Author Archives: rabbijohnrosove

Rekindling Hope in the Trump Era

28 Tuesday Jan 2025

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As Trump barrels forward dismembering and destroying long-held liberal American norms and democratic traditions and values that have been hard-fought for and legislated since the Civil War, it would be easy to become despondent and turn away from the political process. As a student of human nature, nothing that’s happening now really surprises me. Nor does anything Trump has done or will do mean that America is entering a long period of regression and the beginning of a generation of demagoguery. David French put it well last week on The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller that we still have agency to resist Trump’s demagoguery:

“The courage, compassion, and resistance against Trump combined with some of the natural consequences of Trump’s erratic and incompetent nature mean that there will be a real opportunity to turn the page from Trump. He will give us that opportunity. The question is will those who are opposed to Trump have our act together well enough to seize the opportunity… One of the things Trump has benefited from is sometimes a corrupt and incompetent opposition. … He’s at a high watermark now. Often there’s a period of extreme triumphalism after elections, but we’ve seen this flip-flop-flip-flop of power many times. The Trump folks are deluding themselves that they are on the ascendancy [that will last for decades].”

My sons often tell me that I’m a pie-in-the-sky idealist ignoring the corrupt reality into which America has been sliding. I understand their perspective and, in truth, agree that American society has massive problems. But, I believe that hope is very different from optimism. Hope is not an attitude that denies a very bad reality. I wrote about the difference between hope and optimism at some length in my Memoir (From the West to the East – A Memoir of a Liberal American Rabbi – publ. 2024). There I argued:

“Hope keeps us grounded in the here and now as a commandment of the heart in the face of uncertainty, a vision that enables a better future, based on trust and supportive of purpose, enabling us to live in an enhanced present of constructive waiting. Our keeping focus on the kind of world we want to inhabit, while doing everything possible to prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of that vision and dream, inspires not only hope but renewed energy, a sense of purpose and an optimistic attitude. Each of us has the capacity to inspire hope through our deeds despite obstacles in our way. There are so many examples of how one individual changed the course of history. All great social movements started with an individual whose will and hope thrust him/her forward to do great deeds.”

I offer here, as well, a few words published last week by Psychology Professor Dr. Kendra Thomas (“Hope Is Not the Same as Optimism, a Psychologist Explains” (January 25, 2025):

“Long-term hope is not about looking on the bright side. It is a mindset that helps people endure challenges, tackle them head-on and keep their eyes on the goal… What makes hope a virtue is not its ability to promote happiness and success but its commitment to a greater good beyond the self. …[Hope is] an unwavering focus on striving for a better future, often unglued from expectations of personal success… Hope is not a positive expectation but a moral commitment. … Hope doesn’t expect a quick improvement, yet it wards off paralysis… Hope plays the long game: … it manifests in hardship and is refined in adversity. Hope enables communities to march for justice and democracy even while tasting the danger of dictatorship, apartheid or oligarchy.”

The Trump Administration buttressed by a sycophantic majority in Congress and a majority of state houses presents formidable obstacles to human rights, democracy, justice and the virtues of compassion and humility. Some of his excesses in Executive Orders, however, are beginning to be challenged by the courts and even by corporations (see Dan Rather’s Substack piece today – January 28), by Democrats in Congress, states, cities and neighborhoods. Political pundits and members of the Democratic Party are starting to think out loud about what went wrong in the 2024 elections and what must be done going forward politically before elections this year and in 2026.

Edmund Burke reminds that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” 

Trump’s Dangerous Call to Eliminate FEMA

26 Sunday Jan 2025

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I was stunned by President Trump’s call on Friday to local Los Angeles leaders after the disastrous LA fires that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) failed miserably in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene and ought to be eliminated altogether. Congressman Brad Sherman, my own congressional representative who also represents part of the Pacific Palisades community that was destroyed by the fires, challenged the President about the efficacy and importance of FEMA only to be interrupted and bullied by the President who kept claiming that FEMA is a disaster and utterly failed in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene was a disastrous storm that caused catastrophic damage with many deaths across the Southeast in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record and the deadliest hurricane since 2017 and the deadliest to strike the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina’s newspaper, however, clarified how, in fact, FEMA dramatically assisted the people who suffered from Hurricane Helene. I quote from that article titled – “Trump disparaged FEMA in NC. Here’s what the agency did during Hurricane Helene” (by Joe Marusak and Ames Alexander – updated January 24, 2025) – https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article299107370.html

“Here’s what FEMA says it did before and after the storm: [FEMA] deployed at least 1,500 FEMA staff members in the Southeast before the hurricane made landfall, Deanne Criswell, FEMA’s top administrator at the time, told The Charlotte Observer in a Dec. 4 interview. “Just because you don’t see somebody in a FEMA shirt walking on the streets the day after a disaster doesn’t mean FEMA is not there,” Criswell said. “We have people on the ground.” … Before the storm’s arrival, FEMA placed millions of liters of water and many meals in staging areas where they could be quickly distributed in North Carolina, Criswell said. “We were working side by side with the state before Helene even came into North Carolina, and we’re still there today,” she said. [FEMA] had hospital assessment teams out within 24 hours of the storm’s arrival to make sure no patients needed to be evacuated, according to Criswell. [FEMA] provided hotel stays for almost 13,000 displaced Western North Carolina households. About 2,700 of those households are still checked into hotels. [FEMA] provided more than $316 million in cash grants, including more than $6.2 million in rental assistance, to Western North Carolina survivors. [FEMA] planned one-day agriculture recovery centers to help North Carolina farmers recover from Helene damage. Trump’s latest comments come at a time of increased concern over climate change and more frequent severe weather events. Trump has already begun rolling back some regulations aimed at preventing climate shocks.”

Trump’s ignorance about FEMA or his cynical misstatement of the truth about what FEMA does is dangerous to the well-being of potentially millions of Americans around the country in blue and red states who will be victimized by natural disasters, many of which are made worse by climate change that the President insists isn’t real (on his first day in office last week, Trump with drew again from the Paris Climate Accord).

Congressman Sherman insisted on asking, over Trump’s incessant interruptions, what small states are expected to do in order to address natural disasters should FEMA be eliminated. He didn’t say (as I believe he should have done) that California contributes to the federal government in far greater dollars to the federal budget than virtually every other state (being the largest state with 40 million citizens) as well as being a major exporter of agricultural and technological products to the nation as a whole.

Trump’s advance team to this visit excluded from the list of officials to meet with the President, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom. It’s no secret that the two leaders represent vastly different views on virtually every issue from climate change to human rights and immigration. Since Trump, because so often he doesn’t have the facts and makes stuff up, constantly resorts to name-calling (e.g. Newscum). However, our Governor understood the significance of the President’s visit and met him at the airport.

Apparently, Governor Newsom informed and charmed the President enough to exact a promise from him that he would do everything he could to help LA recover from these horrendous fires. Trump also promised in the meeting with the local officials, including LA’s Mayor Karen Bass, that he would respond to every request she made of the federal government. But, he continued to bad-mouth FEMA unnecessarily and contrary to the truth of what this agency does.

What Trump will ultimately do regarding FEMA is unclear, but his threats to eliminate this federal agency that does so much to help Americans who suffer from natural disasters is a disaster itself in the making. One can only hope that Trump’s supporters, especially in small red states that will suffer from future disasters will prevail upon him quietly to back away from his outrageous threats.

The solemn whisper of the god of all arts

24 Friday Jan 2025

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Introductory note: I wrote this blog in the amidst of my joy following the return to their families of the first three Israeli hostages and my hopes that more will be released this weekend, and amidst my trepidation that #47 is back in the White House:

A long-time friend and colleague asked me last week: “John – did you ever think you’d become a writer when you retired?” The answer was no. I had actually little clarity about what I was going to do five plus years ago, but I trusted myself enough that I’d figure it out in time. Though I always wrote as a part of my congregational rabbinate (e.g. sermons, divrei Torah, poetry, blogs, reports, etc.), I never considered myself a mamash (Heb. “a real”) writer because good writing is an art and I’d done nothing in my life to enhance my writing skills to that high level. I didn’t take creative writing classes in high school or at the university, nor had I ever been mentored by a writer, or even read literature critically until relatively recently. My goal in reading was to gain knowledge and wisdom from great thinkers (e.g. historians, philosophers, theologians, political figures, and social scientists) in order to become a competent teacher and leader.

I’ve read a few books and essays over the years about writing (e.g. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Stephen King’s On Writing), become more keenly attuned to what good writing looks and sounds like in film, television, fiction, and non-fiction works, and considered what a wide variety of writers have characterized as essential virtues they understand to be part of their writing process, how they discipline themselves to write daily, and what are common frustrations and goals.

I recall as an undergraduate studying art history and reading an interview with Picasso as an old man. The interviewer pointed to a work Picasso drew that included a few flowing lines evoking a feminine figure and asked the master: “How long did it take you to create that drawing.” Picasso paused and said: “A lifetime!”

I understood even then as a 20-year old student what he meant, and I yearned and hoped that one day I might develop the consummate skill, expertise, understanding, and wisdom to produce something unique, creative and meaningful, recognizing of course that a Picasso is a once-in-a-generation-artist and I am definitely not that.   

Writing well for me always has been difficult. I knew that my congregation expected me to say something important whenever I spoke (especially on the High Holidays), and so I painstakingly edited myself, over and over again, feeling at times tortured by the process. I felt a persistent fear that what I wrote and delivered wasn’t nearly good enough for the very smart, educated, experienced, and wise communities I served in Hollywood, Washington DC, and San Francisco. I understood that my congregations were populated with experts in their fields whose IQ points were far superior to my own. I so often threw to the garbage what took hours and days of research, thinking and writing to produce because what I eventually wrote wasn’t worthy of my community.

Two virtues I do possess are that I’m persistent and that I learn from my missteps and failures. I learned from a very young age that no one was going to hand me anything, that I had to work hard to succeed at whatever I did, and so to write well and say something meaningful became important once I became the rabbi of my community.

I write most mornings now, usually before dawn when it’s quiet and dark and I can think clearly with focus and intention. I consider what I’m reading, what I did, learned and failed at yesterday, and how today I can improve myself.

An actor and director friend used to quote to me what the 19th century American stage actor Edwin Booth once called the “solemn whisper of the god of all arts.” Quoting such a god, Booth said: “I shall give you hunger and pain and sleepless nights, also beauty and satisfaction known to few, and glimpses of the heavenly life. None of these shall you have continually, and of their coming and going you shall not be foretold.”

Booth was right. Tapping into the so-called “heavenly life” comes rarely, but is enough to keep one writing and working the words and ideas, and hoping that as a writer one might experience that which great actors, orators, artists, athletes, writers, poets, dancers, and musicians experience from time to time, or what the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi named the psychological concept of “flow,” a highly focused mental state in which everything a person is and knows becomes integrated effortlessly in a moment.

Think, for example of the finely and exquisitely toned nearly perfect Olympic athletes scoring nothing but 10s, a Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points in a single game when he could not miss a shot from anywhere on the court, a Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writing his greatest works, and of so many composers, dancers, musicians, and writers who once they perfected their craft they transcended themselves in their art. Think also of great scholars in medicine, the law, education, and business who know their subject so well, their skills are so finely tuned and whose long years of experience, of failure and triumph, enables them intuitively to see clearly, as if from ten thousand feet, the totality of the matter at hand and understand what is true and false and what is the wisest course of action.

To be an effective writer, one has to know first and foremost what one thinks, and then with clarity and passion, nuance and balance, focus and intention, and with a vibrant and visionary imagination put words to the page truthfully without extraneous fluff. Great writers dig deeply into their ideas, throw their fears of self-revelation aside, and with simplicity take everything they know and feel into account. When all that’s done, with honesty finally they put their writing onto a page.

For me, I’ve chosen to write because I need to do so, not only to quell my often restless heart and soul, but to clarify for myself, at the very least, what I think, feel and know. In retirement, I gratefully have the time to do this. My reward is the product, and if what I’ve written is good enough, I offer it even if it doesn’t quite reveal the “solemn whisper of the god of all arts.”

At Last – The Hostages are Returning to their Families

20 Monday Jan 2025

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I have waited until the first group of hostages is home to express my joy in the agreement that brings about a ceasefire, the return of the hostages, and increased humanitarian aid into Gaza. At last, I’m beginning to feel a measure of relief that the first three Israeli hostages – Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher – are home after their 471 days of captivity and that the remainder of the hostages will be home soon. According to the agreement, 30 more hostages will be released during the first phase of the agreement in groups every Saturday over the next six weeks. In the next phase, more hostages will be released.

The greatest of all commandments in Jewish tradition is the “pidyon shevuyim – redemption of captives” (Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Matanot Aniyim 8:10-11). The Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative 16th century code of Jewish law, emphasizes that “every moment that one delays in freeing captives, in cases where it is possible to expedite their freedom, is considered to be tantamount to murder.” (Yoreh De’ah 252:3) Three millennia ago, the Psalmist exclaimed “B’shuv Adonai et shivat Zion hayinu k’cholmim… – When God returns the captives to Zion we will be like dreamers — our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with joy.” (126:1)

Hamas’ kidnapping on October 7th 250+ babies, children, young women, men, and seniors from their beds and the music festival, and viciously raped many of the young women, paraded both the living and dead through the streets of Gaza like trophies to the cheering of the crowds, are unforgivable crimes against humanity. Worry about the fate and well-being of these hostages has been a constant every-day reality for Israelis and the Jewish people worldwide. The suffering too of innocent Palestinian civilians at the hands of Hamas’ criminality has been also a deep concern over all this time for compassionate human beings everywhere. Now, at last, the suffering can begin to end and Israelis and Palestinians can start to move on, to reconstruct their destroyed and damaged communities, to heal from this longest war, and consider paths towards peace with justice and security for both our peoples in our shared Homeland.

As a Jew and as an American, I’m grateful for the Biden Administration’s consistent effort to find a diplomatic resolution that brings about a ceasefire and the return home of the hostages. Credit is due as well to the incoming Administration that worked with Biden to achieve this agreement.

As much as we Jews are thrilled that the first small group of hostages are home and more are scheduled to be reunited with their families in the coming weeks, there is something repulsive and morally offensive to me that these innocent and peaceful men, women, children, babies, parents, and grandparents will be returned in exchange for the release of those terrorists who committed cruel acts against our people, who have much Jewish blood on their hands, or who profess the murderous Hamas intentions towards the Jewish people and Jewish State. I comfort myself, however, in the knowledge of and respect for Jewish tradition that insists that we do everything possible to bring home innocent captives and not leave them to a certain fate of death in the tunnels of Gaza.

I’m guardedly optimistic that all the hostages will be home soon and that peace will settle in the land. Until that happens, it is upon us to remember that despair is not an option, that hopeful aspirations have historically characterized the Jewish people regardless of our circumstances, and that our dreams of the return of the captives will be fulfilled and that peace and security will eventually come.

“A Complete Unknown” – an Extraordinary Film

19 Sunday Jan 2025

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My wife and I and a dear friend saw “A Complete Unknown” last evening and we were blown away by Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Bob Dylan, Monica Barbaro’s portrayal of Joan Baez, Edward Norton’s portrayal of Pete Seeger, Scoot McNairy’s portrayal of a very ill Woody Guthrie at the end of his life, and by the director James Mangold’s exceptional accomplishment as a film-maker. The film was a tour de force in acting, music, editing, directing, and evocation of an era in which we grew up and were so deeply affected.

I’ve loved Dylan’s music since 1964 when I began listening to him and plugging into the so-called “cultural revolution” in America that Dylan helped to define through his poetry and music. I listened every year as his new albums were issued, and I watched him change and evolve as the uniquely talented artist that he was, from the original folk singer with guitar and harmonica to a rock star and ultimately into an artist no one then or now can define or pigeon-hole. He was and is sui generis.

Yes, he seemed to treat many of the people around him badly, or as Joan Baez’s character asserted angrily in the film, “You are an a_ _hole.” We don’t know if he ever had that conversation with her, but he presented himself that way to the public, dismissive of the importance of the fame he attained and the millions of fans he attracted so early in his life yet wanting all of it as well. He was at once direct and original with his music but remarkably unrevealing of the actual details of his personal life and past, his family and Jewish roots.

I saw Dylan perform once in Madison Square Garden in New York in 1978. The venue was packed to the rafters with adoring fans, and the blasting sound from at least a dozen high-voltage speakers was deafening. Dylan often turned this back to the audience and did not once speak to us, but his music was extraordinary.

Timothée Chalamet superbly channeled Dylan, his voice, musicality, musicianship, affect and attitude. It took Chalamet five years to learn to play, sing, and become Dylan – and what a performance he made. He should get the Best Actor honors at the Academy Awards, in my view. I hope he does not only because he did such a superior acting job, but more young people who “knew not Dylan” will go see the movie and come to appreciate not only Chalamet but more importantly Dylan in his early years. I would hope that there will be a sequel to show Dylan as he ages, but that likely will depend upon how well this film does at the box office and whether the director James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet want to do another film.

I’ve seen many of the documentaries made of Dylan (there are a lot of them) including the 2004 60-Minutes interview with Ed Bradley when Dylan couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer direct questions that have been on the mind of the public since the poet-songwriter was young. Dylan created an impenetrable mystique around himself at once trying “to catch a spark” (as suggested in the film) from Woody Guthrie who in the 1930s hopped onto trains, road with “hobos” and sang across the country such classics as “This Land is Your Land.” Dylan refused to be like anyone else when his audience wanted to hear the old favorites because he was constantly changing, writing new songs, and that’s what he wanted to sing. When Ed Bradley asked him where the songs came from, Dylan couldn’t answer. He said he didn’t know. He was remarkably prolific, writing all the time, and remembering the lyrics and music that matched together so well as if the songs came from somewhere else fully formed, like Mozart who it was said of him channeled the gods with his music.

Though we know much more about Dylan’s personal life today than ever before because he has written so many songs over the course of his 83 years of life, he seems as elusive as ever. I read somewhere that he approved the script for the film “A Complete Unknown.” That’s nice to know because everything I know about Dylan seems consistent with Chalamet’s portrayal of him in the film and with Dylan himself.

I know that boomers likely will see the film because the sounds and lyrics he created helped define our youthful years, but I hope my millennial kids are going to want to see it too along with Gen Z and younger. Dylan is that important an artist and icon of a generation.

If you have not yet seen the film on the big screen, treat yourself before it goes to streaming. If you weren’t planning on seeing it, give yourself a gift by watching Chalamet channel this greatest of artists.

A 60-second encounter I will never forget

17 Friday Jan 2025

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Standing in line waiting for the post office to open, a man about my age wearing jeans, a jacket, woolen cap (it was 48 degrees F outside), and hiking books, walking in circles in the foyer after I told him the doors would open in 15 minutes.

“I don’t know what address to have things sent to me,” he said.

“Did you lose your home in the fires?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“In Altadena?”

“No. The Palisades. Fifty years in my house. Everything’s gone. Maybe it’s a good thing,” he said almost dispassionately.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Do you believe in God?” he asked me.

“In a holistic way – yes.” I answered.

“Like Noah in the Bible?” he asked.

“No. In Noah’s day the Bible said the flood was punishment for the sins of Noah’s generation. Your loss had nothing to do with that. This was a natural catastrophe made impossible by ferocious winds that even the best fire-fighters couldn’t put out until after everything was destroyed.”

“I have 4 children and grandchildren all here in LA. I’m lucky,” he said as he left the post office. He didn’t return.

That entire conversation lasted no more than 60 seconds, and it could have been repeated 12,000 times, once for each of the structures destroyed last week.

I can’t imagine what he must be feeling, though I did believe it could have happened to my wife and me. We were fortunate that it didn’t.

Jennifer Rubin Quits the Washington Post and Starts New Media Outlet

16 Thursday Jan 2025

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Jen is a long-time friend. Once a member of my congregation in Los Angeles, I happily officiated at her marriage and had hopes that she would eventually rise to become the President of my synagogue’s Board of Trustees. But, she left LA for the Washington, D.C. area 20 plus years ago for a position at a law firm in Virginia and eventually became a prolific blogger at The Washington Post. She is a brilliant thinker and writer, and the list of writers (below) to her new Media Outlet called “The Contrarian” is exceptional.

I hope you will subscribe. I did so immediately upon receiving her email. Since then, Jen’s and Norm Eisen’s new media platform and outlet have been covered widely in the media. Details and links to subscribe are below in Jen’s initial email:

“Friends, relations:

Please excuse the group email. After 14 years at The Washington Post I quit today. Bezos’s decision to sacrifice journalism at the altar of self-interest (how many billions are enough??) meant I could no longer stay at The Post. I have felt muzzled for some time, and recent events pushed me over the edge.

That’s why I couldn’t be more excited to announce the launch of a new independent media outlet: The Contrarian. With a large group of friends and colleagues we have started a platform that will be unabashed, unvarnished and irreverent. It will have political opinion, commentary, interviews but much more – cooking, film, books, and even dogs!

You can find the first edition of The Contrarian here, alongside our launch video here. For those on social media please follow on Bluesky (account below).

Every weekday, you will receive at least two pieces of content: a daily morning column written by me [Jen Rubin], followed by a piece by Norm Eisen or one of our brilliant contributing Contrarians. Those voices include Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Andrew Weissmann, Andy Borowitz, Asha Rangappa, Barbara McQuade, Bob Kagan, David Litt, Esosa Osa, George Conway, Harry Litman, Ilan Goldenberg, John Dean, Jonathan Alter, Joyce Vance, Katie Phang, Karen Agnifilo, Kim Lane Scheppele, Professor Laurence Tribe, Lavora Barnes, Michael Podhorzer, Nancy Gertner, Olivia Julianna, Renato Mariotti, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Stephen Richer, Tom Joscelyn, and many more to come.

Please check it out, subscribe and take a few minutes to send to friends and family. I really need your help. This is a labor of love (and a little scary). Thanks in advance.

With love and appreciation,

Jen – http://contrarian.substack.com/  

BlueSky: – @contrariannews.bsky.social – @jenrubin.bsky.social

Jennifer Rubin, Editor-in-Chief – The Contrarian”

The LA Fires – A Status Assessment

12 Sunday Jan 2025

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Many friends have reached out to me, and I and my family are grateful for your concern, love, and interest.

I’m writing at 6:30 am on Sunday morning, January 12th. Every day is dynamic and it’s impossible to know what fire threats are lurking ahead. What I write here is a snapshot in time and part of a much longer drama.

My wife and I are okay, as are our kids and grandchildren who are a bit further away from the fire than us.

As far as I know, none of my synagogue’s families has lost anything (yet). Other than the “Sunset Fire” that came within 3 blocks of Temple Israel of Hollywood, our members are safe and their homes are secure.

We’re watching the local news in all our waking hours, and waiting expectantly and anxiously for mandatory evacuation orders.

We live at the eastern edge of Sherman Oaks, a San Fernando Valley community nestled in the hills in a highly flammable fire zone. Our home is about 3-4 miles east of the current front of the Palisades fire, but that front could move in our direction and be here quickly when the Santa Ana winds pick up as they’re expected to do again in the next several days. This time they are expected to blow at a speed of between 40 and 50 mph over a period of three days (tonight through Wednesday), as opposed to the initial days of the fire that hit the Pacific Palisades and Altadena (near Pasadena) so ferociously when the Santa Anas were blowing at an unprecedented speed and power of between 80 and 100 mph.

We aren’t yet in the evacuation zone that keeps expanding east and north from Mandeville Canyon in West Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Mountains. We’ve packed essentials and are ready to evacuate when and if ordered.

The size and scope of the fires are unprecedented. Thousands upon thousands of homes are gone especially in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities. My high school (Palisades High) is gone [correction: I have learned subsequently that initial reports were misleading and though much of the school was destroyed, much also remains in tact], as are two synagogues (one in the Palisades and the other in Pasadena) and thousands of businesses everywhere have been destroyed. Smoke fills the air throughout the region and we’re told to stay inside as much as possible and wear the heavy-duty Covid masks if we venture outside.

The destruction is dystopic in scope. Entire communities are gone, ash has settled everywhere and smoke fills the air. This fire reminds me vividly of the devastating 1961 Bel Air Fire when I was in the 6th grade at Kenter Canyon Elementary School and 450 homes were destroyed including those of many of my school mates. This series of fires, however, is exponentially worse. About ten people have been arrested for looting, two of whom posed as fire-fighters, but most people have been cooperative with fire officials and the police, followed instructions and are either evacuating immediately when ordered or are staying home. Those who lost their homes have moved in with family, friends or taken rooms in hotels temporarily until the fires cease and they can begin to think about what to do next.

People from everywhere have gathered spontaneously at Santa Anita Park, contributing and receiving clothing, diapers, food, and water for those who have lost everything. Also food and water are being delivered directly to firefighters and journalists reporting for extended hours on the front fire-lines.

Fire-fighting equipment (planes and choppers carrying water and fire retardants) have come from throughout California, Canada, Mexico, and every western state (Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada). To watch on the local news how these fires are being fought strategically and professionally by thousands of fire-fighters is something extraordinary to behold.

President Joe Biden promised to fund for the next 180 days the entirety of the fire-fighting effort in LA County. California Governor Gavin Newsom asked the other western states and Mexico for help, and the Mexican President (the first Jew and first woman ever elected to the presidency in Mexico) sent 70 fire-fighters who arrived on Saturday afternoon at LAX and immediately entered the fire arenas to assist in the fight. Our LA Mayor Karen Bass and the County Board of Supervisors are coordinating everything across departments. The people of LA County (10 million souls of every race, ethnicity, nationality, religious, and secular background) and Ventura County to the north have come together as one. Everyone is focused on the same things – the safety of their families, friends, the status of the fire, their homes, communities, schools, religious institutions, and businesses.

As we decided what to take with us, most every material thing is insignificant in the grand scheme of our lives. What are important are the people we love – our family, friends, and community.

We aren’t yet out of danger. Last night, however, one LAFD Captain reported on the NBC local news (to our personal relief) that he did not believe that the Palisades Fire would cross east of the 405 Freeway. His positive and optimistic assessment was stunning to my ears after days of intense anxiety. As noted above, our home in Sherman Oaks is about 3 miles to the east of the 405 and one mile south of the 101 Freeway. However, the fires are threatening Encino (west of the 405 and a mile north and down the mountain from where the fires have progressed), and we have family and friends there who have evacuated their homes.

We breathed, guardedly, a great sigh of relief for the first time when we heard the opinion of the LAFD Captain. But, and it’s a big “BUT”, with the Santa Ana winds threatening to begin again in the next few days, anything is possible as embers are caught up in the wind and carried far away to ignite new fires.

There has been a great deal of interest in how these multiple fires began. Were their origins electrical in nature or caused by carelessness or arson? Investigators from the FBI, Police, Sheriff, and Fire Departments are seeking answers, but until the fires are under complete control and/or extinguished (and that still will take many many days), no answers are likely to come soon.

Patience, perseverance, love, and mutual support are required now from everyone. I’m grateful to my kids here in LA who have been so present for my wife and me, and our many friends who have written to me from Israel, Europe and around North America inquiring how we are doing.

Hopefully, the above gives a sense not only of our circumstances, but of everyone in this region. My personal gratitude is huge to the officials in all the departments of this city and county, and most especially to the fire-fighters, police and sheriff departments.

May the work of their hands continue to be effective as they seek with courage and strength to extinguish these fires and protect us all.

The Threat Assessment Against Israeli Democracy

31 Tuesday Dec 2024

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Orly Erez-Likhovski, the Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center (IRAC – the social justice arm of Israel’s Reform Jewish Movement), several weeks ago offered a power-point threat assessment on Israeli democracy by the most extreme right-wing Israeli government in the history of the state. Orly spoke to those of us on the International Advisory Council for the Israel Movement for Reform Judaism and gave me permission to post what she said. I added language only for the purpose of clarification.

Orly is a brilliant Israeli and American lawyer who has brought about significant legal achievements in Israel including making illegal gender segregation on public transportation, ending the Orthodox monopoly on state-funded salaries to rabbis, filing (and winning) the first ever class action suit regarding exclusion of and humiliating practices against women in Israeli society, and disqualifying racist candidates from running for seats in Israel’s Knesset (Parliament).

Orly cited the important work of Kim Lane Scheppele, an American scholar of law and politics at Princeton University, who describes 8 means to dismantle liberal democracies from within and cement authoritarian rule. Scheppele has studied Turkey, Hungary, and the United States (see her essay – “Autocratic Legalism” in The University of Chicago Law Review – https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archive/autocratic-legalism). Orly suggests that Scheppele’s analysis is applicable to what is taking place in Israel today:

  1. Winning democratic elections followed by an attack against democratic institutions (e.g. the judiciary, the media, the prosecutor’s office, the tax authority, and the election commission);
  2. Dismantling the mechanisms that restrict the ruling government;
  3. Controlling the Parliament through intimidation of its members thereby turning it to irrelevance as an independent government branch;
  4. Subordinating the courts to the government through so-called “reforms”;
  5. Gaining control over media outlets and spreading “fake news”;
  6. Placing loyalists in key positions throughout the government and in the media; 
  7. Delegitimizing opponents of the government by calling them traitors;
  8. Changing election laws to ensure future victory.

Introductory notes:

Understanding Israeli politics, political parties, and Israel’s “parliamentary democratic government” is challenging because there is no rigid constitution in Israel, though there have been continuous efforts to write one since the earliest years of the state. Many laws still on the books are founded upon Ottoman and British Mandate law that were in use before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. To take the place of a written constitution, Israel passed since 1950 fourteen “Basic Laws” (i.e.  laws which are supposed to be of a higher status than regular laws but in fact can be enacted and changed like any other law). Most of these laws deal with the various branches of government. Two basic laws constitute Israel’s “Bill of Rights” but again – they can be changed by a simple majority in the Knesset. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel).

Here is Orly’s power-point presentation:

Israeli democracy is already weak and vulnerable:

  • There are no checks on the power of the Israeli government, except by the courts.
  • Israel’s separation of powers is thin since the government controls the Knesset through its coalition majority (i.e. the current extreme right-wing government has 68 Members out of a total of 120 MKs (57 percent).

There are no democratic mechanisms of checks and balances in Israel that exist in other democratic countries:

  • No 2 houses of parliament;
  • No regional elections;
  • No federal system;
  • No presidential veto power;
  • No international courts that the government must adhere to.

The right-wing Israeli government’s narrative and the assault on the courts:

  • The current right-wing government advocates against the independence of the Supreme Court claiming the Supreme Court is too active in striking down laws and government decisions, thereby preventing the elected government from implementing the will of the people.
  • The reality is that only 24 laws have been struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court in the past 30 years. The Supreme court is exceptionally cautious and will intervene only in exceptional circumstances.
  • The claim that the courts do not allow the government to implement the will of the majority disregards 2 critical characteristics of a democracy: the separation of powers and the protection of human rights, especially minority rights.

2023 – The “Judicial Coup”:

  • In December 2022, the government, led by PM Benjamin Netanyahu, took power.
  • In January 2023, the government’s Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin announced the intention of passing a series of laws dramatically weakening Israel’s democracy, especially in limiting the government’s Judicial Review in the following ways:
  1. Taking away the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down Basic Laws that conflict with Israel’s democratic principles (meaning, any law could be shielded from judicial review simply by giving it the title “Basic Law”).
  2. Severely limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down “regular” laws.
  3. Giving the Knesset the power to override a court decision and reenact a law that previously had been struck down by the Supreme Court.

Changing the process of nominating judges:

  • Today, to assure non-partisan balance, new judges are nominated by a committee comprised of 3 Supreme Court Justices, 2 Government Ministers, 2 Members of Knesset, and 2 lawyers. 7 of the 9 members of the committee are required to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. The Chief Justice of the Supreme court is nominated by a majority of the above and traditionally the most senior justice has been chosen to be Chief Justice.
  • However, the “Judicial Coup” aims to give the ruling coalition complete control over the judicial selection committee that would include 3 politically appointed ministers, 3 government coalition MKs, 3 justices, 2 opposition MKs, and for any nomination, 6 out of 11 majority would suffice.

The Attorney General (AG) and Legal Advisors of Government Ministries:

  • Currently, the AG is nominated by a professional selection committee. The AG is the ultimate authority regarding the legality of governmental actions. The AG’s opinion about the legality of the government’s actions binds the government. The AG represents the government in the courts. The same is true about legal advisors to the government ministries who are all subordinated to the AG and not to government ministers.
  • The “Judicial Coup” would allow the government to disregard the legal opinions of the AG and of legal advisors altogether and to choose a private lawyer to represent the government in court.

The “Reasonableness Doctrine”:

  • The Supreme Court can intervene in administrative decisions judged “unreasonable” (i.e. arbitrary, capricious, having bias, and showing conflict of interest). The Supreme Court rarely rules that a government decision is “unreasonable” (averaging only 1.6 times/year since 1995).
  • The “Judicial Coup” intended to prevent the Supreme Court from declaring any governmental or ministerial decision “unreasonable”.

What happened to the “Judicial Coup” legislation?

  • Before October 7, 2023, due to the unprecedented nearly year-long public protests of hundreds of thousands of Israelis across political parties and religious streams, all but one of the components of the “Judicial Coup” legislation failed to become law. The only component of the “Judicial Coup” legislation that the Knesset approved (in July 2023) is abolishing the “Reasonableness Doctrine”.
  • However, in January 2024, the Supreme Court struck down this law that abolished the “Reasonableness Doctrine” (sitting for the first time in Israel’s history in a full panel of 15 judges – suggesting how important the Supreme Court Justices understood this government action to be). This was also the first time the Supreme Court ever struck down a Basic Law. It did so on the grounds that the government’s action contradicts fundamental values in Israeli democracy (i.e. separation of powers and the rule of law).

The current government continues to promote a “Judicial/Regime Coup” post-October 7 – Why change the law if we can ignore it?

  • Court packing – Since October 2023, 3 liberal justices (of the total of 15 Supreme Court Justices) retired at the mandatory retirement age of 70. The right-wing Justice Minister Yariv Levin refuses to convene the judicial selection committee to nominate 3 new justices because he does not have the votes to appoint the right-wing judges that he wants.
  • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – Justice Minister Levin refuses to follow the seniority rule and to obey court orders that have called for the appointment of a new Chief Justice, for the same reason above. The most senior judge who would become Chief Justice is a liberal, and Levin, consequently, has refused to act. For the first time in Israeli history, Israel has an interim Chief Justice.
  • Ethics of Judges – There is an attempt to have the Knesset nominate a Commissioner in charge of judges’ ethics, thus providing for the political removal of judges.

The Attorney General (AG):

  • The government wants to disregard the AG’s opinions. For example, ignoring the Supreme Court ruling regarding the draft requirement of Ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the army or the illegality of providing State subsidies to Ultra-Orthodox men who avoid army service.
  • The government employs a private attorney to represent it in the courts thereby side-lining the AG altogether.
  • There has been intensive incitement and threats against the AG (Gali Baharav-Miara), who was appointed in 2022 by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Gideon Saar. She has been summoned by extremists in the current government to a government “hearing” and there are numerous right-wing calls for her to be fired simply for doing her job and upholding the law (although the government lacks the authority to do so).
  • The current government passed a law to force senior legal advisors to government ministries to retire, thus enabling it to appoint legal advisors who will act as “yes-men”.

Politicization of the Police:

  • National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is a racist follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. In a democracy, there should be a high wall between government ministers and the professional operation of the police. Ben Gvir has crashed that wall, and he intervenes regularly in police work (e.g. investigations, arrests, and nominations that include promoting violent officers).
  • There is selective enforcement of laws – harsh treatment of anti-government protesters as opposed to lenient treatment of extreme right-wing violence against Palestinians.
  • There is a petition pending before the Supreme Court challenging the law that allows the minister to intervene in police investigations.

Attack on Academia:

  • A bill is being presented to the Knesset that would force universities to fire professors based on expressions of “supporting terror,” but without due process, thus enabling political persecution without having to bring evidence or secure a conviction.
  • Universities that fail to fire such professors will be denied state funding.
  • A similar law regarding teachers in schools was already approved.
  • The person in charge of enforcing this law would be the government’s right-wing Education Minister Yoav Kisch, thereby dramatically restricting free speech.

Attack on the Media:

  • The right-wing government is presenting favorable regulation of pro-government TV stations such as Channel 14 (Israel’s equivalent of America’s “Fox News”).
  • The government strives to weaken media outlets critical of the government (e.g. the Public Broadcast Authority, Haaretz, and Galei Tzahal – the official radio station of Israel’s army).
  • The government is striving to turn regional radio stations (most privately owned by moguls connected to the government) into state-wide stations as a favor to owners.
  • The government is striving to change the rating system of media stations (as implemented by an independent, not-for-profit organization that measures viewership data to determine ratings for television channels and programs) to be controlled by the government.
  • After October 7, 2023, the government passed a law allowing the government’s Communications Minister to shut down media outlets – Al Jazeera was shut down in April 2024.
  • A new bill will grant the government more sweeping powers – allowing the government to shut down internet sites.

Bills against Palestinian Citizens of Israel:

  • A law is being proposed that will make it easier to disqualify Arab Political Parties and Arab candidates from running in elections for the Knesset thus ensuring a majority for the current right-wing government in future elections. Twenty percent of Israel’s total population is Palestinian-Israeli citizens. Only once was an Arab Political Party (Ra’am) part of a ruling Israeli government coalition (in 2021-2022). Eliminating Arab Parties from the Knesset would tip the balance of the total 120 Knesset members to right-wing control of the government. Israeli law requires that much evidence must be presented to support disqualifying a political party or a candidate on the basis of terrorism. This new law would only require bringing “one case” or “one statement” to disqualify said party or candidate, while in order to disqualify racist right-wing parties one would need to present a heavy case of evidence.
  • The government is striving to abolish the need for the state attorney’s approval of police investigations on incitement offenses. It is certainly legitimate to investigate support for Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7, but it is another matter to investigate someone who publicly expresses concern for Palestinian well-being in Gaza as a consequence of the war. This law would have a chilling effect on Palestinian free speech in Israel. There is already selective enforcement for incitement offenses against Palestinians since October 7, 2023 and this would make the situation worse.
  • Efforts are being made to prevent the General Security Service from using administrative custody towards Jews accused of terrorism and allowing it only to be used against Palestinians accused of terrorism.

Additional Dangers:

  • Civil Service – changing the way the non-partisan Commissioner of Civil Service is nominated to gain governmental control over the nomination.
  • Bar Association – weakening the Israeli Bar Association in order to influence its representatives on the committee nominating judges.
  • Rabbis’ Law – adding hundreds of state paid rabbis, all of whom are Orthodox men chosen by the government, thereby deepening the Orthodox monopoly and discrimination against other non-Orthodox religious streams (e.g. Conservative, Reform, etc.).
  • Rabbinical Courts – promoting a bill that will give rabbinical courts jurisdiction over civil matters (currently they have jurisdiction only over matters of marriage and divorce), thereby promoting a theocracy over Israel’s democracy.
  • Military Draft – promoting a bill that will grant exemption from the military draft to Ultra-Orthodox Jews, contrary to Supreme Court decisions.
  • Settler Violence against Palestinians – extreme Jewish settlers’ violence against Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank which is not treated in an equivalent manner to Palestinian violence against Jewish settlers.
  • West Bank Status – the civil responsibility for the West Bank is being transferred from military officers to people affiliated with the extreme right-wing Finance Minster Betzalel Smotrich thus paving the way for de jure annexation of the West Bank into Israel.

What is IRAC (the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center) doing in the face of such dangers?

  • In the Knesset, our lawyers are attending committee meetings, filing position papers, and opposing dangerous bills that would harm Israeli democracy.
  • Our Israeli Reform movement is participating in public campaigns to raise awareness to all the above dangers.
  • We are working in cooperation with other Israeli NGOs and human rights organizations to create a stronger impact and effective messaging against all threats to Israel’s democracy.
  • We are protesting alongside hundreds of thousands of Israelis from across the religious streams and political parties who regard seriously the dangers posed against Israeli democracy by the current extremist government and refuse to be silent.
  • In appropriate cases we are challenging all the dangerous policies and laws in court.

We must remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”

We will not be silent but act to preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic State.

Want to learn more? Sign up for IRAC’s weekly newsletter – the Pluralist!

 

Biden, Trump, the Politics of Revenge and Blanket Pardons

24 Tuesday Dec 2024

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I have listened to both sides of the argument (legal and moral) about whether Joe Biden should issue blanket pardons to all office holders, journalists, and everyone else that Trump and his revenge-retribution sycophantic machine expects to target, including such American heroes as Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, the entire January 6 Congressional Commission, many journalists and traditional media organizations such as MSNBC, ABC etc. etc. etc.

For the sake of our democracy, free speech, freedom of the press, and the personal well-being of the targets of Trump’s sickening promises and campaign, I hope that President Biden will issue across the board pardons to the above before he leaves office to spare these good Americans so targeted the expected enormous financial expense that defending oneself will be required, their physical safety, and their good names.

American democracy has its flaws, to be sure, but our national aspirations are built upon freedom of speech, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, separation of powers, and generally our constitutional order and democratic institutions and norms and should not be sullied by the likes of Trump any more than possible. President Biden can stop some of Trump’s awful blood-letting before he leaves office.

If you have access to President Biden and/or to your Senators and Congressional Representatives, please use whatever influence and agency you have to try and compel President Biden to issue these pardons before it is too late.

The negativity and unethical basis of revenge that lurks in the dark side of the human character has been commented upon by many over the centuries. Here are a few thoughts worth considering:

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind… Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools.” -Decimus Junius Juvenalis, known in English as Juvenal (b. 55 C.E.)

“Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt.” -Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

“Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of forgiving their enemies.” -Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)