Category Archives: Jewish Identity

DON’T EAT THE STORK!

01 Friday Apr 2016

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

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Is it true that ‘we are what we eat?’

Judaism says “yes!” That’s why, many commentators say, our consumption of animals of prey is prohibited (see citations below).

This week’s Torah portion Sh’mini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47) lists many of these non-kosher animals as well as other dos and don’ts of kosher eating. Though tradition acquiesces to what a number of sages acknowledge is a fundamental human weakness (i.e. the craving for meat), many of our kosher laws seek to counteract and contain our unchecked tendency towards avarice, cruelty and violence, and instead encourage us to cultivate greater sensitivity, empathy and compassion for animals.

The category of rabbinic law that concerns the suffering of animals is called Tza-ar ba’alei chayim. Many halachot (rabbinic laws) oversee our treatment of and care for animals. The kosher ideal is not for us to be omnivores. Rather, vegetarianism is the greater goal based on the standard of the first humans in paradise (the Garden of Eden) who ate only what was grown there.

Of all the kosher prohibitions listed in the book of Leviticus, one bird, however, is forbidden to eat, and it’s a curiosity given its name and the notion that we are what we eat. We read:

“The following you shall abominate among the birds – they shall not be eaten….the eagle, vulture, black vulture; kit, falcons, raven, ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull; hawks of all kinds; little owl, cormorant, great owl; white owl, pelican, bustard; stork, herons of all kinds, hoopoe, and bat.” (Leviticus 11:13-19)

These are birds of prey and are forbidden for human consumption lest, our sages teach, we absorb the animal’s predatory nature. If so, what is it about this particular bird, called chasidah (the stork or “graceful swan”) that’s so heinous? Why is it included in this list along with eagles, vultures and other carnivorous flying creatures?

Rashi, citing Rabbi Judah, also asked: “…why is it called chasidah?” He answered: “Because it acts with kindness (chasidut) towards its friends, sharing its food with them.” (Bavli, Hullin 63a)

Since the swan/stork is compassionate by nature, why shouldn’t it be kasher (lit. “fit to be eaten by Jews”)? Perhaps, because though the white stork is good and generous to its friends, it isn’t generous to strangers.

The stork is a bird apart – beautiful, inspiring flights of imagination in ballet, poetry, and Disney animated features (remember the storks in Dumbo delivering babies to families?!), but such qualities can also be accompanied by arrogance and disregard for others. Though empathetic to its own, the stork lacks greater empathy and understanding for those different from itself.

Torah tradition seeks to nurture within the human heart empathy for those who are like us and not like us, friend and foe. It’s easy for most of us to relate with patience and kindness to our families, friends and communities. A far more difficult challenge is for us to be understanding and empathetic towards the stranger, those different from us, who don’t share our language, values, goals, and aspirations; those down on their luck, the poor, the single welfare mother and her children, the disabled, the unemployed and under-employed, the immigrant, people of color, LGBTQ, the uneducated, the fearful and angry, the Palestinian, the Syrian and Muslim refugee, and on and on and on.

The non-kosher classification of the swan/stork reminds us who we are not supposed to be, and that it’s our moral obligation to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and transcend our worlds for the sake of the “other” who is very different from us.

Shabbat shalom.

See also: Genesis 9:3-4 and Leviticus 17:10-12 (prohibition against the consumption of blood), Exodus, 12:14-15 (leaven during Pesach), 23:19 (boiling the kid in the milk of its mother) , Deuteronomy 12:20-25 (permission to eat meat and prohibition against the consumption of blood), 14:3-20  and Deuteronomy 14:21 (land animals and water creatures), Leviticus 22:28 and Deuteronomy 22:6-7 (compassion towards the mother animal), Bavli Gittin 62a, Berachot 40a, Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed Part III, Chapter 48 and Sefer HaChinuch Law 148 (rationale for keeping kosher),

 

An Open Letter to a UCLA Alumna who confused anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

28 Monday Mar 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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This past week I heard a young UCLA alumna say on a radio talk-show (KPFK FM) that it is not anti-Semitism to say that the State of Israel has no right to exist.

The program was addressing the run-up to the upcoming decision of the UC Board of Regents related to the debate on campuses across the country concerning the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement (BDS) against Israel. Following the talk-show program, the Regents adopted a statement condemning anti-Semitism on UC campuses.

I am increasingly concerned about what I believe is a growing attitude by many young people, including Jews, that is similar to this misguided and ignorant UCLA alumna. To her and to others, I make the following points:

[1] For you to suggest a separation between Zionism, the state of Israel and Judaism is a misreading of contemporary Jewish identity.

[2] Judaism is far more than a religion and to presume that it is only a religion is reductionist and inaccurate. The Jewish people is part of the longest surviving civilization anywhere on the planet (3600 years since the time of Abraham and Sarah) and embraces all the elements necessary to characterize a people as a civilization: history, land, language, law, custom, ethics, faith, religion, literature, art, music, and folk ways.

[3] The modern state of Israel (per Israel’s Declaration of Independence) was “based upon freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel” …[and] “…will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

[4] Though the principles of the Declaration of Independence are part of the fabric of the nation itself, the Jewish people today acknowledges that Israel is an imperfect democracy, just as the United States is imperfect. Tragically, Israel has ruled for almost 50 years over an unwilling Palestinian population in the West Bank on land that Israel conquered  in a war of self-defense in 1967.

[5] It remains the hope of the majority of Israelis and the American Jewish community that a two-states for two peoples end-of-conflict agreement will one day be reached and implemented by Israel and the Palestinians, and that this agreement will settle all claims and usher in an extended period of peace and security for both peoples. Tragically, this goal has been thwarted time and again by extremists of different kinds on both sides of this conflict, including proponents of BDS who are overwhelmingly anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and proclaim, like you, that Israel should not exist.

[6] This is not only an anti-Israel and anti-Zionist position, it is the newest brand of anti-Semitism because it denies the right of the Jewish people to define themselves. It is not your definition that counts. It is ours. Every people has the right of self-definition, and the Jewish people is no different. That is the fatal flaw in your proclamation and the very basis of your modern anti-Semitism.

It is one thing to protest policies of the Israeli government. It is quite another to demand of no other nation except Israel that it live according to democratic and prophetic standards, and then to de-legitimize the Jewish state when it inevitably fails. This isn’t just anti-Zionism. It is anti-Semitism.

I wonder about those who focus obsessively upon Israel’s behavior and no one else.

Where were they while 250,000 Syrians were butchered and 3 million became refugees?

Where have they been as equal numbers of Iraqis were slaughtered in America’s wrong-headed escapade?

Where were their indignant voices when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was destroying Egyptian Christian communities?

And where are they as Syria’s Kurdish community is threatened with slaughter by the Islamic State?

What about North Korea, Ukraine, the Congo, Darfur, Somalia, and Eritrea?

Why is it that only Israel provokes their/your moral outrage and condemnation?

We haven’t heard a word from these people about any of these countries whose human rights violations are the most serious in the world, and a far cry from anything Israel has done – no protests in Paris and London, no BDS campaign against those countries, no calls for condemnation in the United Nations.

I am not one who equates every criticism of Israeli policy as anti-Semitism. Criticism from love represents the highest form of patriotism, and so it’s legitimate to criticize policies that are unjust. I do so as an American Jew that loves Israel. Israelis, however, are the ones who must decide how they are going to live because it is they who must live with the consequences of their decisions. Israel exists in a very bad and dangerous neighborhood that has little to do with what Israel says or does. So, those of us living here in comfort and security must necessarily defer to those living on the front lines. But we also have the duty to express our views because Israel’s security affects us here. Our identity is affected by her destiny. In very important ways, Israel’s and our destiny are linked.

Know this – We Jews are neither perfect nor guiltless when it comes to moral failure, cruelty and racism. But, we are self-critical, and that’s the beginning of improving our moral character and behavior.

Israeli racism is, thankfully, being addressed seriously by Israel’s Ministry of Education in programs to educate children in elementary, junior high and high school about tolerance and human rights. There are many Israeli NGOs and programs supported by American Jews and others that emphasize Israel’s “shared society.” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has condemned all expressions of intolerance and racism including that coming from extremist members of the sitting Israeli governing coalition.

The recent UC Regents statement condemning anti-Semitism on its campuses is a good statement, even though I believe it did not go nearly far enough. It should have included a clear condemnation of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism.

To this young woman who denounced Israel and claimed not to be anti-Semitic, I suggest that your ignorance of Jewish history, modern Jewish identity and the nature of the state of Israel, along with your arrogance in denying the Jewish people the right of self-definition, are all quite remarkable for an American college graduate who chose to go on the record (on radio) to speak about something you obviously know so little about.

Condemning Donald Trump – One Rabbi’s Protest

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

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

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I’ve never before publicly urged that Jews not vote for a candidate for President of the United States. Nor have I publicly endorsed candidates for President (or any other office) because I don’t believe it’s my role to do so as a rabbi, teacher and religious leader who leads a large congregation. I have, however, advocated on behalf of certain policy issues from time to time from the perspective of Jewish values and tradition and what impact they may have on the quality of life for Jews and others, but I avoid voicing my opinion publicly about partisan candidates for political office. Not only do I have friends and congregants who are registered Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Democratic Socialists, and Libertarians, but I appreciate that each political orientation possesses some truth, that no one can claim a monopoly on goodness, and that there’s virtue to be found on every side of every issue. Further, who I support personally is my business and no one else’s.

This election season, however, has challenged me in ways I’ve never been challenged in my life as a congregational rabbi. Donald Trump’s speeches, demeanor and policy positions are so contrary to what I believe are fundamental Jewish values and democratic traditions that I cannot, in good conscience, remain silent.

Trump’s personal and vicious attacks on entire groups of people – Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, women, POWs, the disabled, and every political competitor is contrary to the tenets of Jewish ethics that affirms each human being as created in the divine image and that God’s Unity is expressed through the great diversity that is the human condition.

It’s a given that many political figures lack humility; but Trump’s bombastic, self-centered, egoistic, materialistic, self-congratulatory, self-righteous,  distorted, and untruthful boasting about everything “Trump” is contrary to Jewish teachings about humility, respect for others, truthfulness, generosity, gratitude, and loving-kindness.

On Israel, Rabbi Eric Yoffie expressed my own views when he wrote recently: “I am a Zionist dove, and I don’t expect Presidential candidates to express lock-step agreement with the policies of Israel’s government. But I do expect a coherent, pro-Israel policy, rooted in a consistent and knowledgeable approach to foreign affairs and in a broad commitment to American leadership in the world. Trump has demonstrated none of these things and seems to know hardly anything at all about Israel, the challenges she faces, and how the Middle East actually works.”

In my lifetime, I’ve never heard expressed from a major candidate for President such racism, misogyny, hatred, bigotry, scapegoating, and incitement to violence as Donald Trump has done, his denials notwithstanding. That so many of the 18,000 delegates at the AIPAC national convention this week, most of whom are Jews, cheered wildly when Mr. Trump attacked President Obama was a shanda (shame) for the Jewish people and Jewish tradition. Thankfully, the AIPAC leadership apologized immediately to President Obama for the embarrassing display.

I’m proud of my Reform colleagues who attended the AIPAC Conference, led by Rabbis Rick Jacobs (President of the Union for Reform Judaism), Jonah Pesner (Director of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement), Joshua Weinberg (President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America), and 50 to 60 others (a far too small number, in my opinion), who left the great hall protesting Trump’s appearance and instead  studied religious text as a way ethically and religiously to cleanse themselves from the toxicity of Trump mounting the podium.

Everything Trump says divides people, sows discord amongst the citizenry of the United States, between ethnic and religious groups, between neighbor and neighbor. His is a politics of fear, hate and rage. His scapegoating and appeal to populism and nativism is dangerous and reminds me that the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller in the Nazi context is relevant today: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

I believe that Donald Trump is bad for a pluralistic America, bad for American democracy, bad for the Jews, bad for the Republican party, bad for the state of Israel, bad for understanding and alliances between nations, and bad for peace.

My hope is that Donald Trump will lose this year’s presidential election by a landslide vote not only so that the American people will reject his vicious rhetoric, base populism and ignorance, but also so that our nation will reclaim who we’ve always striven to be – a just, compassionate, welcoming nation founded in law, distinguished by civility and inspired by the dignity of every human being. I hope, as well, that no American Jew will vote for him.

Note: I speak only for myself and do not represent in these words my synagogue or any organization.

The Lessons of Purim and Pesach – Avoiding Naiveté and Cruetly

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

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

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Yossi Klein Halevi, a journalist, writer and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, spent a morning recently with 200 Reform Rabbis teaching that two passages in the Hebrew Bible embrace two different ways of engaging the world for Jews. Each begins with the admonition Zachor-Remember.

The first is in Exodus 22:21: “Remember, you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt.” The second is in Deuteronomy 25:17 – “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt.”

The first reminds us to avoid cruelty because we Jews have ourselves been the object of cruelty from Egyptian enslavement and throughout history. The second reminds us not to be naïve because when Amalek attacked our people from behind his intent was to destroy us.

Yossi noted that Pesach is the holiday when we’re called upon to avoid becoming cruel even in victory and especially towards our enemies, and Purim is the holiday when we’re reminded not to be naïve, and that security is of primary concern lest our enemies succeed in their goals to destroy us.

This past Shabbat we were betwixt Purim (which begins on Wednesday evening) and Pesach. Indeed, we live between these two holidays throughout the year.

Today’s Israel and the American Jewish community embrace both traditional Jewish streams. Both are authentic Jewish responses to our position in the world, and civility within our community is necessary to maintain our common purpose as a people and a nation.

Thankfully, many Israelis take seriously the tension between Israel’s humanitarian concerns and its security demands. There are no easy answers in navigating through these conflicting concerns, and we sitting here in America need to understand this and not presume that we know best and that somehow that Israel has sacrificed its morality. It’s not true.

If the conversation shifted from the crisis mode that’s motivated large portions of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, to a values mode, a new Zionist paradigm would emerge. We have had Herzl’s political Zionism, Ahad Ha-am’s cultural Zionism, Rav Kook’s religious Zionism, Zev Jabotinsky’s and Menachem Begin’s revisionist Zionism, and Avigdor Lieberman’s proto-fascist nationalist Zionism. Dr. Tal Becker, also of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, suggests a new kind of Zionism – “Aspirational Zionism.”

Aspirational Zionism asks these questions:

• How do Jewish values augment Israel’s democratic and pluralistic society?

• How do the moral aspirations of the Biblical prophet and the compassionate impulse of the rabbinic sages interface with contemporary ethical challenges?

• How do we Jews here, in Israel and around the world, fight the sinister intentions of our enemies bent on our destruction without sacrificing our moral sensibilities?

• How do we as a people genuinely pursue peace as a moral and quintessentially Jewish obligation in spite of the threat of war?

• And how do we support our Israeli brothers and sisters while also advocating on behalf of the equal rights and dignity of Israel’s minorities?

It’s distressing that inside Israel many pressing moral issues have been set aside by successive governments operating in the crisis mode. When pressed about the urgency of these other issues, they argue that the current crisis necessarily dictates the choices the government and security forces make.

Ironically, it seems that the Jewish world’s obsession with a crisis-based approach is creating its own crisis. The lack of sufficient attention to values is alienating too many Jews and is harming Israel’s image and legitimacy on the world stage. So often Israel’s supporters say, if only people knew the truth about Israel’s human rights record, its vibrant democracy and its commitment to the developing nations, people would understand, become less critical and more supportive and proud.

Purim is this week followed by Pesach next month. Each holiday speaks to us about fundamental values and life-lessons – not to be naïve on the one-hand, nor cruel on the other. That’s the tension in which the Jewish people lives and through which we Jews must navigate to both survive as a people and to maintain our tradition’s values.

Two videos – one upon which to celebrate and one upon which to reflect

11 Friday Mar 2016

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

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This first video will warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. It is a flashmob is at Mamila Mall leading to the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The song to which these Israelis, young and old, are dancing is a popular Israeli song from the early 70s with lyrics by Amir Gilboa and made popular by Shlomo Artzi.

The lyrics are:

Pit’om kam adam ba-boker
U-mar’gish ki hu am u-mat’chil la-le-chet
u-l’chol ha-nif’gash b’dar’ko koreh hu ‘Shalom.’ 

Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning
And He feels he is a nation and begins to walk
And to all he meets on his way he calls out ‘Shalom!’

http://www.youtube.com/embed/RzhQuQGyulA?hd=1

The second is a debate between Jeremy Ben Ami, the President of J Street, and Matt Brooks, the Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, in Las Vegas. They discuss their very different perspectives on the Iran Nuclear Agreement, the 2-state solution, settlements, President Obama and his administration’s relationship with the State of Israel, BDS, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

The conversation shows as clear a differentiation between J Street and the RJC as I have heard – I encourage you to watch the entire 90 minute debate.

You decide who won!

http://jstreet.org/BenAmiBrooks

 

These are fighting words -Reform Jews Are in for More Humiliation at the Israeli Government’s Hands – Haaretz

04 Friday Mar 2016

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

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I usually don’t print entire articles from other news sources in this blog, but this piece from Haaretz today is important for the Reform and Conservative movements in America and Israel to read. Unless you subscribe to Haaretz, you won’t see it. I encourage everyone to subscribe. Haaretz is Israel’s equivalent of the New York Times.

Secondly, please see my blog from Israel last week in which I review the experience of being part of a collective of nearly 300 Reform Rabbis from around the world who gathered at 7:00 am on Thursday morning for Shacharit and Torah reading at the new egalitarian prayer space at the Southern Kotel Plaza that the Israeli government approved several weeks ago.

Our leaders, Anat Hoffman (Chair of Women of the Wall and Executive Director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center), Rabbi Gilad Kariv (Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism) and Rabbi Rick Jacobs (President of the Union for Reform Judaism) were right when each urged us immediately after our service to keep the pressure on the Israeli government to fulfill its commitment to build this new space lest the reactionary religious and political forces in Israel, the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox political parties have their way and scuttle this historic agreement.

This piece in Haaretz today is demonstrable proof that they have already begun to battle the government’s agreement. We American Zionists who care deeply about Israel as a Jewish and democratic state must stand against them and insist on the rights of all Jews to pray as they wish at the holiest site in Judaism, and to abide by the principles of democracy that govern the Jewish state.

Reform Jews Are in for More Humiliation at the Israeli Government’s Hands

Unless the movement gains some influence in the Knesset, liberal Jews will never dislodge the ultra-Orthodox hegemony in Jerusalem.

By Anshel Pfeffer Mar 04, 2016 – Haaretz Correspondent

Last Shabbat was a rare moment of Israeli bliss for the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis. In Israel for their annual convention, they spent the weekend in Tel Aviv, being feted in synagogues, meeting local dignitaries and attending a special morning service at the city’s museum. Pumped by the feeling of suddenly being part of the Israeli consensus, some of them even ran the Tel Aviv marathon.

The oldest mistake in Israeli politics – one made so often by non-Israelis and Israelis alike – is to think that the right-on progressive vibe of Tel Aviv reflects in any way the rest of Israel. But the U.S. Reform leadership has been here enough times not to make that mistake. Its weekend on the coast was welcome respite and looks great in a gushing press release, but the real question remains what happens in Jerusalem.

This time around, some of the leaders at least were lulled into thinking there may actually be a change afoot up in the Judean Hills. For the first time, their visit to the capital also included a festive prayer at the foot of the Western Wall – and there were no ultra-Orthodox protesters on hand to jostle female rabbis wearing tallitot and rainbow-colored kippot. For this visit came weeks after the eagerly anticipated agreement to establish a new progressive, egalitarian and mixed-gender prayer space at the southern end of the Kotel, separated from the Western Wall plaza and its ultra-Orthodox (or Haredi) hegemony.

But even if that morning made them feel like the paratroopers liberating the Western Wall in the Six-Day War, there was still a battle awaiting them in West Jerusalem. Their leaders had greeted the agreement as “historic” and, at last, a formal Israeli recognition of non-Orthodox Judaism. But the forces arrayed against them were formidable. They should have realized what they were up against when, three weeks earlier, Prime Minister and Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu hadn’t reprimanded his own party’s tourism minister, Yariv Levin, for describing Reform Jewry as “a waning world” and accusing them of responsibility for assimilation and the disappearance of American Jewry.

Netanyahu made do with an anodyne statement that Reform Jews “are part and parcel of the Jewish people.” Netanyahu, of course, received the rabbis cordially in his office but, tellingly, his press officers failed to release any photographs or press releases regarding the meeting.

Meanwhile, the rabbis and ultra-Orthodox politicians that Netanyahu relies upon to maintain his narrow, 61-member coalition afloat were ramping up the rhetoric on a daily basis. The Reform movement was accused of ruining Judaism, of selling out its values and of ultimately not being Jewish but “idolators” – as Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, said this week.

When the prayer space deal was signed at the end of January, the assumption was that the ultra-Orthodox parties would strenuously object but not turn this into a coalition-busting issue. After all, the deal had left their domination of the main Kotel area – which had been contested for years by the Women of the Wall group – intact.

But on Thursday, Religious Services Minister David Azoulay (Shas) told a gathering of rabbis that as far as he is concerned, the matter is yehareg ve’al ya’avor – to be killed rather than transgress, the halakhic definition of a commandment that a Jew must be prepared to die for (usually reserved only for the sins of murder, idolatry and adultery/incest). Azoulay may have gone farther rhetorically than his political and religious masters wanted, but the signal was clear: Netanyahu will have to mollify them.

Some time in the next few days or weeks, rabbis and politicians will gather in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Reform movement will not be represented there. The Western Wall agreement will be amended so that the new prayer area will be defined as some general heritage enclosure for public use, with no formal religious or spiritual connotations. Gone will be any recognition of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. The Haredim will be able to tell their public that they have seen off the Reform menace. In phone calls to the United States, ministers will try to explain to the Reform leaders that nothing has really changed and assure them that the new section of the Wall will still be at their disposal. It is still a “historic” achievement, they will say.

If they try to object, they will find very few allies. At most, a handful of Meretz and Zionist Union MKs will put out a weak chorus of protest, probably no more than a few posts on Facebook. The leaders of the center-left parties – Isaac Herzog, Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon – will remain silent. All of them know that to have any hope of replacing Netanyahu in the foreseeable future, they will need at least one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in their coalition, and there are simply no votes in supporting the Reform struggle to make such a gesture worthwhile.

The Reform leaders will be facing a difficult dilemma. Either accept the downgrading of “their” Western Wall, hand the ultra-Orthodox yet another victory and continue convincing themselves and their members that they can still turn the new site into a bastion of Jewish enlightenment in the heart of Jerusalem. Or reject the new formulation, thus opening up a formal breach between them and the Israeli government, and admit that for all their declarations of a “historic” achievement recently, they are as powerless as ever in Israel.

It doesn’t matter how many times the Reform movement has been humiliated by Israeli politicians: The frustration of the leaders of the largest Jewish movement in the United States remains as bitter as ever. “How do you ask Jews around the world to support Israel politically, economically, socially … and at the same time you have these ministers who say to our people, ‘You’re not really Jewish’ or ‘You don’t have a place here in Israel’? That incongruity is a real problem for us,” the exasperated Rabbi Steven Fox, the chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, told The Associated Press.

He knows the answer though. You continue doing so because the only alternative is to sever ties with Israel, its government and most of its society – who, despite decades of effort, have yet to warm to non-Orthodox Judaism. Outside of Tel Aviv, that is.

There are those whispering in Netanyahu’s ear that, actually, the Reform movement isn’t such a great lobbyist in Washington, either. Just look whose children are joining anti-Israeli groups like J Street, they say. They won’t stay loyal Jews anyway, much better to invest in those you can trust, like evangelical Christians. Netanyahu is a much more cautious politician than he’s given credit for; he won’t burn bridges, but he certainly won’t go out on a limb either. Ultimately, he will always give the ultra-Orthodox what they ask for.

So, after their all-too-brief “historic” moment, the political reality for the Reform movement is about to reassert itself in Israel. When Winston Churchill said in 1944 that the Vatican would object to the Soviet Union’s plans to dominate Roman Catholic Poland, Joseph Stalin retorted, “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” The Reform movement, whatever influence it may have in the United States, has no fingers in the Knesset. Unless that changes, it will have no choice but to come back again and again for more humiliation in Jerusalem.

 

The Best of Israeli Reform

27 Saturday Feb 2016

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

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The Israeli Reform movement has come a long way these last 25 years. Thirty percent of all Israelis now have a positive impression of the Reform movement, whereas a generation ago no one knew it even existed. We’ve risen in the Israeli public’s esteem because our rabbis and congregations are liberal, Jewish, open-minded, loving, socially progressive, responsive to people’s personal, spiritual and social needs, and they offer a way for Israelis to be Jewish in a movement that is not orthodox that’s positive, appealing, relevant, and meaningful.

Last Shabbat I joined with 20 American Reform rabbis in a short twenty-minute bus ride to Kehilat Kodesh v’Hol in Holon for Kabbalat Shabbat services and a pot-luck community dinner. Holon is just south of Tel Aviv. Other rabbis traveled to Reform synagogue communities in Haifa, Zichron Ya’acov, Kiryat Tivon, Caesaria, Netanya, Even Yehuda, Ramat Hasharon, Tel Aviv, Gezer, Gadera, and Nahal Oz. There are now 45 congregations spread strategically throughout Israel from Haifa in the north to Sderot in the south.

The name “Kodesh v’Hol” has a double meaning. Hol means “sand” (Holon is near the beach) and it means “secular.” Holon is a middle-class secular city of 190,000 Israelis. The congregation’s young rabbi is smart, warmhearted, talented, and charismatic. Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem, the mother three (her third child was born three weeks ago) who was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem a year and a half ago, began the community as a student in 2009. She explained that she and her congregants want to bring holiness to a highly secular community; hence, Kodesh v’Hol.

I ought to mention, lest I be accused of un-ascribed bias, that my synagogue, Temple Israel of Hollywood, enjoys a sister-synagogue relationship with Kodesh v’Hol. However, even if I didn’t already feel a warm spot in my heart for Galit and this community, after last evening I would be immensely excited about what is happening there. They celebrate Shabbat every other week. There are educational programs for families and children. They are sponsoring several families on the welfare rolls who are not part of the congregation, and provide food and support for those in financial distress. And, they have created a public elementary school that emphasizes all subjects from a liberal Jewish perspective that is Israeli and Jewish.

Kodesh v’Hol rents space for services in a community center for seniors during the week. Simply furnished with two large rooms and a back yard where the kids played, the service was in one room that accommodated 75 people and the pot-luck dinner was in the other. We lit candles and parents and their small children gathered beneath a large talit as the community sang the Priestly Benediction. HUC Rabbinic student Benny Minich, originally from Crimea and now an Israeli, led the music. Before we sang Kiddush, Galit invited forward a new oleh from St. Petersberg, Russia, to sing. Constantine is a trained opera singer. Who would have thought that there in Holon we’d be treated to kiddush led by a Russian trained tenor!?

I spoke with one of two co-chairs of the community, Heidi Preis, a young mother of four in her early to mid-30s, and a Sociology PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University who is writing her doctoral dissertation on women and the birth experience as well as the experience of prostitutes working in Tel Aviv. Where Heidi had the time to do all this and be a co-chair of this community I haven’t a clue. But she is the caliber of the people who are building this community; socially conscious, sophisticated, thoughtful, openhearted, smart, and community centered.

We asked some of the members what they had found in this new congregation that was so appealing. Heidi’s mother said that though she had been a member of a modern orthodox synagogue near Jerusalem for most of her adult life, she fell in love with Galit and moved over to this community. The positive and joyful energy there was palpable.

As we walked back to the bus to return to Tel Aviv, we rabbis were abuzz with excitement about this community and its future. No one doubted that Kodesh v’Hol would, within only a few short years, have its own building (it receives no money from the government as do Israeli Orthodox communities for their synagogues and schools) and would grow dramatically as more and more Israelis discover it and make it their home away from home.

This morning the entire conference celebrated Shabbat at the Tel Aviv Art Museum. Rabbi Judy Schindler (the daughter of the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, the former President of America’s Reform movement) was our prayer leader along with HUC-Jerusalem Cantorial Student and composer Shani Ben Or, and composer, keyboardist and guitarist Boaz Dorot, as well as a violist and a percussionist. The music was beautiful and engaging, from the very best of Israeli and American composers and song writers as well as Yemenite, Libyan, Bulgarian, and classical Israeli music, plus a new nigun composed by Shani and Boaz especially for this occasion. Did I say that Shani sings like an angel and that she intends to become the first cantor-rabbi ordained in Israel by the Hebrew Union College (there are 100 Israeli born rabbis serving the Reform movement here now with 10 being ordained annually. All have positions serving the Israeli community!).

There’s so much that can break and deaden the heart here, but there’s also so much to warm the heart and expand the soul. It was the latter that transported me on this Shabbat and I’m grateful to our sister Reform movement in Israel, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, and its inspired rabbis and lay Israeli leadership. It is now an Israeli movement, and it is catching fire.

The Israeli government’s agreement to create an egalitarian and pluralistic prayer space under Robinson’s Arch in the Southern Kotel Plaza that is equal in size to the Northern Kotel Plaza (the traditional Western Wall site) but controlled by Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative movements (see my earlier blog) all, taken together, suggest that a tipping point has been reached for liberal Judaism in Israel.

The harsh incitement coming out of the ultra-Orthodox community and aimed directly at Reform Judaism suggests that, indeed, we now represent an important alternative that is meaningful, enriching and affirmative for Jewish identity and observance in the state of Israel threatens Orthodox hegemony over the life of all Israelis. We American Jews and all Jews in the Diaspora ought to take pride in what is taking place, and be as supportive as we can be.

“Two States of the Jewish People”

26 Friday Feb 2016

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

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Our 330 Israeli, American, Canadian, and European Reform colleagues of the Central Conference of American Rabbis after Shabbat will conclude a week of meetings in Israel. We’ve spent time in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and have traveled far and wide around the country.

It’s increasingly my feeling that there are at least two “states of Israel” here: the “state of Jerusalem,” an inspiring, ancient and modern mess dominated by right-wing ultra-Orthodox and settlers movement Jews who want to establish a new Jewish kingdom to replace the democratic Jewish state of Israel to be  controlled by them, the most reactionary elements in Israeli society today.

The other “state of Israel” is the “State of Tel Aviv” composed of politically middle-left Israelis, propelled and sustained by the liberal spirit of democracy, openness, and inclusivity where differences between people and cultures are celebrated, where Palestinian citizens of Israel have equal rights, where LGBT Jews are accepted, where women are treated with respect and dignity, where Reform and secular Jews live and thrive as envisioned by Israel’s Declaration of Independence, and where the spirit of the nations also is embraced.

The common concerns of most Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians in both “states of Israel” are security on the one hand and social justice on the other.

The income gap has widened and the numbers in poverty are growing. Though there have been some gains since the 2011 social justice movement that brought hundreds of thousands of young and middle class Israelis to camp out in tents on Rhov Rothschild in Tel Aviv, the cost of living has risen and most Israelis are working harder and longer for less.

Israelis in the middle-left respect Zionist Union opposition leader Isaac Herzog as a decent and honest man, but believe that he will be successfully challenged for leadership in the next Zionist Union election. His proposal to separate Palestinians from Israelis while retaining the hope of a two-state solution reflects the Zionist Union’s recognition that security is the number one issue on Israeli minds. However, even those who like Herzog wonder where his moral voice is. Why, they ask, is he not talking about Palestinian suffering and only about Jewish suffering? Where is the universal thrust in his liberal Zionism? Why is he not calling for immediate negotiations for a two-state end of all claims resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a matter of Israeli enlightened self-interest and as a moral necessity?

I spent a day and a half with colleagues visiting a High School in Lod that is dramatically improving educational achievement and bringing hope to more than 1000 Palestinian Muslim high school students. We visited the Arab Jewish Community Center in Jaffa that brings together Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Jews to learn about each other. It has numerous programs to assist unemployed Palestinian Arab women, and fights against the humiliation that comes with Arab security profiling. There are language courses in Hebrew and Arabic, choirs of Arab and Jewish children singing their hearts out, and classes teaching the Jewish and Arab narratives of the conflict. We visited the only Arab-Jewish preschool in the country located in Jaffa and created and led by a married Palestinian Sufi-Jewish couple in which 200 two-five year old children and their families learn together and develop community and friendship. We visited in Modin with leaders of the Reform movement who have formed bridges all over the country between Arabs and Jews.

Every time I visit Israel my hope in this grand experiment and miracle of the Jewish people is restored and strengthened. We hear so much bad news about what’s happening here in the media, and we who passionately support the peace movement and the two-state solution can become frustrated by the deterioration of conditions. In despair, many think to throw up their hands and turn away. But, there’s an expression – “B’Yisrael y’ush lo optsia – In Israel, despair is not an option.”

Not only that, but there’s still so much good here being done by so many people, causes, NGOs, Reform synagogues, foundations, and the Israel Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism that we need only to stay focused and strong for Israel’s sake.

To those who believe that Israel is a “failed experiment,” as I heard by one prominent and respected Jew in the pages of Tikkun this past week, I have this to say – you are tragically wrong. Israel is and will be our people’s greatest HOPE.

330 Reform Rabbis pray at the Southern Kotel Plaza

25 Thursday Feb 2016

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

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When 330 Reform Rabbis met this morning at 7 AM to pray Shacharit and read Torah at the Southern Kotel Plaza, it was a moment none of us is likely ever to forget. This was the first major service at this new pluralistic and egalitarian site since the Israeli government passed a law calling for the development of a new prayer space.

After the service, Anat Hoffman, Chair of the Women of the Wall, noted that there are seven different species of plants growing through the cracks in the stones, and we liberal Jews are now the eighth.

We men and women stood together at the Kotel for the first time in my living memory, all wearing kippot, tallitot and some donning t’filin on a  temporary platform over the ancient toppled stones of the Temple that was destroyed by Rome two thousand years ago. Below us as well was the original Roman street. As we prayed, we could hear the chirping of birds as they flew through the plants growing out of the Wall. The sun was shining brightly and my colleague Rabbi Zach Shapiro told a medieval midrash written in the form of Aesop’s fables but with Biblical and Talmudic teachings.

A mouse wished to marry the sun, but as he sought to propose, a cloud came between him and sun; so the mouse sought to propose to the cloud, but the wind drove the cloud away; so the mouse sought to propose to the wind, but a wall came between the mouse and the wind; so, the mouse proposed to the wall.

Here we stood before our people’s ancient Wall, united as a people with God as if in a marriage, praying in an egalitarian minyan, men and women singing out loud together. One of our Israeli women Reform rabbis of Congregation Har El in Jerusalem chanted melodiously from this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa.

This Knesset’s Kotel legislation and our service represent an historic shift in the state of Israel. For the first time, the Israeli government recognized the legitimacy of religious pluralism. No longer will the ultra-Orthodox community control prayer services at the Southern Kotel for liberal Jews wishing to pray as we wish.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke about the meaning of this historic shift and reminded us that the rabbis of the Talmud blamed the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE on sinat chinam, baseless hatred between Jews. The ruins of Temple laying beneath us exactly as they fell 2000 years ago are a constant reminder of the importance of ahavat Yisrael, love for the people of Israel.

Rabbi Jacobs said that we Reform and Conservative Jews, Women of the Wall and Jews from North American Federations are “not against anything.” We are “for Klal Yisrael (the whole community of Israel).” We respect the Orthodox right to pray at the Northern Kotel Plaza the way they wish, and we insist on the right to pray as we liberal Jews wish at the Southern Kotel Plaza.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, told us that when the new area will be completed it will occupy 900 square meters, equivalent in size to the prayer space of the Northern Kotel Plaza. When entering the upper plaza there will be clear sight lines of this Northern Plaza. He noted, as well, that the Kotel is not just a holy site but a national site. Israeli soldiers will be inducted into the IDF here and new immigrants will be given citizenship here, and men and women will stand together before now forbidden by the Chief Rabbinate of the Wall.

We hope that modern Orthodox families will wish to hold services here according to their custom.

Sadly, already there is a strong, angry and negative reaction from the ultra-Orthodox community. More than 500 posters have been put up earlier this week in Meah Shearim and other ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods that include the following words:

“Zaakat G’dolei Yisrael – We are shamed. Disgrace has covered our faces. Strangers have come into My Temple, Beit Adonai. The cry of the great rabbis of our time is that the Western Wall is to be desecrated and trampled upon. The Reform movement intends to sink its claws in the Wall of Jerusalem…We must hurry and fight the Lord’s battle against this hemlock and wormwood movement that has brought the fall of many and taken a huge, deathly toll. This monster is worse than all the secular people we know. In their actions they bring chaos into the world and increase the power of Satan, God forbid…We must unite as an un-breachable wall against our arch enemies that want to enter the Reforms into all areas of religion.The Reform shall shatter us to splinters and split us into factions. An abomination, unwanted by all, it shall be burnt in fire and consumed outside our camp and not enter the Holiness.”

We will not be deterred, cowed or intimidated. Tragically, these ultra-Orthodox Jews are engaged in committing the same sin of sinat chinam (baseless hatred towards fellow Jews) that brought about the destruction of the Temple. Theirs has become a world of hate. Ours is a world of inclusivity and love. Their response is merely an indication of how significant is this government position and the success of Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel today.

Amen! Sela!

Charedi Knesset member’s slandering of Reform Jews ignites backlash from fellow members

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by in Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Uncategorized

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Hareidi MK Israel Eichler’s comparison of Reform Jews to mentally ill patients diminishes not only Reform Judaism but all who suffer mental illness and who struggle with disabilities of all kinds.

The best response is to quote from Knesset members representing eight different political parties who addressed today 330 Reform Rabbis representing 1.7 million Jews world wide at a special meeting of the Israeli-Diaspora Knesset Committee.

MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union and leader of the opposition): “I congratulate all of you for the recent decisions on the Kotel to create an egalitarian and pluralistic prayer space and the Supreme Court decision giving rights to Reform and Conservative converts to use state sponsored mikvaot. The decisions of the Israeli government and the High Court of Justice are not acts of kindness. They are based in Jewish responsibility and democratic principles, which is what the state of Israel is meant to advocate. Religion in the state cannot be monopolized by the ultra-Orthodox. You in the Reform movement are our partners and will always be our partners.”

MK Tamar Zandburg (Labor): “Those who are a provocation are those who prevent religious freedom, not those who demand it!”

MK Tzipi Livni (Tenua): “There is an excitement today because you Reform Rabbis have come to the Knesset. Judaism is about values, about being inclusive and not being closed by hatred. We are one Jewish world family. Every Jew must be made to feel at home in the state of Israel because Israel belongs to the entire Jewish people.”

MK Amir Kohana (Likud): “A Jewish state should not be halachic. We cannot do to others what has been done to us. We should not slander each other. We need more respectful discussion. Israel is the home for all the Jewish people.”

MK Rachel Azariah (Kulanu): “Every day all the tribes of Israel awake each morning hoping that another will disappear; but no one will disappear. We’re all here. Our task is to create a country where everyone has a place around the table.”

MK Dov Khanin (Arab List): “One of the great struggles in the state of Israel today is the struggle for democracy, which is under serious threat. We need to stop the censorship which is contrary to the foundations of the state.”

MK Michal Biran (Labor): “We are partners. We share the same Jewish and Zionist values. Our democracy must fight against racism, discrimination and bigotry.”

MK Nachman Shai (Labor): “The Hareidi MKs don’t understand democracy.”

MK Michal Michaeli (Meretz): “Judaism isn’t just for people dressed in black. People who call you names don’t understand Judaism or democracy. You are partners in our struggle.”

MK Michael Oren (Kulanu): “Zionism is faith in the nation state of the Jewish people. We are committed to implementing the government’s agreement at the Kotel.”

Zohir Balul (Zionist Union): “As the only Arab MK in a Zionist party, I want to say that you [Jews] deserve a nation state and the Palestinians too deserve a state. How is it possible that Jews can recognize that they suffer and that the Palestinians do not? I cannot deny the pain of a Jewish mother or the pain of a Palestinian mother. Do not overlook the universal values we share.”

MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid): “Jewish pluralism means that there are various ways to explore our souls and to be on the journey of being a Jew. We are part of you and we bless you.”

It should be noted that no Orthodox or right wing member of the Knesset attended this committee meeting nor addressed us.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the President of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, made an important point in telling the story of the funeral of Richard Lakin who was killed in a knife-attack by a Palestinian terrorist. Rabbi Gilad officiated at the funeral in a Hareidi cemetery. Though Richard was a Reform Jew and a member of Kol Hanishama synagogue in Jerusalem, he was lowered into the grave by Hareidi Jews.

This is what ought to be the relationship between our different streams, not that articulated by MK Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism).

At the conclusion of the Committee meeting, the 330 Reform Rabbis and the members of the Knesset all stood and sang Hatikvah. It was a very moving and powerful statement of solidarity with the Jewish democratic state of Israel.