Category Archives: Jewish Identity

Response to Bernard Avishai’s New Yorker Piece on American and Israeli Reform Judaism Challenges

08 Sunday May 2016

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

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Bernard Avishai’s piece in The New Yorker “A Missed Opportunity to Support Secular Life in Israel” (May 6, 2016) addresses important issues about religion and state in Israel and the American and Israeli Reform movement’s recent support for the new egalitarian prayer space agreed to in an Israeli government compromise. But, I regret that his piece was overly critical of the strategic decisions made by the American and Israeli Reform movements, and misses what is actually happening within Israel.

The following 5 passages require greater context and response:

“When we [Rabbi Rick Jacobs] spoke in late February, in Jerusalem, Jacobs told me that he considers Israel’s state-supported Orthodox rabbinate “one of the most corrupt and corrupting institutions ever to happen in the history of the Jewish people.” But the compromise over the Wall is one of several signs that suggests he is ambivalent about whether some kind of a state-supported rabbinate is not, after all, what makes the Jewish state Jewish.”

I believe that Avishai misstates the Reform movement’s antipathy to the state-supported Orthodox rabbinate and its support for a compromise on the Kotel when he says that our movement is somehow “ambivalent.” Rather, as Rabbi Jacobs himself told him, this position is “strategic.” We recognize that despite great antipathy in Israel felt by the vast majority of Israelis against the official Orthodox Rabbinate, this clearly exclusionary and anti-democratic institution is not about to be abolished. Our Reform movement took a pragmatic decision when we agreed to compromise and thereby create an egalitarian prayer space at the holiest site in Judaism to enable the Jewish people as a whole to pray according to their non-Orthodox customs at the Kotel.

“Jacobs insists that the focus on making headway for Reform rabbis is strategic. He told me that, if he could have civil marriage instead of a dedicated prayer space at the wall, he wouldn’t have to think about it for a second. But it is one thing to advance a more open Judaism as the state’s official religion and another thing entirely to advance an open society for all citizens. Sadly, on the latter effort, the Reform movement may be missing a greater opportunity to make common cause between secular Jews in North America and those in Israel.”

My question to Bernie Avishai is this: ‘How are we missing an opportunity to make common cause with secular Jews in North America and Israel?’

The Israeli Reform movement, supported by the Union for Reform Judaism, is constantly advocating for religious pluralism and diversity before the Israeli courts and Knesset even while our Israeli Reform Rabbis and community leaders are building the Israeli Reform movement’s congregations, schools, youth movement, kibbutzim, social justice work, and pre-army programs. A rich liberal Judaism is taking root in Israel. Yes, it has a long way to go. It currently receives almost no financial help from the Israeli government, though Orthodox yeshivot and synagogues receive close to $1 billion annually from Israeli taxpayers due to the corrupting influence of Orthodox political parties in the Israeli government.

“A Pew Research Center report found that forty per cent of Israelis describe themselves as secular Jews; another twenty-nine per cent see themselves as not religious but “traditional.” (Only about three per cent identify as Reform).”

The Pew report vastly under-reported the commonality felt by Israeli Jews towards the Reform and Conservative movements. In other polls, 30-40% of Israelis said they would attend a Reform or Conservative Synagogue Center if there was one near them. There are currently nearly 50 such Reform centers strategically placed around the country. That amounts to between 1.6 and 2.2 million Israelis who feel that Reform or Conservative Judaism best represents them, their worldview and Jewish values.

“Uri Regev, the head of Hiddush (“Renewal”), a human-rights organization with a focus on religious freedom rather than a strict separation between state and religion, laments the American Reform movement’s focus on rabbinic privileges rather than on citizenship. His organization polled Israeli Jews and found that, not surprisingly, seventy-one per cent support the freedom to marry and divorce independent of the Orthodox rabbinate, while only eleven per cent attach importance to the battle over the Western Wall plaza. “The American Reform movement has been distracted,” he told me.”

Rabbi Regev, a friend, does important work in Israel, but he misses a strategic point. This is not an either-or situation. He is right that civil marriage and divorce is a high priority for most Israelis. The Reform movement also advocates for this basic right in Israeli democracy, as it advocates for a whole host of other human rights issues in the state of Israel. See the work of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC – http://www.irac.org).

“For Reform rabbis, then, drawing attention to Israel’s constitutional deficiencies can feel like delivering too much bad news. Jacobs told me about the “rhetorical mess” he had to clean up after an Israeli activist talked to a congregation about “case after case, issue after issue, the things they’re fighting in the Supreme Court.” The congregants reported that “Israel sounds like the most horrific place,” Jacobs said. “And we’re supposed to teach our kids to love Israel?”

Avishai closes his article with this paragraph, and the Association of Reform Zionists of America (the Zionist arm of the American Reform movement) takes what he says as a legitimate and important challenge. As the nominated chair-elect of ARZA, I believe that the best way to teach our kids to love Israel is first to get them there, and then to encourage them to attend American Reform summer camps where Israelis serve as staff, to support the Eisendrath International Exchange (EIE) program for high school students, to form American-Israeli synagogue sister relationships with Israeli Reform congregations, establish school exchanges between Israeli and American schools (such as the LA-Tel Aviv partnership in which my own 6th grade Day School students are paired with an Israeli elementary school in Tzahalah – they are there right now as I write this), support the important social justice work of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) and the IRAC, and be certain that all our young people visit Israel on a Birthright program.

Israeli Inventions and Innovations – Celebrating 68 Years of Independence

06 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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Israel’s 68th Independence Day (Friday, May 13 – 5 Iyar, 5776) inspires appreciation, admiration and respect for its remarkable accomplishments not only since the establishment of the State of Israel, but over the past 119 years since Theodor Herzl convened the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

The only democracy in the Middle East (i.e. within the Green Line) remains, despite its many challenges from within and without, a vital engine of research, invention, innovation, and ingenuity that benefits not only Israeli citizens and the Jewish people, but nations and peoples everywhere even if they are unaware that they are benefiting.

Those benefits include significant advances in medicine, healthcare, microbiology, genetics, agriculture, energy, water conservation, the environment, communications, engineering, transportation, navigation, computer technology, optics, robotics, safety, security, and defense.

Here are just 76 inventions and innovations created, developed and marketed by Israeli scientists, physicians, researchers, bio-tech and hi-tech companies, and entrepreneurs (not in any particular order):

• Given Imaging – patient-friendly solutions for visualizing and detecting disorders of the GI tract – best known for its PillCam (aka capsule endoscopy), now the gold standard for intestinal visualization.

• Netafim – a worldwide pioneer in smart drip and micro-irrigation operating in 112 countries with 13 factories worldwide.

• Ormat Technologies – geothermal power plants supplying clean geothermal power in 20+ countries.

• Pythagoras Solar – the world’s first solar window combining energy efficiency, power generation and transparency. This transparent photovoltaic glass unit can be integrated into conventional building design and construction processes.

• Hazera Genetics – yielded the cherry tomato.

• BabySense – a no-touch, no-radiation device designed to prevent crib death. Made by HiSense. The device monitors a baby’s breathing and movements through the mattress during sleep. An auditory and visual alarm is activated if breathing ceases for more than 20 seconds or if breath rate slows to less than 10 breaths per minute.

• Iron Dome – a mobile air defense system designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells.

• 3G Solar – pioneered a low-cost alternative to silicon that generates significantly more electricity than leading silicon-based PV solar modules at a lower cost per kilowatt hour.

• MobileEye – combines a tiny digital camera with sophisticated algorithms to help drivers navigate more safely. The steering system-linked device sounds an alert when a driver is about to change lanes inadvertently, warns of an impending forward collision and detects pedestrians. MobileEye has deals with GM, BMW and Volvo, among others.

• Leviathan Energy – innovated the Wind Tulip, a cost-effective, silent, vibration-free wind turbine designed as an aesthetic environmental sculpture, producing clean energy at high efficiency from any direction.

• Rav Bariach – introduced the steel security door that has become Israel’s standard. Its geometric lock, whose cylinders extend from different points into the doorframe, is incorporated into doors selling on five continents.

• BriefCam – a video-synopsis technology lets viewers rapidly review and index original full-length video footage by concurrently showing multiple objects and activities that actually occurred at different times. This technology drastically cuts the time and manpower involved in event tracking, forensics and evidence discovery.

• GridON – makes the Keeper, a three-phase fault current limiter that blocks current surges and limits the current for as long as required to clear the fault, and is of interest to major utilities companies around the world.

• Waze – a GPS-based geographical navigation application program for smartphones with GPS support and display screens, which provides turn-by-turn information and user-submitted travel times and route details, downloading location-dependent information over the mobile telephone network now available in over 100 countries.

• GetTaxi – an application that connects customers and taxi drivers using its proprietary GPS system, thus enabling users to order a cab either with their smartphone or through the company’s website.

• Better Place electric car network – provides a model for a worldwide electric car grid.

• Intel Israel – changed the face of the computing world with the 8088 processor (the “brain” of the first PC), MMX and Centrino mobile technology.

• Disk-on-Key – the ubiquitous little portable storage device made by SanDisk, is an upgraded version of disk and diskette technology through the use of flash memory and USB interface for connection to personal computers.

• TACount – real-time microbiology enables the detection and counting of harmful microorganisms in a matter of minutes, rather than the conventional method of cell culture that takes several hours to a few days. The technology applies to the fields of drinking and wastewater, pharmaceuticals and food and beverage production.

• Solaris Synergy – innovated an environmentally friendly and economically beneficial way to float solar panels on water instead of taking up valuable land, generating energy while protecting and limiting evaporation from reservoir surfaces.

• HydroSpin – a unique internal pipe generator that supplies electricity for water monitoring and control systems in remote areas and sites without accessibility to electricity.

• Produce drinking water from a condenser that absorbs the air’s humidity, holding it in silica based gel granules, and then condensing it into water. 85% of energy used is pumped back into the system. Developed by EWA.

• The Volcani Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – improves existing agricultural production systems and introduces new products, processes and equipment. Basic and applied research is conducted at six institutes and in two regional research centers by more than 200 scientists and 300 engineers and technicians.

• Rosetta Green – develops improved plant traits for the agriculture and biofuel industries, using unique genes called microRNAs.

• Mazor Robotics’ Spine Assist and other surgical robots – transforms spine surgery from freehand procedures to highly accurate, state-of-the-art operations with less need for radiation.

• Optical heartbeat monitor – a revolutionary medical technology using a fast camera and small laser light source.

• Elya Recycling – an innovative method for recycling plastic based on a specialized formulation of natural ingredients. Making the new raw material for handbags, reusable totes and lumber products requires 50 percent less energy than current recycling methods and 83% less energy than virgin manufacturing.

• Like-A-Fish – unique air supply systems extract air from water, freeing leisure and professional scuba divers, as well as submarines and underwater habitats, from air tanks.

• WatchPAT – an FDA-approved portable diagnostic device for the follow-up treatment of sleep apnea in the patient’s own bedroom, rather than at a sleep disorders clinic.

•  Zenith Solar – a modular, easily scalable high-concentration photovoltaic system (HCPV) whose core technology is based on a unique, proprietary optical design to extract the maximum energy with minimal real estate.

• AFC (Active Flow Control) – an intelligent gas-air mixing system to replace all existing mixing technologies.

• Space Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) unit of Elbit Systems – makes a “space camera,” a compact, lightweight electro-optic observation system for government, commercial and scientific applications.

• Turbulence, the world’s first hyper-narrative, interactive movie – technology that allows the viewer to choose the direction of the film’s plot by pressing buttons on the PC, Mac or iPad at various moments in the action.

• EpiLady – the first electric hair remover (epilator), secured its leading position in the international beauty care market and since 1986 has sold almost 30 million units.

• Decell Technologies – provides real-time road traffic information based on monitoring the location and movement of phones and GPS devices. Swift-i Traffic is incorporated in leading navigation systems, fleet management services, mapping operations and media channels in several countries.

• NDS VideoGuard technology – the pay-TV industry’s advanced suite of conditional access (CA) solutions protecting branded service from piracy and ensuring that consumers have choice and flexibility in broadcast and on-demand content.

• PrimeSense – revolutionizes interaction with digital devices by allowing them to “see” in three dimensions and transfer control from remote controls and joysticks to hands and body in a low-cost, high-performance 3D machine vision technologies for consumers.

• Takadu – provides monitoring software to leading water utilities worldwide offering real-time detection and control over network events such as leaks, bursts, zone breaches and inefficiencies.

• Indigo digital printing presses – general commercial printing, direct mail, photos and photobooks, publications, labels, business cards, flexible packaging and folding cartons print without films and plates, allowing for personalized short runs and changing text and images without stopping the press.

• Solid rapid prototyping machine (Cubital) – crafts 3D models of engineering parts directly from designs on a computer screen used in the automotive, aerospace, consumer products and medical industries, and engineering firms and academic and research institutions.

• Viber – an app download on any smart phone allowing hi-speed calls using Wifi to be made across the world for free.

• Zomet Institute – a non-profit, public research institute where rabbis, researchers and engineers devise practical solutions for modern life without violating Sabbath restrictions on the use of electricity. Zomet technology is behind metal detectors, security jeeps, elevators, electric wheelchairs and coffee machines that can be used on Shabbat, as well as solutions requested by the Israeli ministries of health and defense, Ben-Gurion Airport, Elite Foods, Tnuva Dairies, Israeli Channel 10 Television and others.

• EarlySense – continuous monitoring allows hospital nurses to watch and record patients’ heart rate, respiration and movement remotely through a contact-free sensor under the mattress. The system’s built-in tools include a wide range of reports on the status of patients, including alerts for falls and bedsore prevention.

• TourEngine – reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions by common engines through a sophisticated thermal management strategy that can be easily integrated with future hybrid engines, further improving their efficiency and environment-friendly attributes.

• The superconducting fault current limiter (FCL) – designed for limiting short currents.

• Heliofocus – provides solar-energy boosting for existing coal or gas power plants, reducing carbon emissions and overall costs.

• Transbiodiesel – makes enzyme-based catalysts (biocatalysts) used in the production of biodiesel.

• SolarEdge – makes a module that optimizes every link in the solar PV chain, maximizing energy production while monitoring constantly to detect faults and prevent theft.

• 3D tethered particle motion system – allows for three-dimensional tracking of critical protein-DNA and protein-RNA cell interactions in the body.

• Panoramic Power – provides a current monitor solution that enables enterprises and organizations to reduce their operational and energy expenses using a breakthrough power flow visibility platform.

• Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation – a notation system for recording movement on paper that has been used in dance, physical therapy, animal behavior and early diagnosis of autism.

• Azilect – a drug for Parkinson’s disease.

• Copaxone immunomodulator – a drug for treating multiple sclerosis.

• Taliglucerase alfa (Elelyso), a recombinant glucocerebrosidase enzyme produced from transgenic carrot cell cultures. Taliglucerase alfa won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2012 as an orphan drug for the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher’s disease.

• Nanowire – a conductive wire made of a string of tiny particles of silver, a thousand times thinner than a human hair.

• World’s smallest DNA computing machine system – “the smallest biological computing device” ever constructed, composed of enzymes and DNA molecules capable of performing simple mathematical calculations and which uses its input DNA molecule as its sole source of energy.

• Protector USV – an unmanned surface vehicle, to be used in combat.

• USB flash drive – a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface.

• The first PC microprocessor – the intel 8088 the first PC microprocessor that used on the first PC IBM PC.

• Quicktionary Electronic dictionary – a pen-sized scanner able to scan words or phrases and immediately translate them into other languages, or keep them in memory in order to transfer them to the PC.

• Laser Keyboard – virtual keyboard projected onto a wall or table top and allows to type handheld computers and cell phones.

• Hybrid cucumber seeds – hybrid seed production of cucumbers and melons, disease-resistant cucumbers and cucumbers suitable for mechanical harvesting.

• Grain cocoons – provides a simple and cheap way for African and Asian farmers to keep their grain market-fresh, as huge bags keep both water and air out, making sure the harvest is clean and protected even in extreme heat and humidity.

• Biological pest control – breeds beneficial insects and mites for biological pest control and bumblebees for natural pollination in greenhouses and open fields.

• AKOL – gives low-income farmers the ability to get top-level information from professional sources.

• Reusable plastic trays – used to collect dew from the air, reducing the need to water crops by up to 50 percent.

• “Zero-discharge” system – allows fish to be raised virtually anywhere by eliminating the environmental problems in conventional fish farming, without being dependent on electricity or proximity to a body of water.

• TraitUP – enables the introduction of genetic materials into seeds without modifying their DNA, immediately and efficiently improving plants before they’re even sowed.

• Judean date palm – oldest seed ever to be revived, restoring an extinct cultivar.

• Super iron battery – A new class of a rechargeable electric battery based on a special kind of iron. More environment friendly because the super-iron eventually rusts.

• ReWalk – a bionic walking assistance system to enable paraplegics to stand upright, walk and climb stairs.

• Robotic guidance system for spine surgery.

• World’s smallest video camera – a camera with a 0.99 mm (0.039 in) diameter, designed to fit in a tiny endoscope.

• Azilect – a drug for Parkinson’s disease.

• Copaxone immunomodulator – drug for treating multiple sclerosis.

• Bio-Bee – biological pest control breeds beneficial insects and mites for biological pest control and bumblebees for natural pollination in greenhouses and open fields.

“How Can I See You, Love” – A Poem for Yom Hashoah

03 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Poetry

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How can I see you, love,
Standing alone
Amid storms of grief
Without feeling my heart shake?

A deep night,
Blacker than the blackness of your eyes,
Has fallen silently
On the world.

And is touching your curls.

Come,
My hand will clasp your dreaming
Hand,
And I shall lead you between the nights.

Through the pale mists of childhood,
As my father once guided me
To the house of prayer.

by David Vogel, Translated by A.C. Jacobs. Holocaust Poetry, compiled and introduced by Hilda Schiff, publ. St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996, p. 14

Biography – David Vogel was born on May 15, 1891 in the town of Satanov in the Podolia region in the Russian Pale of Settlement. The family spoke Yiddish. In 1909-1910, he arrived in Vilnius as a yeshiva student. He worked as the caretaker of a synagogue and studied Hebrew. In 1925, he settled in Paris, where he wrote prose and poetry. In 1929, he and his wife, Nada Adler, immigrated to Palestine, where their daughter, Tamar, was born. After spending time in Poland and Berlin, the family returned to Paris. When World War II erupted, Vogel and his daughter fled to southeastern France where Nada was recuperating in a sanatorium. He was interned as an Austrian citizen and freed in 1940 when the Nazis occupied France.

Various stories circulated about his life after that. In 1944-45, the Hebrew newspapers in Palestine reported his “disappearance.”  He was presumed to have died in the Holocaust.

Israeli literary scholar Dan Pagis discovered that he returned to Hauteville after his release from internment camp. In 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned in Lyon, and sent to Drancy, a transit camp for French Jews. Four days later, he was murdered in Auschwitz.

Temple Israel of Hollywood will commemorate Yom Hashoah on Wednesday evening, May 4 at 7 PM with the showing of the Academy Award Nominated Short Documentary “Spectres of the Shoah” about Claude Lanzmann, the director of the seminal 10-hour film “Shoah” commemorating the 25th anniversary of the film.

See http://oscar.go.com/nominees/documentary-short/claude-lanzmann-spectres-of-the-shoah

Video clip of “Women of the Wall” – Fighting for the right to pray at the holiest site in Judaism

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

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

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Per Anat Hoffman this morning to me:

“John – The prayer service was the culmination of an exhausting few days, yet we were reinvigorated by the good energy brought by the participants who were so thrilled to be at the Wall with WOW.  Many had never experienced a women’s prayer service like this before.

We pulled off the Birkat Kohanot to the degree that was “permitted” by the police and the Israeli government. The movie points out how absurd were the restrictions placed on WOW. This is what we need to show the world.

Please watch … Scroll down a bit until you see the box with the arrow: https://www.facebook.com/womenofthewall.

As ever,
Anat

Note about Leonard Nimoy’s belief in the state of Israel as a democratic Jewish state

I had helped facilitate the gift by the Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy (z”l) Estate to support this Women of the Wall event at the holiest site in Judaism. Susan is my first cousin (her father and my mother were brother and sister) and Leonard was very dear to me and my family. He would have been proud to have helped this noble and important cause.

Leonard cared deeply about the people and state of Israel and about its democratic tradition. He shared with me that when he played Golda Meir’s husband, Morris Meyerson, in the 1982 film “A Woman Called Golda” opposite Ingrid Bergman as Golda, for which he received an Emmy nomination, it was one of the most important and moving roles in his career. They filmed the scene of dancing in the streets immediately after David ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel in May, 1948 on the very day that President Anwar Sadat arrived in Israel to speak to the Knesset. Leonard believed in Israel, was proud of its achievements and its democracy, and he frequently bemoaned to me the growing right-wing fanatic nationalism and ultra-Orthodoxy that he witnessed taking over the spirit and soul of a growing number of Israelis and American Jews.

I am grateful to Susan for honoring Leonard’s memory in this manner. He would most certainly have emphasized to the Jewish people “Live long and prosper.”

Only men can bless the people of Israel at the Western Wall – Press Release Today from WOW

24 Sunday Apr 2016

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

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This letter came to me this morning from Anat Hoffman, Chair of Women of the Wall and Executive Director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center.

Dear John, Haver:

The Birkat Kohanot was a success – with buses bringing women and men from all of the corners of Israel. Young, old, Orthodox, Reform…you name it, they joined with Women of the Wall to pray for peace.

But I don’t mean to make the picture so rosy. There was a lot of turmoil over the past couple of days which brought stress to our staff and Board right before Passover began. I am sharing with you the Press Release which was sent out after today’s event:

Only men can bless the people of Israel at the Western Wall. The Minister of Religion and the Rabbi of the Wall have decreed that “women may not raise their palms to the sky“ or “place their prayer shawl on their head” or say out loud the three lines of the Priestly Blessing.

The Jerusalem Police enforced a ban this morning on Women of the Wall raising their hands, placing a tallit on their heads and reciting the Priestly Blessing.

These absurd demands originated from the Minister of Religion David Azulai (Shas) and Rabbi of the Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz. Tomorrow the two of them will participate in the Priestly Blessing for men. There will be no bans of any kind there. The Rabbi of the Wall, in his press release this morning, accused Women of the Wall of making the Wall a scene of clash and conflict. Anat Hoffman said, “The Wall will remain an arena of clashes as long as the government does not implement its own decision to provide Jewish people with two distinctly separate plazas: one under the jurisdiction of the Rabbi of the Wall and the other which is operated under the principles of gender equality, pluralism and egalitarian prayer.”

When Women of the Wall arrived at the Wall this morning, they were herded into a pen made of police barriers and surrounded by policemen. Even though the women’s section was nearly empty, the police preferred to separate and segregate the group. A police cameraman filmed our prayer and made sure that no woman raised her palms in the air, covered her head with a prayer shawl.

Police commander Doron Turgeman demanded that no Torah would be brought in or read and that the prayer will last no longer than 60 minutes and the number of participants would not exceed 200. Throughout his dialogue with Women of the Wall, he called us “girls.”

Despite the hard conditions, Women of the Wall conducted a halachic, festive Shacharit and Musaf prayer. Hundreds of women and men who came from all over Israel to participate felt that it was a worthwhile experience to wake up at 4AM to attend. Buses came from Karmiel, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Nazareth Illit and Tel Aviv in a show of solidarity and partnership in prayer. The transportation to and from these cities and others was provided by a generous grant from the Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy Estate.

Every participant received a Priestly Blessing pin commemorating today’s prayer. The pin was derived from the hand symbol employed in Star Trek by Mr. Spock, a role played by the Jewish actor Leonard Nimoy (z”l). Nimoy made the Blessing, “Live long and prosper” an international symbol.

Women of the Wall believe that even though the Priestly Blessing is an unusual custom at the Wall, in due time, it will become local custom. We believe that the nature of local custom changes as time passes- in the past, wearing a tallit, blowing a shofar, and lighting a Chanukah candle were all considered contrary to local custom, and it is through our persistence that these are now local custom.


Returning the hearts of parents and children to each other

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Holidays, Jewish Identity, Life Cycle, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and awe-inspiring day of God;
And he [Elijah] will return the hearts of parents to children
and the hearts of children to their parents.”  (Malachi 3:23-24)

These two verses were read yesterday on Shabbat Hagadol (“The Great Sabbath”) that comes immediately before Pesach. They have touched and moved me since I was young in a number of ways.

As a congregational rabbi, so often I encounter parents and grown children who are alienated from each other, and though every situation is different and the sources of rupture in families are as varied as there are people, I wonder what it would take for most of these estrangements to be healed and for families to draw closer to one another. It’s my conviction that in most families, if there’s a strong enough will the breach can be healed.

In this season of Pesach, inspired by the Prophet Malachi, if this is your situation why not seize the opportunity today, now, this week, and reach out to the person or people from whom you feel  distance and seek a way back to each other?

Reconciliation with the most important people in our lives (our parents and children) may tragically be too late for some families after years of alienation. It’s been my experience that unless a child or a parent suffers from mental illness or addiction disorders, it is usually a parent who provoked and/or allowed the alienation to occur with his or her child(ren) to fester over the years. Most children want positive relationships with their parents, but old injuries, accumulated anger, resentment, hatred, and calcification of negative feelings and attitudes towards the other have been allowed to make reconciliation difficult, but not impossible.

Judaism affirms the power of s’lichah (forgiveness) and t’shuvah (repentance – return) to transform our lives. These are themes not only of the High Holiday season but of Pesach too, as both are required for g’ulah (“redemption”). Judaism affirms as well that it’s possible to free ourselves from injuries born in the past and to transform them in the present so as to chart a new, different and positive future. That is the essence of the Exodus and Passover story.

What’s required may be the most difficult challenge we ever face; that parents and children look within themselves, acknowledge their own culpability for the breach, avoid blaming the other, approach the other with humility and an open heart, and then forgive both themselves and the other for whatever occurred in the past. After so long a period, it no longer really matters who caused the rupture in the beginning. Either side, and hopefully both, can and ought to reach out.

Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. It means “letting go” of the slights inflicted and experienced so long ago, and setting aside the aggravating and annoying quirks of personality that justify, in our minds and hearts, the distance we’ve each perpetuated and sustained.

When we forgive we heal the hurts of the past and the injuries we believe we never deserved. By forgiving, we reverse the flow of our own history. This is the meaning of redemption – that we redress grievances and restore ourselves first to ourselves and then to those nearest to us.

In another way, these Malachi verses have moved me since I was young because they stimulate my memories of my father who died so long ago, but whose voice, smell, touch, and love for me, my brother, my mother, and our family remain alive in me and all of us who he loved and who loved him. This year, these verses evoke memories of my mother too, whose soul passed from this life a few months ago. I imagine my parents’ souls communing together again, as they did with so much love and joy once upon a time, and I imagine my mother restored to her parents and siblings also, people whom she so adored in the 98+ years of her long life.

This coming Shabbat eve, families and friends will gather around the Seder table and Elijah’s empty chair will, hopefully, remind us of our parents and their parents, our sages and teachers, prophets, mystics, and tzadikim, as our people celebrates liberation and the promise of redemption. We’ll recommit ourselves to right the wrongs and injustices in our communities, among our people, in our nation and world, to reaffirm that justice must exist everywhere for us to be truly free ourselves, and that the virtues of compassion, empathy and loving-kindness are the means to affirm and concretize Judaism’s ideals of a world healed of its many breaches.

May this season be one of meaning and joyful reunion for each of us, for everyone we love, for the Jewish people, for the oppressed among the nations, and for all the inhabitants of the earth.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Israeli Public Radio Refuses to Broadcast ‘Controversial’ Women of the Wall Ad – Letter from Anat Hoffman

15 Friday Apr 2016

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

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Below is a letter Anat Hoffman sent me this morning updating me on an action during the intermediate days of Pesach, on April 24, that Women of the Wall is planning in Jerusalem at the Kotel (Western Wall).

This action is a follow-up to the historic decision taken by the government of Israel, led by PM Netanyahu and coordinated by Natan Sharansky several months ago, that will establish a new egalitarian prayer space in the Southern Kotel Plaza. Women of the Wall is gathering hundreds of women descended from the priestly class (Kohanut) to bless the community at the Kotel.

The ultra-Orthodox political parties United Torah Judaism and Shas, along with the “Chief Rabbi of the Wall,” are demanding that this agreement not be implemented on threat of withdrawal from the government coalition and the collapse of the government that consists of only 61 votes. PM Netanyahu is now trying to manage his anti-democratic coalition partners by promising to take a second look at the agreement that would surely doom its future. This was a negotiated compromise between the parties that included the Chief Rabbi at the Wall. Every detail was negotiated. It was a compromise agreement. To open it up again means that the agreement will fail. Doing this has much larger implications for the state of democracy and religious pluralism in Israel. Surely, the Prime Minister knows this – but maintaining power seems to be more important to him than the honor of his word to the non-Orthodox movements in Israel and worldwide and the cause of democracy and equal rights for all religious streams of Judaism in the Jewish state.

Anat Hoffman, chair of the Women of the Wall and the Executive Director of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, has been a lightning rod on this issue for more than 27 years in her role as a founding member of WOW and now as its chair.

Anat had asked me to make contact with my cousin, Susan Bay Nimoy, to support this effort financially, which Susan did without hesitation and with full heart. She did so in memory of Leonard, who would have supported this effort with an equally full heart. Anat thought of them as supporters because Leonard made the priestly sign world famous in the character of Spock. When developing the greeting in his role, he remembered the blessing of the priests when he attended synagogue as a young boy with his grandfather in South Boston.

The article from Haaretz below notes:

“Funding [has been] provided by the Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy estate [and] was meant to help Women of the Wall advertise the event as well as bus in women from around the country so that they can attend at no cost.”

Here is Anat’s letter (see the two articles in Haaretz):

Shalom, John, dear friend,

It was a challenging week for Women of the Wall. Kol Yisrael, the Israeli public radio body, determined that it would not play our paid voice ads for the Birkat Kohanot. Please click this link to an article in the Forward so you can hear how simply beautiful it is: http://forward.com/video/338622/israel-public-radio-rejects-women-of-the-wall-ad/?attribution=home-video-1. We petitioned to force them to play the ads and will appeal the decision on Sunday – all the way to the [Israeli] Supreme Court.

Next, Haaretz gave us plenty of press. One article is Public Radio Refuses to Broadcast ‘Controversial’ Women of the Wall Ad and the other is Western Wall Rabbi Attempting to Prevent ‘Women’s Priestly Blessing’ During Passover. Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, has even gone so far as to call Women of the Wall “Satan Incarnate.” He said that we need to be committed to an asylum, YET he went on – for the first time – to devote his whole sermon on Pesach to the importance of women in Judaism.

Here are the links to the articles:

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714113
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714229

But, we keep persevering. The number of participants continues to grow, and we are confident that we will fill the Kotel plaza on April 24.

Shabbat Shalom,
Anat

4 Articles and 1 video you ought read and see right now

13 Wednesday Apr 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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By all measures, Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East and the only democracy. This strength, however, is compromised by the fear-mongering of Israel’s right-wing government, continued settlement building in the West Bank, its anti-democratic attack on NGOs and free speech, its growing exclusionary militant Jewish nationalism, and its resistance to all attempts to reach a compromise resulting in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These trends have not served Israel’s best interests as a democracy and majority Jewish state. Though the Palestinians certainly must share the blame for a lack of progress over the last two plus decades, they are the weaker party. Despite legitimate fear and distrust of both sides towards each other, it is the stronger party that has the least to lose by initiating serious peace proposals.

Here are four important articles describing not only the depth and breadth of Israel’s strength, development and ingenuity, but also the threats against it. These articles offer a sober and clear-sighted view of the reality in which Israel finds itself, as well as showing how President Obama has been one of the greatest friends Israel has ever had in the oval office (item #3 from the NY Times).

1. A Wake-up Call: Celebrating Half a Century of Israeli Occupation – Ari Shavit, Haaretz, April 7, 2016

“At the end of 50 years, it will be clear what our revealed choice has been: We prefer the Land of Israel over the values of Israel. …

Clinging to the places where the prophets walked has caused us to lose touch with the prophets’ vision. The fanatical zeal for mountains, hills and land of Israel has caused us to abandon the precious breastplate of the Jewish heritage. The idolatry of the land cult and the idolatry of power and the idolatry of the tribe have worn away the commitment to universality, which was the foundation stone of our culture. The land has blinded us and has dulled our senses and has caused us to betray what we are. Half a century is a milestone. Half a century is also a wake-up call. There are no more excuses and justifications and there is no more “tomorrow.” The permanency of the occupation is becoming an integral part of our life and our identity. Thus it is endangering the State of Israel, the Jewish people and the Jewish heritage. Before the Palestinians embark on the 50th-year intifada and before the international community imposes the 50th-year sanctions on us, it is incumbent upon us to find the courage to end the 50-year curse by ourselves, for ourselves.”
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.713117

2. Will Israel Reach age 100? Aaron David Miller (RealClearWorld), April 12, 2016

“Having worked the Israel issue for half a dozen secretaries of state, I’m more convinced than ever that Israel is here to stay….

The region in which Israel lives is melting down at a rate no one would have anticipated. Yet if any states disappear, these may be on the Arab side….

The region’s three non-Arab states – Israel, Turkey, and Iran – are probably the most highly functioning polities in the region. All are domestically stable, have tremendous economic power, and are capable of projecting their power in the region. Of the three, Israel by far has the best balance of military, economic, and technological prowess and brain power. By any significant standard – GDP per capita; educational assets; share of Nobel prizes; even the global happiness index – Israel leads the region, and much of the rest of the world, by wide margins…Compare the situation Israel faces in 2016 with any other period since the founding of the state 68 years ago, and there is little doubt the country is stronger, more secure, and holds a more pronounced qualitative military edge than it ever has. Furthermore, with the exception of Iran, its traditional adversaries are weaker and are falling further behind…

The situation, of course, is far from perfect. Israelis face a rash of attacks by Palestinians, as well as more substantial threats from Hizbullah, Hamas, and ISIS wannabes in Sinai. But these aren’t existential security threats to the state, and Iran’s putative quest for a nuclear weapon has been constrained for now…

Functional cooperation with Jordan, improving ties with Turkey, close relations with Egypt, and an emerging alignment of interests with Saudi Arabia against Iran, all suggest a certain lessening of the Arab state allergy to Israel…

In a region with not a single Arab democracy, a rising Iran, and threats from transnational jihadists, Washington will almost certainly continue to look to Israel as an ally in the region. Indeed, the threat of significant terror attacks on domestic soil from a Middle East in meltdown will provide the best set of talking points for the continuation of the U.S.-Israel special relationship…

Israel is a highly functional state that has powerful agency, extraordinary human resources, a demonstrated capacity to deal with its security challenges, and neighbors who seem to be growing weaker, not stronger.”
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2016/04/will_israel_reach_age_100_111810.html

3. Israel’s Unsung Protector: Obama – By Lara Friedman, NY Times, April 10, 2016

“With the Obama administration in its final year, several officials have said that the president has grown so frustrated with trying to revive Middle East peace talks that he may lay down his own outline for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace agreement, in the form of a resolution in the United Nations Security Council…

If that happens, count on two reactions: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will oppose it, and a chorus of American politicians and commentators will suggest that it would be unprecedented — even unthinkable — for an American president to support a Security Council resolution that Israel opposed, rather than veto it…

Over seven years, Mr. Obama has not permitted passage of any Security Council resolution specifically critical of Israel. But a careful examination of the record shows that, since 1967, every other American president allowed, or even had America vote for, Security Council resolutions taking Israel to task for actions and policies toward the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors….

President Obama, in contrast with his predecessors, has completely shielded Israel from such resolutions. This fact is all the more striking given that his presidency has overlapped with governments that have been among the most right-wing in Israel’s history — governments that have continually and openly defied American-led peace efforts and American policy opposing settlement expansion.

The two-state solution is the only path to preserving Israel’s security and its character as a Jewish state and a democracy, while delivering freedom, dignity and sovereignty to the Palestinians. We can hope that President Obama may now recognize that preserving this solution for the future is the most important legacy he can leave in this arena. But to accomplish that, he must be willing to resist, rather than court, the anti-peace bullies in Israel and the United States; he must be willing to stand up for American interests in obtaining a Middle East peace, and to stand with America’s allies in the Security Council in supporting a two-state solution.

If he does that, President Obama will not be betraying Israel. He will be Israel’s true friend. And he will walk in the footsteps of all eight other presidents since 1967, Democrat and Republican alike.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/opinion/international/israels-unsung-protector-obama.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

 
4. Israel School Scraps Death Camp Trips Amid Fears of Right Wing Radicalization, Forward, April 13, 2016

A Tel Aviv high school principal will no longer send pupils on an annual educational trip to former concentration camps in Poland because of its perceived “ultranationalist” influence on the students.
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/338485/israel-school-scraps-death-camp-trips-amid-fears-of-right-wing-radicalizati/#ixzz45eLibGpp

5. Skunk Spray!  – You Tube

A degrading form of abuse – or a safe, ingenious, effective, non-lethal, and non-toxic crowd control method that smells indescribably foul? The Palestinians want it banned. What’s your opinion? An Israeli creation (2 minutes 41 seconds).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/H4_XZE3r3oU?rel=0

PM Netanyahu risks breaking faith and trust with world Jewry

04 Monday Apr 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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Anat Hoffman, Chair of Women of the Wall (WOW), told 330 Reform Rabbis at the end of February in Jerusalem, only weeks after an historic Israeli government compromise agreement that will create a separate egalitarian prayer space at the Southern Kotel Plaza to be administered by the Reform and Conservative movements and WOW, that the greatest danger is that ultra-Orthodox politicians would exert so much pressure on the Prime Minister that the agreement would never be implemented.

In Haaretz this week, Natan Sharansky, who PM Netanyahu appointed some time ago to bring all the parties together to craft a compromise agreement, said that the agreement is now being threatened. See http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.712614

Two ultra-Orthodox parties in the government, United Torah Judaism and Shas, which together hold only 13 Knesset seats out of 120 total, have threatened to leave Bibi’s coalition government of 61 seats if this agreement is implemented, and rather than lose his government and have to call for new elections that polls indicate would show a dramatic reduction in votes for the PM’s Likud party, Netanyahu appointed a representative to re-open negotiations. In other words, ‘Now that we have a deal let’s go back to the bargaining table and strike a new one!’

Natan Sharansky was quoted in Haaretz saying that major changes could “undermine the level of trust that has been established between the Prime Minister and the leaders of world Jewry,” and that reopening negotiations could jeopardize the entire plan. “Every word and principle in the agreement involved concessions…Once you start dismantling it, everything can fall apart.”

The ultra-Orthodox parties’ key demand is that the Conservative and Reform movements should not sit on the public authority that will oversee the new prayer space, as stipulated in the agreement. In other words, the ultra-Orthodox “Chief Rabbi of the Wall” would have the power to forbid any egalitarian service that would take place in the new Southern Kotel Plaza and insert his own ultra-Orthodox rabbis to monitor and oversee all prayer activity. That essentially would cancel this effort and deal a death blow to democracy and religious pluralism in the state of Israel, contrary to Israel’s Declaration of Independence that states that the State of Israel “will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language and culture” for all faith traditions, including the Jewish people and all religious streams, not just the orthodox and ultra-Orthodox.

Sharansky said, “… everyone needs to stand behind their decisions, and he [the Chief Rabbi of the Wall] had many opportunities to go and discuss this with different rabbis and politicians. It’s important to stick to positions you’ve taken when you’ve signed something.”

Once again, the minority ultra-Orthodox political parties are striving to thwart a signed government agreement that fulfills the State of Israel’s own Declaration of Independence, that the religious rights of non-Orthodox Judaism be assured and affirmed everywhere in the Jewish state and especially, in this case, at the holiest site in Judaism – Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

 

 

 

3 Articles I recommend that you read right now

03 Sunday Apr 2016

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

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Dear Readers:

Every so often I recommend articles written by others that, in my opinion, offer thinking and perspective that help clarify some of the difficult events that have occurred in recent weeks. Here are three such articles:

[1] Former Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts is keenly intelligent, clear thinking, honest, and decent. His many years of experience in Washington, D.C make for both refreshing and clarifying reads, even if you don’t agree with him, which may be the case here. Frank was interviewed by Slate below.

[2] Prime Minister Netanyahu recently appointed former Yesha leader (the settlement movement) Dani Dayan as the new Consul General in New York after Brazil rejected Dayan’s appointment as Ambassador from Israel because of his position against a two-state solution and his role in advocating for the building of settlements in the contested West Bank. Michael Koplow writes in the Israel Policy Forum what are the lessons in Dayan’s appointment as he seeks to represent the government of the State of Israel in New York, the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel

[3] Peter Beinart’s article about Trump’s appearance at the AIPAC conference and the reactions of many of those present – Though I believe that AIPAC’s invitation of Trump as a leading presidential candidate is justifiable, I also believe that AIPAC failed in its duty as a Jewish organization to officially distance itself specifically from Trump’s populist demagoguery, racism, misogyny, anti-disabled, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Muslim rhetoric, and his constant incitement to violence. It was my hope that AIPAC members would have greeted Trump with silence when he entered the hall, silence when he spoke, and silence when he left the hall. Many AIPAC members did precisely this, and to them I say “Kol hakavod” (all respect). I have written a blog explaining why I, as a congregational rabbi, have spoken out against Trump, the first time I have ever done so against or for a political candidate – see https://rabbijohnrosove.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/condemning-donald-trump-one-rabbis-protest/).

Here are the three articles that I urge you to read:

[1] Barney Frank Is Not Impressed by Bernie Sanders – By Isaac Chotiner – Slate – March 30, 2016

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/03/barney_frank_is_not_impressed_by_bernie_sanders.html

“Bernie Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years with little to show for it in terms of his accomplishments and that’s because of the role he stakes out. It is harder to get things done in the American political system than a lot of people realize, and what happens is they blame the people in office for the system. And that’s the same with the Tea Party.” [Slate]

Isaac Chotiner serves as Executive Editor of The New Republic, LLC.

[2] Dithering Over Dani Dayan’s Diplomacy – By Michael J. Koplow – Israel Policy Forum – March 31, 2016

http://ottomansandzionists.com/2016/03/31/dithering-over-dani-dayans-diplomacy/

“…the real lesson of Dayan’s appointment is a deeper one. His appointment is the clearest message that the Israeli government has sent yet that it does not view its policies as a problem, but rather the way in which they are presented. Dayan will not pretend to be anything but a rightwing one-stater who views the two-state solution as naïve and unrealistic. He will perfectly represent the current Israeli government as an unapologetic realist who views the bulk of American Jews as out of touch with the reality of Israel’s situation and neighborhood. Yet, the Israeli government sincerely seems to believe that forcefully and consistently presenting this message will change minds here, and that American Jews will eventually come around. Dayan as consul general lets us know that the Israeli government is blind as a bat to the damage caused by its policies, and that it is the naïve party here by assuming that it has a messaging problem rather than a policy problem. Israeli diplomats don’t need to be more forceful in pushing their message; they need a different message to push.”

Michael J. Koplow is the program director of the Israel Institute and a Georgetown University Ph.D. candidate in Government specializing in the Middle Eastern politics and democratization.

 

[3] Trump at AIPAC: A Jewish Betrayal of the United States – By Peter Beinart – Haaretz – March 23, 2016

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.710489

Thank you, Donald Trump. Unwittingly, you’ve done something important. You’ve exposed AIPAC’s indifference to the well-being of the country in which it thrives. My country. The United States.

Once upon a time, the leaders of American Zionism divided their time. They struggled to establish, defend and improve the State of Israel because of their moral obligation to their fellow Jews. And they struggled to defend and improve the United States because of their moral obligation to their fellow Americans.

The foremost American Zionist of the 1910s and 1920s, Louis Brandeis, was also America’s foremost opponent of economic oligarchy. The foremost American Zionist of the 1930s and 1940s, Rabbi Steven Wise, was a lifelong activist for women’s rights, civil rights and the labor movement. In his book Jewish Power, J.J. Goldberg notes that in the 1920s, the presidents of both the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress served on the board of the NAACP. In the 1940s, the American Jewish Congress employed more attorneys working to end segregation than did the Justice Department. At the March on Washington, American Jewish Congress head Joachim Prinz, who had been a rabbi in Hitler’s Germany, said he had come to defend “the idea and the aspirations of America itself” against the sin of state-sanctioned bigotry.

That was then. Today, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups still do valuable work defending the rights of vulnerable Americans. But their influence is dwarfed by AIPAC, which enjoys more power in Washington than every other American Jewish organization combined. AIPAC is the only American Jewish organization that hosts virtually all the presidential candidates every four years. It’s the only one that boasts that its national conference is “attended by more members of Congress than almost any other event, except for a joint session of Congress or a State of the Union address.” It’s the only one that employed an official who boasted, “You see this napkin? In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.”

Politically, AIPAC has become the dominant institution in American Jewish life. Yet it takes no moral responsibility for anything that happens in America. It has only one mission: to ensure that the United States government supports the Israeli government unconditionally. Nothing else matters. AIPAC has repeatedly hosted speeches by Pastor John Hagee, who called Hurricane Katrina “the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.” To AIPAC, it doesn’t matter. Hagee leads Christians United for Israel, which lobbies the United States government to support anything Benjamin Netanyahu does. 

This is why AIPAC had no choice but to let Trump speak. And it’s why, although some attendees protested, thousands of others cheered as Trump cycled through a familiar set of talking points about how Palestinians deserve all the blame for the fact that in the West Bank, they live as non-citizens, without the right to vote, under military law. The AIPAC members cheered because they have been conditioned to cheer. They have been conditioned to view American politicians solely through the prism of their Israel views. So thousands of Jews cheered for the country’s foremost purveyor of bigotry against religious minorities. Some journalists were surprised. They should not have been. The crowd had been taught well. Moral indifference to what happens inside the United States is the AIPAC way.

After the speech, AIPAC’s president condemned Trump for his personal attacks on President Obama. AIPAC opposes excessive partisanship because it threatens the bipartisan basis of support for Israeli policy. Banning Muslims from entering the United States, or calling undocumented Mexican immigrants “rapists,” or encouraging violence at political rallies, does not threaten that bipartisan support. So AIPAC remains silent.

It would be fascinating to see how AIPAC would react if a major presidential candidate demonized not American Muslims, but American Jews. In theory, the organization would react exactly as it has reacted to Trump. In theory, AIPAC—despite being a mostly Jewish organization—has a mandate to protect only Jews in Israel, not Jews in the United States.

In practice, AIPAC would never let such a candidate speak. The outcry from its members would be too great. So it’s not quite right to say that AIPAC accepts no moral responsibility for anything that happens in the United States. Rather, it accepts no moral responsibility for anything that happens to gentiles in the United States.

At the March on Washington, Rabbi Prinz said that, “When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.” More than fifty years later, the most dangerous bigot and demagogue in modern American history is on the verge of claiming a major party’s presidential nomination. And America’s most powerful Jewish organization is silent because it was built to be silent. We American Jews owe our country better than that.

Peter Beinart is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and National Journal, an associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.