Rabbi Brant Rosen: Rethinking Israel-Palestine

My friend and colleague, Rabbi Brant Rosen has been breaking new ground over the last week. Although there have been several Jewish clergy who have taken on Israel/Palestine issues, Rabbi Rosen's stand is significant because of his role as rabbi of a large congregation. He has succeeded in doing his work while maintaining the intricate web of relationships that sustain a community.
He was the first rabbi I saw to openly address the Palestinian nakba (the Palestinian experience of dispossession and exile as a direct consequence of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948) and publicly refusing to participate in the community-wide Israel Solidarity Day.

Rabbi Rosen is in the middle of a remarkable congregational trip to Israel/Palestine. Instead of the usual, Israeli-Jewish tour guide covering the standard Israeli Zionist narrative, his trip is led by a Jewish-Palestinian tourism agency. You can read a fascinating diary of Rabbi Rosen's Israel-Palestine trip on his blog Shalom Rav.

There are many local coexistence programs in Israel-Palestine. This is a wonderful way for American Jews to support these local efforts, and, at the same time to construct a new, Jewish-American narrative for  Israel that acknowledges Palestine. We can help realize the vision for coexistence in Israel-Palestine by supporting the pioneers and by rethinking our received beliefs on the history of Israel-Palestine.

When I moved to the States some 12 years ago people here were largely ignorant of the issues. In 2000, I addressed a skeptical Jewish audience trying to convince them of settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank. We have come a long way since then.  But, at the same time, for American Jews, Israel is  still a very difficult topic. At a time when Jews are avoiding the divisive topic of Israel, Rabbi Rosen is engaging fully with the issues and opening up the conversation in the American Jewish community.

Yishar koach!

With Rabbi Brant Rosen (at a worker justice rally in Chicago in the summer)

1968: Destruction in Chicago and the Birth of West Bank Settlements - Part 2

The formula, "Israel needs our sympathy because they live in a tough neighborhood" is now standard rhetoric for Israeli Prime Ministers and the U.S. administration. I did a Google search for: Israel "tough neighborhood" and got back over 28,000 hits.

The story of mass Jewish migration to America is one that is, by now, 2, 3 or more generations removed from the present. The story of the old life in Europe  has been romanticized in literature and musicals. The harsh story of the early years in America have been sanitized in museums and stories. But the collapse of the formerly Jewish neighborhoods in several U.S. cities shaped the lives of a whole generation of people who are alive and active today. They left an unhealed scar on the psyche of American Jews.

As an American-Israeli, I find it curious that America's cities erupted simultaneously with the birth of  West Bank settlements. Martin Luther King's assassination at the beginning of April 1968 triggered these riots. At the same time, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, student of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, spiritual father of West Bank settlements (whom I wrote about here) moved into the West Bank Palestinian city of Hebron to celebrate Passover. For the past 42 years, Hebron has been one of the focal points of state-sponsored settler violence against Palestinians and emblematic of Israel's program for the West Bank including constant violence, intimidation, vastly unequal control of resources, curfews,  occasional extra-judicial killings and impunity for Jewish thugs. Rabbi and Mrs. Levinger set the tone for Hebron and for the entire movement.

It's baffling to me how liberal American including the Jews who supported desegregation and equal rights for all American continue to support these policies against Israel's non-Jews.

I am suggesting that while Jews overwhelmingly moved into more affluent neighborhoods, they carried with them the fear of "white flight." Israel occupied the space in the American Jewish psyche of a "safe haven" and simultaneously, of a dangerous place that needs our protection.

Israel occupies the "tough neighborhood" that America's Jews left behind. Therefore, so the thinking goes, it's up to us to support those Jews who were left behind in the neighborhood.

Beryl Satter's book is so valuable because, by re-examining the American Jewish narrative about white flight, we can also begin to re-think American Jewish attitudes towards Israel.

1968: Destruction in Chicago and the Birth of West Bank Settlements - Part 1

                                                            

Martin Luther King addressing a crowd about school segregation

Chicago - July, 1965

        
Where did all the Jewish lefties go? Jews feature prominently in the annals of American socialism and progressive activism. From Emma Lazarus to Saul Alinsky, from the sweatshops of the Lower East Side to the communes of the 60s, Jews were at the forefront of progressive politics.
Much has been written about the Jewish neocons and about how success has moved Jews to the right.
One of the unhealed wounds in the Jewish narrative is the exodus to the suburbs in the 50s and 60s. The so-called "white flight" from America's cities involved Jews in a particular way. Rabbi Robert Marx, a well-known progressive activist in Chicago from that era (and beyond) recommended Dr. Beryl Satter's book, "Family Properties" to me. She is an historian. Her book is well written and is thoroughly researched. But this book also reads like a thriller. Dr. Satter follows the trail of her father, an activist lawyer and landlord on Chicago's West Side who died prematurely of stress-related heart disease. Satter tries to piece together her father's life, tracking how he became the victim of his own idealism and circumstances.

What I found compelling about the book was how she depersonalizes loaded issues. Satter describes how individuals became enmeshed in much greater forces, particularly institutional racism. During the 50s and 60s, federal agencies regulated a racist system against Blacks. This took decades to undo.  Anecdotally, my experience is that Jews tend to remember Black violence and the destruction of solid, middle class by Black homeowners and tenants. Satter shows how Whites' collective memory of the inner city riots is highly selective. Whites do not remember the extensive, officially tolerated White attacks on Blacks. Rampaging white hordes received police protection as Blacks were intimidated and Black property was attacked. A universal principle applies here. Just as in Israel/Palestine and British Raj India, the onus of non-violence was placed entirely on the oppressed minority. Any occurrence of Black violence dominates our memories. All the White violence - which was far more prevalent and was backed by racist government and business policies - was deleted from the White narrative.
Rabbi Marx tells me how anti-Semitism played into the tragedy that Whites know as "white flight." The WASP establishment knowingly directed the Black migration from the South to Jewish neighborhoods such as Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago. Their assumption was that Jews were the only minority that would tolerate racial integration. This brought Blacks and Jews into conflict. Jews became the interface between the African-Americans and non-Black Chicago.

The most inflammatory federal policy was the infamous "redlining." A neighborhood block had to be 100% White to receive the highest credit rating. As soon as one Black family moved in, the entire block was downgraded. Entire communities of White lower middle class Catholics saw their hard-earned equity evaporate overnight. The so-called "blockbusters" who brought in Black families to White blocks were vilified by the White community.

Westlawn and other West Side and South Side neighborhoods became almost 100% African-American in a few years. Jews fled northward to the north side of Chicago and to the far north suburbs of the city.

Chicago 1968 riots

The climax was 1968, with the the assassination of Martin Luther King. King had moved from Alabama to Chicago in 1965 from Alabama to establish a base for the northern States. His assassination in April 1964 triggered massive riots hat lasted for days. Mayor Daley called in thousands of national guardsman. 28 city blocks were destroyed in the fired and violence. The physical scars are visible to this in the city's vacant lots. Lawndale was etched in White consciousness as a place too dangerous to visit.

For Jews (and other White people), the memory of that time shaped their relationship to the city as they escaped from the city's melting pot to White suburbia.

In part 2, I will suggest how the Jews flight from the city has shaped American Jewish attitudes to Israel.

Israeli Messianic Judaism

How did the West Bank settlements become the national project of the State of Israel?

On 5/5/05, in honor of Israel's Independence Day , the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a list of the top 10 people who made Israel what it is today. Predictablye, David Ben Gurion comes in first. Yizhak Rabin and Anwar Sadat are also in the top 10. There is one rabbi in the listL Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook. He comes in after Yasser Arafat and ahead of Golda Meir.

                      

Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook (1891-1982) was the father of the settlement movement. The paradox that he advocated was a. the State of Israel is the fulfillment of God's redemption and ushers in a Messianic age and b. his followers should violate the State's laws in building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. His followers became the founders of the West Bank settlement project. Many of them are still public figures on the West Bank and Israel.

In preparing for a class I'm teaching next semester I did some research on the origins of Kook's settler movement. It started with Zvi Yehuda's father, Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook (piling on the names must run in the family). Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook was the rabbi of generation of Israel's founding fathers (the so-called second wave of immigration). He negotiated the divide between traditional Judaism and political Zionism. He was ideologically committed to the Zionist project. He parted company with his fellow traditionalists in conferring rabbinic blessing on the young anti-clerical - often anti-religious - Zionists.

                                                                  

                                                        Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook (1865 - 1935)

The outbreak of WWI left A.I. Kook stranded in London. This is what he had to say about the Great War in his essay, "Days of Battle" published in "The Vision of Redemption" (1941)

(The translations are mine. In a time of the revival of the Hebrew language, Kook's prose was particularly creative. He writes elsewhere how he strives for a (kabbalistic) transcendence through language. I've toned it down a bit in the English.)

When there is a great war in the world, the Messiah's power quickens. "The time of the songbird is nigh" (Song of Solomon 2:13). The song of the evil tyrants is eradicated (lit. the pruning of the evil tyrants is at hand) and the world breathes. "and the sound of the turtledove is heard in the land." The individuals who die an unjust death in the violent upheaval of war possess the quality of the righteous, whose death is an atonement. Their souls ascend in the root of life. Their very lives bring goodness and blessing to the greater good of the new world that is being built. The presence of the Messiah becomes more apparent. As extensive and devastating as the war is so is the depth of yearning for the appearance of the Messiah. (p. 121)

Later in the book, Kook answers a question from a devout Jew whether he could collaborate with the (secular) Jewish National Fund. The question centers on the JNF's desecration of the Sabbath by conducting land purchases on Saturdays.

Kook reviews some Talmudic material on the importance of Jewish ownership of land in the Land of Israel. Then he writes:

The JNF's mission is to to purchase properties in the Land of Israel, to transfer them away from non-Jewish ownership to Jewish. This is defined under the religious requirement to occupy the Land which is equal in significance to all the other commandments. The proof is that the Torah requires us to engage in this commandment even by waging war. Naturally, lives are always lost in war. The Torah says of all the other commandments, "that one may live by them." Not so in relation to occupying the Land. While we are not currently engaged in occupying the land by force, we are enjoined to invest all our efforts in occupying the Land through transactions.

The suspension of all law for one redemptive act, and the atoning power of the death of the innocent echo another Jewish Messianic movement: Christianity. Other Jewish Messianic movements in history similarly placed the Messianic idea ahead of all Judaism. The 17th century Shabtai Zvi is a notable example.

The suspension of all of Judaism for reclaiming the Land foreshadows one disturbing aspect of American Judaism. For many Jewish organizations there is no dogma other than Zionism. A Jew can reject God, not observe any of the basic Jewish commandments and still be a Jew in good standing, but if you reject Zionism, your risk rejection by the Jewish community.

Kook's glorification of violence is deeply troubling. To this day, echoes of the debate between Kook and the traditionalist Jerusalem rabbis who rejected Zionism continue to be relevant.

Why the Israeli leadership and public adopted the Kook program is a separate question. Haaretz's readers got it right. Undoubtedly, the Kook ideology has made Israel what it is today. It has also shaped mainstream American Judaism.
                                                                  

Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook with Ariel Sharon, the West Bank settlements spiritual and political architects respectively, planting a tree at the settlement of Elon Moreh, near Nablus, 1974.

Jews Against Settlements In Support of BDS

When I was a reservist for the Israeli military, I avoided serving on the West Bank by using a simple ruse. Reservists who did not served the requisite number of days in their units were sent to do guard duty on settlements. I didn't want to risk my life for settlers. Some soldiers chose to become conscientious objectors and  were locked up in the stockade. I didn't want to go to jail. Instead, each year, some time in January or February,  I'd call up my unit CO, who was a friend, and asked him to get me on the roster for a couple of weeks earlier in the year. Chalking up a few weeks in my home unit kept me off the West Bank list.

Since moving to the States, I have been careful not to buy Israeli settler products. And so, I was delighted when Jewish Voice for Peace declared its support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) program. This is a non-violent way for people around the world to express their values by refusing to purchase settler products. Particularly for Jews, this is a great way for us to support Israeli activists in forging relationships with Palestinians. This is another building block in creating the future just, Israeli-Palestinian civil society.

For a clear exposition of the BDS strategy, watch this video with JVP director, Rebecca Vilkomerson:

Jews, Israel and the Generation Gap

In the Jewish community there is nothing more consensus-building (if you agree) or divisive (if you don't) than Israel. Fundraising and community building are programmed around Israel. Jews identify Israel as central to their Jewishness and are seen as representing Israel by everyone else. Yet no subject in the Jewish community raises hackles the way Israel. No subject wrecks family dinners, starts synagogue quarrels or sours friendships like Israel.

I think there is a silver lining and have written about it here.

Yet, some of these fault lines can be anticipated. There are some opinions that are associated reliably with certain groups:

1) "We need a Jewish state as an insurance policy in case anti-Semitism erupts in the U.S."

2) "We should only air our differences among Jews. We should not expose our divisions to outsiders." 

3) "I'm Jewish and I'm American."

I hear the first two the whole time from people who are the same age as the State of Israel, or older. People in the 60s and up. I have never head someone under 40 make that argument.
In my experience #3 is meaningless to young adults today. Younger Jews do not fear anti-Semitism, they do not see Israel as a safe haven in the event of an unthinkable breakdown of American society. They see no border between Americanness and Jewishness. They take it for granted that they are full Americans and they are as Jewish as they want to be.

(My guess is that this probably does not apply in more traditional communities. These Jews maintain a deliberate separateness from mainstream America and are more connected in a variety of ways to Israeli life.)

If any of my readers has more generation gap distinctions regarding Jews and Israel, would you post them in the comments section. Thanks.

Since it doesn't look like Israel is dropping out of the headlines any time soon, and Jews will continue to be associated with Israel, it is likely that younger Jews will develop a new relationship to Israel. One that is not based on an experience of anti-Semitism or the even more distant Holocaust.

I'm hopeful that many - perhaps a new mainstream - will develop an understanding of Israel that harmonizes their Jewish soul and their human spirit.

News from the Middle East: State-Appointed Clerics Banish Religious Minorities from Cities

...or Government Employees Demand Citizens Not Rent Homes to Minorities.
...or, Public Officials in the Middle East Encourage Racist Policies

Take your pick. This is the news from Israel.
The call by a group of Israeli rabbis to ban Arabs from Jewish towns has topped the news in Israel for two days. Besides the obvious problems here, this shines a light on the troubling mixing of church and state in Israel: all the rabbis draw a government salary as municipal chief rabbis.

With 2,000 years of rabbinic rulings, it doesn't take much scholarship to cobble together a religious document like this that looks like an authentic expression of Judaism. The most senior independent Israeli rabbi, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, issued a strong statement castigating the junior government-appointed  clerics: "I have long said that some rabbis should have their pens confiscated!" Elyashiv has earned his moral clout by virtue of his scholarship, age (he's in his 90s) and independence (he's never taken state money). In the unofficial hierarchy of rabbinic leaders, he ranks as a super-authority.

Rabbi Elyashiv

Elyashiv brought to the fore a debate in the Israeli Orthodox community which is as old as Orthodoxy's engagement with political Zionism. When Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook arrived in Palestine from London, following the fall of the former Ottoman territory to the British in WWI, he quickly became rabbi to the young Jewish pioneers. This became his life work and he was rewarded with his appointment as the first chief rabbi of Palestine. The position of municipal chief rabbi can be traced to him. His brand of religious activism led his followers, and particularly his son, Zvi Yehuda Kook, to launch the settler movement in the late 60s.

Abraham Kook was opposed vehemently by the, native Jewish community of Jerusalem. This community is the spiritual ancestor of Rabbi Elyashiv.
In distancing himself from the municipal rabbis Elyashiv denounced the rulings of "Zionist rabbis." This is a loaded term. It reflects power struggles for choice government jobs in cities and state-endorsed religious courts in Israel. It also exposes an ideological divide between rabbis such as Kook who embraced Zionism as a religious movement, and the traditional camp which was deeply suspicious of the young rebels. Elyashiv's accusation that "Zionist rabbis" are the ones issuing the ban on renting Jewish homes to Arabs   is an extension of his community's worldview, that, prior to the arrival of the Zionists, Jews and Arabs lived in harmony.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also spoke out against the rabbis, quoting from the Bible's book of Leviticus. "Thou shalt love the stranger" and "one law shalt thou have for the native-born and the stranger." Netanyahu got this one right: Judaism has always acknowledged that Jews in Israel/Palestine share the same physical space as non-Jews. There is no period in Jewish history where that has not been a focus of Jewish religious culture. From the Torah, to the later books of the Bible; from the Apocrypha to the Mishna; from the Talmud to medieval scholars and beyond, Jews have always read the Jewish domain as overlapping with the non-Jewish.

However, Israeli law belies Netanyahu's statement. The State of Israel is constituted to protect Jewish privilege. The Basic Laws, building blocks of Israel's future constitution guarantee Jewish primacy in land use, citizenship and other privileges. State institutions such as the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Lands Administration control land use by excluding non-Jews from national projects.

The rabbis' ruling is a natural outgrowth of this political culture. Netanyahu has expelled Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes, forcefully expropriated Arab lands, and funds and encourages Jewish settlements and the dismemberment of the West Bank...why, the rabbis can reason, is their ruling crossing the line?

Rabbi Elyashiv's followers live illegally on the West Bank in Israeli-sponsored towns such as Immanuel. Why is baring Palestinians from the Orthodox town of Bnei Berak worse than illegally settling in the Palestinian territories?

I'm glad Netanyahu and Elyashiv spoke out against the racist rabbis. But, if they want to quote the Biblical injunction that all - Jew and non-Jew - are equal before the law with integrity, they need to do their house cleaning first

"Don't Shoot and Don't Weep"

                                    



I saw the excellent documentary Budrus this afternoon. Today's was the last showing in Chicago, and I'm glad I made it. Besides thoroughly enjoying this well-made work, I also left the movie theater inspired. Budrus is about a West Bank village that successfully confronted the Israeli army. The Palestinian villagers successfully organized to save their olive groves and cemetery from being destroyed by the Israeli security wall.

This story is so wonderful not only because it has a happy ending but because is rings true.  As one of the activists in the movie says, "The powerful never make concessions without a struggle." I saw other universal lessons including the importance of non-violent, steadfast, unified resistance. These are just as relevant to the campaign for worker justice in Chicago's hotels as they are for Palestinian farmers on the West Bank. Budrus reads like a textbook for community organizing.

As a story of building a unified campaign, Budrus pays attention to alliances between different constituencies: men and women; parents and children and teens; Palestinian villagers and Israeli activists. One of the relationships the documentary illustrates is that of Israeli soldiers and Israeli activists. An Israeli activist, seeking to make a human connection with the armed, Israeli soldiers, calls out to the soldiers through a megaphone, "We are peers. I am 22 and you are my age!"

If activism is your pleasure, Israel is a paradise. When I lived in Israel, what made for an enjoyable demonstration was a good slogan: it has to rhyme and pack a punch. The Israeli activists in Budrus came up with a great one. A group of young Israeli activists taunt the Israeli soldiers with the call: "lo yoreem v'lo bocheem!" "Don't shoot and don't weep." This call mocks the classic Israeli military ethic: "We shoot and then we will weep." In other words, Israeli soldiers are tough enough to go into battle and do what needs to be done, yet sensitive enough to process their emotions back home and let the tears run. This is reflected in mainstream Israeli culture. The mourning soldier is a touchstone of Israeli music and literature. Israeli popular music abounds with elegaic songs that articulate rituals of grief, among soldiers and with civilians.

The early Jewish pioneers who laid the foundations for modern Israel set out to re-create the Jewish man. These young men and women - peers in age of the soldiers and activists of Budrus - turned their teenage rejection of their parents' lives into an ideological movement. Their mission - as reflected in contemporary writings - was to take the weedy, terrified, bookish shtetl Jews and produce farmer-warriors. One hundred years later,  the Israeli military male has developed as a hybrid: the Israeli sabra combined with the traditional Jew: The Israeli is the warrior, then, after the battle is over, the "Jew" emerges, and talks, and weeps. Israelis are proud of this archetype.

What I find lacking in this model is the ability to go beyond emoting and to question the premise for going into battle. There is no format in mainstream Israeli culture for asking fundamental questions. Like the documentary's woman-warrior Yasmin, this ideal type never questions the morality of her actions. (This pattern is the subject of the 2008, Israeli movie Waltz with Bashir about the first Lebanon War.)

Israeli military Border Police enforcing illegal seizure of Palestinian lands to build the Israeli '"Separation Wall"

The formula of "We shoot, then we weep" has a particular resonance in Hebrew. I hear in it a paraphrase of the formula with which the Children of Israel accepted the authority of the Torah. Famously (to those who had a traditional, Jewish upbringing) the first generation of Israelites entered into covenant with God with the formula: "na'aseh v'nishma". "We will do it, and then we will study (lit. hear) it." The Talmud (BT Shabbat 88a) lauds the Israelites' acceptance of the commandments before knowing the scope of that commitment. This unquestioning acceptance of authority in matters of war is a perversion of the classical, rabbinic understanding of accepting the authority of God.

The Israeli activists' call on the Israeli military to abandon the cycle of violence-then-therapy. The Israeli activists in Budrus issue an urgent call to return to traditional, Jewish values of non-aggression. That message is delivered in simple, Israeli Hebrew: lo yoreem, v'lo bocheem!
Translation: If you won't shoot at us now, you won't have to cry about it later.

Worker Justice in the Business Section

The campaign for worker justice at the Hyatt and other hotels in Chicago which I've been active in since the summer and have written about received a boost from the Chicago Tribune over the weekend. The Trib covered the interfaith protest of 70 religious leaders and 100 workers on November 4. We appeared with a color photo on the cover of the Trib's business section

The article provides good context and is available here. I have tried to post the scanned hardcopy so you can see the pictures (which are not available in the online edition), but, apparently, there is a general glitch in the software. Please comment here if you want to receive a scanned image by e-mail.

This prominent coverage has already triggered some good conversations for me. I look forward to a dialog with folks who know more about business than I ever will.

What is the real bottom line in dealing with people as workers?

Demilitarizing Israel-Palestine

                                                


CTA, Chicago's public transportation system, is now hosting an advertizing campaign aimed at demilitarizing the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Of course, I support a campaign that espouses the mission of this blog.
Fifteen years ago, when I was living in Israel, the so-called two state solution was publicly supported by only one political party, the Jewish-Palestinian list, formerly communist, Hadash. This party was beyond the pale of the polite society I belonged to. I could not have voted for Hadash without wading uphill through a lot of social negativity. Hadash was communist. Worse, Hadash was non-Zionist.
Well, that was then, and now, even the racist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Bibi "Terror" Netanyahu support the two-state solution. Now that the two-state proposal is part of standard right wing rhetoric it is clear that it carries no hope. The dream of a viable future for the  Israelis and Palestinians is best served by campaigns such as www.TwoPeoplesOneFuture.org

The CTA campaign reminds me of Israel circa 1995. An urgent and simple truth, that is ahead of the mainstream curve: we need to find a way for both peoples to share the land.

Many American Jews will argue that Israel is embattled and is in a dangerous neighborhood and Israel needs all the support it can get from its principal ally, the U.S. Therefore, the U.S. should continue to give Israel billions of dollars annually in military aid with access to some of the U.S. premium armaments,
I disagree. If Israel were truly under threat, the U.S. would rush to the rescue. This was true in Israel's traumatic 1973 Yom Kippur war and, it's abundantly clear that this is just as true today.

President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu                                                       

This campaign will not put a dent in the military aid Israel receives from the U.S. Yet, it will educate Chicagoans as to how our tax dollars give the current Israeli government the confidence to dominate the Palestinians militarily.

The news last week that the Netanyahu government has successfully demanded that the U.S. commit in writing to providing 20 F-35 warplanes, before it was willing to consider a limited 90 day freeze West Bank construction in exchange, illustrates how damaging the current military relationship is.

For a powerful exposition of the scale of U.S. military aid to Israel, please watch this testimony by Josh Ruebner:

                                

Looking forward to seeing this campaign spread to other cities across the United States.

Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish fathers dream of a peaceful future for their daughters

                                                          

Biking through Chicago's Winter Blues

                

Chicago is a cyclist's dream. With 150 miles of bike lanes and more bike racks than any other U.S. city, my adoptive hometown is rightly proud to be the national leader in urban biking. We are helped by the uniformly flat Midwestern terrain. But the real credit goes to Mayor Richard Daley Jr. who has been a champion for bicycles. In addition to the network of commuting bike lanes, his administration has overseen the development of extensive recreational bike trails through parks across the city. The most famous of these is the 18 miles of trail along Lake Michigan. The city's biking culture is amplified through forest preserves across suburban Chicago.

                                            

I started bicycle commuting three years ago.  Gas prices had peaked and commuter trains were packed as people minimized their cars usage. In addition, the expressway that connects the city to the suburbs was under construction. At one point along the 21 mile route, the bike path runs through a tunnel under the six-lane expressway. The trail continues alongside the roadway before veering off, back into the forest preserve. In my first year of biking, it was always a thrill for me to pedal along, overtaking the stalled traffic along the interstate. The driving commute took so long that the time it took for me to go to the gym and then drive was longer than my bike ride. So, I saved my gym membership fee, some time and had a great riding experience through the forest preserve in the bargain. During the work week, there are so few people out in the forest preserve that the ride is safe and calm. In early morning, or around dusk, the deer were out. I came to know where the various deer families lived. The trees keep track of the seasons. There was one patch of forest floor along the Chicago River that is the first to sprout new seedlings every Spring. A cluster of tree seedlings springs up in a large circular patch. They grow to about a foot tall and then the canopies of the established trees overshadow the patch. Fall is golden. The winter is a constantly changing scenery of ice and snow.

                                                                         

Riding through the winter has transformed my relationship with Chicago's winters. It's not just the constant cold (averaging in the mid- to high  20s) or the occasional bouts of intense cold (O degrees or colder + the wind chill factor) or, even the gloomy, overcast days. The hardest part is how long the winter is. Come March, when we see on television how the rest of the world is heading outdoors, we Chicagoans still have  up to two months of the Chicago winter ahead of us.

Cycling has been my way of combating the Chicago winter blues. Many Chicago winter days are stunningly beautiful. By taking the battle to the outdoors, I don't feel closed in by the weather. With appropriate clothing and my winterized bicycle, I get to enjoy the outdoors, year-round.

The affluent North Shore suburbs along the shoreline of Lake Michigan keep the bike path clear, year-round. They plow the snow throughout the winter. I must be of one of the handful of folks who take advantage of this tremendous resource. This will be my fourth winter in which I regularly commute by bicycle throughout the winter.

Mayor Daley's administration is coming to an end. He steps down this winter. Looking ahead to February 2011, the city's mayoral race is being closely watched by Chicago's cyclists.  Which of the candidates will build on Mayor Daley's legacy?

                                                                               

                                                    Bon voyage, Mayor Daley, and many thanks!

B'tselem

Last night, my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner at our home with Uri Zaki. Mr. Zaki is the US representative of the Israeli human rights organization, B'tselem. 

B'tselem does great work, documenting and publicizing the lives of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. As an Israeli organization, based in Jerusalem, B'tselem enjoys solid relationships with the Israeli political establishment and media.

Surprisingly to me, Uri Zaki is not a radical leftist. He started out in Likud and saw in right wing Prime Minister, Menahem Begin a role model. He speaks of himself as an "unapologetic Zionist." It was only after serving as a soldier in the Occupied Territories that Uri's eyes were opened to the reality of the Occupation. When a good friend, who was a gentle soul, stole from a Palestinian at a checkpoint, he realized that there is something in the essentially discriminatory nature of the Occupation that was poisoning Israel. He rejects AIPAC's position of Israel-right-or-wrong and sees the path of B'tselem (and J Street) as the only way "to keep Israel both Jewish and democratic."

                                                                           Uri Zaki delivering the Yizhak Rabin lecture

This morning, Uri delivered the annual Yizhak Rabin lecture. I don't agree with him on a number of key issues, most importantly, on the fundamental importance of maintaining a sovereign state for the Jewish nation and how "Jewish and "democratic" are reconcilable. However, I found it refreshing to hear a young Israeli leader speak of America and Israel as the two co-equal centers of Jews and the importance each center has for the other. By contrast, the former Israeli Consul-General in Chicago, Barukh Bina ended his speech in my congregation with this classic Zionist distinction: "Today, Israel and America are the two centers of Jews. Israel is the stage - you, are in the audience. We invite you to step on to the stage and become actors in this great drama."
Uri invited American Jews to engage with Israel and to influence US policy on Israel. He spoke of what each of the two large, Jewish communities can give each other. The AIPAC position as articulated by its representative's speech to the congregation, echoing Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren is: "American Jews should not get involved in Israeli politics." To this, Uri countered: "there is no escaping Israeli politics. If you support Israel-right-or-wrong then you are supporting Netanyahu's right wing agenda."
The audience asked thoughtful and, sometimes, provocative questions. One particularly insightful comment: "the younger generation no longer share the same relationship with Israel that the older generation is used to." This, the audience member observed, is "something we need to acknowledge, even though it is frightening to do so." Times are changing.

Uri Zaki represents a new Israeli generation of young leaders. He explained that previous generations of Israelies did not feel free to leave Israel. Those who did move from Israel to the U.S. carried guilt within and had to bear their peers' disapproval.  Today, many Israelis live in the U.S. His decision to stay in Israel is a free one. This generation therefore demands of Israel that it live up to higher standards.

For me, what's missing from these conversations is the key factor - the Arabs. As dissenting voices within the Zionist movement noted back in the 1920s, a comprehensive vision for lasting peace must involve the Palestinians. Meeting them at the negotiating table is not enough. In Israel itself, I'd like to see Palestinians brought into the government and upper echelons of the bureaucracy.

Two audience members asked Uri what we can do for B'tselem as American Jews. He replied that we not believe everything we are told about Israel. If J Street syas something, check it out. He also asked for donations.
My suggestion was to donate to B'tselem's  camera distribution project. Last year, when I visited Israel I brought a check to B'tselem, video editor Yoav Gross for the purchase of a camera. B'tselem's brilliantly simple strategy has been to arm Palestinians was cameras so that they can document settler violence (and the Israeli military's collusion with the settlers). This work has already resulted in two front page pictures - by B'tselem's Palestinian activists - on the front page of the New York Times. A similar project on the Gaza tunnels received prominent coverage in the Israeli mainstream media. Since Israeli journalists are barred from Gaza and international journalists cannot document every criminal attack by settlers, these cameras act as our eyes. This brilliant scheme empowers the powerless and does this in a non-violent fashion.

At a cost of a couple of hundred dollars, you might see a picture taken with your camera, on the front page of the New York Times.

B'tselem is doing vital work in using their privileged status within Israel to empower the Palestinians living under the Israeli settler/military occupation.

Chile and Judeo-Christian Israel

Israel has invited the rescued Chilean miners to spend Christmas in Israel. "All expenses paid." The Israeli itinerary includes visits to Christian holy sites.

Israel enjoys strong ties to Christians around the world. This close relationship has marked the course of Zionism in Palestine. The Jewish Zionist movement developed alongside Christian ambitions for the Holy Land. It was the British victory over the Islamic Ottoman Empire in World War I that led to the creation of the State of Israel. In 1917, the Christian Zionist British Prime Minster Lloyd George authored the Balfour Declaration, the document that sanctioned Zionist, political aspirations in Palestine. Ironically, this Christian support for political Zionism was met with Jewish opposition:  Edwin Montague,  the only Jews in Lloyd George's Christian cabinet was the sole opponent of the Balfour Declaration.

Even earlier, Jewish Zionism existed and developed within the Christian Zionist world. British journalist, Victoria Clarke in her comprehensive history of Christian Zionism   Allies for Armageddon  documents the relationship between Christian- and Jewish-Zionism over a period of 350 years. Her fascinating  - and very readable  - history links contemporary Christian Zionism back to the mid-17th century to the re-admittance of Jews to England and to the beginnings American Exceptionalism.

American Zionism in Palestine started in the mid-19th century. One of the legacies of that period, the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, is the preferred accommodation of the international press corps in Jerusalem.

Beginning somewhat earlier in the 19th century, British Zionism was characterized by the influx of Christian missionaries, including former Jews. The beautiful convent (now including a wonderful Bed & Breakfast) of Notre Dame de Sion in the picturesque village of Ein Karem was founded by two French, Jewish brothers who converted to Catholicism.

Similarly, the neo-Gothic church inside of Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate was built by the Solomon Alexander,  the first Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem. This former Galitzianer Jew moved to England. became a provincial rabbi, then abandoned Judaism and converted to Christianity. He re-entered the clergy this time as an Anglican priest,  and was sent to Palestine to head the Christian mission in Jerusalem as its first bishop.

The foundational impact of the mid-19th century Christian settlement in Palestine is evident to this day. The German Templars helped turn the village of Haifa into the major city it is today. They shaped the city's architecture. In Jerusalem, the Templars' "German Colony" is the trendy, hotspot in West Jerusalem. The templars are credited with the famous, or, infamous depending on your point of view) Jaffa orange brand.

Political Zionism developed in Christian Europe and is guaranteed today by Christian America. Christian Evangelicals famously back Israel and, the Israeli settler movement in particular. Israel, her emissaries and representatives around in American, nurtures this image of Israel as the Christian ally in the Middle East.

The European-American Christian context for Jewish Zionism explains an anomaly in Israeli policy. If Israel is truly the ally of Christians in the face of perceived Islamic encroachment, why are Palestinian Christians subject to the same discrimination, humiliation and intimidation as their Muslim neighbors?

The answer lies in the kinship Israel feels, not with Christians as Christians but as extensions of the Western world which Israel longs to be a part of.

 A case in point, is Israel's harsh response - through the agency of American Jewish organizations - to the Palestinian Christian

statement of principles

on human rights in Palestine. This Christian document was lambasted as anti-Semitic by such groups as the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

             High on the itinerary of the Chilean Christians will undoubtedly be the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. As Bethlehem is officially under Palestinian control, and the Old City of Jerusalem is internationally recognized as part of the Palestinian West Bank, the Palestinians, were understandably unhappy when Israel neglected to put their names on the Chilean invitation.

                                                      Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Old City of Jerusalem

I'd love to see the Chilean miners go to Israel, bid adieu to their official, Israeli minders and do a photo-op with the Palestinian custodians of Bethlehem and Jerusalem's holy Christian sites. The courtyard in front of the Church of the Holy Speluchre in the Old City of Jerusalem would make a great backdrop: representatives of all the churches that maintain a presence in the church, together with the Muslim family that holds the keys to he church, some Jewish clergy from Rabbis for Human Rights, and the 31 miners  - plus their families. 

Clergy Solidarity with Hyatt Workers

This evening 70+ of my fellow clergy, cantors, rabbis and Christian clergy gathered with Hyatt workers to protest the continuing exploitation of workers by Hyatt management. We protested outside the Hyatt Regency, on the Chicago River across from the Magnificent Mile.

U.S. Representative Danny Davis (no relation...) added his presence and words to the event. My colleagues, members of Reform Cantors of Chicago, led the clergy processional with Go Down Moses (Let My People Go).

                                                               
                                                                       With Cantor Scott Simon at the rally

There was a great atmosphere. Our Christian colleagues were good sports and incorporated a Jewish ritual into the event. As Rev. Lillian Daniel explained it: on the Jewish holyday of Purim, whenever we hear the name of the evil Haman, we make noise in protest. Similarly, at the rally, whenever a speaker said the word "injustice", everybody shook their 'clackers'.

Rabbi Peter Knobel, immediate past-president of the 1,800 member Central Conference of American Rabbis invoked the Biblical term "oshek" "exploitation" to describe Hyatt management's treatment of its workers. Hyatt Regency hosts major Jewish events in Chicago, as it is one of the only large establishments to offer kosher food. In light of this "oshek", Rabbi Knobel declared the Hyatt Regency "not kosher."

Rev. Chisum infused energy and roused the crowd to chanting with him. Sister Gwen Fary joined with my colleagues

Cantors Simon, Goldstein & Luck accompanying on guitar Cantors Mahler & Dresher & Sister Gwen Fary.

The overall theme of the event was the Passover exodus story. I spoke about Nahshone, the hero was, according to tradition was the first to brave the waters of the Sea of Reeds (the Red Sea). Jewish tradition credits Nahshone with the beginning of the miracle of the splitting of the sea. We ended the event with singing "We Shall Overcome." By that time, the challenge that faced the protesters was not Hyatt but the weather. I had to abandon the second half of my speech because I couldn't quite unfold the sheet of paper that was disintegrating in the rain...

The atmosphere was lively. It strikes me repeatedly, how enjoyable this activism is. I met up with old friends and met new people. The workers, clergy and organizers were all connected through the common commitment of solidarity with the workers in the face of shameless exploitation. I hope our public action gave the workers a boost and gave Hyatt executives reason to fear that their image will be tarnished unless they treat their workers with respect.

On Large Ink Toner Cartridges (or, the Absurdities of the Yemeni Plot Against Chicago)

So, all were aflutter in my adoptive hometown, Chicago. The news channels and my e-mail inbox were full of reports about Al-Qaida's failed attempt to fly explosives to a Chicago synagogue. According to the authorities, one of the packages was found on board a cargo plane in the U.K. Today, a British cabinet minister, flanked by a grim-faced David Cameron, announced, according to The Guardian's top headline, that, henceforth, the British have:

"imposed an immediate ban on large ink toner cartridges in hand luggage."

So, the British government's response to the latest terror scare is....to make air travellers' lives even more miserable - at least those passengers who are wont to schlep large ink toner cartridges in their hand luggage. For the rest of us: we can be calm in the knowledge that the large ink toner cartridges, that may contain explosives, are in the cargo hold. Wait a minute. Isn't that just like that plane that the British seized which, we are told, could have blown up?

Really, for the authorities' placebo sedative to work, the plan at least has to have the appearance of fixing the problem. This absurd plan makes one thing abundantly clear: there isn't much our fearless leaders can do to give us added security. (And they are doing plenty to make us unsafe, thank you very much.) Actually, I'm relieved that this latest security directive doesn't require us to give up any more of our civil liberties.

Except, of course, for the right to bear oversized ink cartridges. In our hand luggage.

Democratic Israel

In an effort to head off criticism of Israel's slide away from democracy, Prime Minister Netanyahu todayexpanded the scope of the "loyalty oath." Not just non-Jews, but new, Jewish citizens will be required to swear allegiance to "a Jewish and democratic state." First, the silver lining: this is a first step away from the racial basis for Israeli citizenship. This is a healthy move away from the discriminatory Israeli Law of Return
But that's as far as the good news goes.
This law betrays a perverted notion of democracy. Democracy is not granted in reward for adhering to a political dogma: democracies are tested in their ability to accept dissent.
This might be expected from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with his anti-democratic platform, but not from Netanyahu - who started his career by speaking like an American.

So, how are the Israeli government's anti-American shenanigans playing in America?

Last week, my temple hosted a political event. The Washington-based political action group, the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) sent a representative to lay out that group's agenda. I could not attend the session because of my teaching responsibilities that morning but, several people came to me with one 'take-away' concept from the presentation. They all learned from the presenter that "Israel is a democracy. We, as Americans must respect Israel's decisions and not interfere even when we disagree with the elected government's decisions."

I take issue with that statement on its assumption and conclusion:

Assumption: Israel is a democracy
Israel is a limited democracy. The Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, whose lives are governed by Israeli officials and subject to review by Israeli courts have no representation. Israeli democracy does not extend to them., and they have no one to speak up for them. This plays out in their ability to access healthcare, freedom of movement, land rights and ownership. Fundamentally, it places the Occupation officials that rule Palestinian life beyond the reach of democratic oversight.

Within the 1948 border, Palestinian-Israeli citizens as individuals are nominally co-equal with their Jewish neighbors. However, their participation in public life is curtailed. Overt racial discrimination on land use is practised against Arabs by state-affiliated agencies such as the JNF and the Israel Lands Administration. The Basic Laws - the building blocks of Israel's constitution - explicitly prefer Jews to Arabs.
All in all, the 50% of people who are subject to Israeli control do not have full access to democracy as we understand it in America. Therefore, any argument presented to American Jews on the grounds that Israel is a "democracy" is essentially flawed.

"Americans must respect Israel's government and not interfere in Israeli decisions"
I have two objections to this argument:
1) Since the Arabs in Israel are not able to speak for themselves, we cannot accept Israeli decisions.
Furthermore, this position by this American political group runs counter to what Israelis ask of us as non-Israeli Jews. A couple of years ago I helped chauffeur a contender for the Israeli premiership as he toured Jewish Chicago. Israeli parliamentarian Ophir Paz-Pines came to Chicago to build his case for leading Israel. We witness a steady stream of well-publicized Israeli missions from NGOs, political activists and statesmen. Since they seek to engage us in the Israeli political discourse, why is an American organization urging us not to?

2) American Jews - I have learned - enjoy a strong tradition of engaging in regular, political action. American Jews not only vote in very high numbers but also act by going to Washington, visiting their congressman, writing letters, attending rallies etc.. In fact, the American-Israel Political Action Committee encourages this very advocacy for the policies it supports. Why, then, when it comes to Israeli actions that we disagree with do they urge us to sit back? Which is it: are we called to act on Israeli actions, or not?

The Israeli government claims to act on behalf of Jews who are not Israeli. Furthermore, it colonized the west Bank with Jewish Israeli settlers, under the legal framework of non-Israeli Jews (WZO). That is invitation enough for us as non-Israeli Jews to engage in political action.

One caveat: there is one area that I agree - despite Israeli urgings to the contrary - that non-Israeli residents should not get involved: voting in Israeli elections. Even though I hold Israeli citizenship and Israeli political parties have urged me to vote (even to the point of offering free airfare so I can cast my ballot in Israel), I have not voted in an Israeli election since leaving the country.
That should be left to residents of Israel.