Monthly Archives: June 2014

The PA Needs Its “Altalena” Moment – Now!

30 Monday Jun 2014

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

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L’havdil – I make a distinction up front. Let no one say that I am comparing the morality of Hamas with Menachem Begin’s Irgun. Begin, despite running a violent underground movement against the British and Arab fighters before the establishment of the state of Israel, did not deliberately attack civilians. Deir Yassir is an exception, and it is unclear in light of how Begin described this tragic massacre in his autobiography “The Revolt” what actually happened.

That aside, Menachem Begin was at one time a menace to the nascent state of Israel. On June 20, 1948, a month after the declaration of the state of Israel and during a time when the para-military units that fought the British and Arabs in the pre-state period were being absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces, the Irgun, under Menachem Begin’s command, brought to Israel from France a ship named the “Altalena” that was filled with 4500 tons of armaments and 800-900 men. Negotiations between Begin and Ben Gurion’s official representatives of the government of the state of Israel took place concerning the disposition of the contents of the ship and under whose ultimate command the ship and the Irgun would come.

After some negotiating, the new Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, David ben Gurion, gave an ultimatum to Begin and the Irgun that the ship “Altalena” must be surrendered to the Israel Defense Forces. Begin refused the ultimatum. Ben Gurion ordered the ship to be sunk.

This was a key moment of truth for the young state, whether all military groups would come under one command, or whether there would continue to be paramilitary and rogue units operating independently of the government of Israel. Ben Gurion understood what was at stake, and he acted. The result was the unification of all soldiers and armaments under the command of Tzahal.

Hamas, of course, is an organization of a different kind from the Irgun. It regards every Israeli man, woman and child as an enemy and as such, Hamas makes no distinction between soldiers and civilians. Hamas has sent thousands of missiles from Gaza into Israel indiscriminately aimed where Israelis live. Hamas is a massive human rights violator and is guilty of multiple war crimes.

That being said, we have seen historically how terrorist and criminal organizations can evolve into political movements that operate according to international norm.

Can Hamas do so? It would mean changing its mission to destroy the state of Israel, its very essence and raison de etre? Can it accept the existence of the state of Israel, agree to abide by all signed past agreements between the PA and Israel, and stop its terrorist activities?

Hamas and the PA have an opportunity to decide right now.

Based on a report published on June 29 in Al Monitor, written by Shlomo Eldar, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have positively identified the rogue Hamas clan that kidnapped Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil’ad Sha’ar and Naftali Frenkel two weeks ago. This clan of 10,000 Hebron residents has consistently ignored Hamas’s own policies over many years and acted violently against Israelis, though it associates itself with Hamas.

The kidnapping suspects are Marwan Qawasmeh and Amar Abu Aisha.

It is time for the Palestinian Authority (including Hamas) to demonstrate whether it is unified or not. The PA needs to cut off the head of the Qawasmeh snake, arrest all its leaders, and make it clear to all Palestinians who is in command.

Indeed, this is a Palestinian “Altalena Moment!”

There will come a time for Israel to have a second “Altalena” moment – when the Israeli government effectively challenges its right-wing extremist rogue settlers and lets them know that there can be no independent operations that challenge the authority of the government of the state of Israel. The problem for Israel, at the moment, is that the current government coalition is supporting those rogue settlers. As the following article suggests, if the Labor leader Isaac Herzog becomes Israel’s next Prime Minister as a result of Yair Lapid’s and Tzipi Livni’s resignation from the government and the calling of new elections, the second Israeli Altalena incident may come sooner than we might think.

See “Herzog calls on Lapid, Livni to form new gov’t”, The Times of Israel – http://www.timesofisrael.com/herzog-calls-on-lapid-livni-to-form-new-govt/#ixzz368NVKpLc

“Accused kidnappers are rogue Hamas branch,” by Shlomo Eldar, Al-Monitor – http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/qawasmeh-clan-hebron-hamas-leadership-mahmoud-abbas.html#

 

 

True Friends Do Not Stab Each Other in the Back – Presbyterian Church (USA)

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Social Justice

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A battle for the soul of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is raging, and the good guys are losing. The Church’s recent vote to divest from three companies doing business with Israel who they say support the Israeli occupation of the West Bank has sent a hurtful message to the Jewish people and state of Israel.

While the resolution to divest passed only by a very small margin of 310 yay to 303 nay, it included disclaimers that Church members hoped would soften the blow. Moderates in the Church were careful not to signal an ultimate split with the state of Israel, nor did the Church align with the international BDS movement (Boycott, Divestiture and Sanctions) which does not grant Israel the right to exist as a sovereign nation (the resolution did affirm that right).

After the vote one Church leader reaffirmed Presbyterian love for Jews. However, most Jews weren’t buying it, even if we didn’t say so out loud. Many of us believe that anti-Semites in the Church won the day. I would not go so far as to say that all the 310 yay votes are necessarily anti-Semitic or anti-Israel, but I believe many are whether they think of themselves that way or not.

This resolution was unfair, biased, shameful, ignorant, and a misguided slander of the Jewish people and state of Israel, pure and simple.

Bel Air Presbyterian Church Reverend Drew Sams agreed and expressed his embarrassment:

“It doesn’t represent who we are. To develop policy that would convey the message that we are turning our backs on our brothers and sisters in Israel is just very, very disappointing.” (LA Jewish Journal)

What makes this resolution so toxic to Jews is that it comes on the heels of the publication of a screed called “Zionism Unsettled,” a pseudo-historical propaganda piece that so distorts the state of Israel and Zionism that it is unrecognizable to those who have visited and know anything about modern Jewish history.

There is nothing positive in “Zionism Unsettled” about Israel. There is no affirmation of the Jewish people’s right to a national home in the land of Israel. It accuses Zionism of ethnic cleansing, racial and religious superiority. It obsessively critiques Israel and gives no historical context to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It says nothing about Arab terrorism and violence, or why Israel spent a fortune building a security fence to prevent suicide bombers from blowing up school buses, pizza parlors and shopping centers. It only critiques Israel as if there are not two parties to the conflict and as if the Palestinians are wholly innocent victims. It reflects no appreciation or understanding of the context in which Israel finds itself, as if the violence and turmoil of the region doesn’t exist and has no spill-over relevance to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It doesn’t note that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, the only nation with an independent judiciary and free press, the only country that protects gay and lesbian citizens and safeguards Christians and their holy places. It is as if there is one nation alone on earth that requires rebuke, Israel.

Jane Eisner, the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward summed it all up this way:

“When Jewish treatment of Palestinians is judged worse than the way any other dominant group treats a minority, when it is deemed worthy of unique sanction, when other horrors around the world are ignored – how can I believe that this isn’t about the Jews? And that, my Presbyterian friends, is anti-Semitism.”

I am often critical of specific policies of the Israeli government when those policies are undemocratic, violate human rights or work against the creation of a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict because I love Israel, believe in her, am inspired by her remarkable contributions to the world in so many areas of human endeavor, and want to see her thrive in safety as a democracy and the homeland of the Jewish people alongside a peaceful and secure Palestine.

This Church resolution does not forward those goals in any way. Not only does the vast majority of the Jewish people oppose BDS as a tactic because it is inherently unfair, but divestiture will not be effective in helping to bring about a two-state resolution of the conflict.

True friends of the Jewish people would not have passed such a resolution. True friends would have come to Israel to learn first-hand about the reality in which Israelis live. True friends would have toured other countries in the region to understand context. True friends would not have permitted the publication of that propagandist anti-Israel and anti-Semitic screed and would remove it immediately from its website. True friends would have joined with the American Jewish community to support efforts to help Israel and the Palestinians resolve their conflict. True friends do not stab each other in the back.

That is what the Presbyterian Church (USA) did, all disclaimers aside – and it hurts!

 

J Street’s Response to Presbyterian Church (USA) Divestment, Kidnapping of 3 Israeli Teens and Middle East Tensions

23 Monday Jun 2014

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Those who understand the Middle East know that to approach events there aggressively and in a black-white, good-evil context alone will likely result in an escalation of conflict. Though good people differ about what recent events mean (i.e. the unification of Fatah with Hamas, the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace talks, the Presbyterian Church (USA) Divestment vote, the Kidnapping of 3 Israeli Teens, and the escalation of violence in Iraq and Syria), those who care deeply about maintaining Israeli security, its democracy and Jewish character, must consider all elements of these conflicts before reacting defensively and aggressively.

The two following articles express J Street’s position on much of what is transpiring. As a co-chair of J Street’s national Rabbinic Cabinet including 800 rabbis and cantors, I agree with the sentiments expressed in both.

J Street is a pro-Israel, pro-peace political organization in Washington, D.C. and is the largest pro-Israel PAC in the United States. It continues to affirm that a two-states for two peoples resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiations is the only alternative that can preserve both Israel’s identity as a democratic society and as the homeland of the Jewish people. A one-state solution will destroy Israel as we know it.

  1. J Street repudiates Presbyterian divestment decision, sees no victory for BDS Movement – J Street said that it does not believe that boycotts or divestment will bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to a two-state solution to their conflict, nor are they appropriate tools in pushing toward resolution of the conflict. We do not support the decision of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from three North American companies doing business in the Palestinian territory. http://jstreet.org/blog/post/j-street-repudiates-presbyterian-divestment-decision-sees-no-victory-for-bds-movement_1
  1. Kidnapping of 3 Israeli teens could trigger more violence, Houston Chronicle –  Warning that “the Kerry effort’s failure has left a dangerous vacuum,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami argued that “the Obama administration must not step away and leave the parties to their own devices, which will only allow the situation to deteriorate. On the contrary, the time has come for some plain speaking and more forceful leadership.”  http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Ben-Ami-Kidnapping-of-3-Israeli-teens-could-5568239.php

 

 

What To Think About This Iraqi Mess

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Ethics

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After the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein said that if he were ever to be overthrown Iraqis would end up murdering each other.

Indeed, that psychopathic killer was right.

The mess that is Iraq today is beyond tragic for Iraqis most of all, but also for the United States. Five thousand American soldiers are dead and more than 250,000 Americans have been injured (including those who suffer PTSD) in that decade-plus-long war. God knows how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead and injured. This past week with ISIS taking over much of Iraq, one news item projected that now more than a million Iraqis have become refugees in that ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.

If loss of life, limb and home were not enough, the war cost the United States $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest (per Reuters). Lest we forget the financial impact of two wars after 9/11 and Bush’s massive tax cut that squandered the Clinton budget surplus, neither of the two wars was paid for by the Bush Administration, setting the stage, at least in part, for the “Great Recession.”

What is maddening on top of all this is that in recent days Americans have been subject to a ridiculous and outrageous blame-game initiated against the Obama Administration policies and President Obama himself mostly by Republicans, the very people who led the way in getting America into that unjustified and immoral Iraqi war in the first place and who were the greatest cheer-leaders when Bush got his massive tax cut bill passed in Congress.

This week, I have heard generals urge the US not to do anything we live to regret in Iraq. They said that even an air war against ISIS insurgents now threatening Baghdad will be ineffective unless accompanied by massive ground troops. President Obama, reflecting the views of the majority of Americans, does not intend to send ground troops back into Iraq – thank heavens!

The Republican blamers are counting on Americans to have no memory at all. Lest we forget, it was Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Libby, Wolfowitz, Powell, Rice, and others (Republicans and Democrats) who, in justifying going to war against Saddam, either cooked, twisted, spun, fabricated, or went along with the fiction that Saddam had WMD that could be used against the United States and our allies.

When no WMD were found, Bush/Cheney and company changed the story. Now the war was about ridding Iraq of a brutal dictator and bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people.

Lest we forget, Saddam Hussein’s fall created a vacuum for Iran which suddenly was regionally unchecked to be able to pursue its hegemonic designs to develop nuclear weapons.

Lest we forget as well, it was Bush in 2008 who signed an order to withdraw ALL American troops from Iraq no later than by 2011. President Obama fulfilled this order, but it is as if Bush’s order never existed in the minds of these Republican blamers. They say it is all Obama’s fault!

Lest we forget as well that it was Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who said he did not want any American residual forces to remain in Iraq, but one Republican Senator this past week said this was a “lie!” These people default to fiction when history, truth and facts don’t suit their political opportunism and deep-seated animus.

What boggles the mind is that these people seem not to have learned anything from our unjustified, ill-advised, short-sighted, deadly, maiming, destructive, and costly Iraq war. They were wrong about virtually everything, but they are still talking!

Those who think they have answers about what America should do next in Iraq and Syria are fooling themselves. As I listen to experts talk about the complexities inherent in this mess, the only thing that is absolutely clear to me is that there is no good choice for the US at all. Every choice is bad; and there are no good guys to support either, which is why the President has been hesitant to act in Syria and now Iraq.

My heart breaks for all the innocent Iraqis and Syrians who are the real victims of sectarian strife and hate.

My heart also goes out to all American veterans of this war who gave up so much in Iraq and now must witness it all revert to what Saddam Hussein predicted would happen after his fall.

My compassion extends to those families of our veterans killed in action and those who survived but have suffered greatly the effects of their injuries.

Finally, my prayers go to the President and those charged with the responsibility of figuring out how not to make a very bad situation even worse.

 

 

 

Bring Back Our Boys!

19 Thursday Jun 2014

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We send our prayers for the safety, health, courage, strength, and quick return home and to their families of three young Israeli teens, Gilad Shaar (age 16), Eyal Tifrach (age 19) and Naftali Frankel (age 16) who were kidnapped a week ago (all indications suggest by Hamas) in the Gush Etzion region of Israel.

May their captors free them. Na hashiveinu et bachureinu u-vaneinu habaita!

The following UTube expresses what is in the heart of the Jewish people and all peoples who cherish peace.

http://youtu.be/iWnEjwLGh6k

 

The Presbyterian Church (USA) Is At It Again In Its Unfair Criticism of Israel

17 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Social Justice

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Rachel Lerner is the Senior Vice President for Community Relations at J Street and a friend. She attended this week the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Detroit in which she spoke on a panel where she urged Presbyterian commissioners to vote against an anti-Israel resolution supporting divestment of church funds from companies doing business in the West Bank (BDS) and called upon the Church to reconsider its support of a two-states for two-peoples resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her letter appears here with links to all relevant documents. http://jstreet.org/blog/post/my-speech-to-the-presbyterians_1

I wrote about the Presbyterian Church (USA) in July 2012 after a terrorist attack against Jews in Bulgaria. My primary thrust then was to harshly criticize the Church’s insensitivity to Jews and to characterize the Church’s support of BDS as “anti-Israel.”

The following is part of what I wrote then:

“Israel is not a perfect society. No democracy is. Thus, being a critic of Israeli policies does not mean one is automatically anti-Israel. Indeed, Israelis themselves are among the most self-critical citizens of any nation in the world.

However, when individuals and groups consistently criticize one nation and one nation alone, one has to question such people’s deeper motivations and agenda.

After watching for several years the Presbyterian Church USA’s efforts on behalf of the BDS movement, those advocating for it I believe are unfair criticizers and part of the “anti-Israel camp.”

By “anti-Israel camp” I refer to those individuals and organizations whose criticism of Israel goes far beyond what is factual, reasonable and fair. These people rarely if ever voice criticism against Hamas’ or Fatah’s documented human rights violations against their own populations. They rarely if ever criticize human rights violations in other countries against which Israeli policies vis a vis Palestinians in the West Bank (as bad as they can be) pale by comparison. And they ignore the history of this conflict which gives context for current events.”

You can read the entire piece here https://rabbijohnrosove.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/jaccuse-the-presbyterian-church-statement-following-the-massacre-of-israelis-jews-in-bulgaria/

I would hope that good people who are members of that Church and who are not anti-Israel will vote against the aggressive group of anti-Israel Church members who have consistently shown their animus towards the state of Israel and the Jewish people by unfairly attacking her and her alone among all nations in the world.

I conclude by saying in my role as a national co-chair of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street that includes 800 rabbis and cantors from all America’s religious streams that I am grateful to Rachel for walking into this den of lions and standing up for the dignity of the Jewish people and best interests of the state of Israel. She deserves the thanks of the American Jewish community and Israel for doing so.

 

 

Prayers For the Safe Return of Three Israeli Abducted Teens

16 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Health and Well-Being, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

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The kidnapping of three Israeli teens hitch-hiking in the area of Gush Etzion has filled the hearts of the Jewish people and all decent human beings the world over. I join with our people in wishing for the safe and peaceful return of Eyal Ifrach, Gil’ad Sha-ar, and Naftali Frenkel to their family and friends.

The following prayer is based upon a prayer written by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir, the Chairperson of MARAM, the Reform Rabbinic Council in Israel.

May it be Your will, Eternal our God and God of our ancestors, that You may sustain in life and peace the abducted young men, Eyal Ifrach, Gil’ad Sha-ar and Naftali Frenkel, and enable them to return safely to their families and loved ones who fear for their safety.

May You save these young men from the hands of our enemies, and may You bless them with life and good health.

May You hear the voice of our prayer and the prayers of all those yearning for justice and peace, life and goodness, compassion, safety and home.

Blessed are You, O God, Who hears our prayer. Amen.

18-Chai Attributes for Elevated Leadership in a Synagogue Community

15 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Jewish Identity

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Before I formally installed my synagogue’s Officers and Trustees to our Board of Trustees this past week ushering in the next term of service to our community, I shared with my congregation a list that I call the “18-Chai Attributes For Leadership in a Synagogue Community.”  The list includes what I believe are essential moral character traits (middot) and behaviors for good, worthy and effective  leadership.

I believe that these same attributes (with certain adjustments) are applicable in any organization and professional group, whether it be in business, politics, government, education, science, the arts, entertainment, or athletics.

No one person, of course, possesses them all in every matter and at all times, but the 18 represent a moral standard against which each of us ought to measure ourselves as servant-leaders.

A good leader ought to…

1. Be able to articulate the mission of the community and excite others’ imagination to manifest the mission in every aspect of the synagogue’s life;

2. Be an intent listener;

3. Show empathy, compassion and kindness towards everyone;

4. Behave ethically as a matter of personal practice, and hold the synagogue’s business and human resources practices to the highest ethical standards;

5. Show patience, control anger and frustration, and never humiliate another human being;

6. Systematically neglect unimportant issues for more important ones;

7. Accept imperfection in oneself, in others and in the community even while striving to address and correct inefficiencies and problems in the synagogue’s functioning in the most transparent way as appropriate;

8. Use intuitive-wisdom to bridge the gap between the actual and the ideal;

9. Use persuasion and good humor rather than coercion and bullying to move the community forward always with the principles in mind of derech eretz (“common decency”), shalom bayit (“peace in the home”), and respect for the opinions of others (or civility) based on Rav Shmuel’s saying: “Eilu v’Eilu divrei Elohim chayim – This and that are the words of the living God”;

10. Sublimate personal needs for the sake of the greater communal good;

11. Appreciate the good works of others and give credit generously;

12. Welcome, include and embrace all Jews and their families, Jews by-birth, Jews by-choice, non-Jews married to Jews, the young and old, healthy and disabled, intermarried, straight and LGBT, American-born and immigrants from other lands, thus reflecting the diversity that is the Jewish people itself;

13. Respect the synagogue’s unique history and traditions, policies and processes of governance;

14. Understand that change according to best-practices is good when necessary, and that for change to be realized successfully everyone (leadership, community members and staff) must be brought along even as the change occurs;

15. Be a serious student of Torah and Jewish tradition and apply tradition’s wisdom and its commitment to tzedek (justice), rachamim (compassion), emet (truth), and shalom (wholeness) to all aspects of one’s personal life and the synagogue’s life;

16. Understand the synagogue’s historic role in our people’s survival as a religion, tradition and faith, and seek to develop one’s own inner life through prayer and learning;

17. Believe in the power of the community to restore individuals to wholeness (tikun hanefesh), to restore the community to wholeness (tikun k’hilah) and to restore the world to wholeness (tikun olam) and to promote the synagogue’s program and activities towards these three purposes;

18. Stand with dignity and integrity before one’s fellows and humbly before God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The J Street Summit in San Francisco

13 Friday Jun 2014

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

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Last week, my wife Barbara and I attended the West Coast Summit meeting of J Street in San Francisco. I was honored to be asked, as the co-chair of the national Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street that includes 800 rabbis and cantors from across the religious streams, to be part of the opening night program in which former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, former United Nations Ambassador from Israel Gabriella Shalev, and former United States Ambassador to Egypt and Israel Daniel Kurtzer were featured.

I was asked to question PM Fayyad after each of the speakers presented opening statements. The conversation was hard-hitting and candid from each of three former major players in American, Israeli and Palestinian leadership about what is necessary for the sake of peace in light of the recent failure of the Kerry Middle East peace talks.

You can access all of the sessions here – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CViXUNRkO6zMLr6JrSKT8nQXGbXEEJW –

The opening night’s program can be found here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaXLYv9Hxt0&index=2&list=PL4CViXUNRkO6zMLr6JrSKT8nQXGbXEEJW

On a related matter, a friend asked me this week if I have seen “The J Street Challenge,” a pseudo-documentary that attacks J Street as an anti-Israel political organization.

I have not seen it, as I know it to be a propaganda piece that systematically distorts J Street’s message and accuses the 185,000 supporters of J Street and the 800 rabbis and cantors of being anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic. By extension, it must cast aspersion on the 84 pro-Israel members of Congress who support Israel and have accepted J Street’s support. This hateful propaganda piece is being shown in cities around the country.

If people wish to know the truth about J Street, all you need to do is to go to the J Street website (http://www.jstreet.org) and read our position papers, or watch sessions of this most recent conference.

We are pro-Israel and pro-two state solution advocates. We love Israel and are proud of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and her manifold accomplishments over the course of the last century of Jewish history. Many Israeli members of Knesset have attended our conferences. The great Israeli writer Amos Oz told us a couple of years ago in Washington, D.C. “I have been waiting for J Street my entire adult life.”

At a time when the Jewish people needs to come together, regardless of our differing opinions, in common cause for the sake of the peace, security and the democratic character of the state of Israel, why some American Jews are spending a fortune to cast unfair and inaccurate aspersions against J Street is, frankly, baffling to me and, I believe, a source of shame that should be checked.

As Rav Shmuel once said – Eilu v’Eilu divrei Elohim chayim – “This and that are words of the living God.” Intolerance, hatred and falsehood do not belong between Jews who love the people and state of Israel.

My Cousin – Israel’s New President

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

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

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I do not know my 3rd cousin, Ruby Rivlin, very well. We corresponded 14 years ago when the “Who is a Jew” issue came before the Knesset. He was an advocate for a change in the law that, had it passed, would have defined for purposes of aliyah under the Law of Return that a Jew is someone born of a Jewish mother or who converts “k’fi ha-halacha” (according to traditional Jewish law as interpreted by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate) which would exclude many conversions conducted by many American Orthodox rabbis, and all Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal Rabbis.

Ruby’s response to me was warm and familial, but direct. As an elected member of the Knesset he was obligated to preserve the integrity of the Jewish people. He believed that this law would accomplish that goal.

The bill did not pass due to the international outrage expressed by Diaspora Jewish leadership.

I knew Ruby’s beloved mother, Rae Rivlin, better than I knew Ruby. I spent a number of Shabbatot in her Rehavia Jerusalem home when I was a first-year rabbinic student at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem in 1973 to 1974. She was an extraordinary woman, deemed the grand hostess of Jerusalem in “O Jerusalem.” Family and guests were there every Shabbat for dinner, and I was included. Ruby was a regular. I learned that between 5 PM and 6 PM daily never to visit or call because Rae was watching Peyton Place, a huge American TV soap opera.

I never met Ruby’s father, the late and beloved Professor of Islamic Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Yosef Rivlin, who died in 1968 just after the Six- Days War. Yosef translated the Koran and the Arabic classic A Thousand and One Nights into Hebrew. The latter is a series of volumes of which I am a proud owner of a signed first edition printing.

Ruby’s family came to Israel in the early 19th century. His father’s namesake – also Yosef Rivlin (a street in downtown Jerusalem near Hillel Street is named for him) was the first Jew to move out of the Old City of Jerusalem and establish the neighborhood of Mea Shearim, now a hareidi stronghold, only steps from the Old City walls. The elder Yosef was a brave man, as Mark Twain described the land in those years being plagued by bandits and marauders. He moved out of the Old City because there was a dearth of habitable apartment space available for increasing numbers of Jews making aliyah before the modern Zionist movement really took hold.

At the time that I knew Ruby, he was a young politician close to the leader of Herut, Menachem Begin, before Likud came to power in 1977. Ruby was (and still is) broad shouldered, bullish, but kind. Indeed, people love him personally. He is part of Likud’s old guard, a hard-liner when it comes to the unity of Jerusalem and the two-state solution. He was among those who supported Gush Emunim after the 1967 War that came to be known as Yisrael Shleima (i.e. the Greater Israel movement).

Ruby does not believe in a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He also believes that Reform Judaism is tantamount to idolatry. I expect that he will modify his public denunciation of the American and Israeli Reform movements now that he is President of the State, but I doubt that he will modify his beliefs that there can be a Palestinian state alongside Israel and west of the Jordan River and in Gaza.

When Ari Shavit spoke in Los Angeles last week, in a small conversation with a few of my colleagues and me, he worried (and he repeated this in a subsequent Haaretz column) that a President Rivlin will go far beyond the traditional non-political role that Presidents of the State traditionally have taken, and that specifically he will be an adversary to an eventual two-state solution to the conflict.

That being said, within the context of Israel, Ruby believes in equal civil rights for Israeli Arabs. For that reason, so many in the Arab-Israeli community also love him personally.

Ruby has a big heart and he has served the state of Israel with love, integrity and honesty his entire life.

Yet, his views on both the 2-state solution and religious pluralism run counter to the vast majority of Israelis and Diaspora Jewry. As President, he must expand his thinking and represent all the Jewish people in the state, not the segmented extremist fringe, and by extension be inclusive of the Jewish people around the world who regard with love and loyalty the state of Israel as the homeland of all the Jewish people.

Though politically, I hold very different views from Ruby, I wish him mazal tov and prayers for long-life and distinguished service to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.