Category Archives: Jewish Identity

ARZA’s Response to UN Security Council Resolution 2334

26 Monday Dec 2016

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

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Note: I serve as the National Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), representing 1.5 million American Reform Jews. See http://www.arza.org – blogs

To AZRA’s friends and supporters:

Many organizations have expressed their feelings and thoughts since the UN Security Council resolution 2334 was passed last Friday, with the extension of the United States.

Many – most especially Prime Minister Netanyahu – are furious with the US for not vetoing the resolution and thus enabling it to pass. On the other hand, numerous friends of Israel support of the resolution’s rejection of settlements and identified with its message.

We are emphatic that the UN, with its well-established anti-Israel bias, should not be the venue for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and that gives the resolution of veneer of hollowness and hypocrisy. It is a grave concern that the resolution will become means for unjustly prosecuting Israel in the international arena.

ARZA is issuing this statement to clarify some of the issues, express our opinion and concern, and provide helpful language to use in ensuing discussions. As Rabbi Eric Yoffie has written, there is a general agreement that the US was an error, yet there is little consensus about the broader meaning of these events and what to expect in the weeks ahead. Our statement’s purpose is to provide clarity as to how we want to proceed.

Jews in Israel and around the world are justified in questioning the motives of the United Nations due to its historic antipathy to the State of Israel. To date, 223 UN resolutions have been submitted against Israel, far more than against any other nation in the world including those with abysmal human rights records. Only six resolutions have been passed against the murderous Assad regime in Syria that is responsible for the death of 500,000 men, women, and children. On the same morning that UNSC Resolution 2334 came to a vote, the UNSC could not agree to stem the flow of arms to the murderous South Sudanese regime. And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has acknowledged that the UN has passed a disproportionately high number of resolutions against Israel.

UN Security Council Resolution 2334 has released a firestorm of criticism by the Israeli government and leaders in the American Jewish community against the United Nations and the Obama Administration for its abstention in the vote. This is the first time in recent years that the United States has not vetoed a UNSC resolution against Israeli policies, primarily because nothing in the resolution conflicts with long-standing American policy held by successive administrations.

The resolution condemns Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal as defined by UN Resolution 242. Following the vote, American UN Ambassador Samantha Powers noted that part of the rationale for the US abstention was Israel’s continuing commitment to what the international community regards as illegal settlement expansion:

“Israel has advanced plans for more than 2,600 new settlement units. Yet rather than dismantling these and other settler outposts, which are illegal even under Israeli law, now there is new legislation advancing in the Israeli Knesset that would legalize most of the outposts – a factor that propelled the decision by this resolution’s sponsors to bring it before the Council.”

However, the resolution does not distinguish between settlements inside the West Bank, in the large settlement blocks, in the Jerusalem neighborhoods, and in the Old City, all of which were taken in Israel’s war of self-defense in 1967.

A distinction in these different areas must be the subject for negotiation between the parties and not in the context of UN and other international resolutions.

As time has passed without a resolution of the conflict, ARZA has become increasingly concerned that the two sides’ polarization, hostility and lack of trust will diminish the possibility of a two-state solution.

Whereas Palestinians charge that the settlement enterprise is the principal obstacle in the way of establishing a Palestinian State alongside Israel in the West Bank, Israelis suspect that the Palestinians will never be willing to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state nor live peacefully alongside Israel.

Palestinian suspicions and lack of trust towards Israel are buttressed by statements made by a number of Ministers in the Netanyahu government who have called for continual settlement expansion, annexation of the West Bank, legalization of heretofore illegal settlement outposts, and opposition to a two-state solution.

Israelis suspect Palestinian intentions because the Palestinians have refused all past efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel and now refuse to sit down without conditions with Israel to negotiate an end-of-conflict agreement.

ARZA worries further that the Obama administration’s abstention in this vote will encourage intensified partisan posturing over American support for Israel, rather than the continued bipartisan support for Israel among Democrats and Republicans alike.

And ARZA is deeply concerned that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s and his allies’ negative and hostile reactions against the UN Resolution, the Obama Administration, and other countries that supported it is diverting attention from the root issue. In light of the incoming US Administration’s promise to initiate epic moves in the Middle East, ill-considered policies and actions can light the region on fire.

ARZA continues to insist that a negotiated two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is the only option that can assure Israel’s democratic and Jewish nature, and the only way that Palestinians will achieve a state of their own.

 

 

 

 

“Without Zionism, there is no Judaism!” Rabbi Dick Hirsch after the 1967 Six-Day War

25 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Stories, Tributes

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Rabbi Richard (Dick) Hirsch turned 90 this past year. One would think that at that age Dick’s physical strength, sharp mind, and passion would be diminished.

Though he has his share of aches and pains, there is nothing diminished about Rabbi Dick Hirsch. He remains after more than half a century of activism the vital Zionist and social justice giant of the American and Israeli Reform movements.

Dick is the founding Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for moving the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) offices from the United States to Jerusalem, raising the money and overseeing the construction of the WUPJ Center and Beit Shmuel that house the central offices of the Israeli Reform movement on King David Street only steps from the King David Hotel. And he is a founder of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the pre-eminent social justice advocacy organization in the State of Israel.

Dick argued before the leaders of American Reform Judaism in the late 1960s and early 1970s that for the Reform movement to earn its rightful place in Jewish history we would have to build an institutional and broadly-based presence in the State of Israel. This would include building synagogue centers all over the state, progressive Jewish schools, a rabbinic and cantorial seminary for Israeli-born leaders, kibbutzim, a youth movement, and a social justice movement that helps to grow and transform not only Israeli society but the character of world Jewry.

Fifty years ago Dick told the Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) that for Jews “Jerusalem is Broadway and the United States is off-Broadway.” He also said to them soon after the ’67 war,  that “Without Zionism, there is no Judaism!” The reaction of the then American Reform leadership was strong and negative. But, Dick carried on, at times by himself, and succeeded in igniting and inspiring others to join him in transforming progressive Judaism in the State of Israel.

Dick didn’t just talk the talk. In 1972, he and his wife Bella picked up their four children and moved to Israel. I met him for the first time the following year when I was a first-year rabbinic student at HUC in Jerusalem.

Dick is a consummate storyteller, teacher, and Zionist leader. Jews and non-Jews alike are usually riveted when he speaks. Thankfully, earlier this month in a talk he delivered in Florida entitled “My Life and My Beliefs,” Dick was recorded. Now we can watch and listen on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6AsMvUBV-E

Jewish leaders like Rabbi Dick Hirsch come around very infrequently. Many have admired him and called him their friend including Dr. Martin Luther King, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Natan Sharansky.

I urge you to take the hour and watch.

For those who know me, I hope you will sense why Dick has had such a strong impact on me personally.

The acorn does not fall far from the tree. Dick’s son, Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, the Senior Rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on West 68th Street in Manhattan, is among my dearest friends. Ammi and I met when he served as the Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) in the 1990s. It was Ammi and then his father who drew me to the heart of Reform Zionism, and for that, I am forever in their debt.

“What Type of Jew are you?” – A Response to Shmuel Rosner’s JJ Column

02 Friday Dec 2016

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

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This week the LA Jewish Journal published a piece written by its Israel correspondent Shmuel Rosner entitled “What type of Jew are you?” (link – #1 below)

Rosner reflected on a new study of the Boston Jewish community, but the trends revealed reflect what I sense is true across the country. The study’s findings show how complex is Jewish engagement among American Jews today.

Rosner distinguished five distinct groups: the Minimally Involved (17%) who do almost nothing specifically Jewish; the Familial (24%) who engage mostly in home-based and family Jewish events and celebrations; Affiliated Jews (26%) who are engaged with their families and in some Jewish communal organizations; Cultural Jews (18%) who in addition to family events, listen to Jewish and/or Israeli music, go Israeli folk-dancing, read Jewish books, see films and attend theater on Jewish themes; and the Immersed (15%) who engage in all areas.

In Boston, two-thirds of the Jewish community has been to Israel at least once, and a third has visited many times, a rate higher I suspect than in Los Angeles. A national trend that was also revealed in the last Pew study of the American Jewish community in 2013 (link – #2 below) showed that increasing numbers of Jews don’t identify any longer with denominations. Of the roughly 6 million American Jews at least 50% (maybe higher) regard themselves as secular and cultural Jews or just plain Jewish.

The Boston and Pew studies each showed that people identify increasingly less with Jewish religion and increasingly more with Jewish peoplehood. And so the question of the hour is this that Rosner asks – “What type of Jew are you?”

This is how he characterizes the five groups (see a longer study  – #3 below).

Half of the “Immersed Jews” keep kosher at home, light Shabbat candles and attend Shabbat services regularly. They celebrate Pesach, light Chanukah candles, attend High Holiday services, donate to Jewish causes, and identify as Jews “by religion.” Almost all are affiliated.

Most “Cultural Jews” don’t do religious ritual at all, nor do they attend religious services unless invited to a special event such as a bar or bat mitzvah, and they don’t keep Kosher. But 80% of them are highly engaged with Israel, seek news from Israel often and attend Jewish programs. Though not religious, they do attend Seders, light candles on Chanukah, and attend High Holiday services.

“Affiliated Jews” practice the big Jewish holidays, affiliate with synagogues, donate to Jewish causes, but aren’t engaged religiously. They listen to Jewish music a little, attend services occasionally, and may partake in kosher food on occasion at an event. Affiliated Jews tend to be between the ages of 35 and 64 years and most have children who they want to “educate,” provide a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or give them a taste of Judaism.

“Familial Jews” attend family Seders and light Chanukah candles, but they don’t do much else ritually or religiously, though a third attend a Jewish program or donate to Jewish causes. They generally keep in touch with Jewish life and don’t consciously distance themselves from the community. Their deeper Jewish engagement does not extend into the community beyond the home. Many of these “familial Jews” are intermarried and unaffiliated.

A third of the “Minimally Involved” light Chanukah candles, have attended a Jewish program in the last year, but have little engagement with anything Jewish. In Boston, and I suspect here in Los Angeles, many minimally involved are Russian Jews. Most are unaffiliated and intermarried.

So – what kind of Jew are you? Immersed – Cultural – Affiliated – Familial – or Minimally Involved?

More questions: What is your Jewish narrative that has brought you to the Jewish identification that you have? Are you satisfied and at peace with this kind of identification? Are you fully fulfilled as you might wish to be in your life as a Jew?

These are questions all of us ought to be asking ourselves.

I wasn’t surprised by the survey’s findings, except for one thing – that the connection American Jews feel with the state of Israel is the strongest element in all of these five groups. The survey suggests that there is a strong connection between a Jew’s engagement with Israel and his/her engagement with Jewish life. Distancing from Israel co-relates with a distancing from Judaism and Jewish life just as the more engaged with Jewish life we are the more we tend to be engaged with Israel.

Put another way, a Jew’s relationship to Israel is a barometer of his/her relationship to Judaism.

I’ve drawn five additional conclusions from the study:

  1. It’s a mistake for us to judge anyone else’s engagement as a Jew, however much or little that is, especially in an era in which the community is changing so rapidly;
  2. There needs to be a multitude of opportunities for engagement and inspiration – through education – religion – family – culture – the arts – social justice work – and Israel;
  3. We are not an ever-dying people – we’re an ever-changing people;
  4. The depth and breadth of our relationships with other Jews is the best prognosticator of our depth and breadth of engagement in Jewish life;
  5. The more meaningful the Jewish education and learning is, the more welcoming are our communities, the more visionary is our Jewish agenda, so too will more of us be inspired to engage in ways that move our people forward creatively and meaningfully.

May we each find our way.

  1. http://www.jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/item/what_type_of_a_jew_are_you
  2. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/
  3. “Exploring the Jewish Spectrum in a Time of Fluid Identity” – The Jewish People Policy Institute – http://jppi.org.il/uploads/Exploring_the_Jewish_Spectrum_in_a_Time_of_Fluid_Identity-JPPI.pdf

 

A Note to My Grandchildren

17 Thursday Nov 2016

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

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Rabbi Stanley Davids is a dear friend and grandfather of eight. He posted a letter that he wrote to his grandchildren following the election of Trump on the Reform Rabbi List-Serve this past week that I want to share with you in its entirety.

Stan is a thoughtful, kind, good-humored (most of the time) and passionate activist for all things good, a retired congregational rabbi and a past President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (he is the one who persuaded me to follow him as Chair of ARZA).

Stan’s words are worth sharing with your children and grandchildren. I post them here with his permission.

November 10, 2016

Dear Olivia, Joshua, Gabriel, Zeke, Mya, Cole, Beth and Hannah,

“Watch out for the baobabs.” (The Little Prince)

I waited several days after Donald Trump won the presidency before I could properly share my thoughts with you. I am that confused and I am that upset.

You know how hard I worked to elect Hillary Clinton. I believed in her then. I believe in her now. And I deeply, profoundly, am opposed to Donald Trump – his values, his behavior, his plans.

I apologize to you for having failed to defend you and your future against the hateful things that President-Elect Trump represents. I wanted so much to protect that future, to shield you from intense prejudice, racial hatred, hatred of minorities, hatred of LGBT folks, hatred of the not physically able. But I failed. I have always been personally active in political matters here and in Israel and in the former USSR. I stood up for African-Americans, women, LGBT, Soviet Jews and civil and religious rights in Israel. Sometimes the cause for which I fought was successful. Sometimes – not so much. But I never stopped trying.

This is a great country. Several of you will be casting your first presidential ballots in four years. But by then I fear that a newly reconstituted Supreme Court will have made some horrific decisions and that a Congress controlled by ultra-conservatives may have turned our great Ship of State in dangerous directions.

I failed. So the battle now must be yours. Please don’t give up on politics. Don’t feel overwhelmed. And don’t be indifferent. Read, study, talk – and become involved. Don’t leave it to others to protect your world – they just might not do it. Experience frustration, the pain of loss, and the discomfort of sometimes disagreeing even with those you highly respect. But remember that politics always responds to the passionate, informed few. Be among them.

Form coalitions. Reach beyond your close circle of friends. Hear the concerns of others. Ask them to hear yours. Be ready to walk away if they refuse. Don’t let them change you. Join groups that express and endorse your values. Turn them into instruments of your vision. And make certain that you are clear as to your own values. Values matter. Ideas matter. No one, no one, can expect to be granted the right to tend his or her garden and to expect the world to just let them alone. It won’t happen. You can’t hide from the cancer of prejudice and hatred. If you allow it, it will find you.

You are Jews. You are all well educated in Jewish tradition. Acquire the values language of our tradition and let that values language inspire you and give you unbreakable hope.

So long as I am able, I will continue fighting for Tikkun Olam. You are already becoming old enough to be my partners, and I embrace that privilege. Together we will remain intolerant of evil. Together we can fight for a world in which The Other presents to us a vision of God. There is no permanent victory in this struggle, but there is also no permanent defeat.

And about that baobab, the Little Prince counsels that we must pull up all of the baobabs as soon as they appear. Never delay. If we delay even a little bit, the planet will rapidly become infested with them and they will sink in their roots and rip the planet apart.

“Watch out for the baobabs.”

I love you.
Saba

ARZA statement to President-Elect Trump about Steve Bannon and 2-State solution

16 Wednesday Nov 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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ARZA joins Reform Movement Partners in Deep Concern about Steve Bannon and Calls upon President-elect Trump to Support a Two-State Solution

The Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) is alarmed at the appointment of Steve Bannon as an advisor and strategist to President-elect Trump. Mr. Bannon led the premier website of the ‘alt-right’ — a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists, a true affront to our open, pluralistic society.

As the Zionist organization representing the Reform Movement’s 1.5 million American Jews, we rarely engage in American politics, yet this situation demands our voice:

The strong America-Israel relationship is of the utmost importance to us, and we express our deep concern that President-elect Trump may set aside the policy of every previous American President who supported a two states for two peoples resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We are deeply concerned that since the election of Donald Trump, several Israeli ministers in the Knesset have openly considered this as an opportunity to forgo the establishment of a Palestinian State. Evidence of this trend can be seen not only in the public discourse of various ministers but also in their actions. A bill to retroactively legalize illegal settlements just passed its first Knesset reading today.

We worry that President-elect Trump will support those forces within Israel that seek a “one-state solution” which would destroy a Jewish and democratic Israel.  It is both our fervent hope and expectation that Mr. Trump will quickly and definitively express his administration’s full support for a two-state solution and continue efforts to ensure a safe, secure Jewish State of Israel living in peace with a neighboring Palestinian State.

 

Temple Israel Calls on all to Take Action

Take Action – Click here to join with Reform Jews across the country letting President-Elect Trump know that we reject the appointment of Steve Bannon as White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor.  Mr. Bannon was responsible for the advancement of ideologies antithetical to our nation, including anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism and Islamophobia. There should be no place for such views in the White House. It is essential that President-Elect Trump assemble a leadership team that reflects his stated aspiration

Turning Mourning into Meaning in the Post-Election Period

13 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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The  following is a sermon I delivered to my congregation this past Friday night, November 11, 2016, after the shock of the Trump electoral victory.

The impact of this now concluded presidential campaign and the election results have shocked not only this country but the world. One either has been lifted up upon wings of eagles or plunged into despair like Jonah in the belly of the great fish.

I don’t presume to know the hearts and minds of every member of our community. I know only my own mind and heart, and it’s from there that I speak to you tonight.

I hope my words will reflect the thoughts of many, and if they do – good! If not, it can’t be helped.

My challenge this week, like yours, has been to cope with an election result that has caused me deep distress and anxiety, and then to find a way to convert my mourning into meaning.

This election, unfortunately, has shined a light into the darkest recesses of the American psyche and revealed how divided is our nation. It should be clear to everyone that we Americans live in two worlds with two understandings about what it means to be an American and about the meaning of morality.

For those who are happy with the results, I congratulate you. As I suspect, however, this is not the case for far more of us in this congregational community. Like many of you, I’m bereft and left with a sickening feeling of disgust and fear about our nation’s future.

I worry that every advance the Obama Administration made these past eight years will be thwarted as promised by the President-elect, that the Affordable Care Act will be repealed, that twenty million people will lose their health insurance, that those with pre-existing conditions will be uninsurable, that a fundamentalist Supreme Court will be solidified for the next generation and overrule Roe V Wade and protect Citizens United, that the United States will dismantle its trade agreements, cause instability in the international markets and in our economy, that we’ll withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and set back all efforts to contain the emission of fossil fuels that cause global warming, that the NATO alliance will be weakened at best and unravel at worst, that Russia’s influence will expand, that many more innocent Syrians will die in indiscriminate American bombing of ISIS, that the US will back away from the Iran agreement and enable Iran to march quickly toward full nuclear capability and threaten Israel, that Muslims will be banned from America, that American citizens of Middle East origins and other people of color will become suspect and cower in fear, that LGBTQ rights will be set back in the courts, that sexual assault upon women will be tolerated, and that eleven million undocumented immigrants will be deported.

All these actions were promised by Donald Trump in his campaign and, if he is like all past Presidents, he will succeed in implementing seventy percent of his campaign promises.

The extremist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, homophobic, misogynist, racist, anti-Semitic, nativist, authoritarian, and demagogic bigotry that he has unleashed this year has been shocking, disheartening, frightening, and immoral.

That Trump received sixty million votes is beyond my ability to comprehend. That being said, I know that many who voted for him are good and decent people, but I also can’t help but conclude that their morality has been deeply compromised. We have to accept this fact and then try and understand if we are able, what were their reasons and motivations so we can be efficacious in helping to bring our country together in common cause and purpose.

I fear that Trump’s policies will fundamentally transform the heart and soul of this country, that we will no longer be regarded around the world as the shining city on the hill and the last refuge for the tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

And so – what do we do?

First, it’s important that we take the time to give voice to the anguish we feel. Those who need to grieve must do so. In this I’m heartened by Mahatma Gandhi’s wisdom when he said:

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – always.”

Gandhi was probably right, but tyrants never fall voluntarily. They fall only when they encounter stronger more persistent forces of good.

And so, when we conclude our grieving, I suggest we do the following at the very least – that we try and understand those who voted for Trump beyond the bigotry, what are their narratives and aspirations? What are their needs, passions, and dreams, anger, and resentments? What did their candidate embody and how did Hillary Clinton and the Democrats fail them? Though Hillary won the majority of the popular vote and should be president, in my opinion, she did not fail in any significant way in drawing the majority of the voting public to her and her vision – just in certain key states.

Nevertheless, if you feel as I do that her vision is better for Americans and the world, then we need to expose the harm that Trump’s initiatives champion and what they will do to the American people. We need to fight to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care, to good education, to protection from climate change, to good, sustaining and meaningful jobs, to equal pay for equal work, to freedom from sexual assault and harassment, to safety in their communities, to freedom from prejudice, bigotry and bias, and to a fair shot at the American dream.

We have to frame the conversation going forward in ways that the American people will understand what is really at stake, to speak positively about real solutions, with detailed policy proposals that are workable and that can gain bipartisan support. This kind of communication and education about the issues includes political lobbying on their behalf, using the media strategically so that as many Americans are reached as possible, and focusing specifically on the deleterious impact that Trump’s policies and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate will have on people’s lives.

We cannot do this alone. We have to organize with other groups in coalitions of decency and be certain that our collective voices are heard on issue after issue.

There are already so many advocacy organizations working that can use our individual and collective help. Google broad themes and you will find them such as civil liberties (ACLU), women’s rights and advocacy organizations (National Organization Of Women – NOW), the environment (Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Sierra Club), peoples of color advocacy groups, LGBTQ rights and anti-bullying support groups, criminal justice reform and abolition of the death penalty, getting money out of politics, health care advocacy, hunger and food insecurity (MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger), and many others.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C. (RAC) addresses virtually every social justice issue of concern to the American Reform Jewish movement (see – http://www.rac.org).

I wrote this week to our synagogue members’ Congressional representatives and offered not only my own personal support for them but our congregation’s support for all efforts to dissuade Congress from enacting legislation that would set back a fairer, safer and more just America. I encouraged them to reach across the aisle to moderate, practically-minded members of the Republican Party and find ways to join together and advocate initiatives that can do some good, save the environment, raise the minimum wage, secure Medicare and Social Security, and help ordinary people.

As Jews, we have a special moral duty, inspired by the ancient Biblical prophets’ concern for justice, compassion, peace, and the rights of the vulnerable, to dig deeply into our tradition’s wisdom for insight, courage, and strength, while keeping our hearts open, our minds clear and our moral principles strong.

We Jews and all peoples of faith and moral purpose need to put one foot in front of the other and not get lost, to perform deeds of loving-kindness constantly, to pursue justice and peace unrelentingly, to be agents of hope always, and to be an “or la-goyim – a light unto the nations.”

The Pirke Avot (2:6) teaches – “B’ma-kom sh’ein a-na-shim, tish’ta-del li-hi-yot ish – In a place where there are no human beings, strive always to be a mensch!”

That must be our purpose, our response, our cure, and our hope!

Leonard Cohen (z’l), who died this week, often parted company from his Jewish friends saying, “Chazak chazak v’nit’cha-zek – Be strong, be strong and together we will strengthen one another.”

I wish that for all of us now.

 

Read – “How America got it so wrong – Journalists and politicians blew off the warning signs of a Trump presidency – now, we all must pay the price” – by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine – http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/president-trump-how-america-got-it-so-wrong-w449783

Israel Has Failed the Jewish People Over Its Inaction at the Western Wall – Haaretz – My op-ed today

03 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Friends – I was invited to write an op-ed for Haaretz on the demonstration yesterday by dozens of leading rabbis of Reform and Conservative Streams, Women of the Wall, and every element of the international Reform movement. The article appeared today – the link is below, but I have pasted the entire piece here.

Opinion – Israel Has Failed the Jewish People Over Its Inaction at the Western Wall  – Enough is enough. The Kotel should not be an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. It is the most sacred site in all of Judaism and belongs to the entire Jewish people.

Rabbi John Rosove Nov 03, 2016 12:00 PM – read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.750797

On Wednesday morning, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, hundreds of liberal Jews marched into the Western Wall plaza with Torah scrolls, song and hope. I was one of many surrounding those carrying Torah scrolls and protecting them from the aggression of the ultra-Orthodox to tear the scrolls from our rabbis’ arms. One young Haredi Jew, so filled with rage, lunged at Women of the Wall’s Anat Hoffman. I jumped in front of him, blocked his advance and he fell back onto the stones. I felt a mix of defiance and grief. His behavior and that of others represent the opposite of what Judaism teaches, that we are here to love God and our fellows, to draw all to Torah and the pursuit of justice, mercy and peace.

A deal is a deal. An agreement is an agreement. Good faith is good faith. Enough is enough!

The Reform and Conservative movements and the Jewish Federations of North America have been engaged for more than three-and-a-half years in negotiations with the Israeli government to find common ground on an issue of utmost importance to world Jewry.

In January of this year, those negotiations succeeded. We Reform and Conservative leaders were proud of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chair of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, who concluded the painstaking, complicated and very long negotiations to create a new egalitarian prayer space overseen by the liberal movements and Women of the Wall in the southern Kotel Plaza. The greater values of Klal Yisrael and shalom bayit were confirmed. Religious pluralism in Israel attained as a value at this holiest site in Judaism and we had hopes that future efforts to grant rights to the non-Orthodox in the Jewish state. We imagined a day when Reform and Conservative rabbis could legally convert people to Judaism, officiate at marriage ceremonies, oversee divorce proceedings and could in the mitzvah of burial of our beloved in the land of Israel.

The agreement was clear. All would remain the same in the traditional prayer plaza and would continue to be overseen by the Chief Rabbinate of the Wall. A new prayer space would be created in the southern Kotel Plaza beneath Robinson’s arch. The agreement was the result of compromise by all parties. The Kotel as a whole would symbolize the historic diversity and unity of the Jewish people.

The ultra-Orthodox community, despite its own participation in this long and arduous negotiation represented by the Head Administrator of the Wall, decided it could not abide the deal. It has now been 10 months of prevarication, delay and retreat by the government and prime minister.

We waited and waited and waited. Our leadership was patient and in the end, it became clear to us that Netanyahu would not honor his commitment. Natan Sharansky told those of us on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency that Netanyahu said he would do everything possible to fulfill the agreement except that which would bring down the government.

Some matters, however, are greater than any particular government. The vast majority of Israelis, let alone world Jewry, supports religious freedom and diversity in Israel. In a democracy, the majority must rule with respect for the minority. The agreement accomplished both.

The arbitrary rules of the Kotel plaza disallowing the use of any Torah other than those approved by the Ultra-Orthodox Head Administrator of the Wall and the denial of the rights for women to pray using tallitot, tefilin and to read Torah are unreasonable, unfair, unjust and discriminatory.

Enough is enough. The Kotel should not be an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. It is the most sacred site in all of Judaism and belongs to the entire Jewish people.

The Talmud teaches that sinat chinam, baseless hatred between Jews, caused the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple two thousand years ago. I sadly see that same hatred in the eyes of those who attacked us yesterday.

The Israeli government has failed the Jewish people, but it is not too late to do what it should have done ten months ago – go forward and implement this historic, fair and visionary agreement. If not now, when!?

Rabbi John Rosove is National Chair, Association of Reform Zionists of America.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.750797

The most dangerous Jew in the world?

01 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations

≈ 2 Comments

The newest member of the Israeli Knesset since May 2016 is Yehuda Glick (Likud), an American-born 51 year-old who moved to Israel as a child and has been called by some “the most dangerous Jew in the world.” He assumed his position when MK Moshe Yaalon resigned from the Knesset. A father of eight, he lives in the West Bank settlement of Atniel.

I was assigned as a member of the Board of Governors (BOG) of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) last week to lobby MK Glick about three important issues of concern to the Jewish Agency; religious pluralism, support for the anti-BDS movement, and greater support for aliyah – all of which we were in agreement.

Our 120-member Board lobbied 26 MKs that day followed by a larger meeting with PM Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union), and Chairman of the Executive of JAFI Natan Sharansky.

In October 2014, Glick was shot four times in the chest in an assassination attempt by an Arab terrorist  who apologized before shooting him saying; “I am sorry – but you are an enemy of Al Aqsa!” His assailant was eventually found and killed by Israeli security forces. Though wounded very seriously, Yehuda spent three months recovering in the hospital.

When we met, I told him that I was happy he was alive. He knew that I am the Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America and was a co-chair of the national Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, both liberal Zionist organizations supporting a two-states for two peoples resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He joked, “Given your background I’m surprised you’re glad I’m alive.”

MK Glick shared with me his passionate vision of a united Jerusalem and a city of peace, his strong belief in human rights for all peoples, and his support for religious pluralism in the state of Israel. As an Orthodox Jew and strong supporter of the settler movement, I was surprised that he voted for the  right of Reform and Conservative converts to use state mikvaot and for the government’s plan to build a new egalitarian prayer space in the southern Kotel plaza beneath Robinson’s Arch.

“What difference does it make to me that women want to wear t’filin, that you want to pray at the Kotel according to your practice, and that Reform and Conservative Jews and Women of the Wall want equal rights in Israel – they should have equal rights and be able to pray at the Kotel any way you like in a new prayer space!” he said.

Glick spoke movingly that Jerusalem should be an example of co-existence and mutual respect, that it should be a light to the nations of the world, where the three great faith traditions live peacefully and respectfully side by side, willing to share space.

“It works in the cave of the Machpelah in Hebron,” he reasoned. “Jews pray at certain times and Muslims pray at other times. If we can do that there why not in Jerusalem?”

Before coming to the Knesset this past summer, he had worked for years for the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount (Har Habayit) as the head of the Temple Mount Institute. That organization is focused on the belief of Jewish ownership of all the land of Israel and the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, which has been forbidden by the Israeli government since 1967 in accord with the Muslim Wafq that controls the mount Muslims call Haram al Sharif.

I said; “Yehuda – You realize, of course, that yours is not only a utopian vision, but that if Jews tried to erect a synagogue on the Temple Mount the Muslim world would rise up in revolt and World War III would result?”

He understood the argument, but said that this vision will one day be fulfilled anyway. “It’s a process,” he said, “and it will take time.”

We spoke also of the 2-state solution. He believes that the time has passed for two states, as do most of the Palestinians he knows. He is for one-state, a Jewish state, in which all people, Arabs and Jews, would be equal citizens. All citizens would enjoy equal rights, equal privileges, equal government services, equal resources for education and their communities, and equal access to business opportunities and modern living.

He confessed, however, that Gaza does not fit into his plan. He claims that 90% of Palestinians would want to live in a Jewish state as opposed to a Palestinian state, though its political leaders in the Palestinian Authority, who he calls “gangsters”, say otherwise.

He isn’t worried about Palestinians having more votes than Jews in national elections. Palestinians living in the West Bank and Israel today represent only 35-40% of the total population of Israel, and he doesn’t see a time when the state will no longer be governed by Jews as the majority people. He said that there ought to be more Arab ministers in the Israeli government.

Yehuda believes in a Jewish right of return but not a Palestinian right of return because, after all, Israel is a “Jewish state.” Jews should have this privilege and the right of return should never be given to Palestinians.

“And what about the Palestinians who fled or who were forced to leave in 1948 and 1967,” I asked. “Should they not have the right of return to Palestinian territory? And what about their right to national self-determination? Should that too be denied?”

“No and yes to your questions,” he said categorically.

I don’t agree with Yehuda on these two issues, the one state solution, the lack of compensation of some kind to the Palestinians and their right to return to a Palestinian state, or the risks that Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount would present. However, I was stunned by how thoughtful, pluralistic, non-violent, civil, and compassionate a man Yehuda Glick is.

When I returned to our delegation, our Israeli Reform leaders asked me what I thought of him. I told them my impressions, and they agreed that he is a remarkably unpredictable and openhearted man, extreme in his vision for Jerusalem, and though probably not the most dangerous Jew in Israel, one who creates tumult and provokes  unreasonable risk.

My parting question to Yehuda was what he thought of J Street. He smiled and said:

“J Street people are left-wing Zionists – and are impractical.”

As opposed to many in the American Jewish community and the Israeli government, Yehuda understands that J Street is a pro-Israel American Zionist organization. When he called J Street impractical, I was amused. He is, without doubt, the pot calling the kettle black!

After the larger meeting with Netanyahu and company, Yehuda made a special effort to find me and wish me well. He is proof positive that there is no country like Israel where people of opposite positions can actually at times civilly talk to each other, and no country in the world with as much diversity in its government as the Jewish state.

See Wikipedia for Yehuda’s full biography – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehuda_Glick

“Israel and Judaism are far too important to leave to the Orthodox.” Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

01 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

≈ 1 Comment

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of the West Bank settlement Efrat, made this pronouncement at a meeting of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel this week.

A renowned and respected Orthodox Rabbi himself has tangled with Israel’s Chief Rabbinate over the legitimacy of his conversions. He took his case to Israel’s Supreme Court and won. The Court pronounced his Beit Din “Kosher” for purposes of the Law of Return and Israeli citizenship.

This was an important case because it established the precedent of a rabbi outside the authority of the Chief Rabbanate having authority over his conversions. His statement resonates with non-Orthodox Judaism in Israel. However – what the court granted to Rabbi Riskin, Rabbi Riskin does not grant to the Conservative and Reform movements.

Natan Sharansky, the chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, had invited his friend Rabbi Riskin to speak to us, and Rabbi Riskin spoke for nearly 45 minutes on why Halacha must be observed in all cases in matters of gerut (conversion). He did not address the question of marriage and divorce, a far more pressing matter for Israelis generally. I assume that he applies the same standard there.

Rabbi Riskin is far more lenient than the Chief Rabbinate that autocratically holds power in matters of conversion, marriage, divorce, and burial in the state of Israel and grants approval only to rabbis it deems kosher enough to officiate at life cycle events. No Conservative or Reform or unapproved Orthodox rabbi can officiate officially in the Jewish state.

In surveys taken by Hiddush, an organization committed to freedom of choice in matters of religion, the vast majority of Israelis want civil marriage, and a large plurality of Israelis said that they preferred the Conservative and Reform movements as opposed to anything having to do with the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate and Ultra-Orthodox political parties.

For the sake of the “unity of the Jewish people” Rabbi Riskin said there can be only one standard governing all matters of Jewish status,  and that standard must be the commitment to traditional Halacha.

When asked what he thought of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel refusing his converts as Jews, he said shockingly, “I don’t give a damn!”

After Rabbi Riskin held forth, a spontaneous unplanned hour-long debate erupted led by the Rabbis Steve Wernik (President of the United Synagogue – Conservative), Rabbi Rick Jacobs (President of the URJ – Reform), Rabbi Meir Azari (The Daniels Center of Tel Aviv – Israeli Reform), and Rabbi Gilad Kariv (Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Reform Judaism).

The cadre of liberal rabbis made the following points:

  1. Israeli Orthodox Judaism does not represent 80% of Israeli Jews many of whom have fled from Judaism altogether because of the rabbinate’s coercive and harsh interpretation of Jewish law;
  2. The Israeli Orthodox Chief Rabbinate has utterly failed the people of Israel because after 5 Billion Israeli Shekels of support is given to orthodox synagogues and yeshivas every year, still only 20% of the country wish to be associated with the Orthodox community;
  3. If equal amounts of money were granted the liberal streams, surveys indicate that far more Israelis would be engaged in Jewish life;
  4. Thousands of conversions are performed by Conservative and Reform Rabbis in Israel and around the world who identify strongly as Jews and are living Jewish lives but are not are accepted as Jews in Israel and so cannot marry in Israel;
  5. In Israel a shift in attitude has taken place over the last 20 years in favor of Reform and Conservative streams, and large numbers of Israelis view positively the Conservative and Reform movements;
  6. It is time to end the authority over personal status by the Chief Rabbinate, and for the Knesset to pass a civil marriage law;
  7. The Israeli Orthodox Rabbinate threatens Jewish unity. In a democracy, Jews should have the right to live as Jews according to their own choices;
  8. Reform and Conservative expectations are that equal funds be given to all the religious streams (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) by the government in the Jewish state;
  9. The Chief Rabbinate should be abolished and freedom of religious choice applied to Jews.

I asked Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the leader of the Israeli Reform movement if he had ever had such a conversation in Israel including the three streams. He said he had not.

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, November 2, Reform and Conservative Rabbis and Women of the Wall will meet at Dung Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem to march with Sifrei Torah to the Kotel and join with the Women of the Wall for their monthly Heshvan Rosh Chodesh prayer service.

The Chief Rabbinate of the Wall forbids Torah scrolls it does not approve to be used at the Kotel. It also forbids women from holding them.

We will defy those rules so we can pray as we choose at the holiest site in Judaism and for the Jewish people as a whole.

 

 

Is there really nothing new under the sun?

21 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Holidays, Jewish Identity, Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

“Havel havalim amar Kohelet; havel havalim hakol havel – Utter futility! Said Kohelet – Utter futility! All is futile! What real value is there in all the gains a person makes beneath the sun? One generation goes, another comes, but the earth remains the same forever…only that shall happen which has happened, only that occur which has occurred; Ein chadash tachat hashamesh – there is nothing new beneath the sun!”
Ecclesiastes 1:2-9

Depressing, realistic, cynical – or all three?

In the mid-1990s, I taught a year-long weekly seminar at my synagogue on the book of Ecclesiastes and its rabbinic commentary in Kohelet Rabbah. I began with thirty-five students. After a year, five remained.

I was assured by a number of the students that the drop in enrollment wasn’t because I was a bad teacher, though I wondered.

The following year, I taught another year-long seminar on the thought and writings of Rabbi Abraham Heschel. We began with about fifty students and retained most everyone.

I confess that I was relieved and thank Heschel for saving me!

What was the difference between the two classes? Those who delved into the thought of Ecclesiastes wanted to kill themselves whereas Heschel inspired them! Ecclesiastes  depressed the “Kohelet drop-outs” because they didn’t want to spend their Sundays engaged with cynicism/realism (depending how you read the book). They voted down Ecclesiastes with their feet. I have always, by the way, found the book fascinating – but that’s me!

The scroll of Ecclesiastes is the text, nevertheless, from the collection of Writings that we read every year during the festival of Sukkot. Given it’s depressing themes, why would we do that? Sukkot, after all, is called “Z’man sim’cha-tei-nu – a time of our joy.” We greet one another with these words during the holiday: “Moadim l’simchah – May you be joyful during this time.”

Some scholars suggest that Ecclesiastes was an argument against the ancient Greek pagan world when bacchanalian orgies and wild celebrations were taking place. The rabbis thought that reading Ecclesiastes would kick the Jew in the gut and slap his face, recalling Cher slapping the love-sick John Cusack in “Moonstruck” and shouting – “Snap out of it!”

The theme of the changing seasons, as described in the first chapter of the scroll, may be the real reason this text was matched with Sukkot, though Ecclesiastes is a philosophical oddity and counter to the rabbinic worldview. Its philosophy is Greek, not Jewish – though the Rabbinic Midrash attempts valiantly to spin the book as a reflection of rabbinic theology. One can imagine Kohelet taking the Aristotelian and modern scientific view that nothing has ever been created or destroyed, that God as Creator is a necessary truth for the masses of Jews who need not only to believe in a commanding God but also recognize that there must be a higher moral authority when ordering Jewish society, thus giving ultimate meaning to our lives.

The question is – was Ecclesiastes right when he proclaimed – “There is nothing new under the sun!” Did he mean to say that this is the world as it’s always been and ever will be and that nothing we think, feel and create as human beings is ever new?

The 1996 Nobel Prize acceptance speech for literature by the Polish writer Wislawa Szymborska is eloquent. She insisted that, yes, there is something new under the sun – each and every day. She addressed Kohelet directly in these words:

“I sometimes dream of situations that can’t possibly come true. I audaciously imagine, for example, that I get a chance to chat with Ecclesiastes, the author of that moving lament on the vanity of all human endeavors. I bow very deeply before him, because he is one of the greatest poets, for me at least. Then I grab his hand. ‘There’s nothing new under the sun’ That’s what you wrote, Ecclesiastes. But you yourself were born new under the sun. And the poem you created is also new under the sun, since no one wrote it down before you. And all your readers are also new under the sun, since those who lived before you couldn’t read your poem. And that cypress under which you’re sitting hasn’t been growing since the dawn of time. It came into being by the way of another cypress similar to yours, but not exactly the same. And Ecclesiastes, I’d also like to ask you what new thing under the sun you’re planning to work on now? A further supplement to thoughts you’ve already expressed? Or maybe you’re tempted to contradict some of them now? In your earlier work you mentioned joy – so what if it’s fleeting?  So maybe your new-under-the-sun poem will be about joy?  Have you taken notes yet, do you have drafts?  I doubt that you’ll say, ‘I’ve written everything down, I’ve got nothing left to add.’ There’s no poet in the world who can say this, least of all a great poet like yourself.”

The Kotzker Rebbe was once asked if he had the power to revive the dead. He answered: “Reviving the dead isn’t the problem; reviving the living is far more difficult!”

Certainly, nature has set its course; but the human being is a thinking, creating and transcendent being, and we do indeed, I believe, have the capacity to create ourselves anew in every moment and thus improve ourselves (tikkun hanefesh) and the world (tikkun olam).

This series of Holidays from the beginning of Elul through the High Holidays, Sukkot and Simchat Torah is our season for the Jewish people to celebrate spiritual rebirth and renewal. Our world view is a challenge to Kohelet. Yes, there is something new under the sun! Everything!

Moadim l’simchah and Shabbat Shalom.