I have known Zev Yaroslavsky for more than 50 years since our days as fellow activists in the Soviet Jewry Movement. I was a bit player then in San Francisco, and he was a pioneering activist in Los Angeles and on college campuses across the nation.

Zev was impressive to me then and my respect for him has grown exponentially over the years. Among the finest public servants I have ever known, Zev is not only a pragmatic can-do politician but he bases everything he does in idealism and his vision of a better world. His record of accomplishment as a member of the Los Angeles City Council and then as a member of the powerful 5-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, is second to none. Zev reminds me of New York’s Robert Moses who Joseph Caro immortalized in his seminal work Power Broker.

I have watched Zev work but until I read this memoir, I had no idea of the scope of his activism and the impact he has had on so many areas – on behalf of the homeless, the environment, health care, transit, policing, first amendment rights, the economy, the 1984 Olympic Games, LA’s culture and the arts, and development of a city that never had a master plan.

Zev just published his memoirs: Zev’s Los Angeles – A Political Memoir From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power with Josh Getlin – and it is a fabulous and exciting read. It’s actually a page-turner. I read this 350-page tome in about four days (the print is small, btw) because I couldn’t put it down. It’s that good – personal, political in the best sense of its meaning, and a veritable history of the city over the past 100 years.  

Zev’s origins are in Boyle Heights east of downtown Los Angeles as the son of Socialist Zionist immigrants from Ukraine. He lost his mother as a boy and his father as a young man, but those early years, his parents, older sister (who made Aliyah to Israel) and his education at Fairfax High School and UCLA where he earned a master’s degree in history, set the stage for his life of service. Among the most ethical of politicians (he gives the title “politician” a good name), Zev was motivated by a simple and compelling desire to make the city and the world better.

He was among the youngest city councilman ever elected in the history of LA at 26 years-old in 1975. He learned the ropes in how to gain and use political power not only through the tough-knocks of experience but by virtue of his keen intellect and insatiable curiosity about all things. Zev identifies as an outsider despite being an institutional leader. Following the principle “all politics is local” (per Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill), Zev loved engaging with people no matter their station, from the homeless to the high-and-mighty, and he was fearless in engaging with his political opponents for the sake of the common good. Smart and passionate, Zev’s combination of virtues and qualities made for a natural leader. There was never a difficult challenge he refused to take on if he thought he could address it effectively.

Zev could have been the Mayor of Los Angeles after Tom Bradley stepped down from power, but he chose to run for the Board of Supervisors instead when Ed Edelman stepped down in 1994. He was easily elected. He may have held more power to do good in the Hall of Administration than had he led the city. LA Mayors share authority with the City Council and often are frustrated as they strive to accomplish what they hope to do. All Zev had to do on the Board of Supervisors that represented 10 million constituents (larger than most states) was to persuade a majority of the five supervisors to agree and then be certain that whatever decisions the Board took were followed up by competent administration.

Over the course of his many years of service, Zev strategically and irrepressibly checked off the list of challenges facing the city and county. In so many areas he led the way to positive change. He was so respected as a local leader that he was invited to join the National Democratic Institute that nurtures emerging democracies around the globe and monitors elections, conducts seminars on local governance, and helps build democratic institutions in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Zev is also a life-long lover of classical music, and his engagement in reconstructing the famed Hollywood Bowl, helping to get Disney Hall built, and making LA a center for classical music and the arts is also part of his legacy.

The love of Zev’s life was his wife of more than 50 years, Barbara (née Edelston) who was a remarkable woman in her own right and to whom Zev dedicates this memoir. They adored each other, their children and grandchildren. He writes lovingly of her in the opening pages of the book. When she died tragically in December of 2018 from a mosquito bite that afflicted her with the West Nile Virus, Zev called me to ask if we could hold her funeral at Temple Israel of Hollywood. I said yes not only out of my respect and fondness for Barbara, but for Zev who I consider a cherished and life-long friend. It was the largest funeral I have ever officiated. 1100 mourners filled our sanctuary and was a who’s who in political, legal, cultural, and religious Los Angeles.

One more thing that I share with Zev – his earliest years as a left-wing Zionist and his life-long commitment to the people and State of Israel. Zev’s universalism and humanitarianism are rooted in his being a Jew and part of the peoplehood of Israel. He cares deeply about Jews as evidenced in his significant activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry so long ago, and for everyone with whom he engages regardless of ethnic, racial, national, and religious origins.

When talking with Zev in a crowded room, he never looked around to see who else was present. He was fully with whomever he was speaking. Zev is fundamentally a humble and modest man though he shares in this memoir his interaction with the rich and famous, from Neil Diamond to UCLA Coach John Wooden to Dodger Broadcaster Vin Scully and to President Bill Clinton, but while pinching himself and thinking, how did this Jewish boy from Boyle Heights end up here?

Zev’s intellect and curiosity are contagious, and his passion for everything decent and good is the mark of the man. Those virtues are revealed on every page of this memoir. I urge you to read it.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Congressman Adam Schiff is one of America’s great public servants. He is a man of principle, integrity, courage, and dignity, and he stands heads and shoulders above the small-minded Republican cult followers of the twice-impeached, convicted, indicted, and shameful ex-President Trump. Those who voted to censure him have debased the House of Representatives and shown the country and world that the MAGA Republican Party is unworthy of any kind of leadership. Yesterday’s vote is shameful, but Adam is unfazed. That’s who he is.

I have written in this blog before (September 23, 2022) the following about what constitutes great leadership, and Congressman Adam Schiff embodies my understanding:

“Great leadership requires not just vision and high moral rectitude, but the love of truth and a sacred commitment to further the common good. There are times when all leaders must stand up against the crowd, take a political risk knowing that they can lose everything, power, position, and the respect of their followers. Great leaders, however, bear the responsibility to act on behalf of the best interests of the public and to set a high moral standard for themselves and their colleagues.”

Adam Schiff has done this throughout his career as a dedicated public servant, and especially so during the Impeachment Trial. That he is condemned for that by moral cowards is a sign of their moral inadequacy. People attack what they don’t understand, refuse to know, and most fear – and that is what the Republicans did yesterday.

Liz Cheney, a Republican lion of courage and moral beacon light, had it exactly right when she said: “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” (June 9, 2022)

In striving to dishonor Congressman Adam Schiff for doing his duty as a Representative in the House, the Republican majority dishonored themselves once again.

I frequently read obituaries because I am fascinated by real-life stories, be they of the well-known or unknown. That’s the positive side of the matter. On the other side and as a rabbi who has eulogized hundreds of family, friends, and congregants over more than 40 years, I feel viscerally that each death is “like an iceberg between the shoulder blades.” (1)

In recent days, a friend and a leader in our synagogue community died at the young age of 61 following three excruciating months in the ICU from complications of pancreatitis. He was perfectly healthy before he entered the hospital. Not a few people asked me this past week after he died why such wonderful people like him die so young. I’m not new to loss, but I confess to having no answers. In my eulogy, I said (in part) the following in an attempt to make sense of the nonsensical:

“Sometimes I think the best thing any of us can hope for when we’re eulogized – after all the words and recitations and resumes are read – is just to say that someone was an ish tov, a good human being.

Our vows to the memory of the deceased ought to be that they will not have worked and dreamed and lived and loved in vain, that we can take their example and live our lives as they lived theirs, in the spirit of kindness, compassion, generosity, and righteousness.

Most of us yearn for a long life. After all, the eye never has its fill of seeing. The only antidote to the pain of loss of those we love at whatever age is to keep them before our eyes in the fullness of health as we wish to remember them.

The Psalmist wrote: “At evening one beds down weeping, and in the morning, glad song.” (2) During our throes of despair as we contemplate our lives without those we love, may we hold onto the faith that one morning there will be joy again in our lives. When we see a person doing good deeds, may our dear ones come back to us as fresh as the morning air. When we observe a kind gesture or witness a compassionate act, may we recall the departed and allow our memory of them to bring us joy, for those deeds sustain the world.

As the years unfold and we look back upon our saddest days, let our tears turn to smiles of warmth and memory so that the distress we feel today will remind us that we had the great fortune, even if for a little while, to have shared our lives with this kind and good human being.

Yehi zichro baruch – May our friend’s memory be blessed.”

1. Mary Oliver, “When Death Comes,” New and Selected Poems
2. Psalm 30:6 – Robert Alter translation

This week marks the 56th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War, and with it, the beginning of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

If you are confused about the occupation, J Street’s Policy Center has written a concise background brief with key information to help clarify your confusion. The brief answers the following questions:

• What is the definition of occupation under international law?
• Does Israel occupy the West Bank? What about East Jerusalem?
• Does Israel occupy the Gaza Strip, even after its unilateral disengagement in 2005?
• Is there international consensus around the fact that Israel occupies the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza?
• What is the position of the US government on occupation?
• What are Israel’s responsibilities as an occupying power under international law?
• What are some activities that are illegal for Israel as occupying power?
• How does Israel administer the occupation? Why does military or civilian control matter?

“Frequently Asked Questions: The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

It has only happened two times before when I finished writing and editing a book (my first in 2017 and the second in 2019), or on a much smaller scale after I finished writing and editing a high holiday sermon (far more emotionally and spiritually taxing than anyone realizes except for fellow rabbis and their spouses who have to live with them during the run-up to the holidays), but the relief and void that come in the wake of finishing a book are like nothing else I’ve experienced – I suspect it’s the same for every writer.

I have been silent on this blog for a while now as I finish editing my Memoirs that I hope will appear in the next six months or so.

I was invited more than a year ago to write by a publisher who read my translation of my great-granduncle’s Hebrew biography (Avraham Shapira of Petach Tikvah, Israel – 1870-1965), liked my writing and thought I had a good story to tell. I’m calling it From the West to the East – The Memoir of a Liberal American Zionist Rabbi. The result is a mashup of my life in Berkeley, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Israel that focuses on the most “cinematic experiences with broad shoulders” upon which I can hang other experiences and thoughts (my publisher suggested I write the book along these lines). This approach enabled me to focus upon those events, people, and values that made me who I am and drove me to do what I’ve done since I was a little boy, and that might be of interest to those beyond my family and friendship circles.

Revisiting the influence of a number of my most important mentors and models who inspired and touched me, as well as the events that shaped me was illuminating, to say the least, and was a journey into my memories that I believe we all ought to do for ourselves, the generations in our families, and anyone else who may be interested. Each of us has stories to tell, and they are far more interesting than we may think.

In my Introduction I quote from Simon Dubnov, an early 20th century Russian-Jewish historian who the Nazis murdered in the Latvian Ghetto of Riga. He said in his native Yiddish: “Yiddin, shreibt und farschreibt – Jews, write it down; write it all down;” also William Faulkner’s adage – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past;” and James Baldwin who wrote the same notion about history – “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.”

This blog is a teaser before the book is published. I’ll let you know when with hopes that you will consider reading it.    

May 21, 2023

Note: This is a very important story playing itself out in Israel that has to be resolved by cooler heads now to avoid not only war in the near term, as Allison suggests, but to deal with dramatic demographic and financial implications of the most rapidly growing sector of the Jewish population in Israel, the ultra-Orthodox, who have between 6 and 8 children per family as opposed to 1.5 children per family in the secular Israeli population.

Allison writes:

“Tensions between the ultra-Orthodox community and secular Israelis are hardly new, but the conflict has reached unprecedented levels over the past four months as the groups find themselves in opposing camps in the struggle over the government’s judicial overhaul.

Secular Israelis are incensed over the billions of shekels earmarked for the Haredi community and their educational institutions in the budget set to be passed this week, and legislation enshrining into law gender segregation and exemption from military service for yeshiva students.

Aware of the resentment against their community, ultra-Orthodox leaders have tried their best to keep the flames low. When angry anti-judicial overhaul protesters marched through Bnai Brak – including this past week – they were met with tables of food and drink, and a population under strict marching orders not to respond, even if they felt provoked.

But the mood turned uglier a few days later, on Saturday, in a violent clash in the northern city of Harish. Ultra-Orthodox residents of the Toledot Aharon sect affiliated with a nearby yeshiva walked into a children’s center and began shrieking and chanting to protest that it was open in violation of the Sabbath.

It wasn’t the first time. The clash has been taking place over the past month and videos of the incidents have circulated on social media.

But when members of the two sides began to push each other, at least two of the ultra-Orthodox protesters allegedly assaulted a woman who had brought her children to play, breaking her arm. The men were arrested, according to police, who said more arrests are likely.

Comments on the videos shared on Twitter called for secular Israelis to show up en masse at the center over the weekend to protect the children there as a show of strength.

MK Merav Cohen of the opposition Yesh Atid party publicly warned ultra-Orthodox leaders that if the violence from “extremists” in Harish doesn’t stop, “you are going to force us all to begin jumping on a play center trampoline as an ideological matter. You are going to make us all violate Shabbat and come to Harish to protect the rights of secular and traditional families to spend their Shabbat in the way that they see fit.”

“The eyes of the entire liberal public are on Harish,” Cohen said.

The same eyes were also fixed on the storm unleashed by Channel 12 anchor Galit Gutman, who let loose an on-air rant when discussing the budget allocations for ultra-Orthodox institutions, saying, “How much can you burden a third of this country to support all of the Haredim who suck our blood?”

After ultra-Orthodox groups called for Gutman’s suspension and for the television station to be fined for statements they said were both “antisemitic” and “defamatory,” Gutman apologized, saying her critique stemmed from the fact that she “loved the State of Israel” and that her wrath was aimed at Haredi political leaders alone.

As Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer noted, secular Israelis view their protests as “a preemptive strike on a grim future” in which an overburdened secular minority carries the economic and security load for an entitled religious majority.

Pfeffer asks if the displays of “misdirected rage” by the secular public toward the ultra-Orthodox are ultimately useful or whether they are simply bringing Israel closer to civil war. Productive or not, it certainly looked like the latter.”

Read more about the secular and ultra-Orthodox public:

As Haredi parties’ demand budget increase, their pupils already outpace secular in funding

Hundreds of economists warn Netanyahu’s budget will propel Israel backward

Israeli TV host under fire after accusing Haredim of being bloodsuckers

Don’t miss today’s best reads on Haaretz.com

Nathaniel Berman explains how Israel really silences Palestinian human rights advocates

Ofer Aderet says mass grave found at Polish site where hundreds of Jews were murdered by the Nazis

Tzach Yoked interviews the professor who says Yuval Noah Harari is wrong

This Thursday (May 18, 2023) is Jerusalem Day, also known as Yom Yerushalayim, a national Israeli holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City after the 1967 Six-Day War.

Jerusalem is a singularly wondrous place for Jews, but also for Christians and Muslims around the world. Despite its so-called “unification,” Jerusalem remains a divided city straddling uneasily the fault lines between ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews and secular-non-Orthodox Jews, and between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

That holy piece of real estate, sacred to three great religions, is among the most dysfunctional cities in the world. Its ancient Wall, its Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and its iconic Golden Dome lift billions of the faithful towards a vision of a heavenly Jerusalem.

For Jews, it is a place where prophets preached, psalmists sang praises, mystics sought oneness with divinity, sages taught wisdom from ancient texts, tribes and nations battled for control. This complex ancient and modern city nestled between valleys sparks the imagination, passions, and yearnings of Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, and so the threatening march of hundreds of extremist settler Jews carrying flags through Arab neighborhoods in the Muslim Quarter on Jerusalem Day every year is fraught with potential violence.

History ought to be a warning of what can happen if events and passions aren’t held in check and respect for the “other” fails to unite religions of the west. In its 4000-year life, this co-called “City of Peace” has rarely known peace. It has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice.

Often in my visits to the city I climbed to the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to see the sweep of the landscape, and I marvel every time that one can see so much in a glance – Old City Streets – Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim Quarters – the ancient Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery – medieval Churches – the Temple Mount and Noble Sanctuary – the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and Southern-Most Mosque – Mount Scopus and the Hebrew University – a plethora of embassies and  the Intercontinental Hotel – the City of David and the Palestinian village of Silwan – the sloping  convergence of the Valley of Hinnom and the Valley of Kidron – the Security Fence – West and East Jerusalem – and the Seam Line.

I love this ancient-modern place. One thousand years ago, the Spanish poet, philosopher, and thinker Yehudah Halevi spoke words that resonate with me here in California where I was born, raised, and have lived for most of my life: “My heart is in the east and I am at the far reaches of the west.”

This past week a new volume was published called What Jerusalem Means to Us – Jewish Perspectives and Reflections. The publisher describes the book as “address[ing] the intimate and unique connections among Jews, Judaism and Jerusalem along a variety of dimensions – religious, spiritual, historical, cultural, political, psychological, and social. These are manifested through the perspectives and reflections of sixteen Jewish leaders representing different backgrounds. The resultant essays present a rich array of personal and professional transformations, extraordinary love and hope for Jerusalem as well as an honest appraisal of some of the challenges of daily living.”

The book is a publication of The Jerusalem Peace Institute and is edited by the Jerusalem-born Saliba Sarsar, Professor of Political Science at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, and Carole Monica C. Burnett, Secretary of the Jerusalem Peace Institute the mission of which is to “highlight Jerusalem as humanity’s shared gift … and cherished by three faiths, and its centrality for a just peace through advocacy, programs, activities, interdisciplinary research, and publications.” It is the final book of a trilogy, the first two being reflections by Christians and Muslims of Jerusalem.

I am one of the 16 Jewish contributors in this newest volume, and this past week as I read my fellow contributors’ pieces, I was inspired by their perceptions and experiences, each different from the other, a kaleidoscope of insights based in love for this remarkable and uniquely sacred place on earth.

I recommend the book to you. It is available on Amazon.

Nadav Tamir is the executive director of J Street Israel, a member of the board of the Mitvim think-tank, adviser for international affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv, and a member of the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative. He was a close adviser of the late Nobel Peace Prize winning former Prime Minister and President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres, served in the Israel embassy in Washington, D.C., and as Consul General from the State of Israel to New England.

Nadav spoke last week at my synagogue in Los Angeles, and I had the chance to interview him and moderate questions in a forum sponsored by J Street, a number of LA synagogues and progressive Zionist organizations. Nadav is an articulate and thoughtful progressive Israeli and Zionist, as his writings below in The Times of Israel (TOI) and the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune reveal.

I provide links below to five of his articles written over the past couple of years as well as the link to the conversation he and I had at Temple Israel of Hollywood on Sunday, May 7. If you need clarification about the complexities, subtleties, and nuances inherent in the Arab-Israeli conflict and an optimistic way of re-framing that conflict that can move both Israelis and Palestinians forward towards a peaceful resolution of their conflict into two states for two peoples, as well as insight into how the so-called Judicial Reform efforts of the current right-wing extremist Israeli government is likely to play itself out, and the implications of all of this on the image of Israel around the world, and the Israeli-American relationship, I encourage you to read Nadav’s columns and listen/watch the link to his talk.

Nadav is a brilliant, inspirational, well-informed, and intelligent voice in his roles as a past Israeli diplomat, advocate for peace and democracy in Israel, and J Street Israel leader. If you don’t know him, I suspect you will come to respect him and be inspired by him as all of us do in the J Street community.

Video – Democracy in Israel – at Temple Israel of Hollywood – https://tioharchive.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Video+Archive/Misc/Israel+In+Democracy/Israel+In+Democracy.mp4

Times of Israel Blogs (#1-4) and an article from the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune (#5)

1. Insights about the Image of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/insights-about-the-image-of-israel

2. A Joint Problem Solving Approach – A joint Problem-Solving Approachblogs.timesofisrael.com

3. The Peres philosophy and its impact on my career – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-peres-philosophy-and-its-impact-on-my-career/

4. Insights from my American Journey – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/insights-from-my-american-journey/

5. Israel relations with Diaspora Jewry – https://jstribune.com/nadav-tamir-israel-relations-with-diaspora-jewry/

Few American rabbis write and speak with the eloquence, compassion, and moral urgency of Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch.

His new book The Lilac Tree – A Rabbi’s Reflections on Love, Courage, and History is a series of essays reflecting his lifetime of learning, thinking, doing, preaching, teaching, and serving the Jewish people. It is a must-read for anyone seeking what lies at the heart of Judaism as it evolved over the centuries, the significance of the State of Israel as the embodiment of the Jewish people’s highest spiritual and moral aspirations, and the centrality of the time-tested Jewish ethical impulse that offer the world a means to repair its brokenness, polarization, and immorality.

Rabbi Hirsch is a rabbi’s rabbi. He is not only learned in ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish sources and Hebrew literature, but he is widely read in history, world literature and thought. He identifies as an Israeli where he was educated and served as a tank commander in the Israel Defense Forces, and as an American Jewish and liberal Zionist thought leader who serves a major synagogue community as Senior Rabbi in New York City, the Stephen S. Wise Free Synagogue. He was ordained at the Reform movement’s seminary and is an attorney.

In 2018, the Jerusalem Post named Ammi among “The 50 Most Influential Jews of the Year” and City & State New York magazine praised him as “the borough’s most influential voice” for Manhattan’s more than three hundred thousand Jews.

A public intellectual whose message is rooted in Judaism and is broadly universal, Rabbi Hirsch speaks to the heart, soul, and conscience of the reader regardless of one’s faith, social, political, ethnic, or cultural background. With fluidity and superb writing skills Ammi weaves together the most important ideas and ideals of Judaism with compassion and wit thereby offering the contemporary reader a way forward through turbulent times characterized by moral confusion and moral relativism. Rabbi Hirsch’s book ought to be on the reading list of every American, Jew and non-Jew alike.

A Disclaimer – Rabbi Hirsch is a dear friend. However, I would recommend this volume even if I did not know and love him. It is that good. And, while I have you, I highly recommend that you listen every other Wednesday to a new episode of his superb Podcast that he calls In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. The Podcast is described this way: “Unbound by politics and untethered by party lines, Ammi and his expert guests discuss everything from race and antisemitism to all the other issues that keep you up at night.”

To purchase The Lilac Tree – go to https://www.amazon.com/Lilac-Tree-Reflections-Courage-History/dp/1637587465

To listen to Ammi’s podcast In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch – go to https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-these-times-with-rabbi-ammi-hirsch/id1622485978

What do we make of the United Kingdom’s new Monarch and the extravagant Coronation? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since Queen Elizabeth died and all day during Charles’ coronation as King.

I’ve been slogging through reading The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, admittedly with difficulty trying to remember the plethora of characters on every page bearing complicated Russian names. The titled character, the “Idiot” is anything but. He’s a Prince of sorts, the victim of childhood epilepsy and mistakenly called an “idiot” in 19^th century Russia due to his constant seizures. As a child he was sent away to Switzerland to heal, and when he returned to Russia years later his epilepsy had abated dramatically thereby revealing his wisdom and charismatic appeal. He had many talents not the least of which was the ability to read faces as the outward manifestations of an individual’s character, attitude, and emotions.

I borrowed the idea of attempting to read the face of the outwardly stoic King Charles as he moved through the day revealing very little of the emotion that had to have bubbled to the surface as he became the focus of all the ceremonial and thousand year-old pomp and circumstance. The pageantry of the events was eye-popping. So many participated including the top leadership (past and present) of the British government and the remaining colonial realm, thousands of armed forces many hundreds of whom rode on horseback, flags flopping in the wind and rain representing every nation in the remaining British Empire, elaborate and gorgeous costumes of every color and design, world political and religious leaders from more than one hundred nations and every religious community in Britain (including the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Efraim Mirvis), and millions upon millions of viewers watching on television. The music was magnificent, though far too much of it for me dragging the ceremony on at least an hour too long.

I attempted to glean what messages Charles’ face might have revealed about what he felt and thought about as he rode with Queen Camilla in those two remarkably beautiful centuries-old vehicles behind teams of horses, the second of which was a two-hundred and fifty year-old gold plated carriage. Pulled by eight magnificent white horses, the symbolism perhaps associates the newly crowned Monarch with a mythological sun chariot and as an end-of-time savior. As the anointed Sovereign of the British realm, the 74 year-old Charles’ identity was transformed before the eyes of the world as he assumed the burdens of the crown. The gleaming golden orb beneath the cross that he carried from the thousand year-old Westminster Abbey symbolizes his assuming, in humility and with commitment to his faith and the doing of good works (Christian virtues) and in service to his nation and the world, elevated (according to British tradition) his assuming the role of Christ on earth as the leader of Britain’s Anglican Church much like the Roman Pope is to world Catholicism.

(I’m leaving aside my thoughts about Charles’ treatment of Diana, the role of royalty and the relevance of inherited British aristocracy in today’s world, the massive expense of the coronation to the British economy given the depth of poverty in Great Britain and throughout the realm, and the almost decadent display of wealth throughout the day – all a complicated matter, to be sure. All that said, those protesting the continuing existence of the crown on London’s streets (“Not our King”) in light of the enmeshed power of the British Monarchy as a cultural and national tradition all ought to know that it is highly unlikely that any change will come relative to that old, venerated, and beloved national royal tradition to millions of people.)

Charles seemed most likely to be feeling the burden of the exalted position he now assumes even as he likely feels gratified that finally he ascended to the role of Monarch. There was outward serenity about him, and by all accounts he is very happy with Camilla as Queen. Probably, he is frustrated, saddened, and disappointed that his sons don’t get along (if they ever did, assuming Harry’s memoir Spare is accurate and to be believed) and that Harry feels so alienated from him, his brother, and the royal family, though he demonstrated in the Church an appropriate and respectful demeanor. Charles may blame himself for what has transpired with Harry, and he should, though it’s difficult to know how much self-insight he has or what understanding he possesses about the impact of the projections of millions on him as King and on everyone in the royal family.

To my mind, Charles is not – taking away all the trappings of the British crown – an inspirational figure. The institution of the British Monarchy is what excites most people, not necessarily the individual man who now sits on the throne and beneath the crown. That said, the pageantry, jewels, wardrobe, Church, choirs, carriages, horses, military, world religious and political leaders, and jets streaming red, white, and blue across the British sky, had to impress even the most skeptical and cynical about inherited royalty.

Charles could surprise us with inspirational leadership, particularly with regards to his advocacy for climate change measures across the globe and other issues he always cared about such as sustainable organic farming and produce, architecture, and opportunities for young people not born on third base to get an education. He has always been a friend to the Jewish people and State of Israel having visited in 2019, and that ought to relieve those who might have suspected Queen Elizabeth’s coolness towards the Jewish state as she visited over 120 nations in her 70 years as Queen but never once to Israel. We’ll have to wait and see. The burdens of his position may be too heavy leaving him little time and energy to do anything except perform his royal duties and put aside what he cares most about. That’s what his mother did never revealing, except in the privacy of the palace and with those closest to her, what she really thought and believed about the great issues facing humankind – a sad way to live.

One last thought – though Charles is only a year older than me, he seems (at least to my eye, my gray hair turning white notwithstanding) to be so much older. Charles has the good fortune, however, of longevity on both his mother’s and father’s sides, so perhaps his years on the throne will enable him to do good beyond simply serving as an exalted national figure-head. I hope so for the sake of Britain and the world.