Tag Archives: Israel

Life Lessons for Elul – A Hedge Against the Toxicity of Today’s American Politics and War

14 Sunday Sep 2025

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Soren Kierkegaard said: “It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.”

Though we’re always living forward, the life lessons we learn can help to shape our future. Since this is the season of self-examination leading to the High Holidays, I offer a list of 32 life lessons I’ve learned – there are others, but the number 32 is significant in Jewish mystical tradition. It equals the 22 letters of the Hebrew א-ב (aleph-bet) plus the 10 “words” of the covenant (aka 10 Commandments), and is the number equivalent for the Hebrew word לב (heart – lev: lamed – bet) which the mystics teach are the number of pathways to God.

I offer the following as a hedge against the toxicity in today’s American political environment, the Hamas-Israel war, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza in these days leading to the High Holidays. Some of the following I borrowed 15-20 years ago, gratefully, from a then 90 year-old lady named Regina Brett that were published in the Plain Dealer from Cleveland, Ohio (hers are in italics).

They’re not necessarily a way to God, but a means to a healthier, wiser, and more sacred way of living, at least as I’ve come to believe in them.

  1. God gave us life and our natural abilities only – everything else is either up to us or a result of dumb luck.
  2. Life isn’t always fair, but it’s still good.
  3. Life is short, so cut your losses early.
  4. Begin planning for retirement as a teen by developing your passions and interests, for they will sustain you when you get old.
  5. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up your present.
  6. You don’t have to win every argument, so at a certain point stop arguing.
  7. Love your spouse/partner, children and grandchildren above all other people and things. If you aren’t married or do not have children, nurture the special friendships in your life.
  8. Don’t compare your life to anyone else’s as you have no idea what their journey has been all about.
  9. If you can’t publish what you want to say or do on the front page of The New York Times because doing so would be slanderous of someone else or less than dignified, don’t say or do or post it anywhere, including on social media.
  10. Try not to speak ill of anyone, but if you must, do so only with trusted family and friends and then only so as to understand better how to cope with people like that.
  11. Don’t procrastinate to see doctors. It may save your life (note: it saved mine).
  12. Carpe diem. Take pleasure in this day and do what inspires you for we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
  13. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
  14. Breathe deeply as it calms the body, mind, heart, and soul.
  15. Take your shoes off whenever possible as studies indicate that doing so will prolong your life.
  16. Too much alcohol and drugs (in fact – any amount of alcohol and drugs) dull the mind and loosen the lips compelling us to say things we may mean but don’t want said and to say things we may not mean at all.
  17. Get a dog or a cat for the love for and from such a creature is unlike anything else we will ever know.
  18. Over prepare, and then go with the flow.
  19. It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.
  20. Speak the truth but only when you know you can be effective and only if it doesn’t cause another person unnecessary harm or hurt. Otherwise, be quiet.
  21. Stand up to bullies wherever they are and whenever you encounter them, personally and in work, organizational and political life.
  22. Time does heal almost everything.
  23. Don’t fear or resist change for it is natural, necessary, and an opportunity for growth.
  24. Don’t envy other people’s talent, job, wealth, circumstances or life – you likely already have everything you need.
  25. Love isn’t just a matter of the heart – it requires concrete acts of altruism (no quid pro quo) in support of others.
  26. Learn Torah, read great literature, view great art, and listen to great music as often as you can – they will enrich, change, and enhance your life and will inspire you (hopefully) to do what you might never choose to do otherwise.
  27. Support the State of Israel as the democracy and Jewish State that it is regardless of its imperfections and corruptions, for Israel remains the best hope for the Jewish people to create a utopia worthy of the ethics of the Biblical prophets, the compassionate teachings in rabbinic and modern writings, and the vision as articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence (see https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/israel.asp).
  28. Be modest.
  29. Be forgiving.
  30. Be kind.
  31. Be generous.
  32. Be grateful.

Why Zionism and Israel Matter? 4 Book Recommendations

15 Friday Aug 2025

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This is my third consecutive post in a series of three concerning the meaning and importance of liberal Zionism and the State of Israel.

In this torturous, confusing and challenging era for Jews since October 7, 2023, I believe it’s worthwhile to read or re-read books that can help focus our moral, Jewish and liberal Zionist compasses. To that end, I recommend 4 volumes:

Gil Troy, The Zionist Ideas – Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow with a Foreword by Natan Sharansky (New York: JPS Press, 2018)

“The Zionist Ideas is a must-read, a comprehensive Zionist Bible for the twenty-first century. The outstanding scholar and community leader Gil Troy presents an impressive range of thinkers, from yesterday to today, from left to right, illuminated by his extraordinary commentary, all of which affirm the enduring moral character of the Zionist idea: that Zionism, beyond safeguarding the Jewish state, is anchored in a humanistic ideology of universal resonance.” –Irwin Cotler, former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada and human rights activist.

Yossi Klein Halevi, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor – with an Extensive Epilogue of Palestinian Responses (New York: Harper Perennial, 2018)

“The most insightful description of this deep-rooted conflict–from the Israeli perspective–which I have ever read . . . A master linguist, Yossi Klein Halevi has voiced the hopes and feats of many Israelis, as well as many Zionists in the diaspora.” –London Jewish Chronicle.

Ari Shavit, My Promised Land – The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel(New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013)

“With the heart of a storyteller and the mind of a historian, Ari Shavit has written a powerful and compelling book about the making of modern Israel. No country is more emotionally connected to the United States, and no country’s fate matters more to many Americans. And yet until Shavit’s My Promised Land, it has been growing more difficult to sense the character of Israel through all the caricatures. This book is vital reading for Americans who care about the future, not only of the United States but of the world.” –Jon Meacham, American presidential historian and author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.

Rabbi John L. Rosove, Why Israel and its Future Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to the Next Generation (New Jersey: Ben Yehuda Press, 2019; reissued after October 7, 2023)

“Rabbi Rosove shares 11 compelling letters directed at his two sons, but this fascinating work is in fact aimed at an entire generation of perplexed young Jews. He delineates the just case for Israel with precision and delicacy, sans fluff or pandering. This is a book which strives to combat Israel haters and bashers and gives real tools and answers to those liberal Jews who feel somewhat frustrated and confused about Israel. A must-read!” – Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel.

All 4 books are available from their publishers or on Amazon.com.

“Why progressive Jews mustn’t give up on Zionism” – JTA, August 3, 2016

10 Sunday Aug 2025

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Despite the rightward turn of the Israeli government, we continue to believe in the Zionist enterprise and the viability of the State of Israel, write four leaders of progressive Zionism.

AUGUST 3, 2016 

[Introductory notes: Simultaneously with my posting of my blog on August 6, 2025 – “What does it Mean to be a Liberal American Zionist?” – the British-born former Director of Policy Analysis at AIPAC, Michael Lewis, posted the following article on LinkedIn that was originally published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) 9 years ago, almost to the day, that I co-wrote along with my colleagues (see names below). I thank Michael for posting this. I had forgotten about it. Little has changed, however, in my thinking about what it means to be a liberal Zionist except today, because so many “progressive” Jews no longer identify as Zionists, I prefer to be called a “liberal” Zionist. One more thing. Though the vast majority of Israelis today believe, after October 7, that a two-state solution is unlikely ever to happen, there is still no alternative if Israel is to remain both Jewish and democratic. When I think of the current relationships between the United States and Germany and Japan, no one would have thought such alliances would have been possible in 1945. Perhaps, once this horrendous war ends, there might be a new light showing the way along with the will amongst our two peoples to chart a course that will enable Israel and the Palestinian people to live next to each other in security and peace.]

NEW YORK (JTA) — As progressive American Zionists, we take seriously the critique of Israel and Zionism by professors Hasia Diner and Marjorie N. Feld, contained in their Aug. 1 Haaretz article, “We’re American Jewish Historians. This is why we’ve left Zionism behind.”

However, unlike them, we affirm progressive Zionist values. And those values mandate activism in order to ensure that Israel is both a democracy and the national home of the Jewish people.

The difference between us and professors Diner and Feld is that we continue to believe in the Zionist enterprise and the viability of the State of Israel, despite troubling trends: the rightward turn of the Israeli government; the corrupting influence of the nearly 50-year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people in the West Bank; the growing messianic nationalism of the settler movement; the ultra-Orthodox influence on the Israeli government and its control over Jewish religious life; the second-class status of Palestinian Israeli citizens. We have a duty as Diaspora Zionists to critique Israeli policies whenever we believe that the State of Israel violates Jewish and democratic values as articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

For us, Jewish “nationalism” cannot be the sole objective of Zionism. Rather, Zionism and the Jewish nation is a means towards the perfection of the Jewish people and the world (tikkun olam).

Since its establishment, Israel has meant many things to many people: a haven from persecution, a catalyst for Jewish renewal and a place where the rhythms of civic life are Jewish rhythms. We regard the State of Israel as the Jewish people’s laboratory of Jewish ethical living, one that has seen unparalleled achievements and successes, as well as considerable deficiencies and failures. We regard the founding of the state as a consummate historic opportunity, to test the efficacy of Jewish ethical values, institutions and the diversity of Jewish peoplehood all while holding onto political power as a sovereign state.

Sadly, the professors base their argument on the highly reductionist notion of Judaism as simply a religion, and they even seem to breathe life into the 40-year-old defamatory attempt to label Zionism as racism. They suggest that it was Israeli homogenization that led to the demise of Jewish communities around the world, as if the great holy communities of Warsaw, Vilna and Krakow would somehow be intact today if it weren’t for…Zionism.

They also deeply oversimplify the reality here in the U.S., with its religiously neutral environment. America, and American Jews, have championed the “Goldene Medinah” — the Golden Land — as the great melting pot and exalted land of assimilation and acculturation. But today, Jews throughout the U.S. struggle with the challenge of balancing the benefits of American religious freedom while responding to communal trends in which Jews struggle to find connections, meaning and relevance in being Jewish.

As Zionists, Israel is the center of global Jewish life, and, it is important to recognize, it has managed to create a vibrant and creative Jewish society with a rich and incredibly ethnically diverse Judaism. Yet, Diaspora Jewry is a partner in assuring Israel’s viability as a democracy and a Jewish state, and its security as a sovereign nation. Our role in the Diaspora is different than that of Israeli citizens, but it is no less important. Indeed, our two centers need each other’s wisdom and support.

Professors Diner and Feld seem to have been defeated by their mythic understanding of Zionism and Israel. Though there is merit to their legitimate concerns about the “other” and what Jewish nationalism must do to include non-Jews as equal citizens in the state, it is unfortunate that they are turning away from Zionism altogether. Their relationship with Israel seems to be conditional. We would like to suggest an unconditional relationship to Israel. That means, like family, when we see troubling trends and abhorrent behavior, rather than disavow the entire enterprise, we prefer to roll up our sleeves and get more involved.

They are right that the Palestinians are entitled to empathy, justice and redress. Israel cannot continue to occupy another people and remain true to its democratic and Jewish values. The only way to preserve Israel as a Jewish state and a democracy is for Israel and the Palestinians to enter into negotiations leading to two states for two peoples.

Similarly, Israeli Jews and Diaspora Zionists must actively engage non-Jewish Israelis to address the real tensions within Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state. Making Israel both more democratic and more Jewish is a serious challenge, but it is the essential struggle of Zionism. And as we reject Professors Diner and Feld when they give up on Israel as a Jewish state, we oppose Israelis and other Jews who take actions that threaten Israel’s essential nature as a democracy.

Ultimately, our vision of progressive Zionism — which is embodied in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the Zionist movement’s Jerusalem Program — is one grounded in hope and action. And we will continue to strive to fulfill this vision to ensure a just, secure and peaceful future for all Israelis, and an Israel that can be a dynamic inspiration to Jews around the world.

(Rabbi Josh Weinberg and Rabbi John Rosove are the President and Chair of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America. Gideon Aronoff and Ken Bob are the CEO and National President of Ameinu.)

Original JTA article link – https://www.jta.org/2016/08/03/ideas/why-progressive-jews-mustnt-give-up-on-zionism

What Does it Mean to be a Liberal American Zionist?

07 Thursday Aug 2025

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Even before Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, the definition and meaning of “Zionism” had increasingly come to be understood in far-left-progressive circles in the United States and around the world in strongly cynical and pejorative terms. Zionism became even more so understood negatively once Israel began its morally just counterattack against Hamas beginning on October 8th and later against Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran. Those who were in league with the world-wide anti-Israel movement before October 7 and who had sought for years to re-frame the Zionist narrative as discriminatory, racist, colonialist, and a product of European imperialism discovered that they were gaining increasing support among many politically progressive left-wing Americans who claimed the humanitarian mantle against what they believed was Israel’s military over-reaction to what Hamas did to Israelis on that bloodiest day in the history of the State of Israel.  

Every people has the right of self-definition, and we Zionists – and especially we liberal American Zionists – have that right as well.

I believe that this is the time for us to take back our liberal American Zionist narrative and lead with it whenever we discuss with those who know much or little about the history of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. That is what I want to do in this blog post, to express why I am a proud liberal American Zionist despite my deep protest against the policies of this most extremist Israeli right-wing messianic government in the history of Israel.

I am a proud liberal American Zionist and as such I believe in the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own in our historic Homeland and in the right of the Jewish State militarily to defend itself when attacked by terrorists and hostile states.

As a liberal American Zionist I affirm that the universal humanitarian values advocated by the ancient prophets of Israel, developed by rabbinic tradition over the past two millennia, and included in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, namely that justice, equality, human rights, compassion, and peace must be core values guiding every Israeli government’s policies, its military and civil society.

As a liberal American Zionist I am proud of what the Zionist movement and the people and State of Israel have accomplished in virtually every arena of human endeavor including immigration and the absorption of refugees, agriculture, education, the sciences, medicine, bio-technology, cyber, culture, the arts, diplomacy, human rights, civil society, and self-defense.

As a liberal American Zionist I understand that the intent of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran is to destroy the State of Israel and murder as many Jews as possible in their messianic zeal to establish an extremist caliphate over all of historic Palestine “from the river to the sea.” As one example of this murderous intent, Hamas’ leadership said early on in the war that 100,000 Palestinian martyrs were not too many to fulfill its extremist mission to murder Jews and destroy the Jewish state.

As a liberal American Zionist I am proud and grateful that the United States historically has been Israel’s most important and generous ally and that Israel’s security needs have enjoyed bi-partisan American political support.

As a student of Israeli and Middle East history, I know that Israel has tried many times to resolve diplomatically the Israeli-Arab and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts resulting in two-states for two-peoples as a matter of justice for the Palestinians and enlightened self-interest for Israel, but that extremist and uncompromising Palestinian leadership has walked away every time.

As a liberal American Zionist I acknowledge that I am not an Israeli citizen, that I do not pay Israeli taxes nor do I send my children and grandchildren to the Israeli military to fight in Israel’s wars. Only Israeli citizens have the right to take the decisions that directly impact their lives and well-being. However, as an American Jew and liberal Zionist who loves Israel I believe that I have the right to share my ideas and criticism of Israeli government policies that I believe are harmful not only to Israel’s own best interests as a Jewish and democratic state but to my security and well-being as a Diaspora Jew and my liberal Jewish and democratic values.

As a liberal American Zionist, for months I have felt the anguish, grief and rage of what Hamas did on October 7th. I continue to worry daily about the survival of the remaining hostages and the well-being of their families and the families of the Israeli soldiers killed and injured in this war. I have worried as well since this war began about the suffering of the two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

As a liberal American Zionist I believe that Israel, in fighting this just war has not always fought the war justly. It ought to be clear that Israel has crossed many red-lines despite all the challenges and difficulties in fighting a war against a non-state actor that deliberately hides behind and uses its own people as human shields. Israel’s massive killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and its use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war are immoral and un-Jewish.

It is American policy that Israel and all recipients of U.S. weapons must adhere by law to standards concerning humanitarian aid and the use of force. As painful as it is for me to say this because I have always supported American military aid to Israel throughout my life, I support those 27 Democratic Party Senators who voted recently to halt the sale of offensive weapons to Israel as a way to put pressure on PM Netanyahu and his extremist government to end this war now, to stop the suffering, the starvation, the killing of civilians, and the deaths of Israeli soldiers and hostages.

These 27 Senators are friends of Israel, every one of them. They have always supported Israel’s true security needs. In their vote to withhold offensive weapons now after all these months of war they carefully distinguished between those weapons and the defensive weapon systems of Iron Dome, Arrow, and David’s Sling, which save Israeli lives. These Senators should not be criticized for their vote or accused of being anti-Israel. They are not that. They instead should be praised for acting on behalf of the best interests of Israel and the Palestinians and for applying necessary pressure on this extremist Israeli government to do what is just and compassionate – to end this war now, to bring home the hostages immediately, to pour massive humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to stop the killing and injury of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians.

The vast majority of Israelis themselves and the vast majority of the American Jewish community agree that the war must end now, the hostages returned home, and humanitarian aid be provided in quantities that can stop the hunger and starvation.

I say all of these things as a committed liberal American Zionist and as a lover of the people and State of Israel.

The North American Reform Jewish Movement has issued the following statement on Starvation in Gaza

28 Monday Jul 2025

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The ongoing crisis in Gaza is a devastating reminder of the immense human cost of war. Nearly two years into Israel’s war against Hamas, Israelis are still waiting for the return of their loved ones held hostage, and innocent Palestinians are caught in a mounting humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel’s destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war.

While long-delayed and not-yet-certain to be more effective than previous efforts, we are encouraged by Saturday night’s announcement that the Israeli military would revive the practice of dropping aid from airplanes and make it easier for aid convoys, including those from the UN’s World Food Program, to move through Gaza along “designated humanitarian corridors,” and to temporarily cease fighting in Gaza for a humanitarian pause.

No one should be unaffected by the pervasive hunger experienced by thousands of Gazans. No one should spend the bulk of their time arguing technical definitions between starvation and pervasive hunger. The situation is dire, and it is deadly. Nor should we accept arguments that because Hamas is the primary reason many Gazans are either starving or on the verge of starving, that the Jewish State is not also culpable in this human disaster. The primary moral response must begin with anguished hearts in the face of such a large-scale human tragedy.

Our tradition teaches that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image of God. One consequence of this is the moral priority, which is affirmed throughout the Bible and rabbinic tradition, of feeding the hungry—both for the individual and for the self-governing Jewish community.

More than a few members of the current Israeli government have publicly called for Israel to decimate the Gaza strip. The most recent was Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu who, on Thursday lauded the Israeli government for “racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out.” He added: “Thank God, we are wiping out this evil.” Of equal concern are far-right Israeli politicians who advocate for Israel to permanently push most Gazans from much of Gaza and replace them with Jewish settlements. We condemn all such statements. They do not represent Jewish values nor those embodied in the Zionist vision that produced Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Despite PM Netanyahu’s calls to ignore these full members of his cabinet, their presence in this government has consistently morally compromised Israel’s actions.

Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the “total victory” over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law. It’s hard to imagine that this tragic approach will bring home the 50 remaining hostages, including the 20 whom we pray are still alive.

It’s imperative that the Government of Israel ensures that the recently announced plans to deliver humanitarian aid succeed as Israel works with international partners to ensure its safe and sustained delivery and do whatever possible to reduce or eliminate the shootings and other injuries sustained at food distribution centers. We applaud Israel’s green light for foreign nations to resume providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza population desperate for food and are confident that they will do all they can to ensure that such aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas.

As Israel has effective control of 70% of Gaza, with the intent to remain in significant swaths of it, even if only temporarily, it should be directly involved, facilitate and cooperate with the international community, international humanitarian NGOs, and regional friends, to take urgently needed actions, such as these suggested by Israeli Reform rabbi and Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv:

• To prevent the alarming number of civilian deaths in and around the food and humanitarian aid distribution sites.

• Opening a significant number of food distribution centers at various locations across the Gaza Strip.

• Large-scale entry of infant formula (especially liquid formula) and ensuring safe delivery to both functioning medical centers and the few remaining international aid facilities.

• Establishing secure methods—potentially through cooperation with regional countries—for delivering food supplies to aid organizations and international agencies.

• Resuming sufficient water supply to population centers in Gaza, in accordance with international health standards.

• Authorizing and assisting in the supply of medications, the establishment of field hospitals and clinics operated by remaining Palestinian medical staff, by foreign governments and by international agencies, especially in areas where hospitals have ceased functioning.

Finally, while it is imperative that Israel and the U.S. resume diplomacy to bring home all hostages and end this war, denying basic humanitarian aid crosses a moral line. Blocking food, water, medicine, and power—especially for children—is indefensible. Let us not allow our grief to harden into indifference, nor our love for Israel to blind us to the cries of the vulnerable. Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment.

“We all want to change the world” – by Kareem Abdul-Jabaar – A Review

01 Sunday Jun 2025

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Kareem Abdul-Jabaar’s newly published book We all want to change the world – My Journey through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today is a sweeping, thoughtful, self-revelatory, honest, and inspiring review of most of the major social justice movements and human rights challenges in the United States since the 1950s when Kareem was coming of age as a African American athlete in New York City. One of the greatest basketball players in the history of the NBA, Kareem is now among the most prolific writers, probing thinkers and public intellectuals in America.

I read Kareem’s Substack newsletters from start to finish each time he publishes (twice weekly) and I find him always smart, rational, intellectually honest, thorough in his research, moral, and entertaining with his short videos of extraordinary athletic feats, musical selections, and cultural moments. Just as his Substack newsletter is worth reading, so is his newest book.

Kareem covers the impact on American society of the movements for Free Speech, Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam War, Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation, and the cultural, emotional and psychological mindsets that spawned the courageous leadership that furthered human rights and opportunities in the United States for discriminated groups of Americans.

Kareem describes his personal mantra as that inspired by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer’s adage: “No one is free unless everyone is free,” and what Dr. King said in another way: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

As a young black man growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in New York City, becoming a famous athlete, meeting Dr. King, Mohammad Ali, and other leading black sports, entertainment and human rights figures, and reading constantly from the time he was a teen-ager, the shy, intellectual, self-reflective and compassionate young man felt compelled to think not only about himself and his athletic career and the moral compromises that many fellow black athletes felt they had to make in order to further their careers, but about every individual struggling for dignity beyond the stereotypes and cultural definitions that oppressed them.

Kareem wrote:

“Writing [the chapter on Civil Rights as My Gateway Movement] was especially challenging for me. As I chronicled the history of decade after decade of civil rights abuses and the martyrs who gave up their lives in pursuit of the freedoms already promised by our Constitution, I felt the rising heat of frustration and anger from my younger days. I needed to take frequent breaks to remind myself that frustration and anger by themselves accomplish nothing. Injustice is fueled by indifference, but passion without a plan is just as destructive. For me, the fiery passion of my youth needed to be channeled in order for me to do my part to bring about justice.”

This book is well-researched and well-written, and it lays out the historical facts and events of each of the human rights movements Kareem discusses in detail. He first presents those events historically, then dives into the emotional, social, and psychological challenges the leaders and followers of each movement confronted. For me, about three years younger than Kareem (age 78), I remember so much of what he describes, and I appreciate his insights about the forces that propelled the leadership of each movement to do what they did, as well as the baked-in cultural norms that reflected (and still reflects) the thinking of massive numbers of Americans.

Among other self-revelatory sections of the book, Kareem describes himself as a feminist. He wrote:

“As a Black teenager growing up in New York City, I loved books, movies, television, and music. Looking back on all that I was exposed to, I see now how those popular art forms conspired to produce a pounding thrum of dangerous misogyny, an insistent earworm that ran through my generation as it had so many generations before. With this evolving women’s movement, as more and more voices joined the chorus protesting misogyny, our heads were cleared enough to choose for ourselves. That’s how it was for me.”

In his epilogue, Kareem confessed:

“The biggest challenge I had in writing this book was the frequent breaks I had to take due to the build-up of frustration and anger. Again and again in my research, I saw the same pattern: basic human rights denied, indignities and disrespect piled on, and the refusal of oppressors to acknowledge why they were wrong. The worst was the complicity of so many people who disagreed with the discrimination in principle but who were too complacent to act. They might justify their collusion with ‘What can I do?’ but they already know the answer. They just don’t like it.”  

He concludes the book discussing the ongoing need for open and public protest in all the areas he discussed:

“The Founders enshrined the right to protest in our Constitution. They did that because they knew that the forces of self-interest and corruption would always try and to subvert the ideals of democracy they laid out.”

Kareem can be forgiven for the human rights issues he did not include in his book. However, there is one that Kareem does not discuss in this volume – the oldest of all hatreds, antisemitism. I’ve wondered why he didn’t discuss it specifically since it has become a major issue in North America, on college and university campuses, and around the world especially since Hamas’s brutal attack, murder and rape of 1200 Israelis and others on October 7, 2023 in Southern Israel and reactions to Israel and Jews as a consequence of the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel.

On October 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas attack, Kareem wrote in his Substack newsletter of his support of Israel. He condemned Hamas categorically, and elsewhere he described antisemitism as “especially heinous.” Kareem was the 2022 winner of Canada’s “Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center’s first Ally Against Anti-Semitism Award,” so his pro-Jewish and pro-Israel bona fides are undisputed. Given Kareem’s 1.1 million Substack readers and the likely large number of people of color, athletes, and liberal-left readers who will read this book (as well as interested moderates and conservatives), I would have appreciated his discussion of antisemitism, its nature and history going back thousands of years and reemerging today in the United States, especially in this post-October 7th period in which so many on the far left publicly have identified with Hamas against Israel and Zionism and so many on the far right who openly court and identify with neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists, including the sitting President of the United States.

Hamas is among the most brutal, undemocratic, unenlightened, Jew-hating, extremist Muslim terrorist organizations in the world. It is one thing for decent people to want peace and justice for the Palestinian people in some kind of a demilitarized state of their own alongside a secure and democratic Jewish State of Israel, but it is something else entirely to support Hamas and its call for a free “Palestine from the River to the Sea.” That position means the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jews. It is antisemitic Jew-hatred.  

There is a strong human rights case to be made about this oldest of hatreds that would have merited Kareem’s inclusion of a discussion of antisemitism in his book. Historically, the evidence is clear that in every country in which Jews have been discriminated against, attacked and accused of corrupting the soul of a people or nation, human rights generally and democracy specifically have been diminished and/or destroyed. To me, antisemitism would have been an obvious chapter to write about. I’m disappointed that Kareem didn’t take the opportunity to address Jew-hatred head-on, especially because I know he understands what antisemitism is and its “heinous” character. It was a missed opportunity to educate those very groups and individuals in which antisemitism has taken root and found a home in recent years on both the far left and the far right.

Eurovision 2025 Final: Israel’s Yuval Raphael Finishes in Second Place as Hundreds Protest Gaza War in Basel – Haaretz

18 Sunday May 2025

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My Introductory Notes: This article from Haaretz today (May 18, 2025) describes the 2nd place finish of Israel’s spectacular new-comer star, Yuval Raphael, in the 2025 Eurovision Competition. She was not expected to place second, but her song and her beautiful voice, won the day. I post at the end the link to Yuval’s official entry into the competition.

No one from a singer’s host country is permitted to vote for his/her own country’s entry, so Yuval won on the merits, despite anti-Israel demonstrations inside and outside the concert hall.

Yuval survived the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israeli young people at the Music Festival in Southern Israel by hiding for 8 hours underneath the bodies of fellow concert-goers who had been murdered.

Yuval had never performed before any large audience, so to ascend so quickly to represent the people and State of Israel at this international competition before 6500 people in the hall and millions watching on television is a remarkable accomplishment. She did so with courage and grace, and her voice is spectacular – resonant, beautiful and open, entering the heart.

Here is the Haaretz article:

The Eurovision Song Contest final ended on Saturday night in Basel, Switzerland. Israel’s Yuval Raphael’s performance of “New Day Will Rise,” a song written by Keren Peles, finished in second place, with Austria taking the lead.

The competition venue, which holds around 6,500 spectators, featured performances by several frontrunners, including Sweden, Austria and France.

Audience voting opened at the start of the performances. A combination of public votes and national jury scores determined the final results. Viewers could vote up to 20 times using the official app, phone, or text message. Jury votes had already been cast during a rehearsal held Friday night.

Austria was crowned the unexpected winner, after Wasted Love by JJ received a total of 436 points. Israel received 357 points. The public votes awarded Israel 297 points – more than any other country.

Raphael, 24, was at the Nova music festival during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

During the attack, she hid in a shelter near Kibbutz Be’eri and sustained shrapnel injuries. She was one of only 11 survivors from that shelter, having hidden under the bodies of victims for eight hours.

She later shared her harrowing experience in a speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council. Witnesses said that on Saturday, two protesters—a man and a woman from Holland — splashed red paint and began shouting during Raphael’s performance. Security guards quickly led the protesters out of the venue.

Since Thursday’s second semifinal, Israel had dropped to seventh place in the betting rankings, with Finland and Estonia overtaking it. Raphael was scheduled to perform fourth out of 26 entries – a relatively early slot that, according to past trends, tends to reduce a country’s chances of winning.

During Friday’s jury rehearsal – and similarly in Thursday’s semifinal dress rehearsal – a few audible boos and other disturbances could be heard during Yuval Raphael’s performance. However, no disruptions were heard during rehearsals for the press.

After a relatively quiet week, a pro-Palestinian protest took place in Basel ahead of the final. Several hundred people gathered in central Basel to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and to oppose Israel’s participation in the contest. Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Boycott apartheid Israel,” “No stage for genocide,” and “Free Palestine.”Swiss police declined to provide Haaretz with information regarding the investigation of a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who made a throat-slitting gesture toward Raphael and the Israeli delegation on Sunday. “The public prosecutor’s office is handling the case, and for tactical reasons, we cannot provide further information at this stage,” the police stated repeatedly.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Israel%27s+Yuval+Raphael%27s+song+at+Eurovision&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS934US991&oq=Israel%27s+Yuval+Raphael%27s+song+at+Eurovision&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l5.11033j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:2cf0822c,vid:Q3BELu4z6-U,st:0

“Rededicating Ourselves to Deepening Interfaith Relationships: A Pledge Sponsored by the International Council of Christians and Jews”

11 Sunday May 2025

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 I signed this pledge today and invite my readers to do so as well, wherever you live around the world, whether you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim. Please read this commitment to Interfaith Relationships carefully, and if you believe in this declaration of commitment, click onto the link at the end of the statement and include your signature. I thank you in advance.

An Invitation to Recommit to Interfaith Relationships in These Tumultuous Times

In this year of 2025 in the Western calendar, defining religious observances for Jews, Christians, and Muslims occur within days of each other. Jews commemorate liberation from slavery at special Passover meals. Christians celebrate freedom from the slavery of death brought by the resurrection of Jesus. Muslims celebrate Eid-al-Fitr as the joyful culmination of Ramadan, uniting in prayer, charity, and reinvigorated communal experience. This convergence provides a moment that our world in turmoil desperately needs, a moment to continue the progress of the past several decades in deepening interfaith relationships.

Our world is living through a time when relations among people of different faith traditions are under great stress. The ICCJ, being especially dedicated to dialogue between Jews and Christians, as well as trilateral dialogue with Muslims, believes that the violent and polarized world of today urgently needs such dialogues to continue and, indeed, to intensify in the months and years ahead.

The ICCJ has composed a declaration of recommitment to the work of dialogue, including specific practices to enhance it.

We invite any individual, organization, or institution that cherishes interreligious amity to join us in our resolve by endorsing the declaration and enacting its values in their own lives and circumstances.

A Pledge Sponsored by the International Council of Christians and Jews

The First and Second World Wars killed over one hundred million people and made refugees of hundreds of millions more. Empires fell. Nations were born. Weapons with unimaginable power were devised, threatening the very existence of life on our planet. Nonetheless, from this carnage and chaos positive initiatives arose, including in many places an historically unprecedented transformation in relationships between Jews and Christians.

Appalled and traumatized by the industrialized slaughter of two-thirds of European Jewry, people in both communities sought rapprochement after nearly two millennia of estrangement and antipathy. Christians had to confront a long history of anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence, while Jews had to risk hoping that Christian overtures were truly sincere. Crucial turning points were a conference in Seelisberg, Switzerland in 1947, which led to the founding of the International Council of Christians and Jews, and the Catholic Church’s 1965 Second Vatican Council declaration Nostra Aetate and the 1967 report of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, “The Church and the Jewish People.”

The quest for open dialogue and sincere friendship between Jews and Christians raised many moral, theological, and social questions and shed new light on each community’s self-understanding. After centuries of mutual ignorance and polemic, it took time to build trust and to learn how to speak to one another. Gradually, a unique era of dialogue, understanding, and mutual enrichment began. As never before, unfolding differently in various parts of the world, Christians and Jews, while forming civic collaborations and deep personal friendships, studied together in exceptional depth, some becoming expert in the other’s history and texts. These dialogue partners explored religious ideas that previously were avoided. Understanding themselves to be journeying together in God’s covenantal presence, they found new respect for each other’s religious integrity, leading many churches to disavow missions to convert Jews. Such efforts and experiences were models to engage with other religious communities, especially Muslims.

Over the years there have been disputes and missteps. The journey has been a complicated and uneven one. The post-Shoah geographic concentration of Jews in Israel and major cities in the United States means that most Christians around the world cannot personally engage in interreligious dialogue with Jews. In various times and places, religious radicalism dehumanizes people by setting them against each other along religious lines. Even though peace often seems an impossible dream, there are Jews, Christians, and Muslims who have nevertheless steadfastly pursued dialogue and friendship for decades. Their courageous efforts are signs of hope to people everywhere.

The war between Israel and Hamas in the wake of October 7, 2023, which has longstanding regional and intercontinental aspects, has shaken interreligious amity to a degree not seen since World War II, and will have long-term consequences. Among some Christians and Jews old stereotypes and suspicions about each other have resurfaced. Around the globe, antisemitic bigotries and even violence have surged, provoking fear. Although people view and are impacted by the current crises in diverse ways, all are haunted by the tragic death toll. Yet we who cultivate interreligious friendships yearn for and must prepare and work for the day when peace will dawn and both Palestinians and Israelis, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, will prosper in peace and security.

THE SIGNATORIES OF THIS PLEDGE RESOLVE that interreligious dialogue cannot be a victim of these or any other attacks or conflicts. Indeed, dialogue is more important than ever. We believe it to be God’s will and our holy calling. Wherever we live and whatever our circumstances, we pledge to:

  • Be blessings for one another and therefore for the world,
  • Support one another in our covenantal responsibilities to God,
  • Share each other’s joys and sorrows,
  • Actively oppose religious prejudice, including especially antisemitism, Islamophobia, or anti-Christianity, and bear truthful witness for each other when misrepresented or defamed,
  • Review our religious teachings, rituals, and practices to address any elements that caricature or teach disrespect for each other, or that in any way racialize or dehumanize anyone,
  • Continue and deepen the joint study of subjects that urgently need attention, such as: Christianity as more of a credal religion in comparison to Jewish self-understanding as a peoplehood, the land and state of Israel in Jewish and Christian spirituality, the meaning of the Jewish identity of Jesus for Jews and Christians today, the ongoing implications of the Shoah for Christians and for Jews, their bonds in the scriptural Word of God, their traditions of ethical reasoning, and how they can speak and act together for the good of humanity and creation,
  • Seek to develop deeper interreligious friendships with Muslims, and
  • Better discern the divine Presence in each other’s communities, traditions, and rituals.

In making these commitments, we pray that God will bless our efforts and continue to accompany us in our search for deepening and lasting interreligious friendship and understanding.

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS (ICCJ)
MARTIN BUBER HOUSE, HEPPENHEIM
APRIL 2025

To endorse this pledge, go to – https://www.iccj.org/resources/iccj-statements/iccj-declaration-2025.html

Wiping Clean the “Human Stain” – A Pesach Message

10 Thursday Apr 2025

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Fear, anger, outrage, disgust, rage, anxiety, worry – these are among the feelings millions of Americans have been experiencing since Trump took control of the federal government, appointed incompetent sycophants to his Cabinet, began firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers, dismembering whole government departments and agencies, crashing the economy, obliterating the life savings of millions of seniors, threatening America’s social safety net, and wrecking the international global trading system.

And then there’s the endless war in Gaza that PM Netanyahu refuses to end thereby callously forsaking the lives of the remaining hostages, withholding desperately needed humanitarian aid from the most vulnerable Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and allowing more killings in Gaza and the destruction of Palestinian lives and villages in the West Bank.

In his novel The Human Stain, Philip Roth wrote cynically:

“…we leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, … – there’s no other way to be here. Nothing to do with disobedience. Nothing to do with grace or salvation or redemption. It’s in everyone. Indwelling. Inherent, Defining. The stain that is there before its mark. Without the sign it is there. The stain so intrinsic it doesn’t require a mark. The stain that precedes disobedience, that impasses disobedience and perplexes all explanation and understanding. It’s why all the cleansing is a job. A barbaric joke at that. The fantasy of purity is appalling. It’s insane. What is the quest to purify, if not more impurity?” (p. 242)

Roth’s dystopic characterization of the human condition is soul-crushing and contrary to fundamental Jewish values promoting goodness, justice, compassion, and human decency.

Years ago at a convention of Reform Rabbis in Jerusalem that met between Purim and Pesach, Yossi Klein Halevi offered this teaching about the truths at the core of each holiday. Purim, he said, reminds Jews that there are indeed evil actors in the world whose hatred of our people threatens us and we cannot be naïve about their worst intentions. Pesach reminds us, he said, that as a people who have long known enslavement and suffering must never forget that it’s our duty to remain compassionate despite the cruelty around us.

Pesach reminds us also that we need each other, our families, friends, and community as we face the multitude of moral challenges before us. When we open the door for Elijah, we’re reminded that not all is lost, that hope abides despite the human stain that leaves its corrosive residue in the heart, and that it’s our moral and Jewish duty to act justly, to love mercy, and to pursue peace.

Our role today, along with the millions of Americans who marched last weekend against the despotic over-reach of this corrupt and heartless American President, is to be, like them, on the right side of history. And it is to be grateful for the thousands of lawyers and law firms, the hundreds of college and university presidents and faculties, and the many decent public servants in Congress, state capitals and local communities across the United States who are resisting tyranny.

As Jews who love Israel, it is our place to act in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators marching weekly and calling for an immediate end to Israel’s longest war, the return of the hostages, the restoration of humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and on behalf of Israeli democracy.  

When the ancient Israelites escaped Egypt with Pharaoh’s troops in pursuit, they came to the Sea of Reeds, a natural blockade to their liberation. Moses turned to God in prayer and asked for Divine agency. However, Nachshon ben Aminadav took history into his own hands and leaped into the sea, whereupon the Holy One took note of Nachshon’s courage and parted the waters that the people might escape upon dry land.

The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 54b), many centuries later, reflected on the moral responsibility of our people to take action whenever they confronted injustice, corruption, and hard-heartedness:

“If a person can protest the misdeeds of one’s household, yet does not, that one becomes guilty with them. If a person can protest the deeds of one’s towns-people, and does not, that one is guilty with them. If a person can protest the deeds of the entire world, and does not, that one is guilty with them.”

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Rabbi Stanley Davids, z’l – The Death of one of our G’dolei Dor

01 Tuesday Apr 2025

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Introductory Note: Rabbi Stanley Davids z’l died on Motzei Shabbat, March 22. He will be interred in the cemetery in Ma’aleh HaChamishah, Israel. A Memorial celebration of his life was conducted at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles on Monday, March 31. Stan’s son, Rabbi Ronn David and I eulogized Stan. The following is the text of my eulogy that I offer in loving memory of my/our Rabbi, teacher, leader, and cherished friend.

When I received a text from Stan’s daughter Aviva the night that her dad died, I thought of the words of grief spoken by the young David following the death of his beloved friend Jonathan in the 2nd Book of Samuel: “Eich naflu hagiborim – How the mighty have fallen.” If anyone was a mamash gibor in American Jewish and Zionist life, it was Rabbi Stanley Davids.

Last August, I sat with Stan at our favorite lunch diner in Santa Monica and he told me that his end was fast approaching. I was stunned and disbelieving because Stan was like a cat with 9 lives. He had overcome so many serious health trials over the past thirty years, and I assumed he would surmount yet again whatever medical challenge he was now confronting.

After telling me more about his current illness, Stan asked me to offer a eulogy at his memorial service. Actually, Stan didn’t ask me; he told me that he and his family had made a decision that I was to speak, and as so often was the case, I couldn’t refuse whatever Stan asked of me not only because I loved and respected him, but because I knew he loved me too and he wouldn’t ask me to do something unless it was very important to him. I know this was the case for so many of us.

And so, I replied – “Yes, I’d be honored to speak;” but I wondered how I could possibly do so adequately enough. Stan was, after all, one of our g’dolei dor – great ones of our generation, a formidable Jewish and Zionist leader, an American and Israeli Rabbi of significant accomplishments, a veritable force of nature, graced with a keen intellect, a huge heart, forceful passions and opinions, indefatigable energy, and great humor, wit, and charm.

Whenever I have thought of Stan over the many years we’ve been close friends, I’ve also thought of Resa, because they were joined at the hip for more than 61 years. I believe that Stan likely surmounted his many health challenges on account of having two advantages – great medical care on the one hand (my brother was one of his physicians – a hematologist and oncologist) and Resa on the other, who stood with him, loving and supporting him along with their children Ronn and Nicolle, Shoshana, Aviva and Jason, and their 8 grandchildren – Beth, Hannah, James, Joshua, Gabriel, Zeke, Mya, and Cole about whom Stan and Resa have been so proud.

I first met Stan 38 years ago when I brought one hundred 15 year-old Confirmation students from the Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C., where I was serving, to tour Jewish New York. One of our annual destinations was the magnificent sanctuary of Central Synagogue. When we arrived by pre-arrangement before Kabbalat Shabbat services, Stan greeted us with his customary grace and warmth. With his radiating smile, high energy and open heart Stan welcomed us as he led us on a tour of Central’s historic synagogue building and then with his community in Shabbat prayer.

Over the years, and especially when he served as ARZA President, he and I became closer friends. In time, he and Resa along with then ARZA Chair Rabbi Bennett Miller persuaded me to assume the chairmanship of ARZA. It was a great honor to be so considered, but I was reticent to take on that responsibility because I had a demanding congregational position here in LA as Senior Rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood, but Stan persuaded me. He said that by assuming this position I would be at the center of action of the United States Reform Zionist movement and that I would have an experience that would change me, as it had changed him long before.

He promised me that he would help guide me to understand and manage the confusing and complex interplay of the 3 national institutions of the Jewish people and their leaders (some of whom could be quite challenging) on the boards of which I would have a seat, the WZO, the Sochnut, and the Jewish National Fund. He fulfilled that promise and so much more, and he was right, the experience changed me.

As I have learned over the years, Stan mentored so many of us. He inspired many of his students growing up in his congregations to become rabbis, and he befriended countless other rabbis and lay leaders in North America and Israel.

Stan was a born leader who honed his skills over a lifetime of exceptional service. He loved to lead, to be in the limelight of consequential organizational decision-making. He relished thinking deeply about the great challenges facing modern Judaism and the Jewish people, and he used every position he ever held to enhance the quality, depth and breadth of reach of his Jewish and Zionist visions for those communities that he served.

Stan graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. As a college student, he served as the president of his university’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter eventually rising to serve as the international Supreme Master of AEPi, the membership of which includes more than 100,000 living alumni with chapters on more than 150 college campuses in four countries, making it the world’s largest and leading Jewish college fraternity. Hanging over his home computer is his framed “AEPi Lion of Judah Award” about which he was so very proud.

Stan was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1965. Then he served as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army, followed by service as an assistant rabbi in a Milwaukee Reform synagogue, and then as the Senior Rabbi of congregations in Longmeadow and Worcester, Massachusetts, New York City, and Atlanta. His reach, however, extended far beyond the Jewish community, and as a sign of his prominence in interfaith work, he was honored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Within the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Stan chaired the National Youth Committee, the Israel Committee and was on the CCAR’s National Executive Committee. As a lover of the Hebrew language and Israel from his youth, he was the “Father” of ARZA’s Reform Zionist Think Tank that eventually led to the CCAR’s Reform Zionist Platform that embraced for the first time Aliyah as a Reform Mitzvah.

If all that was not enough, as a skilled fundraiser for the Jewish people, Stan also was appointed as Honorary Chairman of the State of Israel Bonds National Rabbinic Cabinet.

When Stan became a candidate for the presidency of ARZA in the early 2000s, he told Resa that if he were to be fortunate enough to be elected they would have to make Aliyah because he believed that Israel must be their home-base. As soon as he was chosen, on that very day, Resa quietly went to work, without Stan knowing. She made all the complicated plans to make Aliyah. Stan came home the day the details finally had been worked out and Resa handed him a pen and told him to sign some papers and then to inform his Atlanta synagogue leadership that he was retiring and they were moving to Israel.

He served proudly as President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA – the largest American Zionist movement representing 1.5 million Reform Jews) between 2003 and 2008, and he rose in stature to serve on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Executive Committee of the World Zionist Organization. Later on he was named an Honorary Fellow of the WZO.

In Jerusalem, he was invited to be a member of the Board of Overseers of the Jerusalem campus of the Hebrew Union College where he served for eight years, and then upon coming to Los Angeles he was invited to serve on the Advisory Board of the HUC/LA campus.

Resa and Stan loved those 10 years in Jerusalem. In May 2016, as he retired from all his positions in the WZO, Sochnut, and K’Kal, the Israel Movement for Reform Judaism honored him. After all the praise expressed to him by a number of our Israel movement leadership, Stan said simply: “The best part of being engaged here for so long are the people – all of you whom I love.”

As their health concerns intensified, Stan and Resa decided they wanted to spend their final years close to their family in Los Angeles. They found an apartment on the 7th floor of a high rise at the Santa Monica beach looking northwest over the wide sands, watching sunsets, walking the boardwalk and swimming, and they wasted no time in renewing old friendships and creating new friends. Stan began teaching at University Synagogue and Wilshire Blvd Synagogue, mentoring rabbinic students at HUC, serving on the HUC/LA Advisory Council, coming to know well most of the Israel Consul Generals stationed here, and becoming a part of Los Angeles Jewish life – and Stan and Resa did all that from their mid-70s.

Stan was a deep thinker and a superb writer, and never one to rest on his laurels. In the last six years he inspired, co-edited and wrote the introductions and a chapter in each of three books published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis Press. The first was The Fragile Dialogue – New Voices of Liberal Zionism that he co-edited with his friend and Canadian Zionist leader Rabbi Larry Englander. The second was called Deepening the Dialogue: Jewish-Americans and Israelis Envisioning the Jewish-Democratic State, written in Hebrew and English, a first by the CCAR Press. I had the honor of co-editing that volume with Stan. And the third he called Re-forming Judaism: Moments of Disruption in Jewish Thought that he co-edited with HUC/LA Professor of Jewish Thought Leah Hochman. Stan had plans for a fourth book that he called Confronting Evil – Jewish Responses to be co-edited with HUC Bible Professor Tamara Eskenazi and JTS Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Dr. Alan Mittleman. However, his final illness took control of his life and he was unable to move forward with it.

Two-plus years ago, Stan and Tamara Eskenazi became B’nai Mitzvah together at the age of 83. I sat in the sanctuary at Leo Baeck Temple along with their two families, colleagues and friends and witnessed their joyful ‘coming of age.’ What a great accomplishment and example Stan and Tamara offered to all of us younger Jews. After that day, Stan told me that partnering with his brilliant friend was a highlight of his older years as a Jewish thinker and leader.

After Stan told me that he and his family wanted me to deliver this eulogy, he said that I should ask him whatever I needed to know. I asked him first what, if anything, he regretted in his life. He paused for effect, looked me in the eye, and said: “I wish I were Prime Minister of Israel. Actually, I’d like to be Prime Minister of anything.” Beyond that, he said only that he wasn’t done with this life, that he loved Resa, his kids and grandkids, his friends and being part of the Jewish and worldwide liberal Zionist family too deeply to leave us.

I also asked Stan if he had any significant worries; and he did. He worried about the increasingly illiberal State of Israel, the well-being of the remaining hostages and the families of so many young Israeli soldiers who died in defense of the State in this war, and about prospects for real peace. And he worried about the gallop towards autocracy in the United States.

Most recently, he and Resa worried deeply as they watched from their 7th floor apartment window the rapid spreading of the Malibu fire and feared having to be evacuated. Thankfully, the ferocious Santa Ana winds died down and the fire-fighters heroically stopped the fires from spreading towards their home.

Stan worried mostly about Resa, about leaving her alone and wanting to be certain that their family and friends continued to stay close to her after he was gone. I reassured him that Resa, though sure to miss him dearly every day for the rest of her life, was a force of nature all her own, that she would not only be cared for by their kids and grandkids, but by her many close friends.

Finally, Stan said that another great worry was that his children and grandchildren would not really know his full story. I asked what part of his story they didn’t already know. He explained that, of course, they know him, but he wanted them to know about his life’s work and his service to the Jewish people and to the well-being of the State of Israel. He asked me to tell that story here.

Though I have noted some of the highlights in his life, it’s impossible to tell all that he did over so long a period of time. I suggested to Resa that each of us might write to her our stories about Stan and what he meant to us, and that she, or one of her children, compile those stories filled with photographs and documents into a volume to share with their family.

One of Stan’s greatest wishes was to cast his vote in the 2025 World Zionist Congress elections for the Reform Zionist Slate. Two months ago, he told Rabbi Josh Weinberg (the Union for Reform Judaism’s Vice-President for Israel and Reform Zionism and President of ARZA): “Nothing would bring me more honor, and I hope to do so, but…” – he trailed off. Stan didn’t know if he would survive to March 10th when voting began. However, on that day Stan did indeed cast his vote.

Josh wrote in his tribute for Stan a letter to the tens of thousands of ARZA members: “Voting was Stan’s final act to support and fight for the Movement and the people he loved so dearly. He voted for all those whom he had mentored and taught, for whom he had fought, and who had learned from his example. He was indeed one of a kind, and his memory and legacy will live on. We will continue our work to cherish his legacy and honor his memory.”

Stan was born 85 years-ago on October 6, 1939 in the week the Jewish world then read Parashat Bereishit, and he died as we read Parashat Pekudei, the concluding portion in the Book of Exodus.

Bereishit describes the creation of the world and the beginnings of our history three and a half millennia ago as a people when many of our people’s moral values were taking form.

And Pekudei describes a later period during which the design and building of the sacred Mishkan, Menorah and Ner Tamid are described in detail.

Every member of the ancient Israelite community was called upon to contribute to the building of Tabernacle and its accoutrements. Their design reflected their highest artistic, religious, and moral vision.

Stan took to heart his birth parashah, its myths and moral principles, and he spent his life with Resa and their family and the many communities that Stan served creating new and old structures to bring God’s presence and our people’s moral values into the world. In doing so, he fulfilled the command, “Asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham – Make for me a sanctuary that I – the Eternal One – might dwell amongst the people of Israel.”

There was no one like Rabbi Stanley Davids – he was sui generis. His heart was large, his mind ever-percolating, sharp and seeking knowledge and understanding, his soul striving always to make meaningful connections with everyone he encountered, his passions strong for his family and community, for our people and all peoples, his humor, wit, sarcasm, and charm drawing people in, the works of his hands, heart, mind, and soul integrated thereby seeking to create new worlds and confirm the teachings of the old – just as did the early Zionists who created a new/old world order for the Jewish people in our ancient Homeland.

In thinking about all that Stan was and did, the words from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” feel like a most fitting farewell tribute:

“His life was gentle and the elements / So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up / And say to all the world, “This was a man.”

To Stan’s family, may you find comfort in the love that Stan felt so deeply for each one of you, and may we all find comfort as we mourn Stan with all others who have suffered the loss of dear ones in Zion and Jerusalem.

זכרונו לברכה–  May the memory of Rabbi Stanley Davids, הרב שמריה בן חיים צבי וצפורה  be a blessing. Amen!

[Below is a link to photographs of Rabbi Stanley Davids at the 2015 World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem where Stanley conducted numerous seminars and was omnipresent throughout the Congress; at ARZA’s 40th Anniversary Reception at the 2017 Union for Reform Judaism Biennial Convention in Boston, Massachusetts; and photos from the 2017 Fried Leadership Conference (WRJ) in Nashville, Tennessee. All photos were taken by Dale Lazar – Photographer, World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) – Director of Photography, Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ)

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC6Ycw ]