The Problems of Little People in this Crazy World

05 Thursday Nov 2015

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Among my favorite lines in all of film history is Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart) sober farewell to Ilsa (Ingrid Berman) in Casablanca as they stand on the tarmac in Nazi-occupied Morocco:

“Ilsa – I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

So much about what is important is covered by this line: the virtues of humility, maintaining perspective and selflessly pursuing noble work.

It is important for all of us, in good times and bad, to discern the difference between serious problems and those minor inconveniences and aggravations that plague us. Serious problems sear the heart, mind, body, and soul, and deeply impact our lives. Inconveniences pass away in time and have little meaningful long-term impact.

Nevertheless, I know that I am not alone in confessing those minor inconveniences that drive me, at times, to distraction. Like most people, I have my fair share of pet peeves.

For the record, here are 19 of my pet peeves. Perhaps you share one or more with me. Perhaps you do the offending behavior, and, if by my noting them you see fit to adjust what you do, I thank you profusely for myself and on behalf of us all who feel as I do. If not, then have a nice day!

In the Car

• Drivers in heavy traffic who don’t keep up with the car in front of them and sail through at the final second of a yellow light leaving me behind to wait for the next green;

• Those waiting to turn left on a busy street who inch forward only a few feet into the crosswalk as they wait for oncoming traffic to pass, and as the yellow light turns red casually make the turn leaving everyone behind to wait for the next light. They could easily have moved forward far enough for one or two additional cars to get into the intersection so as to take advantage of the light, but like Walter Mitty, their heads seem to be up in the clouds and are unaware that anyone is behind them;

• People who never let you move into their lane of traffic (i.e. usually young men between 18 and 40);

• People who inexplicably give me the finger for something I probably did but did unintentionally;

• Drivers who move 10 mph below the speed limit on single-lane roads with a double yellow median and don’t pull over to let all those cars that have lined up behind them pass;

In Restaurants

• Waiters who are constantly filling water glasses even when little water has been consumed, picking up empty dishes while diners are still eating at the table, offering pepper (there’s already a pepper shaker on every table), and incessantly disturbing and interrupting what are obviously intimate, serious and intense conversations. In Europe, waiters leave you alone after taking orders and delivering food. Why can’t American waiters (usually nice people, btw) do the same thing? In case you are wondering, I am a fair and generous tipper and will even tip well those who do all the above because I know they are just trying to make a living;

• Very loud people at the next table who make it difficult to carry on a quiet conversation at my table;

Cell phones

• People talking in a very loud voice on their cellphones in airport lounges, on airplanes, in hospital and doctors’ waiting rooms, and restaurants (yes – I know. I just said this);

• Those who don’t turn off their ringers and beeps in classes, religious services, theaters, even after having been asked to do so;

Use of Language

• Teens and young adults who add to every third sentence “…like…”;

• Those who end half their statements with “Right?” as if we don’t understand what they just said;

General

• Nasty people;

• People who insist on telling their “truth” even if what they say unnecessarily hurts the feelings of or embarrasses another person;

• People who are always complaining about others (I know – I’m doing that right now!!!);

• People who constantly self-reference and turn every conversation around to be about themselves;

• People who talk at you and not with you;

• People who are certain they are right and are resistant to hearing and absorbing evidence to the contrary;

• People who can’t apologize;

• Bullies.

If you care to share your pet peeves, I’m all ears! Just keep it clean, and don’t be nasty!

Iran’s Closing Technology Gap – J Street’s Response

02 Monday Nov 2015

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This past week the Israeli daily Haaretz reported about a closed-door meeting in Tel Aviv in which Major General Herzl Halevi was quoted as warning that Iran’s technology war with the state of Israel is rapidly “narrowing the quality gap.” http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.683442

This was the first time, Haaretz noted, that a senior official of the Israeli Defense Forces has ever made such an assessment. Major General Halevi was quoted as saying, “Our engineers are fighting Iranian engineers, today, and it’s becoming increasing significant….They use the most cutting-edge technology. It’s not carrier pigeons; it’s the most advanced communication systems, with the best encryption on top of that. It changes every couple of days.”

Upon my return from Israel a week ago where I was a delegate of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) at World Zionist Congress (WZC) in Jerusalem, I met with Israeli members of my community to discuss the WZC, my experience in Israel and their concerns and anxieties about their Israeli families and friends.

Knowing of my position as the national co-chair of the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet (composed of 850 rabbis from all of American Jewry’s religious streams), some took the occasion to share their skepticism about J Street’s support of the Iran Agreement and Israel’s overall security interests. One insisted that J Street supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. This is false and has always been false (see J Street’s policy position against BDS – http://jstreet.org/blog/post/the-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds-movement_1.)

J Street is a pro-Israel pro-peace organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates before the American government a two-state for two-peoples diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the only way that Israel can continue to be a Jewish and democratic state and assure its security and future.

I emphasized that J Street’s goal has always been to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and that Israel must maintain its technological and military superiority over all nations in the Middle East as a matter of both Israel’s and America’s security interests. As the Iran Deal was being closed, J Street sent its policy platform to Capitol Hill (see https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.jstreet.org/images/next-steps-on-iran.pdf), and called upon our government “to implement the nuclear agreement while advancing policies that complement that effort and advance priorities that strengthen the security interests of the United States, our ally Israel, and our partners in the region.”

J Street advocated upon the close of the Nuclear Agreement

“…acting quickly and in unison with the Administration this year to renew the Memorandum of Understanding with Israel on American military aid – set to expire just as the next administration takes office — and lengthening the duration of a new M.O.U. would underscore that the United States Government, across the board, is solidly committed to ensuring Israel’s military capacity and kinetic advantages for the long haul, no matter which party controls the government in either Washington, D.C. or Jerusalem.” (https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.jstreet.org/images/next-steps-on-iran.pdf)

J Street also issued recently a statement supporting Senator Ben Cardin’s new Iran Policy Oversight Bill:

“The bill’s provisions closely track the policy prescriptions J Street put forward immediately after last month’s key votes on the accord in Congress. Comprehensive reporting on Iran’s activities, enhancement of the President’s existing non-nuclear sanctions powers and further strengthening already unprecedented US security and intelligence cooperation with Israel are steps that will bolster the agreement and its critical objective of ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.” (http://jstreet.org/blog/post/j-street-welcomes-iran-policy-oversight-bill_1)

J Street is uncompromising in its support of Israel:

“American assistance to Israel, including maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge, is an important anchor for a peace process based on providing Israel with the confidence and assurance to move forward on a solution based on land for peace. J Street consistently advocates for robust US foreign aid to Israel, and J Street also strongly supports continued aid to the Palestinian Authority which is essential to Israeli security.” (http://jstreet.org/policy/pages/usisrael-special-relationship–aid)

Watson – you see but you do not observe! Parashat Vayera

29 Thursday Oct 2015

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This week’s Torah portion Vayera reminds me of Sherlock Holmes’ famous statement to his loyal friend Dr. Watson: “Watson – you see but you do not observe!”

Most of us are like Watson. At first sight, we see only the surface of things, an object’s size, shape, color, line, texture, and form.

Jewish mysticism teaches, however, that nothing is as it appears to the eye – every physical thing is but a reflection of something deeper, more complex, wondrous, and enriched than we imagine it to be.

The great Jewish scholar, Dr. Jacob Neusner, described the 2nd century law code, the Mishnah, as an ideal spiritual architecture underpinning the physical world. Every letter, word, phrase, and law, he said, embraces the seen and the unseen, the explicit and implicit – all existence.

This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, is about seeing in all its dimensions. It concerns especially what God sees and what God wants us to see;  the physical and the metaphysical, the material and what can be grasped only through intuition.

The 3-letter Hebrew root of the title of Vayera (“And God appeared…”) is resh-aleph-heh. The root appears 11 times in the portion in a variety of forms (Genesis 18:1-22:24). In 9 of the 11, it is used in connection with God and angels (i.e. God’s messengers).

Abraham greets three God-like men who ‘appear’ near his tent. God goes to Sodom and ‘sees’ whether the people have turned away from their evil. Lot ‘saw’ two of God’s messengers. Sarah ‘saw’ Ishmael and feared he had receive the inheritance in place of her son Isaac. Hagar ‘saw’ a well of water that would save her son, Ishmael, from certain death. Abraham and Isaac both were able to ‘see’ the cloud hovering upon a mountain called Moriah, the place (Makom – another word for God) where there would be ‘vision.’

In those 9 of 11 occurrences, there is divine revelation. These chapters of Vayera point to our patriarch Abraham as a grand ‘seer’ graced with intuitive insight. In every one of these spiritual encounters, we sense newness and spiritual awakening, and that phenomenon inspires within the heart the virtues of appreciation and gratitude and within the soul the experience of awe and wonder.

When the heart opens this way and the soul ‘sees,’ we mere mortals are drawn more deeply into what it means to be human and to sense what God requires of us ethically and spiritually in the world.

Abraham, the prophet and patriarch, must have had a highly developed intuitive sensibility. If only we could hear God’s voice and know what Abraham experienced in those moments!

The 18th century British poet and painter, William Blake, in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, imagined a conversation with the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel:

“…the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them; and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood…?  To which Isaiah answered: ‘I saw no God nor heard any in a finite organic perception; but my senses discovered the infinite in everything.”

Blake’s way is also the way of the Jewish mystic who senses always the holy in the mundane and glimpses the Godly in the human situation. I suspect this was Abraham’s experience as he welcomed the three visitors to his tent. He saw them as human beings, but they were really angels. Thus, Abraham set the way of the Jew and became our example.

Yizkhak Rabin 20-Year Memorial – A Message from The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism

26 Monday Oct 2015

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Having just spent face to face time with the leadership of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) in Jerusalem as partners with ARZENU (the world Reform Zionist movement) at the World Zionist Congress, I wanted to forward this message from Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the Executive Director of the Israeli Reform movement, in memory of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

It has become so very clear that PM Rabin’s assassination was a destructive turning point in the quest for peace with the Palestinians, and though hopes for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are now low in the near-term, we cannot stop advocating for a two-state solution. Rabin’s memory will forever be tied with hopes for mutual recognition and peace.

Click here to view it in your browser.

fb-rabin(en)-20-2015

Dear John,

The IMPJ remembers and mourns the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, 20 years ago. Upon recognizing 20 years to the assignation, MARAM – the Reform Rabbinic Council in Israel put out a public statement. following is an excerpt from it:

Our hearts bleed as we recall the fact that this heinous murder was supposedly committed in the name of the Torah. We condemn any attempt to hinder the democratic fabric in Israel in the name of our Jewish tradition… only in a truly democratic society which respects and defends human rights, will our timeless Jewish values be fulfilled; only the fortification and reinforcement of Israeli democracy will ensure the future of the Jewish people and all Israeli citizens, in their sovereign homeland.

May his memory be a blessing.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Gilad Kariv
Gilad Signature English
Executive Director

What does the recent violence tell us about a One State or Two State Solution? Report from Jerusalem #5

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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Those on the Israeli left are divided about the future with the Palestinians. One camp still desires to find common cause with the Palestinians, and the other says that this 67-year marriage must come to an end. One believes that marriage counseling is still possible; the other that only through divorce can there be a peace and security for both sides.

The violence we have witnessed in both Intifadas and in this recent wave of suicide knife-attacks has shown that the right wing direction has failed, that one state doesn’t work, that there can be no security without a political solution, that the occupation is unsustainable, that Israel needs to say ‘We are here, You are there’ and we need a permanent divorce.

Indeed, this violence may be the opportunity Israelis need to realign and make a political deal with the Palestinians.

In my taxi ride from Jerusalem to the Ben Gurion Airport, my driver, Mordecai (a 63 year-old descendent of Iraqi Jews), took me on a side road to avoid a traffic jam, and we passed by a maximum security prison that held about 400 Palestinian terrorists. Mordecai explained to me that the Palestinians are now controlled by the Islamists who do not believe that Jews have a right to be here, that they never will accept the state of Israel on “Islamic land,” that what they can accept is hudna (quiet) until such time as the Palestinians are strong enough to attack and destroy the state of Israel.

I have heard this argument before, most recently from Likud Knesset member, Benny Begin, the son of the late Prime Minister, who met with the ARZENU faction in the Knesset before the WZC sessions began last week, and eloquently explained why one state is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He emphasized that Palestinian citizens deserve full and equal rights and that those rights should extend to all residents living in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the “West Bank”).

Yes, of course, there are Palestinians who believe that Israel does not have the right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. PM Netanyahu made acceptance of Israel as a “Jewish state” a demand in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority sponsored by the United States in 2014. At that time PA President Abbas said that though the PA had already recognized the State of Israel, the Palestinians would never recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

At the time, I believed that Netanyahu was using this argument to make an agreement impossible. However, there is truth in his demand, and I have come around to the belief that a two-state solution requires the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish State of Israel that offers equal rights to all citizens of the state (Palestinians included) even as Israel recognizes the right of the Palestinians to a nation state of their own living in peace and security alongside Israel – peace, not hudna. (Note: Israel will always have to maintain military and strategic superiority over all its neighbors, including the Palestinians).

There are, however, many Palestinians who do not accept the Islamic view that the State of Israel is illegitimate, and particularly so many of those Palestinian-Israeli citizens who have lived in Israel since 1948. The danger of the status quo continuing is that Palestinian-Israeli citizens are becoming more and more identified with West Bank Palestinians under occupation.

There are, to be sure, many values that many Palestinians share with Israelis, and so the lines of conflict should not be drawn as Jews vs Palestinians, but rather as those who support a one-state option as opposed to those who want two states for two peoples. The latter is the only way, it seems to me, to save Palestinian-Israeli citizens as loyal to the state of Israel.

Simply and categorically said, we need a divorce and a two-state solution with lines drawn between Israel before 1967 with land swaps to include most of the large Israeli settlements in Israel, and a new state of Palestine in the West Bank and, eventually, including Gaza. Palestinians should, of course, have the right of return to Palestine and not Israel. Jerusalem will have to be shared as capitals of both nations with all appropriate security guaranteed.

Only after a divorce can our two peoples begin to rebuild relationships. At the moment, trust has been badly damaged. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there are enough Palestinians who agree with Israelis that the current violence is intolerable and the status-quo of occupation is unsustainable.

Kotel and LGBT Resolutions Pass WZC Committee – Report From Jerusalem #4

23 Friday Oct 2015

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It’s bad enough that Israel is being attacked by terrorists, now mostly in the West Bank and less in Jerusalem after Israel’s government imposed strong security measures separating East Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods from West Jerusalem Israeli neighborhoods. What is perhaps even more searing to the Jewish soul is the way some Jewish delegates at the World Zionist Congress behave towards their fellow delegates.

We of ARZENU (the world Reform Zionist movement) were warned that yelling and delaying tactics would be likely in committee meetings and in the plenary sessions, especially when discussing contentious resolutions. The warnings were prescient. Almost from the beginning of our committee meetings one Mizrahi (the nationalist right-wing religious delegation) delegate starting screaming from the moment the Chair, Rabbi Lea Muehlstein of the United Kingdom (an ARZENU delegate) opened the session.

The rules of debate in committees according to the WZC are determined exclusively by the chair. Roberts Rules of Order do not apply. Some chairs are more fair than others. The chair of this session gave all voices equal time, and when she thought the issue had been completely discussed she called for a vote.

The two most contentious resolutions were those concerning the “Establishment of an Egalitarian Prayer Space at the Western Wall,” introduced by ARZENU, and “Recognition of Support for the LGBT Community,” also introduced by ARZENU.

Jewish Agency Head Natan Sharansky, the Women of the Wall (WOW), the Conservative and Reform movements, and the Chief Rabbi of the Wall have already agreed that a third section in the Western Wall site would be established equal in size, funding and visibility for a dignified space of worship for the Conservative and Reform streams and for Women of the Wall. This WZC resolution was meant only to confirm what the Israeli government and interested parties have already determined, and to push forward towards the realization of this new prayer space.

After debate the resolution passed with a substantial majority. When I saw my friend and Chair of WOW, Anat Hoffman and asked how she felt about the good news, she said:

“John – nothing has happened to move this matter forward in the government over the past year and more, this resolution notwithstanding, and given the controversy over the Waqf charge that the status quo on the Temple Mount is being questioned, and given that the area we want for the egalitarian prayer site is only 50 yards from Al Aqsa, Israel isn’t going to touch this issue now.”

So much for that.

The LGBT resolution was the next especially contentious fight. The resolution commended the Education Minister, Naftali Bennett (the head of Mizrahi faction) for announcing an increase of support for the Israeli LGBT community. The resolution called on him to ensure adequate funding for “Israel Gay Youth” and other LGBT organizations so as to secure the role of members of the LGBT community within Israeli society. It also called on Minister Bennett to ensure that all Israeli students (and in particular in the Orthodox school systems) take part in programming that promotes diversity, inclusion and equality for the LGBT community, to support equal rights for the LBGT community in all Zionist entities and to encourage their activities within the national Institutions.

The right wing parties in our committee were strongly against this resolution and began immediately to challenge key elements of it. Some began a campaign of yelling and screaming to prevent us from having a reasoned debate ending in a vote. Orthodox delegates introduced several amendments, only one of which was accepted by ARZENU.

The most important amendment, however, we refused to accept because it gave license to Orthodox schools to choose to accept or to pass on tolerance education.

All the while, the disruption did not stop for a moment, and Rabbi Muehlstein finally ruled that anyone screaming would not have his/her votes be counted.

At last, a vote was taken and the resolution passed with about 35 votes, and 35 abstentions. Those in Mizrahi and Likud factions who negotiated with ARZENU on an amendment on which we found compromise language, in the end refused to vote “nay.” Indeed, they never intended to vote for a resolution no matter what it said. They only wanted to delay and water down the original resolution.

At one point, five of the most badly behaving delegates actually charged our table. I happened to be sitting two people away from Rabbi Muehlstein. I am not a violent person, but I was prepared to jump between them and Lea to protect her from their physical assault. It should be noted that she was a paragon of patience and brought dignity to the proceedings and to the ARZENU delegation.

I left the meeting feeling as though I needed a shower. Though justice was done in the resolution, we also witnessed the dark side of Zionist politics.
I heard that other committee meetings went far more smoothly and with good behavior by all. For me who attended the WZC for the first time, the bullying behavior of the right-wing did not have the intended effect of intimidating us. It had the opposite effect of my bearing down and committing to fight the good fight respectfully on behalf of compassion, justice and human rights within the World Zionist Congress.

See my earlier post titled “Non-Stop Zionism.”

Non-Stop Zionism – Report From Jerusalem #3

23 Friday Oct 2015

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The theme of this 37th World Zionist Congress was Zionism itself.

509 delegates representing the Jewish world gathered Tuesday and launched into a provocative discussion of Jewish, Zionist and Israeli identity and how they interconnect and create a whole Jew.

Hila Korach, a leading Israeli morning talk-show host, moderated a panel including American Professor Arnie Eisen, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Dr. Einat Wilf, Senior Fellow of the Jewish People Policy Institute & Adjunct Fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and writer Sarah Blau. The plenary was introduced by Rabbi Josh Weinberg, the President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America.

Dr. Eisen began:

“Zionism is as deep as it gets. As a child, for me Judaism and Zionism was one…when I became an adult and studied Torah, I was electrified by the vision beheld as the people passed over the Jordan River and came into the land and had the opportunity to have a relationship with God that had never been before. And I was moved by Lech L’cha that promised the people a society in which the Eternal judge does justly and in which we might become a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

There is no separation between Judaism, the people of Israel, Jewish history, culture, ethics, and the land of Israel. Zionism … is far more than politics and money. It’s an affair of the spirit – a 3000 year tradition..the up-building of the entirety of the Jewish people in the birth place of the Jews.”

Dr. Wilf characterized Zionism as a “Jewish revolution,” for it put history into Jewish hands and countered the classic religious view that Jews must wait for the Messiah before returning to the land.

“The early Zionists revolted against God,” she said. “You can be the Messiah of your own self. But, Zionism didn’t sufficiently conclude its revolution. We now need to move from the rabbanut (rabbinic authority) to hibanot (the rebuilding  of ourselves).”

Dr. Wilf is a secular Israeli and she advocated that the Orthodox Rabbinate get out of the way of the people and allow the state of Israel to take over responsibility for conversions, kashrut and all Jewish affairs.

“Let the people take Zionism forward, not the rabbis, for their authority excludes large parts of the Jewish people.”

Many in the room were not pleased. Later, however, former Minister and MK Yaron Yadlin said that what is needed is not the elimination of the Orthodox rabbinate, but a fight for the inclusion of all religious streams in the life of the people in the state of Israel.

Yadlin’s words resonated powerfully throughout the hall unleashing the strongest applause of the morning.

Dr. Eisen challenged the American Jewish community to become open to “an honest, loving, well-informed, and civil conversation about Israel and Zionism because it has ceased in the United States and in many other communities. For Zionism to be truly Zionist, then it must be a living tradition that  brings the Jewish people together, despite our wide differences, and move us  forward.”

The message of the morning was that for the entire Jewish people, Zionism brings us into deep relationship with state of Israel and with one another. Dr. Eisen concluded that “there is no Jewish people without Zionism, and there is no true Zionism without the creation of a just society, in which every citizen is treated equally and with dignity.”

For so many Jews around the world, however, Zionism has become a dirty word. Since its inception, Israel’s enemies have slandered Zionism by equating it with genocide, apartheid and racism. It is, of course, none of those things. It is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people that returns our people to itself in the land of our birth.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence articulates the foundational values of Zionism and the Jewish state:

“The State of Israel …will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it 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; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Though a great democracy and Jewish state, Israel is still a work in progress, and we Jews need not deny its imperfections even as we give our full support.

All this being said, many Jews have come to believe that identifying with Zionism and Israel makes them bad Jews.

The speakers urged that it is for us to define ourselves and not allow others to do it for us.

WZC Resolution on Eritrean and Sudanese Asylum Seekers in Israel – Jerusalem Report #2

23 Friday Oct 2015

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Three years ago I led a congregational tour of Israel and we spent a morning walking around South Tel Aviv near the old bus station to see how 53,000 Eritrean and Sudanese Asylum seekers were living. These mostly male Africans had fled on foot from two of the most violent and brutal dictatorships and entered Israel through the open frontier with Egypt. Since then, Israel has built a fence to stop the flow of refugees and few have come since.

Today, 45,000 remain in Israel without having been granted asylum. Israeli government policy has granted asylum only to a handful of people, and built a detention center in the Negev. The place is called Holot (meaning “sand” in Hebrew) and though “open,” inmates must sign in every evening, cannot work and because of its remote location, have nowhere to go. Israel has done everything it can to encourage these people to leave the country, and 8000 complied. Those who returned to Sudan were likely arrested,  interrogated and/or killed. None returned to Eretria where they faced certain execution. Most fled on rafts to Europe, and their fates are unclear.

The Israeli government claims that most came to Israel for jobs, but all evidence suggests that this is not accurate.

Today in Jerusalem, ARZENU, the worldwide Reform Zionist organization, met with four individuals deeply involved in efforts to assist political asylum seekers.

Mutasim Ali came to Israel from Darfur in 2009 after his village was attacked. He spent 18 months in Holot, is an intelligent natural born leader and has served as the Executive Director of the African Refugee Development Center. Though Mutasim loves Israel, his deepest desire is to return to Sudan to help his people once a new government takes over there.

Sivan Carmel, an accomplished Israeli attorney, is the Director of the Israel office of HIAS, the international Jewish nonprofit organization that protects refugees.

Elliot Glassenberg is the Director of International Communication at the BINA Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv and is a teacher at the BINA Secular Yeshiva.

Steve Israel is an activist member of Jerusalem’s largest Reform synagogue, Kol Haneshama, who has helped organize his congregation to assist refugees.

The three Israelis of the group said that they have taken such a strong interest in Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers because they are the most vulnerable people in Israel and it is a Jewish ethical mandate to protect the vulnerable. As Jews who have long experienced the suffering of the refugee, and as a Jewish state that has vast experience in absorbing refugees, they say that we Jews ought to be taking care of this relatively small number of Africans and helping them until they are able to return safely to their home countries.

ARZENU has drafted a resolution to be brought to the World Zionist Congress this week to address this human tragedy. The resolution includes the following:

“The World Zionist Organization calls upon the State of Israel to change its policy towards asylum seekers and refugees seeking protection in Israel so as to adhere to relevant international law and particularly the refugee convention that ‘No contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his/her life or freedom would be threatened.’

The World Zionist Organization calls on the Government of the State of Israel to allow asylum seekers living in Israel  to contribute to the Israeli economy and society until their status is appropriately adjudicated, rather than forcing them to be housed in the Negev at significant government expense or pressuring them to relocate to unfamiliar and unsafe third countries.

The World Zionist Organization calls on the Government of the State of Israel to cease the inhumane and degrading treatment of asylum seekers in the Holot center and to allow asylum seekers to be released in accordance with the Supreme Court decision of this summer…”

None of the speakers wished to embarrass Israel over this issue, but Israel’s government policy of not granting asylum to legitimate asylum seekers is not only counter to international law, but is immoral and “un-Jewish” and ought to be changed.

I asked our speakers why the government opposition has not gone on record about this issue, and they responded that African refugees it is not a high priority issue when considering all the others issues of security, terror, Iran, international relations, and the economy that Israel faces.

Nevertheless, it is a fundamental Jewish ethical principle L’hagen al hapalit – To defend the refugee” and it is time that Israel change its policies and do so.

Those wishing to support these asylum seekers may write directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the Knesset.

On the Road to Jerusalem: A Current Affairs Conversation with an Israeli Taxi Driver – Report From Jerusalem #1

23 Friday Oct 2015

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Gidi is a handsome 53 year-old Israeli taxi driver whose grandfather made aliyah from Iraq in the 1920s. Loquacious and charming, he “treated” me to a 50-minute Hebrew monologue on the situation in Israel in light of the Iran agreement, the multiple Palestinian stabbings of innocent Israelis in recent days, President Obama’s alleged weakness and the Democratic Party in America, and his frustration in light of current realities.

Gidi is smart and well-informed, a no-nonsense practical man who believes in a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but sees no way to get there because of the Palestinian propensity to  blame Israel for all their problems and take no responsibility for themselves and their children.

I didn’t raise the issue of Israeli co-responsibility for the logjam because I wanted to hear his views. I just listened, a lot!

While driving up the mountain to Jerusalem, Gidi got so aggravated by the recent stabbings of old Jewish women climbing onto buses and of Palestinian children slicing up Israeli Jewish children that he took both hands off the wheel and gesticulated angrily about the immoral character of these terrorists.

Thankfully, he grabbed the wheel just before I begged him to watch out for the cars careening alongside us.

He was right on so many counts. Something is very wrong within Palestinian society that glorifies shaheeds (martyrs) and leaves no alternative for hero worship for children other than people who want to murder Israelis on the streets. The refusal of the Palestinian Authority to prepare the Palestinian population for peace with Israel in a two-state solution and to educate its children effectively about the humanity of Israelis, is a serious failure of the PA.

As a middle-eastern man through and through, Gidi cannot understand President Obama’s belief in the efficacy of negotiation vis a vis Iran and other fundamentalist murderers in the Middle East. He kept praising Russia’s Vladimir Putin as an aggressive actor.

Though I agreed that these groups are bitter enemies of the Jewish people and the west, I argued that the alternative to the Iran negotiations (no negotiations) would have led immediately to Iranian nuclear capability, but Gidi doesn’t trust the Iranians as far as he can spit. He shook his head as I spoke, as if to say, “My American friend –you don’t understand!” I repeated back to him Reagan’s old adage, “Don’t trust – verify!”

I explained that I believe that Obama would have, as a last result, attacked Iranian nuclear sites if no agreement had come about and should Iran move quickly to build a bomb, but Gidi didn’t believe me. I told him that Obama is not a pacifist and had used military force in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan (remember Osama bin Laden), and Libya. And then I reminded Gidi, as if he needed to be reminded having fought himself in Lebanon and served two years in Hebron, that war always brings  unintended consequences. He agreed, and so I asked him what he thought would happen if either Israel or the United States would attack Iran given that Hezbollah has built an extensive tunnel system into Israel far greater than anything we discovered coming out of Gaza, and has 100,000 Iranian missiles aimed at the heart of Tel Aviv?

He agreed that there would be war, but that Israel would prevail. I asked, “at what cost, and isn’t negotiation that brings effective results always better than war?”

Only in Israel could I expect to have such a conversation with a taxi driver! That is part of what I love about this country.

Gidi finally asked me what I’m doing in Israel, and I explained that I am a delegate of ARZA at the World Zionist Congress to begin on Tuesday in Jerusalem. He asked, “So – what will come from 500 Jews talking?”

Good question. This my first WZC Congress, but I told him that the WZC is about the important heart-connection that exists between world Jewry and the state of Israel, and about Jews from everywhere in the world helping Israel to grow in strength and preserve its Jewish character and democracy.

Finally, he said: “And it’s about money! Isn’t it!?”

As I indicated, Gidi is a smart guy. Yes – There is a lot of money at stake for the different world Zionist groups in Israel, and because ARZA is the largest delegation coming from the United States (54 seats) combined with our allies in ARZENU world-wide, we hope to not only promote Israel’s democratic and progressive liberal values, but to gain greater influence on key committees and a greater share of the financial pie for our progressive religious and social justice movement in Israel which still receives no funds from the Israeli government.

My ARZENU leadership has asked all our delegates NOT to ride buses or to walk alone in Jerusalem given the last week’s knife-attacks, and though I am personally comfortable doing so, I promised my wife and sons I would abide by their recommendations and take taxis, and hopefully to meet more Gidis.

This week’s Torah portion, by the way, is Lech Lecha – Go forth! And that is what we hope to do.

To be continued….
L’hitraot.

The Parliament of the Jewish People to Convene in Jerusalem – October 20-23

04 Sunday Oct 2015

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This month I will be attending the World Zionist Congress (WZC) meeting in Jerusalem (October 20-23) as a delegate of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), representing 1.4 million American Reform Jews from 900 Reform synagogues and communities nationwide.

Known as “The Parliament of the Jewish people” this will be the 37th meeting of the WZC since Theodor Herzl convened it for the first time in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. Though mandated by its constitution to meet every five years, for a number of reasons the WZC has not held elections since 2005, so this will be a meeting of some significance.

Given the challenges and changes taking place in the Jewish world today, the WZC will meet in the wake of Secretary of State Kerry’s failed Middle East peace efforts and following successful negotiations between the P5+1 nations and Iran to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

In this upcoming WZC conference, 500 delegates representing the Jewish people world-wide will debate cutting-edge issues confronting the state of Israel and the Jewish people. The 500 delegates are chosen based on the following demographic formula: 38% are from Israel and are divided along Israeli political party lines as determined by the results of the last Israeli election earlier this year; 29% come from American Zionist organizations according to the last American Zionist Congress elections, also earlier this year, and the remaining 33% come from other countries of the Jewish Diaspora.

The American delegation is composed of 145 delegates out of the total of 500: ARZA (Reform movement = 56), Mercaz (Conservative Movement = 25), Religious Zionists (Orthodox AMIT, B’nei Akiva and RZA = 24), American Forum for Israel (Russian speaking Jews = 10), HATIKVAH (Progressive Zionists = 8), Zionist Organization of America (far right-wing Zionists 7), Zionist Spring (7), World Sephardic Organization (4), Alliance for New Zionist Vision (2), Green Israel (1), and Herut North America (1).

There is a natural alliance (though not yet formal) within the American delegation on many issues between ARZA (the largest vote-getter in the American Zionist election), Mercaz, HATIKVAH, and Green Israel for a majority of 87 of the 145 (60%). The Israeli delegation includes natural partners with ARZA and ARZENU (the international progressive/Reform Zionist movement) of representatives from the Labor-Zionist Union, Meretz, and Yesh Atid. Because ARZA was the largest vote-getter of the American delegation, we are in a position to chair a number of important committees and assure funding for projects benefiting Israel’s Reform movement (the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism – IMPJ).

As goes the Jewish world, so too will those views be reflected in the WZC as a whole, and strong debate on virtually every issue is expected.

Resolutions will be presented, debated and voted upon on many cutting-edge issues including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, settlement growth, Israel’s relationship with world Jewry and vice versa, the status of democracy and religious pluralism in Israel, egalitarian prayer at the Kotel (Western Wall), the religious rights of Israel’s non-Orthodox Jews, the rights of Israel’s LGBT community, and current Israeli policy concerning asylum seekers from Africa and Syria. Many of the resolutions to be presented originated with ARZENU, the International Federation of Reform and Progressive Religious Zionists.

Our ARZA delegation, in conjunction with ARZENU (as well as our natural allies in the Israeli and international delegations), is in a strong position to make a significant impact on the future of the World Zionist Organization, which means that we will be working hard to assure the continued growth of democracy, religious pluralism and diversity in the state of Israel for all its citizens, religious streams and those under its control (i.e. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank who are not Israeli citizens).

I will file reports from Jerusalem on this blog as the pre-conference deliberations with ARZENU begin on October 18, and upon the commencement of the WZC itself on October 20. Upon my return I will also file a longer report for The Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

For those who live in Los Angeles, I invite you to an early morning briefing at Temple Israel of Hollywood upon my return. We will meet on Wednesday morning (8-9 AM), October 28.

Note: To understand the mission and action statement of the Association of Reform Zionists of America, see the ARZA Website at http://www.ARZA.org and http://www.arza.org/about-us-our-mission. ARZA, as well as its parent body, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), supports a negotiated two-state final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as being in Israel’s best interests as a Jewish and secure democratic state.