Category Archives: American Politics and Life

Confronting Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses Today

07 Sunday Feb 2016

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

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I remember as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley (1968 – 1972) that when I became active in anti-Vietnam and pro-civil rights protests I encountered a measure of anti-Semitism among fellow protesters that pushed me away from ever feeling at home with them despite our shared values about equal rights and justice.

Sadly, not very much has changed these past 45 years. Anti-Semitism in the student left has become worse.

In addition to my worries about the rise of anti-Semitism in campus left-wing groups, I’m worried also about what many young Jewish idealists are thinking who, on the one hand base their activism and involvement in these groups upon traditional Jewish values of justice and equality, but on the other are unsuspecting or ill-informed or naive or in denial about the anti-Semitism they are confronting as it manifests in anti-Israel activism, pro-BDS support and pure Jew-hatred.

A particularly disturbing article appeared this month that addresses the challenge that progressive proudly identifying Jewish activists are confronting on college campuses (“In the Safe Spaces on Campus, No Jews Allowed,” The Tower Magazine, February 2016).

We learn there of the experience of two progressive pro-Israel Jewish UCLA students who attended the Students of Color Conference (SOCC) at UC Berkeley in November. The SOCC is the UC Student Association’s oldest and largest conference that has a reputation as “being a safe space where students of color, as well as white progressive allies, can address and discuss issues of structural and cultural inequality on college campuses.”

Arielle Mokhtarzadeh and Ben Rosenberg discovered to their shock and dismay that though many of their fellow college students had risen up to fight racism on campuses across the country as they did, so often those very same students subject Jewish students to anti-Semitism.

I offer below three important articles that survey anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on American college campuses today:

1. In the Safe Spaces on Campus, No Jews Allowed, By Anthony Berteaux, The Tower Magazine, February 2018 – http://www.thetower.org/article/in-the-safe-spaces-on-campus-no-jews-allowed/

Arielle Mokhtarzadeh and Ben Rosenberg shared the following:

[the conference participants] said that Israel was poisoning the water that they sell into the West Bank, and raising the price by ten times. Any sane person knows that this is not true. They also said that when Jewish-American students go on Birthright trips, the Israeli government offers you money to live on a settlement. A number of things like that…. There was also no mention of the Holocaust when talking about the history of Israel. They said that in the late 19th century, Jews decided to move into this land and take over it. They completely white-washed our history as a people… Over the course of what was probably no longer than an hour, my history was denied, the murder of my people was justified, and a movement whose sole purpose is the destruction of the Jewish homeland was glorified. Statements were made justifying the ruthless murder of innocent Israeli civilians, blatantly denying Jewish indigeneity in the land, and denying the Holocaust in which six million Jews were murdered. Why anyone in their right mind would accept these slanders as truths baffles me. But they did. These statements, and others, were met with endless snaps and cheers. I was taken aback.

2. Anti-Semitism On Campus: Most Jewish Students Feel Discriminated Against, New Study Finds By Jackie Salo, July 7, 2015, International Business Times – http://www.ibtimes.com/anti-semitism-campus-most-jewish-students-feel-discriminated-against-new-study-finds-2027557

Nearly three-quarters of Jewish college students have described experiencing anti-Semitism in the last year, and about one-third have been verbally harassed at one point because of their religion, according to a survey…. More than one-quarter of the Jewish students reported seeing hostility against Israel on campus from peers as a “very big” or “fairly big” problem, and nearly 15 percent felt the same level of animosity towards Jews. Nearly one-quarter of respondents said they have been blamed in the past year for the actions of Israel because they were Jewish….The study also found that Canadian universities and Midwest and California state schools had the highest rates of students reporting hostility on campus towards Jews and Israel. 

3. National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students 2014 – ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT, By Barry A. Kosmin & Ariela Keysar – https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/trinityantisemreport.pdf

The following appears in the report’s Forward:

…we have learned much more about the problem [of anti-Semitism on college campuses], which has worsened at many institutions …. Significantly, we did not know, until the completion of Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar’s important work on this report, the startling fact that more than half of Jewish American college students personally experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism during the 2013-2014 academic year…. It should be obvious that campus anti-Semitism deserves a strong response… governmental officials, university administrators, civil rights groups, and communal institutions, activists, and funders, all of whom need to decide what resources to dedicate to addressing campus anti-Semitism and how to deploy these resources. …

This report offers what responses ought to be made to anti-Semitism as it manifests on campuses. The most important defense, in addition to governmental, administration, faculty, and student responses, is a well-educated Jewish student body about Judaism itself, the history and nature of anti-Semitism, and the history and nature of the state of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. Young people need to know their own Jewish history. They need to understand the significance and nature of the state of Israel in all its complexity, and they need to be prepared to identify anti-Semitism when they encounter it and how to effectively confront it for what it is really is. And finally, they need to be able to stand proudly as Jews.

The Staggering Statistics of Gun Violence in America and What We Can Do About It

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Health and Well-Being

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This week two leaders of Women Against Gun Violence, Loren Lieb and Donna Finkelstein whose children were injured in the 1999 Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting, visited my synagogue’s senior staff to ask our synagogue community and schools to promote education and advocacy on behalf of gun safety.

Here are statistics showing the disastrous effects of gun violence on American lives (provided by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Women Against Gun Violence):

Children (0-19 years)

• Every year on average – 17,499 American children and teens (0-19 years) are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by police intervention – 2,677 kids die from gun violence – 14,822 kids survive gun injuries

• Every day on average – 48 children and teens are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention – 7 children and teens die from gun violence – 41 children and teens are shot and survive

All ages

• Every year on average – 108,476 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by police intervention – 32,514 people die from gun violence – 75,962 people survive gun injuries

• Every day on average – 297 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention – 89 people die from gun violence – 208 people are shot and survive

Firearms are the 2nd leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1-19

A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense

Gun ownership in a country is a significant predictor of firearm homicide rates. For each percentage point increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increases by .9%.

There are 65 million more guns than adults in America.

Suicides account for 60% of gun deaths each year.

1 out of 3 homes with kids have guns and 1.7 million children live in a home with an unlocked, loaded gun

82% of firearm suicides among youth under 18 used a firearm belonging to a family member, usually a parent

76% of children ages 5-14 know where firearms are kept in the home

24% of students in grades 7-12 report having easy access to a gun in the home

29% of households with children younger than 12 fail to lock up their guns

33% of 8-12 year old boys who come across an unlocked handgun pick it up and pull the trigger

22% of children who live in a house with a gun handle a gun without their parents’ knowledge

50% of all unintentional shooting deaths among children occur at home – almost 50% occur in the home of a friend or relative

Millions of guns are sold every year in “no questions asked” transactions. 40% of guns now sold in America are done so without a Brady background check

The statistics of gun violence, killings and injuries are staggering. Is there anything we citizens can do to protect ourselves and our children better?

Here are suggestions offered by Women Against Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence:

1. The safest house is one without a gun – if you have a gun, lock it up, separate the weapon from ammunition, or get rid of it;

2. If you are a parent whose child has a play-date in a friend’s home, ask the child’s parent(s) before the play-date if there are guns in the home and if so, are they locked up? If not, do not allow your child to play at that house. Invite your child’s friend instead to play in your home;

3. Talk to your children about gun danger and gun safety. Tell them never to pick up a gun that they see lying around a house. Then they should tell an adult there is a gun. Then they should call you (their parents) and go home. Remind them frequently that guns can kill.

4. Talk to your teen-age children about attending parties where there may be unlocked guns. If they learn that there is an unlocked gun, they should follow the steps in item #3 above.

5. Invite Women Against Gun Violence to speak to parents and children in your child’s schools.

6. Display posters advocating gun safety in schools, synagogues and community buildings.

7. Fight the National Rifle Association (NRA) refusal to support reasonable gun safety legislation and don’t support any congressional, senate or presidential candidate who refuses to support the same.

West Bank Settlements are neither “illegitimate” nor “illegal” – But that’s NOT the issue

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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

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Even though a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems very far away, it is still the only solution that preserves Israel’s democratic and Jewish character, and it is the only solution that will restore Israel’s international standing.

Everything good that Israel is and does, however, is being eclipsed by terror, violence and the contentious issue of West Bank settlements.

The Times of Israel reported this week (“US backs European move to distinguish Israel from West Bank,” January 20) the following:

“Our longstanding position on settlements is clear,” [US] State Department spokesman John Kirby said at the department’s daily press briefing Tuesday.

“We view Israeli settlement activity as illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace,” he said. “We remain deeply concerned about Israel’s current policy on settlements, including construction, planning, and retroactive legalizations.

“The US government has never defended or supported Israeli settlements, because administrations from both parties have long recognized that settlement activity beyond the 1967 lines and efforts to change the facts on the ground undermine prospects for a two-state solution,” Kirby added. “We are no different.”

A few historical points:

  1. West Bank land after World War I became part of the British Mandatory Authority. Before that it was controlled by the Ottoman Empire and over the past millennia by a number of  different sovereign powers going back to Biblical days;
  2. After the 1948 Israel-Arab War, Jordan conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem. Egypt took the Gaza Strip. Syria occupied the Golan Heights;
  3. During the 1967 Israeli-Arab War, Israel conquered those five areas;
  4. No nation, not the Ottomans, Great Britain, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, or Israel was necessarily entitled to the West Bank by treaty because there never were any treaties. In every instance, occupation came about as a consequence of war and armistice agreements;
  5. The UN Security Council and General Assembly unilaterally conferred upon these territories legal status as belonging to the Arabs/Palestinians, and Israel’s occupation as “illegal”;
  6. In 1979, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 446 by a vote of 12-0 with 3 abstentions from Norway, the UK and the US that determined: “… the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
  7. With the passage of Resolution 446, the UN determined that territories administered by Israel are subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention (adopted in 1949) requiring Israel to refrain from taking any action that would change the status or demographic composition of those territories including moving civilians onto this land.

In other words – all West Bank settlements are “illegal” and “illegitimate.” But, is it true?

I agree with the Israeli government position that they are not illegal. The Israeli position is that since none of this land ever “belonged” to any nation by treaty Israel is not “legally” constrained by Resolution 446 or the Fourth Geneva Convention.

However, Israel’s policies of settlement and expansion are hardly politically smart, constructive, wise, or helpful if a two-state solution is ever going to become a reality.

Israel’s policies in the West Bank since 1967 have effectively blurred the “Green Line” (the 1949 Armistice line following Israel’s War of Independence) to such a degree and enmeshment has become so extensive between the West Bank Palestinian Arab population and Israeli Jewish settlements that no contiguous Palestinian state will be possible in the West Bank if new settlements and settlement expansion do not stop. At some point fairly soon, what will be left is a nightmare situation of a one-state solution that will be in a perpetual state of terror, violence and war.

Many observers believe that it is not yet too late to reverse the slide towards a one-state reality. Only an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians can bring the kind of peace and security both Israelis and Palestinians crave.

 

 

Hillary’s and Bill’s marriage is none of America’s business

17 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Ethics, Life Cycle

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It is no one’s business how Hillary and Bill Clinton have worked through their marriage challenges.

As a congregational rabbi of 36 years, I have counseled many couples as infidelity tears marriages apart. In those rare instances when the partners’ love for one another is strong enough and they are forgiving enough and repentant enough, some couples can stay married successfully and happily.

Marriage and long-term relationship commitments are often difficult. Most married individuals, at one time or another, are seduced or almost seduced to violate their marriage bond and commitment. That there were violations in the Clinton marriage is, frankly, none of America’s business. Whatever indiscretions Bill committed, Hillary staying with him does not make Hillary an enabler, as Donald Trump self-righteously and cruelly barked last week, but rather, it suggests that Hillary is a strong, forgiving and loving wife.

In reading Carl Bernstein’s excellent un-authorized biography of Hillary Clinton A Woman in Charge (publ. 2007), I came away with the sense that the Clintons are honest with each other, that they know each other exceptionally well, have made peace with each other’s frailties, and that they have enough together that they want to stay married. If that reflects a deficiency of character, then perhaps I have learned nothing in my life as a Jew and a rabbi. To the contrary, I believe that their suffering, reconciliation and ability to move forward together is a sign of strong character and abiding love.

When Hillary Clinton was a Senator, my wife Barbara and I spent 10 minutes speaking with her privately at an LA fundraiser. She had just delivered a sermon on Yom Kippur at a congregation in Los Angeles on the theme of forgiveness. I asked her what she said as I had just spoken on the same theme in my synagogue, and she looked me in the eye and explained that she loves her husband and despite the humiliation she suffered following the Monica Lewinsky affair, as a Christian she found it in her heart to forgive him, that Bill never wanted to lose her as his wife, that he loved her and she loved him, and that they had built a life together far beyond politics that they cherished and did not want to lose.

Bernstein discussed this dynamic at some length in his book, and it became clear to me, as I have learned counseling couples over the years, that everyone, including Hillary and Bill, is different. Every couple is different and every marriage is different. Those that survive threats to their marriage  become stronger and more committed to each other as a consequence and are to be respected, not vilified.

So – let’s stick to the issues of this important presidential campaign and judge the capacity of the respective candidates on the basis of their philosophy of governing, their judgement, temperament, perspective, experience, and understanding of the nation and the world, and decide based on those metrics what this nation needs going forward and not allow ourselves to speculate on what happens inside anyone’s marriage. Frankly, we don’t have a clue and it’s none of our business.

2 Articles and an Invitation to Hear Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund

14 Thursday Jan 2016

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

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“Is it too late to bring us back from the brink?” by Gershon Baskin and “Another Step Towards Stifling Dissent in Israel,” by Don Futterman paint ominous but honest and thoughtful pictures of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians on the one hand and on efforts by Israel’s right-wing political parties to diminish Israel’s democracy on the other.

For those who love Israel and want her to remain Jewish and democratic, these two articles address core concerns  regardless of whether we hold differing perspectives on what Zionism and the state of Israel mean today – see links below.

With this in mind, I invite Los Angeles residents to join my congregation (Temple Israel of Hollywood) on Friday, January 22nd at 6:30 PM when we will welcome Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, to speak to us following services and before an open communal Shabbat dinner. He will speak on the theme “The Current State of Democracy in Israel.”

For those interested, please RSVP to RA@tioh.org, and let us know how many will join you so that we can plan dinner accordingly, which we offer to all who attend.

The following are snippets of each article with links:

“Is it too late to bring us back from the brink?” by Gershon Baskin, Jerusalem Post

“As Israeli society moves further away from supporting a deal with the Palestinians, Palestinian society is also moving further away. The voices of moderation on both sides of the conflict are dissipating and the belief that peace is even possible is all but disappearing. I have always said that what each side of the conflict says and does impacts the other. Neither side lives in a vacuum and each side’s discontent with the other has a direct impact across the conflict line. Each side also has the ability to positively impact the other. Recalling Egyptian President Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, one can easily remember how public opinion in Israel on the question of returning Sinai to Egypt changed 180 degrees almost overnight. Both sides have the potential ability to positively impact the public opinion of the other, albeit given the current reality and the leaders in power, it seems very unlikely that even a very dramatic and unexpected act could change the course of negative events that we are facing. But it might be the only thing that could right now…..

It is not too late the turn the course – to make the shift that will bring us back from the brink.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Encountering-Peace-Looking-into-Palestinian-political-realities-441436
“Another Step Towards Stifling Dissent in Israel,” by Don Futterman, Haaretz

“The External NGOs Law (aka the “Transparency Law”), a draft bill now making its way through the Knesset, is just the latest volley in a campaign to strangle funding sources of civil and human rights organizations in Israel…

The bill is framed in an attempt to insure that it applies primarily to leftist and human rights organizations, but not to right wing organizations, or to entities that receive massive foreign corporate funding…

The underlying strategy is simple; in the guise of promoting transparency, the bill’s sponsors want to convince the public that critics of the government’s settlement and occupation policies, or advocates for greater equality for Arab Israelis, are not patriotic citizens like themselves but rather foreign agents who are not be trusted…

The brilliance of this tactic is that by smearing their critics, right wing leaders never have to engage with the criticism, let alone change their policies. If they can raise doubts about the messenger’s patriotism, the public won’t even listen to what the rights activists are saying…

Transparency already exists. All Israeli NGOs are required by law to list their funders at the Registrar of NGOs, which is open to the public, and most NGOs share this information on their websites…

[Likud MKs] Shaked and Smotrich know this, of course, but their bill has little to do with transparency and everything to do with delegitimization. Their goal is to gut the funding from organizations which criticize their cause – settlement normalization and expansion – or which might strengthen Arab citizens within Israel. And it’s nothing new. …

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.687183

When Religion Turns People into Murderers

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Book Recommendations, Divrei Torah, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice

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“When religion turns [people] into murderers, God weeps.”

So begins Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his important new book (publ. 2015) “Not in God’s Name – Confronting Religious Violence.”

This rich volume is a response to those who believe that religion is the major source of violence in the world, that when humankind abolishes religion the world will become a more peaceful place.

Not everyone, of course, interprets religion this way. Yes, there are violent streams to be found in each of the fundamental texts in Judaism (Tanakh), Christianity (New Testament) and Islam (Qoran), but he writes: “Religion itself teaches us to love and forgive, not to hate and fight.”

He challenges all faith traditions to rethink their respective truths: “As Jews, Christians and Muslims, we have to be prepared to ask the most uncomfortable questions. Does the God of Abraham want his disciples to kill for his sake? Does he demand human sacrifice? Does he rejoice in holy war? Does he want us to hate our enemies and terrorize unbelievers? Have we read our sacred texts correctly? What is God saying to us, here, now?”

At its core, Rabbi Sacks affirms that religion links people together, emotionally, behaviorally, intellectually, morally, and spiritually so as to develop a sense of greater belonging, group solidarity and identity. Most conflicts have nothing to do with religion when understood this way. Rather, conflicts are about power, territory, honor, and glory.

Rabbi Sacks describes dualism as the primary corrupting idea within the three monotheistic traditions. It’s easier, he says, for people to attribute suffering to an outside evil force and not as something inherent within God and basic to the human condition. Seeing the world as “Us” vs “Them” and Good vs Evil may resolve inner angst and complexity, but it’s a false resolution of conflict. Taken to its extreme, fear of the “other” leads to hatred and violence, and when justified by faith results in “altruistic evil.”

“Pathological dualism does three things. It makes you dehumanize and demonize your enemies. It leads you to see yourself as victim. And it allows you to commit altruistic evil, killing in the name of the God of life, hating in the name of the God of love and practicing cruelty in the name of the God of compassion. It is a virus that attacks the moral sense. Dehumanization destroys empathy and sympathy. It shuts down the emotions that prevent us from doing harm…. Victimhood deflects moral responsibility. It leads people to say: It wasn’t our fault, it was theirs. Altruistic evil recruits good people to a bad cause. It turns ordinary human beings into murderers in the name of high ideas.”

Rabbi Sacks reflects on the history of the Jew as scapegoat and the role that antisemitism has played as a reflection of the breakdown of culture: “The scapegoat is the mechanism by which a society deflects violence away from itself by focusing it on an external victim. Hence, wherever you find obsessive, irrational, murderous antisemitism, there you will find a culture so internally split and fractured that if its members stopped killing Jews they would start killing one another. Dualism becomes lethal when a group of people, a nation or a faith, feel endangered by internal conflict.”

Rabbi Sacks sites the bizarre story of Csanad Szegedi, a young leader in the ultra-nationalist Hungarian political party, Jobbik, which has been described as fascist, neo-Nazi, racist, and antisemitic. One day, however, in 2012, Szegedi discovered he was a Jew and that half his family were murdered in the Holocaust. His grandparents were survivors of Auschwitz and were once Orthodox Jews, but decided to hide their identity.

Upon learning of his Jewish past, Szegedi resigned from the party, found a local Chabad rabbi with whom to study, became Shabbat observant, learned Hebrew, took on the name Dovid, and underwent circumcision.

Szegedi’s understanding of the world changed completely. Rabbi Sacks explains that “To be cured of potential violence towards the Other, I must be able to imagine myself as the Other.” Before Szegedi’s conversion, he could not empathize with the “other,” the stranger. Now he had become the stranger, the despised Jew.

Rabbi Sacks looks carefully at all the stories of sibling rivalries in the book of Genesis, and explains that God appreciates each child differently and for each has a blessing. The world as conceived in the Hebrew Bible is not a zero-sum game. The struggle for power, position and ultimate Truth is false. Whereas love characterizes relationships within a tribal unit, justice is the demand for humanity as a whole – and both can and must co-mingle thus allowing for individual/group identity and the greater human family.

Rabbi Sacks addresses his book to all the faith traditions, but most especially, he says, to the moderate Islamic world that shares with us our Jewish religious values, and he calls upon them to stand up against ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other purveyors of fear, intolerance, hatred, and violence.

It would have been worthwhile for Rabbi Sacks to ask moderate Israelis and the liberal Jewish community abroad to imagine what it is like for Palestinians to live under the Israeli military administration in the West Bank on the one hand, and to ask Palestinian moderates to imagine living with the constant threat of extremist Islam to destroy the state of Israel and the Zionist enterprise on the other. Perhaps, if more would do that, to step into the shoes of the “other,” a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might come about more quickly.

North American Reform Rabbinate Passes Strong and Visionary Resolution on Israel

04 Monday Jan 2016

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

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In advance of the annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv at the end of February 2016, the CCAR Board passed a superbly balanced, nuanced and comprehensive statement representing the broad consensus of the American and Canadian Reform Rabbinate.

The CCAR represents 2300 Reform Rabbis serving communities mostly in North America, but also around the world. Reform Judaism is the largest North American religious stream of Jews numbering close to 1.4 million individuals.

This resolution affirms the Reform Rabbinate’s strong support for and bond with the people and state of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state. It strongly supports equal rights for all Israeli citizens (Jew, Arab and other) according to the principles of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, religious diversity and equal rights for all individuals and religious streams in the state, and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The resolution demands that Palestinians recognize that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and that Israelis recognize that the to-be established state of Palestine is the nation state of the Palestinian people. The resolution opposes the occupation of the West Bank and expansion of Israeli settlements there and calls upon the Palestinian leadership to cease all provocation and incitement against Israelis.

I am proud of the rabbinic leadership of my rabbinic association for its strong, just, compassionate, wise, fair, visionary, and comprehensive resolution.

https://ccarnet.org/rabbis-speak/resolutions/2015/ccar-expression-love-and-support-state-israel-and-/

Over the course of decades the CCAR has issued 322 resolutions on the state of Israel. They can be accessed here:

http://ccarnet.org/search/?q=Resolutions+on+Israel

“Blessed is the generation…” The Launch of the American Jewish Peace Archive

21 Monday Dec 2015

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

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It is daunting when I reflect that I have been involved as a Zionist peace activist for 45 years. In that time the Jewish world has changed dramatically. One thing, however, has not changed. Today, like then, there are many thousands of young American Jewish pro-Israel peace activists who are as passionate and engaged in this movement as I was. I see the thousands at J Street Conferences as part of J Street U, and they are not only committed as Jews and ohavei m’dinat Yisrael (lovers of the state of Israel), but intelligent, sophisticated, politically savvy, and driven by the best of liberal Jewish values.

Rachel Sandalow-Ash is one of them. She is the Co-Founder and Director of Open Hillel, a student-led campaign to change Hillel’s policies to better reflect the American Jewish community’s values of pluralism and inclusivity.

She wrote:

“As a young activist, it is so easy for my generation to imagine that we are fighting a battle against elders who have betrayed us. The American Jewish Peace Archive lets us know otherwise by connecting young activists to those who for decades have worked for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine and for open and honest conversations in the United States. It enables us to learn from the experiences of older activists and to build an intergenerational movement that provides for support and mentorship across generations.”

This past year I was interviewed by one of my fellow older peace activists, Aliza Becker, who has founded the American Jewish Peace Archive (AJPA). I first met Aliza when she served on the national staff of J Street. She is now Associate Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, and she has just launched the AJPA and its new website –  http://ajpeacearchive.org/. The website, she says, “initiates the sharing of stories from a rapidly growing archive of over 100 pioneers for Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

As I scrolled through the photographs of these hundred people in which I am proud to be included, I saw the faces and names of people I have known or heard about for decades.

This website is an important addition to the peace movement because so often young Jews today do not realize how long this struggle for a two-state solution has been going on. They feel very much alone in their struggle and so often find themselves on the defensive from the far right and the far left on college campuses. Now there is an address where they can learn more about what has gone on before them, and gain strength from the example, courage and inspiration in the 50-year story of American Jewish peace activism.

It is written in the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 25b): “Blessed is the generation in which teachers listen to their students [i.e. the old listen to the young]; and doubly blessed is the generation in which students listen to their teachers [i.e. the young listen to the old].”

I encourage you to take a look at the website – http://ajpeacearchive.org/. – and support its important work.

To Aliza – Yasher kochachech!

The Pro-Zionist Position is To Oppose West Bank Settlements

13 Sunday Dec 2015

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

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For the past 49 years there has been an Israeli legal and policy distinction between the State of Israel and territory that Israel conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War. The “Green Line” (i.e. the armistice line after fighting ended between the new Jewish state and the combined Arab armies in the 1948 War of Independence) has constituted the unofficial border between Israel and the West Bank.

Since 1967 Israeli democracy governs Israel itself inside the “Green Line.” Israel’s military administration governs the West Bank beyond the “Green Line.”

The only people who do not recognize this distinction in territory are those on the Israeli and American far right who believe that the State of Israel includes all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and those on the far left who believe that the state of Israel is illegitimate and should not exist.

Those on the far right have been conducting for many years a secret and not-so-secret campaign to erase the “Green Line” so as to include in Israel all West Bank territory.

These far right groups are operating in a number of ways, most especially in building settlements everywhere in the West Bank, in the large settlement blocks that likely will remain as part of Israel should a two-state end-of-conflict resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be achieved, and also throughout the West Bank.

The young MK Stav Shaffrir of the Zionist Union, in her role as a member of the Knesset Finance Committee, is conducting an investigation and audit of funding by the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division which covertly is believed to have passed great sums of money over many years to settlement construction and expansion.

Support of settlements, however, continues in a number of different ways as well. One is through private American Jewish tax exempt contributions totaling $220 million between 2009 and 2013.

An Haaretz investigation has analyzed thousands of documents from tax filings and official papers of dozens of American and Israeli nonprofit organizations and has uncovered at least 50 American organizations involved in raising tax exempt funds for settlements and settlement activities across the Green Line. Some of these funds have provided legal aid to Jews accused or convicted of terrorism. (see http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/haaretz-investigation-us-donors-gave-settlements-more-220-million-tax-exempt-funds-over)

It is also believed that money sent to Israel proper by American Jewish Federations makes its way across the Green Line to support West Bank settlements. The American pro-Israel lobby J Street’s University division, J Street U, has been investigating what happens to American Federation dollars given to Israel and will be reporting on its findings soon.

Support of settlements is also perpetuated when products that are produced by West Bank settlements are designated as “Made in Israel,” which for purposes of export to the United States is illegal according to American law.

During the Oslo peace negotiations, the US Department of the Treasury issued the following statement that took effect after June 19, 1995: “…for country of origin marking purposes, goods which are produced in the West Bank and Gaza Strip shall be properly marked as ‘West Bank,’ ‘Gaza’, or ‘Gaza Strip’ and shall not contain the words ‘Israel,’ ‘Made in Israel,’ ‘Occupied Territories-Israel’, or words of similar meaning.”

Why is proper labeling of West Bank settlement products so important? Because labeling products from the West Bank territories as “Made in Israel” blurs the distinction between what is Israel and what is not, and gives fodder to BDS forces in its world-wide effort to delegitimize Israel. Contrary to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s charge that the EU vote on labeling in November was anti-Semitic at its core (most EU countries are pro-Israel and have denied the anti-Semitism charge), one can argue that proper labeling is in truth a pro-Zionist position because those who purchase Israeli products can do so with a clear conscience that they are supporting the Israel they love when they buy Israeli made goods and not the military occupation of another people in the West Bank.

Support of settlements is also being pursued by groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as it strives to legislate changes in U.S. policy that since 1967 has been opposed to settlements by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Lara Friedman, the director of policy and government relations at Americans for Peace Now (APN), has written that “They [i.e. AIPAC] pass off their efforts as an entirely non-controversial matter of countering boycott-divestment-sanctions (BDS) against Israel in general, [and] countering BDS policies adopted by the EU and some European countries, in particular.” (See details – “The Stealth Campaign in Congress to Support Israeli Settlements” – https://lobelog.com/the-stealth-campaign-in-congress-to-support-israeli-settlements/).

These efforts in support of settlements in time will effectively erase the Green Line and define Israel as including all settlements.

For those who believe that a two-state solution is the only way for Israel to remain both democratic and Jewish, then every effort to legitimate and promote settlement building must be challenged in Israel, in the US Congress, in American Jewish Federations, and in covert Jewish philanthropic support of settlement building.

Stopping the settlement enterprise is, of course, only one of the key challenges in achieving a two-state solution. The greater goal must come with Palestinian recognition of the legitimate rights of the Jewish people to a nation state of its own and Israeli recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to a nation state of its own. There needs to be as well a pledge by the PA to end incitement and terror and a pledge by Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank. Anything that stands in the way of achieving a two-state resolution of this conflict must be challenged at every opportunity.

Pearl Harbor – A Journal of a Wartime Physician Serving Wounded Soldiers in the Pacific

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Stories, Tributes

≈ 2 Comments

On December 8, 1941, a day after Japanese forces attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, my father, a physician, re-enlisted with the US Navy department. Within a few weeks he was sailing on the U.S.S. President Hayes bound for Hawaii where he would serve for the next year followed by another year on Midway Island.

Between December 11, 1941 and January 25, 1944 he wrote 45 letters to cousins in Philadelphia (who saved the letters) and he kept a journal until the Navy prohibited its personnel to write diaries. His letters and writings are a remarkable record of a wartime physician serving wounded soldiers in the Pacific theater. They reveal his instinctual call to duty, his loyalty to country and his ready compliance to orders, all of which are virtues that Tom Brokaw characterized as emblematic of the “greatest generation of Americans.”

Recently, my brother painstakingly transcribed and annotated our father’s journal entries and letters after having found them in a box at the back of a closet in our mother’s apartment when we moved her to assisted living three years ago. These writings are far more than a series of personal anecdotes of our father’s years in the service. They offer a moving historic account of one of the most traumatic events in 20th century American history.

For my generation, the two Kennedy and King assassinations were transformative. For my sons’ generation, 9/11 was the historic turning point. For my parents, it was the Great Depression, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II that changed their lives.

As the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor approaches next week, I offer my father’s words as a memorial to those who died in World War II.

Journal Entry –– Monday, February 2, 1942 

“We started into … Pearl Harbor at noon. Before leaving San Diego we had heard of the damage done…but the sight of the wreckage of part of our fleet left us all in a very sad and solemn mood… We have heard many stories first hand from the men who were actually here and went through the dreadful blitz of Dec 7, 1941. These men, most of them quiet, reserved, humble in their narrations are the first great and unsung heroes of our second world war…”

What follows is part of a summary of what our father had heard directly from these witnesses:

“The Oklahoma was hit first. Four torpedoes tore into her sides and in a few moments, before her men had time to man her guns or get onto the deck she heaved and turned completely over on her top with her bare hull just showing above water. Practically all the men aboard were drowned – and many of the bodies are still there. … [Immediately] the Arizona, California, and New Mexico were attacked. [On] The Nevada…a torpedo hit her amid ship on the port side and she started to list. The engine crew stayed on their jobs, every man hadn’t any thought apparently of getting out or saving his own life…the Japs flew low…and dropped a torpedo on the fore-deck, ripping a hole clear through to the hold of the ship…and machine-gunned the men. One man I talked to was thrown from the deck by the explosion, fell into the thick oil water and started to swim, saw the Arizona…reached the anchor chain of another ship, started to climb, only to see airplanes diving in his direction, machine-gunning — he fell back into the water, finally climbed ashore, and continued to fight on the Nevada until it was all over. The ships were ablaze, the water, covered with oil soon caught fire burning many struggling sailors….

…There was a chap [below] on the great aircraft carrier Saratoga, who when the ship was hit by a torpedo…water [was] pouring in. He ran to close the water tight doors to his compartment, then ran to the next and closed it, found the next compartment already closed so [he] couldn’t get out. He called the officer, “Sir, I have closed the water tight doors to two compartments, the water is coming in her pretty fast but I think there is still time for me to get out of here if you will open the next compartment and let me out; …the reply came back, “I’m sorry, son, you know the rules, the safety of this ship depends upon those doors remaining closed. We probably couldn’t close them after you.” “Yes, sir, I understand, sir, but could you please put someone on the phone to keep talking to me. I’d appreciate it very much, sir.” His request was granted, the lad kept talking while the water roared in from the outside – 3 minutes later his voice died away…”

This was, of course, just the beginning. Between 1941 and 1945, 405,399 Americans died in battle in the Pacific and Europe. In total, in addition to the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen, over 60 million people died in that war making it the deadliest military conflict in history.

On this 74th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, it is upon us to pause in reverence of those who gave their lives in defense of the United States and the innocent of all nations, and we remember the horrors that are always unleashed in war.

Note: The above quotations are taken from “An American Physician in the World War II Pacific: The Correspondence and Diary of Leon Rosove, MD” edited and annotated by Michael H. Rosove. Privately issued. Santa Monica, CA. 2015.