-based dislike and distrust of Dodd by key American Foreign Service officials.

We are privy also to the numerous romantic affairs of Dodd’s beautiful, flirtatious and naive 24-year old daughter, Martha, as she cavorts with top Nazi and Gestapo officials, French diplomats, Soviet agents, and famous literary figures. A close Hitler intimate, Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, tried to make a romantic match between Martha and Hitler himself. Reflecting on Martha’s unorthodox behavior, one American Embassy staffer snapped that Dodd’s residence wasn’t just the Ambassador’s house; it was a “house of ill repute.”

Unless one understood that this book was actual history painstakingly researched by Erik Larson (based in part on Dodd’s and Martha’s diaries) one would have to assume that this was a work of fiction. However, the book is history.

William E. Dodd was a late choice by FDR to represent the United States in Germany after many others refused the position. At the age of 64 Dodd needed a change from the hum-drum of academic affairs and wanted some position that would enable him to finish his 3 volume history of the American South before he died (he did not complete it). He thought that going to Belgium or the Netherlands as the US Ambassador would give him time to do so. Since no one FDR wanted for Berlin was willing to serve there, the job fell to Dodd.

Dodd was a mild-mannered professor of history at the University of Chicago and a close friend of former President Woodrow Wilson. He prided himself on being a Jeffersonian democrat. He was principled, rational, modest, and decent. Unlike his Foreign Service colleagues, he was not wealthy, and he eschewed luxurious living to their chagrin.

Dodd had spent his student years studying in Leipzig, was a German speaker, and loved pre-Nazi Germany. It did not take long for him to see the Nazi menace for what it really was. We see his growing revulsion to the Nazi regime, to Hitler and everyone around him. In contrast, the politically naïve and bon vivant Martha was easily seduced by the new Germany, its charm and the people she met, and she refused to accept first-hand testimony of Nazi tyranny and brutality by her literary friends until personal experience disillusioned her too.

Though Dodd himself held anti-Semitic views like many of his era, he was deeply distressed by the Nazi persecution of Jews and advocated that FDR publicly condemn it. His State Department bosses, however, who were bonafide anti-Semites, advised FDR against speaking out arguing that offending Germany would cause it to renege on its payment of debt to the United States.

Though the book does not deal at all with the moral questions of how an entire nation could become passive in the face of tyranny and how otherwise decent Germans could become partners in the Nazi evil, it offers a unique window into the heart of the “beast.” The book’s title is taken from the name of a park in an exclusive neighborhood of Berlin called Tiergarten (lit. “animal garden” or “garden of the beasts,” which recalled a time when the area was a hunting preserve for royalty).

The book would make a great feature film, and I would not be surprised if it is already optioned.

For more, see this review in The Seattle Times (May 7, 2011) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2014957681_br08beasts.html.

Into My Children’s Cups – A Poem for Parashat Toldot

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in Divrei Torah, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Poetry

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Isaac is the most misunderstood and underappreciated Patriarch. So often he is cast by commentators as feeble-minded and weak, a passive victim to his father’s zealotry, manipulated by his mother Sarah and his wife Rebecca, taken as the fool by his son Jacob, passed off as a simpleton and follower minus the revolutionary fervor of Abraham and the dream visions of Jacob.

I believe this view of him is unfortunate and wrong. Indeed, without Isaac Abraham would have passed into oblivion because Isaac re-dug his father’s wells (Genesis 26:18+), an act of profound yearning and faith. After he did so God gave this blessing: Al tira, ki it’cha Anochi u-vei-rach’ti-cha v’hir’bei-ti et zar’a-cha ba-a-vur Avraham av’di – “Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your offspring for the sake of My servant Abraham.” (Genesis 26:24)

Like his father Abraham and his son Jacob, Isaac recognized the significance of his Divine-human encounter. The Midrash and mystical traditions understand his re-digging his father’s wells as Isaac’s own spiritual search for God.

The well, with its hidden waters, is a symbol of soul-light covered over by physicality (i.e. klipot), and Isaac’s “digging” and seeking that Ineffable light became the central organizing motif of his adult life and a sign of his spiritual maturity.

Though Isaac broke no new ground, by re-digging Abraham’s wells the son embodies spiritual continuity and the virtue of perseverance, each a core necessity for the perpetuation of the Jewish people and tradition.

Not all of us are revolutionaries digging new wells and forging new spiritual paths, or visionaries intuiting God’s presence and calling us to God, but our role as re-diggers of our forebears’ wells needs always to be appreciated as essential to life itself and the sustenance and future of Judaism and the Jewish people.

The following is my poetic tribute to Isaac, one of my favorite figures in all of Torah, because he was a pre-eminent “digger” of faith.

I am Isaac. / Tradition doesn’t esteem me / as my father and son. / To our people’s cynics / I’m a passive place holder, / set between two visionaries / one hearing God’s voice, / the other communing with angels.

To them I’m the do-nothing / dull-witted middle-man, / neither here nor there, / coerced into submission by a father, / tricked by a son and abandoned by God, / who willed me slain / to test my father’s faith, / and thus become / history’s most misunderstood near-victim.

My father was driven by voices, / left home on a promise / and journeyed to a Place he’d never seen, / a low-lying mountain shielded round about by a cloud / beneath heavenly fire.

My son dreamed of angels / ascending ladder rungs / from land and form / into spirit and spheres.

Tradition diminishes me / insinuating that I merely built a worldly fortune / on my father’s wealth.

Ancestors all / I’m far more than this / for you see / the wellsprings I’ve uncovered / are more than you know / greater that waters deep, calm, cool, and tranquil / their streams flow to the Source of souls.

I dug anew these, my father’s wells / the same the Philistines / with stopped-up hearts / and clogged souls / filled in when he died.

I and my servants dug and dug / our thirst unquenchable / passions unleashing / hearts expecting / souls soaring / on angels’ wings.

And after all our digging / we found the well and the spring / flowing in earthly and heavenly wetness.

The inflowing fountain never dries up. / The well is replenished / continually / and whoever drinks from its waters / merges through supernal faith.

The wells I have dug / are the same as my father’s. / That is our gift to you!

All I yearn for / is to pour the waters into your cups / that you carry on and dig anew / and pour out the same / into your own children’s cups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Being Grateful While Living in Both “Light” and “Shadow”

23 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Ethics, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Life Cycle, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Quote of the Day

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Tennessee Williams said, “You know we live in light and shadow. That’s what we live in – a world of light and shadow; and it’s confusing.” (Orpheus Descending)

None of our lives is simple, but along comes Thanksgiving each year and the expectation is for us to emphasize that for which we are thankful regardless of how we might feel.

For some of us, gratitude comes easily, and for others feeling grateful is a significant challenge. I believe that nurturing gratitude is one of the most effective means to dispel the “shadow.” For some, pharmaceutical help is indicated, and I urge it if that is your situation. For most of us, we need a way to help ourselves get out into “light.”

I have a suggested exercise that may help. If each of us were to take out a blank sheet of paper and list on one side all the good things in our lives and all the negatives on the other, which side would be longer? Spare nothing in compiling your lists. On the positive side, start with “I am alive!” even if you are sick or in pain. Include all that you have – home, food, medical care, family, friends, the ability to see, hear, walk, use the bathroom, to help others. Take your time and make the list as detailed as you can.

Then list all the negatives. Include every ache and pain, every loss from which you have not been able to heal, the holes in your heart, your frustrations and aggravations, your unmet dreams, your overly thin-skin, your inability to control rage, envy, jealousy, resentment, your feeling victimized, etc.

Now, given the two lists, which one takes most of your time, vitality and attention?

For me, thankfully, the side in “light” is so much longer than the side in “shadow,” yet there are times that I spend proportionately too much time in “shadow.” Not good for me or for those around me, and I know it.

On Yom Kippur, I made a commitment that I would emphasize the “light” of my life and not the “shadow.” The good news for me is that I feel and express gratitude easily despite my spending more time in “shadow” than is good for me.

Yet, I wake up each morning usually feeling refreshed, and excited about the morning sun, the new day, new opportunities to learn, think and create, to be with the people I love and enjoy, and to do meaningful work in my synagogue and friendship communities.

If you too often find yourself in “shadow”, perhaps these quotations on the theme of gratitude can help make this Thanksgiving Day happier and every day more meaningful.

“Hodu l’Adonai ki tov, ki l’olam chasdo” (“Give thanks to God, for Adonai is good…God’s steadfast love is eternal.” –  Psalm 136 (9th century, B.C.E.)

“When you arise in the morning give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Native American Prayer, Tecumseh Tribe

“How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

“Ingratitude to a human being is ingratitude to God.” – Rabbi Samuel Hanagid (993-1056 CE)

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward, American scholar, author, pastor and teacher (1921-1997)

“Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.” – Anne Lamott, writer (b. 1954)

“Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily.” – Jean Toomer, poet and novelist (1894-1967)

“We should write an elegy for every day that has slipped through our lives unnoticed and unappreciated. Better still, we should write a song of thanksgiving for all the days that remain.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach, author (b 1948)

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” – Cicero, Roman philosopher (106 BC – 43 BC)

“If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart, German theologian, philosopher (1260-1328)

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.” – William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

“Jewish Stories from Heaven and Earth: Inspiring Tales to Nourish the Heart and Soul” edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins – A Book Recommendation

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Book Recommendations, Stories

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Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins’ Jewish Stories from Heaven and Earth: Inspiring Tales to Nourish the Heart and Soul does precisely that – nourish the heart and soul, and I recommend it highly to Jews, people of all faith traditions, atheists and agnostics, rebels and anyone who cherishes the human spirit. It is a collection of stories that Dov has collected in his journeys around the world over the last two decades. This, from his introduction, describes well the content and impact of this special volume:

“The tales told in this book emerge out of the Jewish tradition, but can undoubtedly be read and enjoyed by people of all faiths. They are Jewish, but also very human stories, universal in content and theme…

These…are not simply stories, not mere legends spun out of the mysterious minds of a talented muse. Rather, they are tales of courage, devotion, and passion: narratives of commitment to education, perseverance, piety and familial love, community solidarity, heroic behavior, and extraordinary achievement. They come from the muse of the famous, and the not so famous [Israeli Prime Ministers, rabbis, scholars, teachers, physicians, survivors, journalists, the elderly and the young]…

One cannot come away from reading these amazing chronicles of life at its heights and depths without experiencing a surge of pride in our Jewish heritage.

In these tales are the best and the worst of God’s creations: people who are gentle, kind, compassionate, audacious, and heroic; and others who have tried to extinguish from the planet that glowing ember of spirituality called the Jewish People. You will be lifted to the highest mountaintop and plunged into the darkest abyss in the course of reading about the lives of people who are simply trying to eke out a living…

Taken together, these tales exemplify what it means to be the Jewish People, whose history is as old as Babylon and as new as Tel Aviv…”

Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins is a lecturer, educator and author. Everything he publishes is worthwhile reading, and this is one of them. It is published by Jewish Lights Publishing, (www.jewishlights.com), 2010. I hope you will include it in your stack of books to be read! I saw it about a year ago, bought it and finally got around to reading it. I am glad I did. So will you!

 

 

 

Israel at its Best!!!!!

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

≈ 1 Comment

This past week, as President of the regional board of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) along with our ARZA Regional Director Jerry Krautman, we welcomed Alex Cicelsky from Israel who is on a national speaking tour sponsored by ARZA. That hour was so exciting and inspiring that I wanted to tell you about Alex and the ground-breaking environmental work being done on Kibbutz Lotan.

Alex is a senior staff member and founder of the “Center for Creative Ecology” (CfCE) and a founder of Kibbutz Lotan, one of two Reform Kibbutzim in the Arava about 60 miles north of the southern city of Eilat. The Kibbutz was founded in 1983, has 200 members with 60 children and is a cross-generational community. The Kibbutz has become a nationally and internationally recognized center for developing cutting-edge environmental technologies and projects.

Originally from New York State, Alex made aliyah in 1982. He studied international agriculture at Cornel University’s School of Agriculture and is an expert in soil and water sciences, desert architecture, and green technologies. He is engaged actively with the Global Ecovillage Network of which Kibbutz Lotan is a member.

Kibbutz Lotan is a remarkable example of what can be done in Israel when smart, motivated, principled, courageous, and inspired people (backed by the Reform movement) join together in common cause. The Kibbutz grows dates, has a dairy of 250 cows and is developing a goat dairy. Most significantly, it is a center for eco-tourism, has a nature and bird reserve which offers rest and food for millions of annually migrating birds, and is constructing its own wetland in the middle of the desert for treating the community’s waste water. Lotan has developed numerous desert energy technologies, designed green architecture for the severe desert climate, water management systems, and desert agriculture. It is a center, as well, for environmental education and peace-building in association with “Friends of the Earth,” drawing together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian youth in a regional network of natural builders and organic gardeners that include the Yesh Meayin Eco-Education Farm and the Marda Palestine Permaculture Education Center.

The Kibbutz built a youth center comprised of 10 desert dormitory structures (25 more units are planned at $25K/unit) that welcomed last summer 600 National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY – the American Reform youth movement). Any American university student can earn 16 course credits for a semester of living and working at Lotan, and post-university green apprenticeships are available. Lotan has also developed materials on how to make “green” businesses anywhere in the world.

Lotan is internationally recognized as a leading ecological center and has received monetary support from the European Union (EU) for its water recycling systems, funds from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for its “Bird Hide” structure built from recycled waste and the nature reserve giving food, shelter and water to migrating birds) and is recognized for its programs to build bridges between Arabs and Jews. For example, it led the building of the Bustan-Medwed Wadi El Naam Health Clinic that serviced the Bedouins living in unrecognized villages that lacked health care.

Alex explained that Kibbutz Lotan’s mission is to fulfill Judaism’s core values of “tilling and protecting” the earth citing the famous Midrash from Kohelet Rabba 7:28: “Upon presenting the wonder of creation to Adam, God said: ‘See my works, how fine and excellent they are! Now all that I created, for you I created. Think upon this, and do not corrupt and desolate my world; for if you corrupt it, there is no one to set it right after you.’”

I was deeply impressed, inspired and proud of what Alex and Kibbutz Lotan have created. It is but one example of how Israel’s Reform movement is breaking new ground and fulfilling the promise of the Jewish State and the Jewish people to be an or lagoyim, a light unto the nations.

For more information on Kibbutz Lotan and Alex’s work, you can go to Lotan’s website, www.kibbutzlotan.com, Facebook (lotan.kibbutz and lotan.ga), and Youtube (kibbutzlotan). If you wish to assist the Kibbutz, you can send contributions to ARZA (Association of Reform Zionists of America) and direct the gift to Kibbutz Lotan at ARZA, 633 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017 (212-650-4280).

Paul Krugman on Why the Failure of the Super-Committee is Good – NY Times

20 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Politics and Life

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I am not an economist, and so I find myself waiting to read Paul Krugman in The NY Times to explain what is occurring in the economy, the pluses and minuses of the positions of Democrats and Republicans in their respective proscriptions and values, and the role of journalists.

This piece on why Krugman believes the Congressional Super-Committee of 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats will fail in its mission is worthwhile reading (NY Times, November 17). It describes the issues at stake, the different universes and values of the two major political parties, and how journalists so often fail in writing about the motivations and consequences of policies out of fear of being accused of partisanship on the one hand and of losing access to policy-makers on the other because they ask the hard questions and then report the answers with appropriate critical analysis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/krugman-failure-is-good.html?_r=1

Why I Declined to be on the Host Committee for AIPAC in Los Angeles

18 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

≈ 3 Comments

I was invited to become a member of the Host Committee for a Gala Fundraising event sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Los Angeles in February, 2012. I have declined the invitation, with a heavy heart, and when the Southern Pacific Synagogue Initiative Director of AIPAC invited me to speak with him about why, I wrote this letter and welcomed a follow-up conversation with him. I wanted you to see an edited version of that letter.

Dear Judah:

I welcome the opportunity to meet and begin a conversation with you. Thank you for the offer and outreach.

By way of introduction, my involvement with AIPAC goes back to the 1980s. I was very friendly with Tom Dine (one of the first Executive Directors of AIPAC) who was a congregant when I served at Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C. in the mid-80s. I have always been respectful and appreciative of AIPAC and its multitude of contributions to the security of the State of Israel through its advocacy in Washington.

One issue for me which keeps me from signing on as a member of the host committee is that too many people involved with AIPAC have become intolerant of American Jewish diversity and uncritical of Israel’s government policies that are undemocratic and reflective of extremist nationalism. For AIPAC (and for that matter, for any pro-Israel Jewish organization) to say nothing is essentially to give tacit support to those undemocratic forces within the government and Israeli society that run counter to the principles articulated in Israel’s own Declaration of Independence calling for a just, democratic society that includes all citizens of the Jewish State.

That is not the only difficulty I have, however. The refusal of AIPAC leadership to meet with J Street leadership, to join together as two pro-Israel organizations when there is consensus on a particular issue, or even to enter into a public debate with J Street President Jeremy ben-Ami about the differences between AIPAC and J Street in their respective approaches to American Jewish politics in Washington, D.C. vis a vis Israel does not serve the cause of Israel as a vital democracy and adds fuel to the flames of many Republican leaders in Congress and their Jewish pro-Israel supporters who seek to make Israel a wedge issue in American politics for political gain. This has never before happened in the 63 year history of the State of Israel vis a vis the American Jewish community.

I believe AIPAC could do much to change this negative and divisive atmosphere by addressing these undemocratic and intolerant trends directly and publicly, but it declines to do so. Remaining quiet is not good for Israel or for the American Jewish community.

Having said this, please understand my own Zionist and pro-Israel background and thinking. I am a national Vice President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), supportive of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), am a member of the Advisory Board of the Daniels Center of Tel Aviv, and have assisted as a congregational rabbi at my own synagogue in helping our Israeli Reform brothers and sisters build two Reform synagogue centers in Israel (Kehillat Mevasseret Zion and Congregation Darchei Noam in Ramat Hasharon). I take missions of my congregants to Israel every two or three years. My synagogue Day School has a 3 year exchange program with the Tzahalah Elementary School (in north Tel Aviv) as part of the LA-Tel Aviv partnership. I have raised millions of dollars for State of Israel Bonds. And I am an active member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, though I have not always agreed with every position that J Street has taken.

J Street, in my view, is essentially correct in its approach to Congress and Israel, that we American Jews have both a duty to support Israel as a pluralistic democracy that champions human rights and civil liberties, as well as supporting all efforts that will bring about an end-of-conflict solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that results in two-states for two-peoples living side by side in peace and security. I agree with J Street’s position, as well, that pro-Israel American Jewish supporters must be free to criticize Israel’s government (arguably the most right-wing extremist government in the history of the Jewish State) without fear of being placed in cherem (excommunication and pariah status) when it acts in ways that we, as American Zionists and lovers of the Jewish State, believe do not support a peaceful and secure two-state resolution and compromise with the Palestinians.

If you are interested, please read my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon this past High Holiday season which is posted on my synagogue’s web-site (www.tioh.org) to learn what is behind my thinking about Israel, her security and liberal Zionist values.

This is why I have declined to be an active supporter of AIPAC, though again, I am grateful and appreciative of AIPAC for its many years of past advocacy for Israel in our nation’s capital. If you feel comfortable I ask that you share this letter with AIPAC leadership in Washington, D.C.

L’shalom,

Rabbi John Rosove

Isaac and Rebekah – a poem for Parashat Chayei Sarah

17 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by in Divrei Torah, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

My father Abraham set out alone, / leaving everything he knew, / seeking a better place / where he’d never been / because God promised him / blessing and the future.

I am in mourning / ever since my mother died / after my father stole me away / before dawn / while she slept / to slay me / and destroy his blessing / and my future.

When she awoke / her servants told her / that he placed me upon the pyre / as a burnt-offering / to his God.

An angel stayed his hand, / but my mother never knew / so she died / with a broken heart.

How she loved me, / filling me up as a goblet / with her tears and laughter.

And now I am alone, quiet / amidst the wheat and rocks, / beneath the sun / and stirred-up clouds / swirling like disturbed angels.

Can You hear me / O merciless God? / Bend Your world, if You do / and reverse time / that my mother / may be here with me / and we be / as we were.

…Looking up / a camel caravan – / the people appear / as tiny sticks stuck / in sand / in desert heat-waves-dancing.

There is my father’s servant Eliezer / and a young girl / growing larger / before my eyes.

-Lasuach basadeh- / I pray and weep / beneath this sun / and swirling clouds.

Rebekah to Eliezer: / ‘Who is that man / crying there / in the field?’

‘He is my master Isaac, / your intended one, / whose seed you will carry forward / as God promised his father.’

-Vatipol min hagamal- / She alighted from her camel / and veiled herself / for she understood / that this was her wedding day.

I entered her / in my mother’s tent, / and she comforted me.