My Hebrew teacher in Jerusalem sent me this, and though the words are not my theology, neither is it (apparently) of the performers. It’s performed movingly and with a gentle passion.

[Note: Chemi Shalev, a regular commentator in Haaretz, is always a keen observer of American and Israeli politics. The following was published today. Haaretz is arguably Israel’s equivalent of The New York Times. Shalev’s analysis of the growing divide between Israeli Jews, who love Donald Trump by wide margins, and American liberal Jews, who despise him by equally wide margins, is worth reading. I am posting this piece because one has to subscribe to read Haaretz, which I have advocated for years as must reading for the American Jewish community that cares about Israel.]

“Public opinion loves the president’s pro-Israel policies and ignores the rest, including the fear and loathing he elicits among fellow Jews

Channel 13 released another poll on Sunday night that highlighted the overwhelming Israeli preference for U.S. President Donald Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden. According to the poll, 68 percent believe Trump would be “better for Israel,” and only 12 percent think Biden would. In a previous poll, Trump trounced Biden with a whopping 40 percent majority, 70 to 30, and an even more emphatic 54 percent majority among Israeli Jews, 77 to 23.

The most immediate explanation for their lopsided choice is that Trump is perceived by many Israelis as the most pro-Israel U.S. president in history, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly reminds them. The flip side is that Biden is identified with for President Barack Obama as well as the Democratic Party, both systematically demonized by Netanyahu and other right-wingers ever since the bitter U.S.-Israel clash over the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.

Many Israelis don’t know and don’t care to know too much about Trump beyond his pro-Israel, or rather pro-Netanyahu, decisions and gestures. They know Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and brokered peace with three Arab countries. They appreciate the fact that unlike all its predecessors, the Trump administration never criticizes Israel, and they applaud its condescending take-it-or-leave-it approach to the Palestinians.

Empathy for Trump, however, extends far beyond and much deeper than his unabashedly unbalanced favoritism towards Israel. Jewish public opinion in Israel today, with the exception of a dwindling and secular center-left, is mostly right-wing or conservative or both, with a growing appetite for simplistic populism. On top of his direct benefits for Israel, many of Trump’s traits, including his abrasiveness, anti-elitism, disdain for Europe, hostility towards the media and rants against the liberal left – and, in some quarters, his racism and misogyny as well – render him a more natural fit for Israel than for the United States itself. Israelis either turn a blind eye or couldn’t care less that Trump has polarized America and sown division and hate, possibly because, after a dozen straight years with Netanyahu, it’s what they’re used to at home. Historically and instinctively wary of foreign intervention and coalitions, most Israelis applaud Trump’s disruption of the Western alliance and share his disdain for international coalitions and human rights groups. If Trump gets everyone to mind their own business and stop carping about the occupation, Israelis will cheer him on.

The fact that the views of Israeli Jews on Trump are the polar opposite of those held by the overwhelming majority of American Jews is first and foremost a function of the famous aphorism coined by the late Rufus Miles, a senior U.S. administration official and author, by which “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” According to this view, both communities see Trump through the narrow prism of their own self-interest: American Jews detest Trump and fear him because of his domestic policies, problematic personality and antagonism towards minorities, while Israeli Jews love and admire him for showering them with gifts and asking for nothing in return, at least ostensibly.

Nonetheless, Israelis view the overwhelming American Jewish support for Biden as an extension of their misguided support for Obama, especially over the Iran agreement. With the Democratic Party increasingly and misleadingly portrayed in Israel as beholden to a radical anti-Zionist wing, many Israelis view the abiding loyalty of American Jews to Trump’s opponents as naïve at best and a stab in the back at worst. Long estranged from the essence of so-called diaspora communities, Israelis have been trained to judge them solely on the basis of their level of support for Israel and whatever policies its government pursues. American Jews, for their part, are disheartened and dismayed by the Israeli near-consensus in favor of Trump. In their eyes, whatever benefits Israel has gained from his presidency dwarf in comparison to the untold damage Trump has inflicted on his own country. How on Earth do Israelis favor a president whose vain irrationality enfeebled America’s fight against COVID-19 and caused the needless deaths of thousands? Whose authoritarian recklessness endangers the very foundations of U.S. democracy? Who demeans and distances himself from most democratically elected world leaders while embracing and promoting its most dangerous dictators?

From the American Jewish point of view, Israel’s Trump worship is a moral and ethical failure. It is also a symptom of the growing gap between the two communities, which widened as a result of the confrontations between Netanyahu and Obama and deepened in the wake of the budding romance between the Israeli prime minister and the president that American Jews despise. Israel’s preference for Trump over Biden is virtually incomprehensible for many American Jews who still hold the Jewish State dear to their hearts.

American Jews are outraged by Trump’s attacks on minorities, in which they include themselves; Israeli Jews see themselves as a majority, however, and are inherently apprehensive about minority demands. American Jews are terrified of Trump’s evangelical-inspired dismantling of the separation between church and state; Israelis have never known anything other than theocracy. American Jews see Trump as a clear and present danger to equality, immigration, women’s rights and freedom of the press, once shared and cherished values that many Israelis now spurn.

American Jews feel directly threatened by Trump; Israelis have no idea what they’re on about. American Jews are worried about the rising prominence of white supremacy and its increasingly belligerent militias; Israelis either don’t know, don’t care or think their U.S. cousins are exaggerating. American Jews are convinced that Trump is bad for America, bad for democracy, bad for the world and ultimately bad for Israel; Israelis feel Trump’s been good to them, and all the rest is debatable. Israelis habitually reprimand American Jews for not placing Israel and its needs among their top priorities, but American Jews can now say the same about Israel’s own lack of concern for their safety and wellbeing. The distance between the two communities has grown so big they can hardly see each other, but in this argument, one must admit, the American side has a better case.

One can argue about the decline in recent years of blind support for Israeli policies, but the American Jewish community has a long and proud tradition of caring about Israel and helping it in its time of need, while Israelis have an equally long but shameful record of ignorance and apathy towards American Jews. Their total disregard for American Jewish sensibilities, arrogant dismissal of their feelings of insecurity and fear, and adamant refusal or inability to acknowledge the instincts or appreciate the concerns of a Jewish minority that feels threatened, is testament to the triumph of Israeli nationalism over Jewish solidarity.

The Israeli contention that a vote for Biden is a vote against Israel does not stand up to scrutiny. The former vice president is one of Israel’s steadiest and most stalwart friends and has given no indication that anyone else will manage his Middle East policies. Israel’s blind worship of Trump, a President who embodies the antithesis of traditional Jewish values and the kind of populist leader that Jews have been learned to be wary of for two millennia, is both an abandonment of American Jews in distress and a blot on Jewish history.

Liberal and moderate American Jews, who comprise 70 to 75 percent of the community as a whole, deserve an apology. For now, it will only be forthcoming from the miniscule 12 percent minority that agrees with them and is praying with them for a Biden victory on Tuesday night.”

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.highlight-israel-s-self-centered-trump-worship-warrants-an-apology-to-american-jews-1.9282550

https: //t.co/kGvzqEXvzH

Twenty-five years ago I delivered a eulogy for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles.

It appears on The Times of Israel site that you can read here:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/when-israel-lost-its-innocence/

Ethiopian-born Meklit Hadaro (known as “Meklit”), a soulful singer and songwriter based in San Francisco, sings about what President Obama’s voice, heart, and spirit meant to a shocked nation when he sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Reverend Clementa Pinckney on June 17, 2015. Rev. Pinckney was murdered along with 9 people during a Wednesday night Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina by a young white supremacist man who wanted to start a race war.

6000 worshipers gathered in the church the day of the funeral and a worldwide audience watched live on television. An estimated 5000 people were turned away from the church for lack of seating space.  

Here is the refrain from Meklit’s song:

We argued where to lay the blame
On one man’s hate or our nation’s shame
Some sickness of the mind or soul
And how those wounds might be made whole
But no words could say what must be said
For all the living and the dead
So on that day and in that place
The President sang Amazing Grace
My President sang Amazing Grace

You can watch and listen to her song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBQOQVsdzbE

Here is President Obama singing “Amazing Grace” on that sad day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN05jVNBs64

For the full story as told in 2015 in the NY Times, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/thousands-gather-for-funeral-of-clementa-pinckney-in-charleston.html

Gratitude to Thomas Friedman’s whose op-ed “When My President Sang ‘Amazing Grace’ – We’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a truth-teller and a healer in the White House” appeared in today’s NY Times, October 28, 2020.

Senator Mitch McConnell, whose Republican Party represents a minority of the American electorate, has shifted successfully the political and judicial bias in the Supreme Court to a strongly conservative majority through raw political power. He did so by stealing two seats from Democratic Presidents.

For years, the Senate has not represented the will of the American people due to the over-representation of small Republican led states over the large states, the majority of which are led by Democratic Senators.

Assuming the election of a President Joe Biden, as all polls indicate, and a majority Democratic House and Senate, now is the time to do four things to restore democracy to the Senate, Supreme Court, and nation as a whole:

1. Eliminate the Senate filibuster to allow a simple Senate majority to decide policy
2. Expand the Supreme Court and introduce term limits
3. Admit Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico as the 51^st and 52^nd states
4. Pass a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College and allow the American people to elect directly the American President

To accomplish these goals, admittedly heavy lifting with consequences, the American people would restore institutional balance in the Supreme Court and United States Senate, and make the United States a representative democracy. With a Democratic majority in the Senate and House and a Democratic President come January, all this is possible.

It ought to be clear that Republicans have no problem imposing through raw minority power their undemocratic will upon the majority of the American people. The Democratic Party needs in response to take this opportunity to challenge the Republican bully on the playground and restore political balance to our democracy.

The link below was sent to me by a member of my book group, Marty Kaplan, who responded to my question about how my “bookie” friends were coping with their anxiety as we approach November 3. His pal, Susan Stamberg of NPR fame sent it to him.

Well worth the two minutes!

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/887494387/need-2-minutes-of-calm-inhale-exhale-and-click-here

Set to “This Land is My Land” by Woody Guthrie.

Great music, dancing, people, visuals, locations, and editing.

Worth watching every second of the 9 minutes. View to the end and then do as it says – VOTE!

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/10/land-our-land

This message comes from the leadership of the Reform and Reconstructionist movements of America. Please read carefully. This is vitally important for the status of the non-orthodox and non-right wing movements in world Jewry and in relationship with the State of Israel.

I am passing the following along to you on behalf of our movement with the hope that you will use whatever influence you may have with the leadership of the Zionist organizations below. Though I know that the alphabet soup of World Zionism is complicated and mind-numbing, I assure you as a past national chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) that this is vitally important.

The following letter went out on social media today:

“Your help is urgently needed in the next 48+ hours (before Tuesday, October 20) to stop the World Zionist Congress “take over” by extreme forces that would give the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox dominant control of the National Zionist Institutions including the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Keren Kayemit L’Yisrael (KKL – The Israeli Jewish National Fund).

The American Reform movement successfully attained tens of thousands of votes in the recent World Zionist Congress elections, but now we could lose our voice in Israel because of an unprecedented and completely unacceptable political and ideological challenge to our values. There is an urgent vote on Tuesday, October 20 – and we’re asking the help of our Reform movement in America to make sure that North American Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Zionists will not be silenced.

What’s at stake: The principles, positions, and potential budget decisions incorporated in the agreement are nothing less than a disaster for the National Institutions and ignore completely the role of Diaspora Jewry in the World Zionist Organization, the umbrella movement for all Zionist organizations, often called “the Parliament of the Jewish People.”

The demand: The “Agreement on Principles” of the World Zionist Congress negotiated by the right-wing Zionist parties as it stands now, is completely unacceptable to the Reform and Conservative Zionist Movements. We demand that it be taken off the table and redrafted in favor of a wide balanced agreement that includes all the Zionist parties and factions representing world Jewry, as was the case in the past.

How we can oppose this: Right now, the agreement has a slight majority among the various political representatives in the World Zionist Congress, but can be opposed if we use the votes of generally neutral Zionist organizations such as Hadassah, WIZO, B’nai B’rith, Naamat, and Maccabi Olami – many of which are supported by Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Jews in North America.

What you can do: We need every organization to Vote Against this agreement! Please reach out utilizing the messaging below to your associates in these organizations and implore their leadership to take this courageous step and join us:

• Hadassah
• Bnai Brith
• WIZO
• Maccabi Olami
• Naamat

Primary messaging to all your contacts: “I’m reaching out with an urgent message to you as a fellow Zionist. You are about to lose your voice in Israel. There is an urgent vote on October 20 – here’s how to make sure you and other North American Zionists will not be silenced. There is an unprecedented and completely unacceptable political and ideological challenge to our values that could have a dangerous effect on pluralism – and so many critical issues – in Israel. We cannot sugar coat this – this development is a battle for the very soul of Zionism, the core of the Zionist enterprise, and what being a Zionist has always stood for. We hope you will not sit idly by as the one place worldwide Jews can have our influence in Israel is undermined. We must join together in a strategic fight to make sure our values will not be compromised. Please show that you are in support of representative diversity in the Zionist Movement by demanding that your organization’s leadership takes this courageous step to vote against the current agreement.

News articles for additional reading:

Agreement gives powerful post to religious Zionists, ultra-Orthodox slates – JPost

Right-wing, ultra-Orthodox parties accused of plotting ‘hostile takeover’ of key Zionist institutions – Haaretz

Right, Orthodox to control WZO – JPost

Secondary messaging (full talking points here) – The “Agreement on Principles” of the World Zionist Congress negotiated by the right-wing Zionist parties as it stands now, is completely unacceptable to the Reform and Conservative Zionist Movements and we demand that it be taken off the table and redrafted.

• This agreement gives the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox dominant control of the National Zionist Institutions including the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the Israeli Jewish National Fund (KKL). The principles, positions, and potential budget decisions incorporated in the agreement are nothing less than a disaster for the National Institutions and ignore completely the role of Diaspora Jewry in the World Zionist Organization
• Agreement of the Right-wing and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) in the World Zionist Congress – The “take over” by extreme forces of the National Institutions, removal of the non- Orthodox religious streams, and Reckless use of funds of the Jewish People and the Israeli Public
• The right-wing and Haredi parties in the World Zionist Organization this past Friday signed an unprecedented agreement bestowing them with a full takeover of the National Institutions including Keren Kayemet L”Yisrael (KKL-JNF) and the World Zionist Organization. This will be disastrous for our Movements that have worked to prevent egregious funding for Jewish Settlements over the Green Line
• The agreement gives unprecedented strength to two Haredi parties in the National institutions including full control of all of the educational activities of KKL with an annual budget of 94 million shekels, and through the establishment of two new departments in the WZO for activities directed at Haredim with tens of millions of shekels per year allocated
• The agreement completely ignores the Jewish Agency for Israel and will further the rift between the Jewish communities in North America and Israel. This is in continuation of the damage already caused by the steps of the Government of Israel regarding conversion and the Western Wall
• The agreement causes critical damage to the standing of the Reform and Conservative Movements, despite the fact that we make up over 20% of the delegates to the World Zionist Congress
• The agreement excludes representatives of the pluralistic religious streams in direct response to the demands of the Haredi parties
• The agreement gives unprecedented amounts of funds to be transferred from KKL to the WZO. This includes a long list of budgets for land purchases (for Jewish Settlement in the West Bank) of millions of shekels.

Please contact with any questions: Rabbi Josh Weinberg – jweinberg@urj.org

It is important that we can organize our efforts, and would ask that you please share your contact and who you are speaking with, with Molly Blumenthal: mblumenthal@urj.org

I’ve been a student of leadership throughout my life and especially during the Obama and Trump years. Though certainly there’s no one single style of effective leadership that applies for all people and organizations, I believe that there are virtues and character traits that make for great leadership. Consider the following as we approach the election.

Great leadership requires not just vision and high moral rectitude, but the love of truth, the love of humanity, empathy, compassion, wisdom, humility, gratitude, generosity, respect for the dignity of every individual, respect for the needs of the community, and a sacred commitment to further the common good.

Great leaders develop high emotional intelligence, work through their emotions with passion to inspire others, and lead by example.

Great leaders are courageous, lead from the front, and take risks. They take action only after careful consideration of the facts and all points of view. They articulate clearly and eloquently the choices before them and seek to influence others about why the choice they take is the best option even if it’s imperfect. They do not let the perfect stand in way of the good, and they embrace compromise when necessary to achieve noble and meaningful ends. In this way they frame reality and offer a coherent vision for the present and future.

Great leaders constantly are learning, developing, and honing their skills. They respect tradition  and are open to innovation and change. They embrace experimentation and don’t fear failure because they know that from failure they have the opportunity to learn.

Great leaders delegate responsibility to able colleagues and followers knowing that they themselves cannot do everything and that there are others who know more and are better able in areas in which they personally lack knowledge and skill. They credit and take pride in others privately and publicly for their work and accomplishments. They never steal credit. They rely upon team-work and encourage everyone to do their best for the sake of the greater good. They are neither self-absorbed nor self-serving.

Great leaders take responsibility when things go wrong, do not blame others, and don’t complain. They persevere after failure and learn from their mistakes. They work hard and diligently and take time for themselves, their families, and friends. They encourage the people with whom they work to do the same because they understand that people need balance in their lives and time to care for their bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits. They know that only with such balance are people happier and capable of doing their best work.

Great leaders inspire trust for all the above virtues and character traits.

Of all the excellent books on leadership that I’ve read, I recommend these two volumes:

Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018). Dr. Kearns Goodwin, an outstanding presidential historian, considers the leadership models of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson that distinguish these leaders among our greatest presidents.

Lessons in Leadership – A Weekly Ready of the Jewish Bible by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2015). Rabbi Sacks gleans from the weekly Torah portions key principles of leadership that distinguish Judaism’s commitment to ethical leadership throughout our 3600 year history as a people.

Rabbi Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, an inspiring and prolific author and speaker, announced last week that he is being treated for cancer. I wish him a r’fuah sh’leima bim’heira, a complete and rapid healing.