Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Rabbi Outcast

                                             
For years, the only people I saw at progressive programs on Israel were silver-haired. In my 30s, I missed being around my peers. But today this has changed dramatically. A new generation of 20 and 30 somethings is fully engaged in the Israel/Palestine issue. These young activists are radical, powerful and constitute a community in their own right. Groups such as Young, Jewish and Proud are taking back their voice from the spokesmen for mainstream, Zionist organizations.


A few days ago a book arrived in the mail by Jack Ross, a young author who is deeply committed to a Judaism not rooted in Zionism. His new Rabbi Outcast is a biography of Rabbi Elmer Berger, one of the leaders of the American Council for Judaism. In the Jewish community, the ACJ is remembered more for its "classical Judaism" approach to ritual. More traditional Jews considered this "classical Judaism" to be too much of a concession to Christian modes of worship. 


But the American Council for Judaism was formed primarily as a response not to traditional ritual but to the new political ideology of Zionism. This new Zionist American Jewish identity was ushered in by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in the early part of the 20th century and triumphed by such rabbinic leaders as Stephen Wise into the 1940s. Elmer Berger wanted to return to  the principles of 19th century Reform Judaism. As Ross describes in the book's prologue, Berger was following in the footsteps of the founder of Reform Judaism in the U.S., Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise (no relation to Stephen) who saw Judaism as an American religion and not a political movement of the Jewish people in the Middle East. in the tradition of the early Reform leaders he placed the emphasis on religious principles not peoplehood.


Jack Ross has made a thoughtful contribution in bringing into the present an alternative to the mainstream path taken by American Judaism. His detailed account of the internal workings of the American Council for Judaism in the mid-20th century offer positive - and cautionary  - insights into how to organize an alternative camp in the face of a dominant mainstream. 


Ultimately, the UCJ vanished into irrelevance. This was inevitable in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 and the popular response to its successes in the United States. Similarly, within the State of Israel, Martin Buber, who had campaigned against Ben Gurion's plan for a Jewish state, accepted the new reality too. Even within the Zionist camp, dissenting voices such as the European/American scholar Simon Rawidowicz were drowned out by David Ben Gurion's militant Zionism.


Jack Ross has provided ample footnotes and goes into great detail.  However, I do wonder about some statements such as his description of Berger's classmates in rabbinical school. "A large number were of Orthodox background, often the sons of rabbis or other Orthodox functionaries such as mohels or kosher butchers for whom the Reform rabbinate was practically the only path to upward social mobility in the New World." (p. 26) I would have welcomed more explanation and attribution for such a broad description.


In the American Jewish community Zionism became dogma to the point where, until very recently, American Jews could not even comprehend the possibility of other valid viewpoints. My sense is that this is beginning to change. The overwhelming flow of images and news about the violent excesses and discriminatory policies of the State of Israel are making it necessary and possible for groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (with which both I and Jack Ross are involved) to articulate alternate visions. Jack Ross' book moves the conversation forward and gives us a touchstone towards re-imagining American Jewish identity.



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Jews and Christians for Economic Justice

Yesterday afternoon, workers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago went on a 1-day strike. They walked out of work in solidarity with thousands of their co-workers across the country whose livelihoods are threatened by the management's proposed contract. After two years of working without a contract the last major sticking point with management is the fate of the non-unionized workers. 
Last week, I convened a meeting between Hyatt Corp.'s Senior HR Officer, Rob Webb and five clergy, including an Orthodox rabbi and two Methodist ministers. At the meeting at Hyatt's corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago, one of Mr. Webb's complaints was that the labor negotiator in San Franscisco was "holding those Hyatt workers hostage" by not signing a separate deal with management and holding out for better conditions for workers in other cities. I told Mr. Webb that the worker solidarity that he sees as a problem, we, clergy, see as a virtue.
The solidarity of unionized workers with their non-unionized fellow workers is impressive and inspirational. Clearly,  there is self-interest at play here: a bigger union is a stronger union. But, the workers have resisted threats and enticements. They have risked their jobs in order to ensure the long-term viability of their work agreement with management. They refuse to abandon their co-workers, even when that stand costs them.
At the end of our meeting, I thanked Hyatt's Senior Vice President for Human Resources for his time but added that we would continue to campaign on behalf of the workers.


Yesterday afternoon I, along with local and national clergy led a rally with the striking workers and their supporters outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel just off Chicago's Magnificent Mile. At the rally I met clergy leaders from near and far including the impressive labor organizer, Rev. Carol Been of Los Angeles. The national Interfaith Worker Justice conference that is meeting in Chicago this week made the Hyatt Regency a focal point of its activism.


Local clergy were present too. Rabbi Bruce Elder from the Chicago suburbs delivered a powerful prayer on behalf of the striking workers. I was honored to lead the music alongside Kim Bobo, the head of the Interfaith Worker Justice organization.


Rob Webb came out from his office to watch the rally. Apparently, he exchanged a friendly wave with Rabbi Elder. As he told us at our meeting last week, "we have the power to give." It's time to use that power.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Out with the New, In with the Old (Rabbi Jacobs, Part 3)

Today the Union for Reform Judaism announced the formal election of Rabbi Rick Jacobs to head the URJ. The statement includes this passage:
As Rabbi Jacobs winds down his responsibilities with Westchester Reform Temple, he also will step down from his involvement in other organizations, boards and advisory committees during the first years of his Presidency in order to focus his energies on the task ahead of him. Additionally, as President of the URJ, he will assume many new official posts on Jewish communal organizations including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, among others.
So, Rabbi Jacobs has been instructed to quit all his frivolous dabbling in radical lefty politics. 

Out with the new - no more playing on J Street for Rabbi Jacobs;
In with the old - he will join a respectable club such as AIPAC


Out with the New Israel Fund;
in the with the old - The Jewish Agency.

Out with the new - no more edgy activism at Sheikh Jarrah demonstrations;
In with the  old - Rabbi Jacobs will join the list of approved organizations.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Rabbi Jacobs, part 2

Last month I did a post on incoming Reform movement head, Rabbi Rick Jacobs and Israel/Palestine. He was forced to back away from his previously held center-left positions (J Street) in deference to the APIAC pro-Israel camp.
In the last week, my blogppost has received a lot of traffic of folks coming over from Lizzy Ratner's piece on the same issue over at Mondoweiss.

I agree with Ratner that Rabbis Jacobs is a better candidate than previous leaders of the Reform movement, who gave their blessing and authorization to the colonization of the West Bank by Jewish settlers.

However, I have some problems with Ratner's piece. First, there is this gratuitous dig at Reform Judaism's attitude to women:
it [the Union for Reform Judaism] represents more Jews than any other branch of Judaism in the United States, and the man (because you can bet it’s always a man) who gets chosen to lead these members has no small influence.
It's true that the URJ has always been led by a man. On the other hand, the membership and clergy of the Reform movement reflect a deep commitment to full gender equality. Sensitivity to gender equality is reflected in the last two editions of the Reform prayerbook; women and girls are full equals in ritual; a majority of young cantors are women. Increasingly women rabbis are attaining senior toles in the movement.
Looking at the two Reform clergy associations, the immediate past-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the current president of American Conference of Cantors are women.
Awareness of women's rights and issues is a defining concern of the Reform movement.
If a woman wasn't selected for the job, it is not because this is an old boys' club, but because we have moved so far forward on this that it is a non-issue in the Reform movement.

Second:
he was chosen to helm the URJ at least in part to offer a new kind of leadership, one that will reel the young folks back into the reform movement and give it a needed jolt. 
Lizzy Ratner does not offer any evidence for this. There are other reasons that can be put forward in its place, the most obvious has to do with the interests of an organization in guaranteeing its own future. Just because us folks who read Mondoweiss think about Israel/Palestine every day, it doesn't mean that this is on the front burner for the URJ leadership.

I would love to see the URJ extending its liberal politics on womens' rights, gay issues and other domestic social issues to progressive politics on Israel/Palestine. I agree with Ratner that this might give the Reform movement that elusive "relevance" that it supposedly lacks.

After his election, President Obama disappointed progressives when he moved to the political center. Similarly, the case of URJ President-elect Rabbi Rick Jacobs is instructive in reflecting what one has to sacrifice in order to hold a position of national leadership in the mainstream Jewish community.

After all is said and done, I still prefer a beaten-down progressive to a right-wing ideologue.

Good luck, Rabbi Jacobs!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Jerusalem Day

Back in my settler days, one of the year's highlights was "Jerusalem Day", the anniversary of the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem and its holy sites by the Israeli Army in the June 1967 Six Day War. On  the eve of Jerusalem Day thousands of us would gather at Yeshivat Mercaz Harav

 http://yourfriendlyitconsultant.com/hz/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mercaz_harav.jpg
in West Jerusalem, the center of messianic settler theology, to hear civic leaders and leading settler rabbis speak in honor of Jewish Jerusalem. 
One year I went with a classmate. The most illustrious speaker on the dais gave my friend a hug as he left the hall. This was his uncle, Yacov Herzog, President of the State of Israel. For me, President Herzog's participation at Mercaz Harav conferred mainstream respectability on settler ideology.


After the speeches were over, we would gather outside on the street and start walking and singing 

 

through downtown West Jerusalem, past Jaffa Gate into the Old City. We continued down through the Arab bazaar, banging on the shuttered stalls, singing religious/nationalistic songs and waving Israel flags. Our destination was the plaza in front of the Western Wall -  the open space that was, prior to 1967, an Arab residential neighborhood
                                                      

The last few hours of the night was spent schmoozing and hanging out with the girls. At daybreak, we said morning prayers, and headed home for some sleep.

I was reminded of my settler past because of this horrific video of the current generation of settler youth celebrating "Jerusalem Day" last week. Phil Weiss aptly captured the terror and danger of these youths - many of whom are still soldiers in the Israeli reserves -  in his term "Whiteshirts".






On the other side of Israel's political spectrum, last night saw yet another peacenik demonstration in Tel Aviv. Oddly, while freedom of expression grows (e.g. 10 years ago who would have thought you could wave Palestinian flags at a mass rally in Tel Aviv?), the daily life for West Bank Palestinians only  worsens from year to year.

If the estimates are correct and 20,000 Israeli Jews were at this demonstration, that would be the equivalent of close to 100,000 Americans. If such a demonstration took place in the United States that would be newsworthy.


However, there is actually nothing new to report here. 
Firstly, Israeli grassroots democracy is famously more raucous than the United States. If 100,000 Americans stepped away from work, sports and shopping and took the streets something significant would be afoot. Not so, in Israel where Saturday night demonstrations are a routine form of street entertainment.
Secondly, if these numbers were truly indicative of a broad segment of the population why do they have no power in the Israeli parliament, with its multitude of political parties?
Thirdly, these demonstrations have been going on for years. Has the government ever changed its policies in response to them?


In fact, these demonstrations are just safety valves for the Israeli lefties who, actually, have no power. Worse, these rallies  have been co-opted by the Israeli government as evidence that Israel is better than  Arab regimes which quell any public opposition to government policy. 

If we want good news from Israel/Palestine, it's not last night's demonstration in the Tel Aviv bubble. Instead, look to the incredibly courageous activists - Israeli and world Jews and internationals - who risk humiliation, physical injury, imprisonment and even death in order to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. By standing with Palestninian civilians these brave men and women complicate matters for the Israeli army/settlers. They are building bridges of trust between the privileged and the dispossessed. They are willing to risk their privilege and bodies, rather than live quietly within a violent system.

These are my heroes. They inspire me to stay involved in support of their heroic stand and in solidarity with the Palestinians. Unlike a Tel Aviv rally, they cannot be ignored.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Humanizing the Palestinian Struggle



This is being reported in the Israeli media (Ynet and Haaretz).
I love the way this professionally-produced video humanizes the Palestinian cause.
I wonder how they found the Chosid (ultra-Orthodox Jew) at 3:18

h/t Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom