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Engaging Israel (RH2 5774)

Engaging Israel
Rosh Hashanah Day 2 5774
Rabbi Randy Mark

Israel is near and dear to our hearts; we read about it, we discuss it and we struggle with the reality. As a people we spent millennia praying for the return of Jewish sovereignty and there are some in this room who can remember that day in 1948 when that dream was realized. The role of Zionism took a dramatic shift in 1967 in the wake of the Six Day War, American Jewish pride swelled and there are even more who remember that time in history. For the next 30 years there was an unadulterated love-fest between Israel and the American Jewish community.

With the advent of the 21st century, that reality changed. This is not to say that those of us who love Israel changed how we felt, but rather a generation of young people grew up with Israel portrayed in the media as the aggressor rather than as the underdog and Palestinians were the victims; all that took its toll on attitudes. At the same time the American Jewish position of only arguing amongst ourselves behind closed doors gave way to public criticism of Israel by leftwing Jewish activists. Studies of contemporary American Jewish attitudes taught us two important facts – 1) visiting Israel has an impact on how positively one feels and so we began sending young Jews on Taglit-Birthright Israel trips, now after 13 years we have sent more than a quarter of a million young adults to spend time in the Jewish Homeland; and 2) age differences most likely indicate that attachment to Israel increases over the life course rather than declines across the generations (2010 Brandeis University).

Israel seems always to be in the news, most recently it has been over two issues – one internal and one external. The external threat has been the war in Syria. There is fear in Israel, and here, by supporters of the Jewish State that the civil war escalating to their north will either spill over into Israel or will become a regional conflict that will sweep Israel into its vortex. There is also concern that American military action will result in a retaliatory strike against Israel. On the other hand, there are those who fear that if America does not respond to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government that it will be perceived by Iran as Western weakness and leave Israel more vulnerable to an attack on that front. This is currently a very fluid and volatile situation which may very well change in a matter of days.

I think that most observers were surprised by the British Parliament's decision to overrule Prime Minister David Cameron on joining with the US on a military strike against the Syrian government. And now the debate has shifted to President Obama's decision to seek Congressional support. There are those in the Jewish community who are decrying this as weakness by the President and lack of support for Israel. While others are praising him for his forethought in doing this now, so that it will be a stronger show of support for the Iranians to consider in the future. What I found fascinating is that this debate did not follow the typical liberal/conservative divide so prevalent in this country. There have been political conservatives in favor of the President's actions and conservatives in opposition and the same has been true within the liberal camp. Unfortunately, the losers in all this are the Syrian people who end up with the short end of the stick regardless of what we do or don't do and frankly many in this country are OK with that outcome, but in any war, friends or foes, it is hard not to feel empathy for the innocent, for the children who suffer in a conflict.

The other public issue has been the Western Wall Plaza. As most of you know I have long been a supporter of Women of the Wall and as such when they started a campaign for 100 shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah and 100 rabbis speaking about their situation, I agreed to participate. For anyone unfamiliar with WoW, they are an interdenominational group of woman who gather every Rosh Hodesh for public prayer in the women's section of the Kotel. Their problems have stemmed from the fact that the official Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi of the Wall has deemed their actions a violation and consequently the police had been arresting the women for disturbing the peace when they put on a tallit, brought a Torah or sang out loud. Then last spring the Israeli High Court ruled in favor of a petition by the Women of Wall ruling that it is legal for them to pray in their own style at the Kotel. The good news is that the police are no longer arresting the women; the bad news is that they still are allowing the Ultra-Orthodox to impede the lawful prayer services of the Women.

Independent of all this, but in parallel, has been the struggle of the Masorti (that's us) and the Reform movements to engage in mixed gender prayer at the Kotel, which was also banned by the Kotel Rabbi. As a Conservative rabbi, I object to the Western Wall Plaza being an Orthodox synagogue. I think that it should belong freely to the entire Jewish people and not be controlled by just one segment.

In the 1990s the Israel government entered into an agreement with the Masorti movement allowing us limited access to a section of the Western Wall, out of sight from the main Western Wall Plaza for mixed gender prayer. This area known as Robinson's Arch after a famous artifact found there. However, access was limited both in terms of the number who could pray there and the times available. So Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Jewish Agency Head, Natan Sharansky, to find a compromise solution to the problem.

The Sharansky plan is bold and ambitious as well as controversial. But the main aspect was to develop the Robinson Arch area for our style of prayer. Then suddenly, about a week ago Israel's minister of religious services Naftali Bennett announced that a public platform large enough to accommodate 450 worshipers and accessible 24/7 would be in place by Rosh Hashanah at the Robinson's Arch location for mixed gender prayer and it is currently in place. Even Bennett acknowledges that there are issues yet to be resolved, for example, the platform is near the wall, but you can't actually touch the wall or put notes into it. But this is a huge step forward for us and yet at the same time a disappointment for the Women of the Wall, who are not seeking mixed gender prayer, but access to the Women's section, however, their struggle will continue and we will continue to support them.

This summer I had the pleasure of spending three weeks in Jerusalem. I started at the annual Rabbinical Assembly Convention, where we had a number of high profile encounters – we had the honor of meeting with President Shimon Peres at his official residence, at which time he assured us that change was already in progress towards official recognition of non-Orthodox Judaism by the Israeli government. For the first time ever we were invited to visit the Knesset as the Rabbinical Assembly and recognized as visiting rabbis by leaders of the Israeli government. We were addressed by Naftali Bennett, the head of HaBayit HaYehudi, The Jewish Home party, one of Netanyahu's coalition partners; and by Yuli Edelstein, the current Speaker of the Knesset. Both of them spoke of the significance of Jewish Unity and wanting to work together with us as Jewish leaders in the Diaspora.

We had an extended conversation with Natan Sharansky, where he shared with us not only his thoughts on the Kotel plan I've just been speaking about, but the role of Jewish identity in Israel and the role of Diaspora rabbis in our relationship with Israel. We had a study lunch with the exciting new MK Ruth Calderon. If you don't know who she is, it is worth your while to Google her next week and watch her opening speech in the Knesset – you can find it with English subtitles on YouTube. Every new MK has the opportunity to address the Knesset and she used hers to teach a piece of Talmud. It was unprecedented that a secular Israeli would teach Talmud, something that is the realm of the observant world, moreover, a woman. She is one impressive woman! And we davened Shaharit together as a mixed gender group at the Robinson's Arch segment of the Kotel and it was only when I was on my return flight to the US that I realized that was my only Kotel visit during my three weeks, I had not gone to the Orthodox segment of the Wall and I didn't even miss it.

After the RA, I spent two weeks studying in the Rabbinic Torah Seminar at the Hartman Institute. I was one of 175 rabbis who came to Hartman to study this summer. Each day we wrestled with texts from our tradition, listened to lectures by master teachers and each evening we have a program about life in Israel. The programs were varied and interesting. It was such a treat to hear about all the good things happening in Israel when the news is so filled with the problems. One night was a presentation by Donniel Hartman and Tal Becker discussing the challenges facing Israel. They talked about the need for an Israel directed not only by Jewish law, but by Jewish values – we can't just pursue a peace process, but we have to make decisions based on peace as a value. There has to be religious pluralism in Israel because we value religious freedom.

We had a night with MK Tzipi Livni, the head of HaTenuah, The Movement, a member of Netanyahu's coalition. She is the current Justice Minister and the Chief Peace Plan negotiator with the Palestinians. She talked about hope - hope for peace with the Palestinians, hope for justice within Israel, hope for a better future for her children in the land that she loves.

We had a conversation with Anat Hoffman of Women of the Wall as she shared her dream of a time when as a non-Orthodox religious woman, she will be able to approach the Kotel in tallit and tefilin with a Torah scroll and singing out loud as a part of a women's minyan. We listened to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, who shared with us the difficulties he faced coming to Israel and being accepted as a religious authority; how it led him to a place where he can be both committed to Jewish law and yet respectful of those who understand the tradition differently.

We had a stimulating evening with American born MK Dov Lipman. Lipman is an Orthodox rabbi who made aliya, moved to Beit Shemesh, was appalled by the state of relations between the Orthodox and the secular that developed and found himself getting involved in local politics. Nor did he ever expect to move from local to national politics, but then he met the secular Yair Lapid of Yesh Adit, There is a Future party, he never imagined that he would join with him as a political ally. And yet, now they serve in the Knesset together as part of the same ticket. Not surprisingly he is friendly with Ruth Calderon and he shared with us that they are part of a Talmud Shiur, a class, at the Knesset where Orthodox and non-Orthodox study Talmud together. It is a new Israel that they are forging.

And finally, we had a fascinating evening with investigative journalist Ilana Dayan. This Argentinean born Israeli attorney with a PhD from Yale was bright, insightful and articulate. She talked to us about a new Israeli narrative that Israel is a place that is gam zeh v'gam zeh, a place that is both 'this and that'. Too often we think about Israel in polarities – dati/religious vs. hiloni/secular, Zionist vs. anti-Zionist, Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi. She said that Israel is a nation of conflicts and paradoxes. Israelis learn to live like this because the alternative is to not live at all. Israelis live in a state of constant crisis and stress, yet you can't tell from the way Israelis live their day to day lives. They live with existential fear, yet function normally. She pointed out that Israel is a place both violent and militaristic and at the same time warm and caring.

I realized her insight that Israel is gam v'gam, this and that is the right way to look at Israel. Just as every person is deep and multifaceted, so too is Israel; so much of what we say is an oversimplification that does not do justice to the true complexity of this special land; so while Israel often challenges me, it is also a land that I love.

So in spite of the fact that Israel does things of which I do not approve and in spite of the fact that non-Orthodox Judaism is still struggling for recognition, Israel is a land that I support and I encourage you to do so as well. My friend and colleague, Avram Kogen, reminded me that there are many ways in which we can be supportive of Israel. We can join AIPAC, write an op-ed article, invest in an Israel Bond, support Magen David Adom, go to the Shomrei Torah website and plant a tree in Israel through the JNF link that will also benefit us, join Masorti, study Hebrew, read a book about Israel or best of all visit Israel this year!

Many members of our congregation have told me about their recent trips to Israel – Birthright trips, family trips, summer programs – each came back energized and connected to this special place, our Jewish homeland. There is no other place like it on earth. Just like our relatives whom we love, but can drive us crazy; so too Israel is a land that we love that can drive us crazy. Let us learn, like Ilana Dayan, to look at Israel not as this or that, but as this AND that, gam zeh v'gam zeh. Am Yisrael Chai!

Shanah Tovah!!

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784