Finding Shelter at Hartman

Yesterday I walked to the the Shalom Hartman to meet with one of my teachers, Dr. Tal Becker, to talk with him about coming to our congregation as a Scholar-in-Residence next year. Not more than 50 ft from the Institute's gate the azaka (siren alert) went off. There was a father walking walking with his son on the street. They panicked, not knowing where to run. I called and waved to them and they ran into the Machon with me and down into the Beit Midrash's miklat (bomb shelter). The shelter was filled with Machon staff and participants in the Institute's of Hillel Campus Fellows program. Above our heads we heard explosions and counted, one . . . two . . . three .  . . They sounded like they were just yards above us. After waiting about 10 minutes we emerged onto hartman's quad known as Osher Plaza to find other Machon staff, teachers, and administrators, including Rabbi Donniel Hartman, who pointed out to us the trails of the Iron Dome missiles that had intercepted the Grad missiles fired by Hamas. They looked like silky wisps of cotton set against a clear blue sky.

I checked my cell phone and there was both a text and a voice mail message from Eric Gurvis. Both saying: "Are you ok?!"  When I returned to our apartment I learned that I had actually faired better than Eric and our other flat mate, David Thomas. When they tried to enter the "miklat" (really a mere storage room) in our building the door was locked. They waited out the tzeva adom in the stairwell.

Today, Rabbi Gurvis and another friend, Rabbi Howard Jaffe, and I shopped for Shabbat provisions in Mahane Yehuda. The Shuk was far less crowded than it had been the week before. We then drove over to Kenyon Malha (Jerusalem's largest mall located across the street from The Teddy (Beitar Yerushalayim's soccer stadium). The mall was crowed, but less bustling than usual. It's quite clear that Jerusalemites are being cautious about venturing out as Hamas continues to fire missiles indiscriminately at major population centers.

Rabbi Gurvis and I had planned to spend Shabbat attending Friday night serves at Beit Tefillah Israeli, the creative and innovative Kabbalat Shabbat service designed for and attended primarily by Tel Aviv's "secular" residents. It is held at the Namal (Tel Aviv's renovated port) with the Mediterranean and the setting sun as it's backdrop. This week's service was supposed to be a special 10th year anniversary celebration. But because of the threat of missile attacks the celebration has been cancelled and the service will be held indoors. We also had hoped to visit with Dr. Rachel Korazim and her husband at their Yaffo home, but we had to cancel. So tonight We so this Shabbat we will remain in Jerusalem. I will either attend services tonight at Kehillat Tzion, a new, creative and innovative Masorti congregation in Baka, or I will daven at Shira Hadashah, the egalitarian, Orthodox minyan in the German Colony established by Tova Hartman.

My hope and prayer is that this Shabbat will bring some modicum of peace for the State of Israel and for its people. As I write these words, my app called, "Red Alert Israel" is going off again notifying me that two more rockets were just fired at Moatza Ezorit Shaar HaNegev. I will stay hope and prayer nonetheless.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Rabbi Jacob Herber

The Longest One Minute of My Life

Just a few minutes ago my friend, Rabbi Eric Gurvis, and I were walking to our apartment after an evening program at Hartman when we heard the tzeva adom (red alert) siren go off. We were across the street from the Jerusalem Theatre several blocks away from our apartment building. With only 1 minute to find shelter (in locations like Sederot and Ashkelon the timeframe is 15 seconds) we sought refuge under a few trees and behind a wall. Ironically that one minute felt like an eternity. We decided to make our way home when we heard an explosion in the sky, the sound of an Iron Dome missile intercepting the Hamas fired Ketusha or Grad missile. We continued to walk quickly not knowing if more missiles were inbound. When we reached our apartment building we found other residents emerging from the miklat (bomb shelter) in the lobby. They asked us in Hebrew if we had heard the siren and the explosion and if the alert was over. We told them they could return to their apartments. Watching the news we are learning that missiles were fired at Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Jerusalem. I am very grateful for the Iron Dome system which the United States supplied to Israel, and to AIPAC which has played a crucial role in lobbying Congress for the funding of this life saving defense system.

Newtown, One Year Later

One year ago tomorrow I walked into the Oriole Lane Elementary School to speak with first graders about Hanukkah (one of the students is the daughter of a cycling friend of mine, and his daughter's teachers were looking for a Rabbi to speak about the meaning of the holiday). I had just heard about the Sandy Hook shootings while I was in my car driving to the school.

As I walked into the school office to sign in as a visitor I found a shaken principal and staff who were reeling from the news they had also just heard. My friend's wife escorted me from the office to the classroom where her daughter and other first graders (the same age as the 20 students who were gun downed, along with 6 adults, in Newtown just a few minutes earlier) were waiting with great anticipation to see the hanukkah menorah I held in my hand kindled and play with the dreidels I had brought (as well as eat the gelt (chocolate coins I had in great supply).

I took a deep internal breath before I tried to explain to those children, who had no idea what had happened in a school a lot like theirs to children a lot like them, the meaning of Zechariah's prophecy: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord 4:5). It was one of most challening and surreal moments I have experienced as a Rabbi; one I hope I never experience again.

It is not enough to claim as some do that we do not need more laws on the books, we just need existing laws to be enforced. It is not enough to claim that a right is unlimited. It is not enough to remain uninvolved because it "happened to them and not to me or to mine." It is not enough to merely observe a minute of silence. It is not enough when innocent lives are at risk and are taken by weapons that belong on the battlefield, not on the streets and in the homes of America.

The Hartman Institute: "My Field of Dreams"

The Shalom Hartman Institute's Beit Midrash

Ever since my RLI graduation ceremony I've been thinking a lot about the future - specifically the Jewish future - and the role I hope to play in shaping it, at least in my little corner of the Jewish world called Milwaukee.

Being recruited for the Hartman Religious Leadership Initiative fellowship program four years ago was one of those special moments in my rabbinate (eclipsed only when my teacher, Rabbi Donniel Hartman handed me my diploma). I can remember walking by the Hartman Institute in the late 90's one Shabbat afternoon while on an Israel Bonds Rabbinic and dreaming about studying at the Machon (the "Institute"). I had read every book that Rabbi David Hartman, z"l, had written and the thought of studying with him in his Beit Midrash was always a dream. Dreams really do come true. A decade later I found myself studying with Rabbi Hartman, one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 20th Century, with his son Rabbi Donnie Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, and with the Machon's other remarkable scholars. 

The RLI fellowship was without a doubt the most intense and transformative academic experience I have had. Like any top-tier postgraduate or post-doctoral program RLI pushed me and my colleagues to explore and think about Jewish ideas in a deeper and more expansive way, and to aspire to an even  higher sense of purpose. Not long ago I was pessimistic and intimidated by what lay ahead for me as Jewish religious leader. Hit hard by an economic crisis, divided by our views related to Israel and Zionism, confronted by a new generation of American Jews who think about their connections with and ties to the Jewish community in radically different ways, I feared we were in a downward spiral and about to crash. As a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute I now feel better equipped to respond to the many systemic and existential challenges we face as our community rapidly changes and evolves. My RLI experience has fundamentally changed both my perspective and approach. I now see these developments not as threats to our Jewish survival, but as opportunities for our Jewish future, one that can be shaped by our notion of Jewish peoplehood, a reorientation from a crisis narrative to a values narrative, and a rededication to the pursuit of a respectful and pluralistic Jewish communal discourse.

While I may have graduated from my RLI program I intend to continue to study and remain connected with the Hartman Institute. Participating in RLI reminded me of how quickly a Rabbis' intellectual, emotional and spiritual tank can become empty if it isn't replenished by serious and substantive study of Torah. So I will continue to make my summer (albeit shorter) pilgrimages to Jerusalem so that I participate in the Machon's Rabbi Torah Seminar ("an annual 10-day study program that enriches rabbis of all denominations and nurtures their capacity to inspire their communities, excite them by the Jewish tradition, and motivate them in their quest for meaning."). And as a member of the Hartman Institute's Rabbinic Advisory Board I will have the opportunity to work with 18 other rabbinic colleagues to advise the Machon in developing innovative and creative educational programs for the Rabbis who study at the Institute. The Shalom Hartman Institute is "my field of dreams."

Can Israel's Chief Rabbinate Be Saved?

Last week my RLI cohort met with Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, one of the founders of the rabbinic organization Tzohar, at the Hartman Institute. Rabbi Cherlow established Tzohar, a group made up of moderate dati leumi (national religious) rabbis in the wake of the assassination of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabbi Cherlow believed that he needed to do something meaningful and bold to counter the extremism that had taken hold within Israel's national religious movement (once represented by the NRP (National Religious Party)), an extremism that he believes has become both anti-intellectual and anti-modern (over dinner, Rabbi Cherlow told me that  his daughter is pursuing her doctorate in electrical engineering at Cornell University).

(Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman (left) Introduces Rabbi Yuval Cherlow to our RLI Cohort)

Recently, Rabbi Cherlow has found himself embroiled in a disagreement with his own organization after he publicly said that the Conservative and Reform movements in America deserve recognition and are an important bulwark against assimilation in the diaspora (he told us he doesn't believe that our movements should be officially recognized in Israel where he believes assimilation isn't a issue. You can read more about the debate within Tzohar here:http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/tzohar-rabbis-oppose-recognition-of-non-orthodox-jewish-movements.premium-1.484456). 

While I (and many of my RLI colleagues) disagree with Rabbi Cherlow vis-a-vis his position on the validity of Masorti and Reform Judaism within Israel, I deeply respect him for his openness and willingness to engage in dialogue, and for his profound belief in the need for us to work together for the sake of the future of the Jewish people and for Israel. 

Tzohar is currently running a candidate for the office of Chief Rabbi. Yes, Israel has elections for both its political and religious leaders and you can read about Tzohar ground-breaking bid here, http://www.timesofisrael.com/can-a-liberal-face-foment-a-revolution-in-the-rabbinate/.  I have many mixed feelings about the need for and existence of a Chief Rabbinate. I have even argued in the past that perhaps the best, first step to building religious pluralism in the State of Israel would be the dismantling of the Chief Rabbinate. But I have to admit that I would view the election of a Tzohar Rabbi to the post of Chief Rabbi as a vast improvement to the current status-quo.

Entering the Home Stretch

In just two, short days I will have competed my last winter session as a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute's RLI (Religious Leadership Institute) fellowship program. It's hard to believe that after nearly three years, five flights and countless hours of distance learning logged on Monday mornings my formal studies at Hartman are nearly at an end. I have also had some of the most remarkable experiences; meetings and encounters with some of Israel's top leaders in industry, the arts, government and religious life. I have visited places not seen by most Israelis: Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city in the Palestinian Authority, and Hevron, home to the burial place of our avot (patriarchs) and imahot (matriarchs) and one of the most hotly contested of cities between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the greatest gift I've gotten from my experience as an RLI fellow is actually two-fold. There is nothing comparable to the level of limud Torah (Torah study) like that which you'll find at the Hartman Institute, especially when it's crafted and delivered for what the Machon (that's shorthand for the SHI) considers its crown jewel: our RLI program. I have studied with some of Israel's - and for that matter - the world's most acclaimed and cutting edge scholars of Judaic Studies: Moshe Halbertal, Moshe Idel, Menachem Lorberbaum, Melila Hellner Eshed, Alick Isaacs, Yehuda Kurtzer, Israel Knohl, Micah Goodman, Tal Becker, Shlomo Naeh, Gil Troy, Yossi Halevi, Rani Jaeger, Biti Roi, Rachel Korazim and of course, David and Donniel Hartman. And I have had the wonderful fortune of studying my Hartman Torah with colleagues who have now become my some of my best friends, most especially my Hartman havruta partner, Rabbi David Cohen.

Without a doubt I have feel like I have grown and developed as a Rabbi, a leader, and a teacher. As a result of my time at the Machon I relate to, think about and teach Jewish sources, ideas and concepts in a completely different way than I did before entering my program. With all of the new challenges facing the Jewish community and the synagogue world I feel well positioned to lead CBINT in the years ahead.

None of this would have been possible had it not been for an extraordinarily supportive lay leadership and congregation, a supportive and very patient family, and the tremendous generosity of Jerry and Louise Stein. I also awe a debt of gratitude to my beloved teachers, Rabbi David and Donniel Hartman,    Hartman North America's President, Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, and the Machon's phenomenal administrative staff.

Kiriat-Arba Which is Hevron

Kiriat-Arba Which is Hevron
By Rabbi Jacob Herber

I bought this land with water,

salty, briny and clinging

still to a trembling chin.

We haggled over its price

He made an offer, I a counter offer.

I can’t recall if our eyes ever met,

if he saw and knew my pain

but then again I knew only

my own pain,

my own sorrow.

We were adversaries of sorts

positioning, strategizing,

flanking and outflanking.

But in the end we succumbed

to a moment of

distilled rational agreement:

Four hundred shekels of silver.

But did we really know how high the price

would be paid for this spot?

Meet My Hartman RLI Cohort

We've now reached the midpoint of our RLI summer session.  Today 120 Rabbis who were participating in the Hartman Institute's annual Rabbinic Torah Seminar (RTS) departed for home. With the Machon all to our selves for the very first time my RLI colleagues and I decided to take a group photo. Many of you hear me talk about my teachers at The Shalom Hartman Institute and the unique Torah that I learn here. But aside from my friend and colleague, Rabbi David Cohen, you've never had an opportunity to see the other colleagues with whom and from whom I learn Torah.  The other Rabbis in my RlL cohort represent the best and brightest from the Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform and Modern Orthodox streams of Judaism. Here they are . . .

Left to Right (Front Row: Rabbi Yossi Sapirman, Rabbi Yonaton Jaffe, Second Row: Rabbi David Weiss, Rabbi Steven Morgan, Rabbi Lionel Moses, Rabbi Susan Warshaw, Rabbi Amy Small, Rabbi Denis Eger, Rabbi Joshua Aronson, Rabbi David-Seth-Kirshner, Rabbi Shimon Brand, Second Row: Rabbi Michael Feshbach, Rabbi Stewart Vogel, Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin, Rabbi Ken Chazin, Rabbi Sid Helbraun, Rabbi Arnie Gluck, Rabbi Chava Koster, Back Row: Rabbi David Cohen, Rabbi Yonatan Cohen, Rabbi Uri Topolosky, Rabbi Eric Gurvis, Rabbi Laurie Phillips, Rabbi Micah Hyman, Rabbi Carnie Rose, Rosh Kehilla Dina Najman, Not Pictured: Rabbi William Gershon)

A Day of Hartman Torah and Jazz, Israeli Style

Today I spent an incredible day at the Hartman Institute studying Tanakh with Israel Knohl and Hasidut with Biti Roi. We brought the day to a close by attending a phenomenal concert with Jazz artist Daniel Zamir and famed Israeli singer Evyatar Banai, both are representative of an emerging group of Israeli singer/song writers who are fusing contemporary musical forms with Jewish religious themes. Daniel even threw in a d'var Torah between songs. only in Israel!

Eviatar Banai on Guitar and Daniel Zamir on Alto Sax

Alice Walker . . . Part II

My teacher, Rabbi, Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, shared a compelling idea with me this morning. She pointed to the great irony that Alice Walker, a respected and admired advocate and champion of women's rights, chose to boycott a nation which has, objectively speaking, one of the best records when it comes to women's rights, especially among the other countries of the Middle East. On this score it seems that Alice is looking at the world through the looking glass.

Alice Walker Dishonors Her Own

Yesterday, as I sipped a cup of coffee at the Malha Mall in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Malha I thought about Alice Walker. 

What does enjoying one of my favorite beverages have in common with the author of The Color Purple you ask? Walker recently refused an Israeli publisher's request to translate her famous book into Hebrew because she claims that Israel is an apartheid state just like South Africa under its former Afrikaner regime, a racist country akin to America's once Jim Crow South. Her claims are of course outlandish and false. We can point to the current Israeli Arab who serves on Israel's Supreme Court and follows in the footsteps of previous Israeli Arabs, the Israeli Arab parties that serve in the Israeli Kenesset, the Israeli Arabs who have equal access to and attend Israel's colleges and universities just like their Israeli Jewish counterparts. These are just a few of the many realities that make Walker's claims, like those of her fellow BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) colleagues - among them Annie Lennox, Elvis Costello, John Waters, Emma Thompson - sound ludicrous. The Palestinian/Israeli Arab family that sat down next to me at the Aroma Cafe as I enjoyed my coffee was further evidence that defied her ugly slander, one that seeks to de-ligitimize Israel's right to exist.

Alice Walker's latest stand has confirmed her bona fides as an Anti-Semite and a person who hates the State of Israel (Remember, Hebrew is the language of the Jewish People, not just of Israelis, and Walker who has championed the national liberation of just about every other ethnic/racial group in the world actively opposes Zionism, the Jewish People's own national liberation movement). The divide between Israelis and the Palestinians and its Arab citizens isn't racially based, it's political in nature; the consequence of war and the failure of two peoples to reach a political resolution of their conflict. Like other democracies around the world, Israel has failed when it comes to ensuring complete equality for its minority citizens and, like its sister democracies, it strives to do better. As a values nation it must do better. So one would think that Walker would also refuse to have her works translated into english, French, German, Swiss, Arabic and Turkish. 

But Walker hasn't just maligned us, she's done great harm and damage to the victims and survivors of South Africa's apartheid system and our own country's horrendous system of Jim Crow. To make the claim that Israel is like Apartheid South Africa and the Jim Crow South belittles the experience of and   the memory of the real victims of Apartheid and the state sponsored racial discrimination that once existed in America. Alice Walker has dishonored her own.

I wonder what she would think if she joined me for a cup of coffee at Malha or Mamilla Mall and watched Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians intermingling in the shops and cafes, and using the same water fountains and restrooms. I'll never know, because she's already closed her mind to anything other that contradicts her own prejudice.

There are Always Two Sides to a Story

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank leaves out some important details in his column entitled, "AIPAC Beats the Drums of War." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/aipac-beats-the-drums-of-war/2012/03/05/gIQASVMZtR_story.html)

He cites the fact that AIPAC delegates like me "admired an armored personnel carrier, a surface-to-air missile and a model of an Israeli drone." These items showcased in the AIPAC Village - a central meeting area at the Policy Conference - all reflected the warlike atmosphere Milbank claims AIPAC was seeking to create.  According to him, these props were all understandable within the context of the speeches delivered by Senators Joe Lieberman, Mitch MCconnel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Here's what Milbank doesn't tell his readers.  The very measured speech delivered immediately after Mitch McConnel and before Prime Minister Netanyahu by Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also brought led all of to leap to our feet.  Here's what Milbank conviently ommits from his column:  that the armoured personnel carrier we all "admired" (http://www.military-today.com/apc/maxxpro_mrap.htm) was developed by the U.S. Manufacturer, Navistar International, and an Israeli company called Plasan.  It's purpose is to protect troops, like the U. S. troops currently serving our country in Afganistan from being killed and maimed by IEDs.  That model drone we oood and ahhd is just like the hundreds of drones that President Obama has ordered be used against terrorists operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  For some reason, Milbank forgets to mention the new bandage technology that was on display highlighting the kind of cutting edge Israeli technology that saves lives.  That same technology was what saved former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when she was shot in Arizona.  Had that bandage technology not been available she would have bled out and died on the spot.  


Milbank's broadside against AIPAC and pro-Israel advocates (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Jews and non-Jews) like me who believe in a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel and in protecting the security of both nations reminds me of the wise adage: "There are always two sides to a story."  In the interest of fairness, I thought I'd give you the other side of a very one sided account.

Kobi Oz, Beit Shemesh and Rabbi Pappenheim (The Sequel)

In my last post I ("Kobi Oz, Beit Shemesh and Rav Amsalem") I wrote about Rav Amsalem - a bright light in the Haredi world - who represents a potential, constructive force for positive change in Israel vis-a-vis the divide between the Haredim and the rest of Israeli society.  I also mentioned Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, (a scion of the Edah Haredit (Israel’s largest Haredi community which is also anti-Zionist) who began a dialogue with the Da’at Leumi (Modern Orthodox, Zionist) community of Beit Shemesh in the wake of the conflict that has racked the city).  Like Rav Amsalem, Rabbi Pappenheim is a significant player in the Haredi world who is at the forefront of an almost singular effort within that community to build a bridge of understanding between Israel's Modern Orthodox and Haredim communities.

The Entrance to Beit Shemesh (Photo Credit: Rabbi Jacob Herber)

Just this morning I, along with other members of my Hartman RLI cohort received troubling and tragic news about Rabbi Pappenheim from my colleague and friend, Rabbi David Seth Kirshner.  Rabbi Kirshner, a member of our RLI class was with us when we all visited Beit Shemesh earlier this month, including our meeting with Rabbi Pappenheim.  Here is Rabbi Kirshner's email:

Hevreh,

I pen this note from inside the girls school in bet shemesh we visited a few weeks ago. I'm on a (fantastic and inspiring) jfna rabbinic mission to Budapest and Israel.

I learned on this trip that rabbi Pappenheim, the member of Toldot Aharon that courageously met with our group an offered some moderate conversation, was recently attacked and severely beaten by other members of Toldot Aharon. He was spat on and kicked and called a shaygetz. Hence, he is not meeting with this group. This is bothersome and a "big deal" on a few levels, namely that the Pappenheim name is one of royalty in the Toldot Aharon world and this sanctioned attack is frightening to the notion of the possibility of moderate conversation in the future.

Clearly the "mafia" style behavior continues here.

Regards to all from Israel.

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

Sent from my iPhone us

Rabbi Pappenheim Speaks To Hartman RLI Cohort in Beit Shemesh (Photo Credit: Rabbi Jacob Herber)

Rabbi Kirshner's conclusion is sadly too true.  I am desperately waiting for the fulfillment of Kobi Oz's vision:

“Tolerance is bubbling beneath the surface.  Look how people are bit by bit leaving behind the tension and in the end just want to be united in this great synagogue called the Land of Israel.”

It will only come to fruition when the vast majority of Haredim join with true leaders and visionaries like Rav Amsalem and Rabbi Pappenheim and when they stand up these thugs and the rabbis who indoctrinate them and send them on their missions of hate and destruction

Kobi Oz, Beit Shemesh, and Rav Amsalem

Last Shabbat (Shabbat Yitro) I taught and led a discussion about Kobi Oz's beatiful song entitled, "Elohay."  (You can hear the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUFWuEcykSg).  After my visit earlier this month to Beit Shemesh where I and other members of my Hartman RLI cohort met with some of the parents of the girls who attend the Modern Orthodox Bnot Orot elementary school (including Hadassah Margolis, the mother of Na'ama, the eight year-old girl who was spat upon by a Haredi man as she walked to school) and later with Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, (a scion of the Edah Haredit (Israel’s largest Haredi community which is also anti-Zionist) who began a dialogue with the Da’at Leumi (Modern Orthodox, Zionist) community of Beit Shemesh in the wake of the conflict that has racked the city), I questioned whether Kobi is correct to claim that:

“Tolerance is bubbling beneath the surface.  Look how people are bit by bit leaving behind the tension and in the end just want to be united in this great synagogue called the Land of Israel.”

Kobi’s perspective is that there is a movement afoot in Israeli society for national unity between Jews of all denominations: secular, Reform, Masorti (Conservative), Da'at Leumi (Modern Orthodox), traditional and Haredi. 

The following video demonstrates the grave and great challenge that Israeli society faces vis-à-vis the Haredim.  My hope and prayer is that Rav Amsalem, a Haredi rabbi for whom I have the greatest admiration and respect, will lead a revolution that will restore some sense of moderation among the Haredim.  Alas, given the response from his former political party, Shas, I won’t be holding my breath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TmbnDls3C8&feature=youtu.be

Hanukkah Never Happened

Hanukkah Never Happened.

That’s what Maen Rashid Areikat, the PLO’s chief representative to the United States, would no doubt say.  In a recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post Areikat makes the claim that the Palestinian people have a rich and deep history, one that dates back as far as 10,000 B.C.E. He claims that Palestinians “have lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British.”  (You can read Areikat’s piece in full here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/palestine-a-history-rich-and-deep/2011/12/21/gIQALJ6GLP_story.html)

Did you notice the obscurity of one well - documented indigenous group?   That’s right, the Jewish people are left out of his narrative.  After mentioning the Israelites in a chain of occupiers the Jewish people seemingly disappear from the scene.  Palestinians don't encounter Jews in the land until we arrive from Europe.  We're nothing more than carpet-baggers.  This is all part of the Palestinian attempt to eradicate the Jewish people's historical claims and connection to the Land of Israel.  Palestinian nationalism is a modern movement born of the 20^th century.  It evolved when Arabs living in Palestine (named by the Romans after the Philistines) during the British Mandate realized that their Arab brethren (e.g. Egyptians, Syrians, and the Hashemites) had abandoned them in the quest for their own respective territorial interests. 

But that is neither here nor there.  The Palestinian people (once called Palestinian Arabs) exist as a political reality.  They have their own national aspirations that deserve to be fulfilled by way of a two-state solution.  As a people who yearned for 2,000 years for a restoration to our national homeland, we understand those yearnings better than anyone else.  But Areikat’s revisionist history is the sort of fiction that is both ironic and tragic.  Ironic in that it’s yet another example of the Palestinians proclivity to cry foul when others, like Newt Gingrich, call into question their historicity as a people; a strategy they’ve been employing against the Jewish people for decades.  Tragic in that it's the way the Palestinians teach their children history in school.  It's also the way they continue to make their people ill prepared for a final resolution of their status with Israel. 

An Open and Sent Email to Tom Friedman

Dear Tom,

I'm emailing to express my sadness, distress, anger, incredulity and outright exasperation related to your column of December 13th entitled, “Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir."  Mine is probably one of many emails you've no doubt received from other angry readers and subscribers of The New York Times. I've been a subscriber of the paper for many years.  But now that I've paid my most recent bill I'll be cancelling my subscription.

My decision - not an easy one for me to make - is a result of the unrelenting assault on the Time's Op-Ed page against the State of Israel and it's supporters; one which reached a crecendo this week in your column.  I won't restate the critique of your intial words, or of your apology.  I'm sure you're well aware of what folks like the AJC's David Harris and the editors of The Jewish Week have written related to both.  As a Rabbi who loves and supports Israel but who is also critical of Israel when a tokhekha is necessary, I completely agree with your critics.

I would only add that my decision to leave the Times as a subscriber is also a  result of the paper's decision to edit the heart of David Harris' letter to the editor; the only letter published by the Times in response to your column.  I find it tragically ironic that the Times rightfully applauds expressions of free speech and political dissent and admonshes political leaders like Vladimir Putin when those expressions are attacked, curtailed or manipluated, but employs some of the same tactics when it comes to its own columnists.  Perhaps I'd feel a bit better knowing that you walked into your editor's office and said something like, "I'm a big boy, I can take criticism.  Go ahead and print David Harris' letter in full.  He's a well-respected leader of the American Jewish community, I'm not afraid of his critique, and print some of the other letters we got too.  We should be role models when it comes to expemplifying free and fair political discourse."

I'm hoping in the future I'll want to renew my subscription.  In all honesty, it will depend on you and your editors.

Hag urim sameah,

Rabbi Jacob Herber
Congregation Beth Israel
6880 N. Green Bay Avenue
Glendale, WI 53209

Israel Just Made Engaging with Israel That Much More Difficult

My friend, colleague, and Hartman RLI hevrutah partner, Rabbi David Cohen, and I have spent the last four weeks presenting the Hartman Institute's Engaging Israel program to our respective congregants and other members of Milwaukee's Jewish community.  The  goal of  the Engaging Israel Project is to respond to growing feelings of disenchantment and disinterest toward Israel among an ever-increasing number of Jews worldwide by creating a new narrative regarding the significance of Israel for Jewish life.  So far it's been an extraordinary experience, but a challenging one nonetheless, as we've attempted to help how our participants reconcile their strongly held and beloved American values with traditional Jewish values as they all relate to Israel.  I think we've made some substantive, real progress.  

But now I wonder if all of our work is threatened with being undone.  Today, videos produced by Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and distributed in key American cities have gone viral.  The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg has blogged about them (you can read his post and watch the videos here: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/netanyahu-government-suggests-israelis-avoid-marrying-american-jews/249166/and they are all over social media forums like facebook. The t.v. spots are aimed at Israelis who live here in America.  If you listen to the dialogue and watch the body language of the actors it's quite clear that the ads present a negative critique of the Jewish American experience. The Israeli Jew is imperiled by the non-Jewish religious and cultural milieu that surrounds American Jews who are seemingly either incapable or uninterested in responding to those influences. The message is quite clear:  if you're an Israeli living in America your Jewishness (and that of your children) is endangered.  

Other innuendos abound.  Israeli Jewishness is apparently richer, more profound and more pure that that of American Jewry.  That critique is an unfair, untrue and myopic description of American Jewish life.  The fact is, Israeli culture, both social and religious, is and continues to be deeply enriched by our Jewish culture here in America.   Just as we American Jews can learn much from our Israeli brothers and sisters - the importance of the Hebrew language and literature to Jewish life - is but one example that comes to mind, Israelis can learn much from us American Jews about religious pluralism and the paradigms we've developed for living a meaningful Jewish life in the face of modernity.  

Instead of validating the Judaism of Jerusalem and New York, Tel Aviv and Chicago, Haifa and Los Angeles, these cynical ads pit one against the other.  Most damaging and troubling they demean and devalue the American Jewish community.  They throw up one more impediment to American Jews reconnecting and engaging with Israel.  And speaking tahlis, they make my job and Rabbi Cohen's job that much more difficult.

No Tom, Palestinians Will Determine Salam Fayyad's Success, Not Israelis

Tom Friedman needs to visit Gaza and the west Bank, and soon.  In his most recent New York Times column (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/opinion/israel-and-the-arab-awakening.html?_r=1&ref=opinion) Friedman argues that Israel holds the key - the only key it seems - to peace with the Palestinians.  That key is visionary support for Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister.  "He's [Fayyad] been the most radical Arab leader of all," Friedman writes,  "He is the first Palestinian leader to say: judge me on my performance in improving my peoples' lives, not on my rhetoric.  His focus has been on building institutions - including what Israelis admit is a security force that has helped to keep Israel peaceful  - so Palestinans will be ready for a two-state solution."  While I would claim that Israel's security from terrorist attacks is due in large part to the unfortunate exitsence of the security barrier, it's hard to argue with Friedman's assertion that the Palestinians' success is tied inextricably with Fayyad's.  He is a serious leader who - unlike other Palestinian leaders before him as well as contemporaries like Mahmoud Abbas - has quietly gone about building the infrastutre necessary for a future Palestinian state.  As Tal Becker, a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, once told me and my Hartman RLI colleagues, "I never before met a Palestinian leader who gets excited about budgets until I met Salam Fayyad."  Plain and simple, Fayad is a technocrat and a state builder.  Revolutionary leaders like Yassar Arafat have gotten the Palestinans nothing.  They need more leaders like Salaym Fayyad who build schools, hospitals, museums, etc.; all of the necessary institutions that will make a future Palestinian viable, while at the same time eschewing terrorism as a moral and effective form of resistance.

But here's where Friedman is wrong.  Israel will not determine whether Fayyad succeeds.  The Palestinian people will.  Yes, Israel can and certainly should help Fayyad, not out of some altruistic reason, but for its own sake, for the sake of its own security and desire to achieve a lasting peace.  But if the Palestinian people don't support Fayyad, if other Palestinian leaders don't support Fayyad, his future and that of the Palestinian people will be imperiled.  Isn't that what the "Arab Spring" was supposedly all about, the people throwing out tryrants and oppressors and supporting instead leaders who had their interests at heart?  The fact is, Fayyad is reviled and hated by Hamas and by Mahmoud Abbas in large part because of his success in rooting out graft and corruption, and because they view him as serious political threat.  He can't even enter the Gaza Strip for fear of being assassinated by his Hamas rivals. Friedman criticizes the Israelis for withholding $100 million in in Palestinian tax revenues and argues that they should reward Fayyad by giving him the money he needs.  Prime Minister Netanyahu has indeed agreed to release the $100 million to the P.A..  But if Fayyad is under threat from his own Palestinian interlocutors what difference would it make if Israel showers him with hunderds of millions of shekels? Yes, Israel should wisely leverage its power and make its political calculations for the sake of supporting true agents of peace.  But in the end, those who will determine the success of their leaders are the people, and in this case the Palestinian people.  Perhaps if Tom Friedman visited Gaza and Ramallah he would see things a bit more clearly.   

A Poem for September 11th

On My Bike One September 11th
by Rabbi Jacob Herber

While on my bike turning the pedals
contemplating the meaning of this day,
a truck approaches in the lane across from mine.
A tall flag flutters from behind the cab
the stripes and stars a familiar sight.
I raise my arm with thumb extended heavenward,
The flagbearer extends his hand through a window;
It greets mine in a quiet salute.
Two strangers sharing a mournful, yet proud kinship.
We pass each other and continue on our separate journeys,
nevertheless bound together by the numerals 9,11,01.

Encountering the Other in Jerusalem

For nearly a month my Hartman RLI cohort and I have been immersed in a sea of Jewish texts.  We focused on subjects of vital concern like Jewish peoplehood and Israel.  This week the focus of our attention was briefly diverted.  For one day we explored and encountered the other - we visited Christian holy space and studied with Christian religious leaders.

Our day began with a tiyyul (i.e. tour) to Ein Kerem.  This village within the city boundaries of Jerusalem has deep roots in our biblical tradition.  Today, however, it's more widely associated with Christianity and primarily because it's believed to be the birth place of the John the Baptist.  There are many churches in this tiny hamlet of 2,000 residents (many of them secular Israeli Jews) which attracts 3 million visitors a year.

A Typical Home in Ein Kerem . . . Large But Quaint With a Large Lot

A Greek Orthodox Church

We walked through the charming streets of Ein kerem and arrived at the Convent of the the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion.  The notion of a group touring a church, convent of monastery on a Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is unheard of.  When the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion were told that a group of Rabbis was interested in visiting their convent they enthusiastically agreed to host us.  The order, which was founded in the 19th Century by a Catholic priest who had converted from Judaism, was once nortorious for its evangelizing of Jews.  In the wake of the Shoah the Sisters engaged in a rethinking of their theology and mission.  They became champions of ecumenism building bridges with the Jewish community.

Our guide was the leader of the Order in Ein Kerem; a soft spoken French nun who has lived in Israel for over forty years.  She took us on a tour of the convent's grounds and then invited us to refreshments.  Everything is kosher," she assured us, "the cups and plates are plastic, the bottles are unopened, and the fruit is uncut."  I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and sensitivity that I felt felt compelled to personally thank her for taking time out of her Sabbath to meet with us.  "Rabbi," the Reverend Mother replied, "sharing my Shabbat with all of you makes it that much more holy."

The Main Gate of the Convent of The Sisters of Zion

Our Guide . . . The Reverend Mother

The Convent Chapel

The Sisters' Living Quarters

The Vista from The Convent of the Sisters of Zion

Out tiyyul in Ein Kerem set the mood for what awaited us back at Machon Hartman.  We met with members of the Christian Leadership Initiative (Learn more about the CLI here: http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/SHINews_View.aspArticle_Id=770&Cat_Id=274&Cat_Type=SHINews).  After studying texts from Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and his responsa with members of the CLI we participated in a shiur with Rabbi Donniel Hartman, President of the SHI, related to the Rambam's radical halakhic paradigm shift vis-a-vis who is included in and excluded from the Jewish community.  It was fascinating to study texts from my tradition with religious leaders of another faith and eye opening to see how they reacted to the Rambam's definition of Jewish peoplehood.

Thanks Machon Hartman for another phenomenal experience!