Israel sermon  Yom Kippur evening

The state of Israel will be celebrating its 60^th anniversary this coming May. What a magnificent moment! There are many here who remember the joy of its birth after the horrors of the Holocaust… and those younger than 60 hopefully have sensed that moment in history. But age 60 is a time for reflection and struggle as well… and the challenges and difficulties continue.  There was a beautiful column in US News and World Report last week by former Secretary of State George Schultz which details all the reasons why Israel is a needed and vital ally of the United States. I invite you to look at it…. Copies are on the tables.

When Iris and I visited Israel this past January as part of an Israel Bonds mission, the effects of the Lebanon II war of the summer of 2006 were still evident. Burned forests/ damaged buildings/ psychological trauma to the citizens of the North. And as all of you know, the struggle between Hamas and Fatah over political control in Gaza and other Palestinian territory sometimes makes one want to say, “a pox on both your houses.”

Yet the country is strong…. Inflation is low/ economic growth is steady/ aliyah numbers are up, (even from the West), the essential quality of the Israeli personality is unaffected. We have a new group of Israel emissaries in Connecticut, and I am confident they will do just as meaningful a job as their predecessors.

And it is a wonderful and safe place to visit. Ben Gurion Airport has been redeveloped into a wonderful new international airport, rated one of the top five in the world. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of tourists have been there in the last year. The country is promoting and welcoming tourists in this celebratory year. For all these reasons, I urge you to visit Israel… whether for the first time or the twenty-first. If the timing or the itinerary of the BHS tour next March does not fit into your schedule or range of interests… there are many others you can choose from… other synagogue tours/ Federation tours/ organizational ones. But whichever way…. Israel awaits. Not only will you enjoy the country, you will understand it more and you will be able to more knowledgeably share in the debates about it.

     We can be PROUD, so VERY PROUD of Israel at its 60^th birthday.

Remember when on Rosh Hashanah I quoted Rabbi Lazowski about our mishnah, “bein shshim l’zikna,” with his comments: “Sixty is not aged but rather worthy of inclusion among the elders, enjoying the ‘Late flowering of matured wisdom.’” Zakayn and Zakayna --  generally connote the dignity of prestige of the learned elder.”

So what has Israel learned at the age of 60? How is Israel living out and reflecting the “mature wisdom” praised in the Mishnah?

We can ask hard questions of Israel precisely because of our pride, our very concern for, our very love for Israel. We can challenge it to face and discuss questions that are not all celebratory, that involve values, choices, questions of political values. Israel has political parties, to be sure. Boy do they! More than they know what to do with…. And the way the electoral system is organized promotes it. That’s one of the reasons for a lot of its political instability. But there is a second dimension added in Israel… and it is an even more essential question than whether party A or B or C will be in control. It is whether the state should embody Jewish ideals and teachings in its actions and governance, or whether it is a nation just like all the other nations, living only by its sense of political priorities.

I see this struggle, this tension, in many of the debates that continue to be at the center of Israel politics. Recently in the news there have been three issues that have challenged the moral conscience, the moral politics of Israel in ways that we have to agree are unique to Israel. They are:

1. The Absorption of Jews from third world lands

2. The Recognition of Armenian genocide

3. The Acceptance of refugees from Sudan/Darfur

It is hard to think – or speak about -- things that are on one level questioning of Israel. For, I believe, as much as “real-politik” may have to be a necessary part of life, Israel has to also be something special: to be both an “or l’goyim,” a light unto the nations, and a source of pride to the world Jewish community. If we ask for any kind of special treatment for Israel, if we ask for any action other than “hard-ball politics” on the part of the United States government or the governments of any of the other Western world countries, it is precisely because we feel Israel represents something special, both to us and to the world.

The first question is probably little known to most of you. Yet it embodies the essence, the central question: “What is the purpose of a reborn state of Israel?” Whenever we say the grace after meals, we call Israel, “Raisheit tsimchat geulataynu,” the sprouting of our redemption,” and the redemption of Jews from all over the world! Our prayer book says every morning, “V’haveaynu…. M’arba kanfot haaretz”… this is the “klita,” the bringing in of Jews from literally the four corners of the world – indeed remote corners. We hear the word “aliyah” and we know about it from Russia… and we know about it from western countries as we encourage it, and a few thousand idealistic Americans and Canadians make aliyah every year (like Robert and Arnold Sasportas and Susan and Aaron Marcus, and the children of Bernice and Leon Carr and Judith and Bernie Poliner and others)… and we even know that for 20 years now Israel has been bringing in the Beta Israel Jews from Ethiopia. But the fact that it has been 20 years itself is a problem…..The absorption has been slow and fitful, marked by delay and bureaucracy that didn’t exist in relation with other mass situations of aliyah. Operation Moses was a proud chapter in Israel and Jewish history…. But how about the thousands who have still been left behind?

And how many of you know of the Abudaya Jews of Uganda or the Mizo Jews of India?…. Also considered by many to be remnants of the ten lost tribes that we studied about in Hebrew School. These are Jews who are passionate about their Judaism… and their love of Eretz Yisrael. There was a lengthy article about them in the recent Moment magazine, which is edited by Becky Frankel, the daughter and granddaughter of congregants. A recent news report talked about 200 who have just arrived in Israel….. but how about the thousands still there?

The Hatikva anthem is even more meaningful for them, “l’hi’yot am hof’shi b’artzaynu….” Israel is simply not doing enough.

And there are two more challenges which are truly part of the dialogue between our souls and our God which should be part of our Yom Kippur searching for wholeness and “shlaymut” before God….. our responding to the words of Isaiah which challenge us each Yom Kippur and we will read tomorrow morning…

“Is this the fast…..”

There has recently been a political “flap” in both America and Israel over the recognition of the mass, organized killing of one-and-one-half million Armenians  about 90 years ago by the Ottoman Empire as an act of genocide. The domestic flap involved the Anti-Defamation League, whose national director, Abe Foxman,  was forced to change his words and his refusal to call this historical tragedy a  genocide. The main reason that was given by Abe Foxman was so sorrowful to hear that I at first couldn’t believe it…. “That it wasn’t totally proven!” In a column in the Hartford Courant last month we read “ How could this be…. That the ADL could oppose the recognition of the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, and the one Hitler cited when the world would not stand for his horrific planned barbarism of World War II? “Who today speaks of the Armenians?””

Why this amazing policy….. because, we are told, of a fear of jeopardizing Turkish-Israeli relations! As Harry Mazadoorian wrote, “It is only natural for the ADL to be mindful of Israel’s relationship with Turkey. But it should recognize that no alliance based on falsehood, intimidation, and the denial of human rights can survive.” We read that the ADL was pressured to take this position by the  Israel government… and this was wrong.” Especially as Jews, we have the obligation to be mindful of genocide…. wherever and whenever it has occurred or is occurring.

A few weeks ago Iris and I joined a delegation of almost 50 Bloomfield educators on a trip to the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. This is part of a project, sponsored in part by the Jewish community and also the Lazowski family, to train these educators to be able to teach questions of personal identity in the Bloomfield school system… so that they would understand what genocide means…. Both as victims and for that matter as perpetrators… and thereby make a connection to what is happening in places like Darfur today. Iris and I could see how moved the participants were by the museum and a presentation there by a survivor…. and the challenge is to pass this recognition on to a minority school student today! (We actually went in place of Rabbi Lazowski and Ruth who were unable to go…. And whose personal connection would have made the message even stronger.)  But one thing is certain, as Mr. Mazadoorian concludes…. “To deny a proven genocide for whatever reason is to condone all genocides. The tragedies which the world continues to witness, such as those in Darfur, will only be repeated and escalate so long as past genocides are ignored or excused.”

When I chant Yizkor tomorrow, when I read the martyrology tomorrow, I will also be remembering Darfur and the Armenian genocide. To not do so would deny all the moral teachings of my Judaism, everything I hold dear as moral values…. And then… what could I expect my God to think of me, to then judge me on this Yom Kippur day. And I think we have the right to expect Israel to act in this way… and deal with the political consequences that might – and I emphasize  might – arise as a result of Israel joining the rest of the world and calling genocide, genocide.

The third and final area goes along with this… and indeed I have already mentioned it. It is the result of the tragedy, the genocide in Darfur. Most of us do not even know where that country is or  what the fighting is over. And I am not going to give any specific recommendations as to what you might do in this area, other than to entreat you to become aware. All I am going to say is that refugees, fleeing for their lives, men/ women/children who are destitute and shorn of human dignity, have been escaping wherever they could. Wouldn’t you? And many thousands have gone to Egypt. And some of those, I don’t know and can’t fathom how, have crossed hundreds of miles in Egypt and sought refuge in Israel. And at first Israel helped them… I remember including a press release about this in one of my e-shuls a few months ago. But then the government of Israel made a decision to close the border. To not take in any more. And even send some back to Egypt.

Why… political reasons…. Not to anger Egypt

Why… economic reasons…. It costs money; we have our own poor to care for

Why….practical reasons…. We take some/ more will come. When would it stop?

Sound familiar? Sounds like what the world said to our parents or grandparents 70 years ago. Exactly the same. Exactly what I saw in the displays at the Holocaust Museum!!

THESE ARE HUMAN BEINGS! THEY ARE DYING AND WE CAN HELP SAVE THEM!

I don’t know all the economic factors; but I know these people are not asking for homes in Tel Aviv suburbs. The world has mobilized and given aid to hundreds of thousands of people after natural disasters – how is a political one different? God said to Cain… your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. The first chapter of Genesis says that God created all of us in God’s image. These are human beings.

Jews were turned away. Now Jews / now Israelis are turning others away. I cannot go beyond / I cannot see beyond that straight-forward equation, that clear, short statement. And I am grieved, and I am saddened, and can only hope that, like the Armenian situation, the pressure made by “amcha,” the people in the pews like you, will cause the policy to change.  There was a debate on this question in the Jewish Forward, and one solution is To Create A Temporary Haven of Refuge.” And if Israel were to become the short-term haven for 10 or 20 or even 50 thousand people for awhile, I think the world would then respond… and Israel would again be an example to the world, a light to the nations…. And have the moral/political “high ground” once again.

Yes, these are hard political questions. But remember that this is only one facet of Israel. Despite my disappointments, I still support and love Israel; I still want you to see Israel and experience it…..and celebrate all the achievements and successes and beauty and technological innovations that Israel represents. But just like we do not have blind faith in our Judaism, just as we have both prayer and doctors in dealing with illness, so we need – so we must have – both admiration for Israel and the ability to criticize its political leadership when we do not agree with its political decisions.

I have a plaque in my office. It has traveled around the world with me since I had it hand-carved in the Philippines. The words on it are from my political science days in college… It is a quotation from the British philosopher Edmund Burke…. Burke writes “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” On Yom Kippur, as we stand before God in judgment, I hope that we will not be judged for the sin of inaction when we are challenged to do what is right and just…..

Yes, Israel remains to me; Jerusalem remains to me the golden land. Last January, on a bright clear day, Iris and I stood on the Mount of Olives and we looked across to see the rebuilt city of Jerusalem. The hawkers were there selling beautiful prints… the print was $2, the frame 15 times that! A photo very similar to the handout in your readings booklet. And the words of the late Israeli poet and songwriter Naomi Shemer came to mind, Yerushalayim shel zahav, v’shel n’choshet, v’shel or, halo l’kol shirayich, ani kinor….” Jerusalem of gold, of brass, of light…. Let me be the violin for all your songs….” This sounds, as we sing the words, like the ideal Jerusalem….. but the real Jerusalem can be just as golden if we only will it to be. Repeat.

G’mar b’hatima tova. May we all be sealed in the book of life for a healthy and blessed year.