Israel’s Future
Sermon by Rabbi Jennifer Hartman
2014/5775
A student recently asked me a difficult and thought provoking question. I want to share his question and my response with you. For the purpose of this sermon I will call the student Josh.
Dear Josh,
You recently asked me why, in the early part of the last century, as you put it, “the Jews kicked out another people in order to establish the State of Israel”. While I don’t agree with this description of events, this letter is not an attempt to convince you otherwise. There is no doubt that the establishment of the modern State of Israel has been a very, complicated, messy, and at times disappointing process. The history of how we came to have a country is one that often makes people on both sides of the conflict confused, angry and defensive. Shelves of books have been written on the subject, dissecting every angle. Each side feels they were fighting for the land that was rightfully theirs. In the end the Jewish people did what they felt necessary to regain their ancestral land. Whatever happened in the past, today there are two people who feel strongly that the land is theirs. If we focus too much on the question of who really belongs in the land, we will never attain peace. Today, we must focus on how these two people can live together. I must be honest, hearing your question invoked in me a visceral negative reaction. I felt Israel was betrayed by one of its own. Yet, when I took a step back, I realized that your question has within it an invaluable lesson.
I write to you today because you made me aware of a critical failure of mine. I took for granted that you would automatically love and support Israel by virtue of being Jewish. I now realize that this is not the case. I, none of us, can assume that future generations will defend and care for Israel. It has now been well established that many of your peers view Israel’s policies with skepticism. The 2014 Pew research study on the Jewish population in America shed light on this reality, when it indicated that just 23 percent of non-Orthodox Jews between the ages of 18 and 29 think the Israeli government is making a sincere effort toward peace. This compared to 44 percent in the 65+ range.
Josh, the generation of your grandparents and great-grandparents rejoiced in 1947 when they witnessed the passing of the United Nations partition plan to divide the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Through the United Nations the world community legally gave part of the land to the Jewish people. Jews around the world could hardly believe that their dream had become a reality. There really was going to be a Jewish state. Your parent’s generation grew-up with the knowledge that wherever they went, they could feel safe as Jews in the world. They grew up secure in the knowledge that the horrors that happened in the Holocaust would not happen to them, because Israel would always protect all Jews. They beamed with pride when Israel won the ‘67 war and the Yom Kippur war. My generation was astounded by operation Solomon which brought over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. We were in awe that this small country of found a way to help all of these people, our people. We were proud when Israel took in the Russian Jews who were finally able to leave the former Soviet Union.
But, we also watched the first Intifada in the early 1990s, when Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli military and civilians. Ten years later came the 2nd intifada, where we saw buses and cafes blown up, murdering our Israeli brothers and sisters. We saw the horrific violence and terror that those opposed to peace and the existence of our people in our ancestral land were willing to commit against us. And while we have cheered the calm brought on by the security fence and amazing technology, we have also seen actions that some believe has made the dream of peace further away. As we Jews are accustomed to doing, we began to wonder, question, and debate: How could Israel make a lasting and mutually beneficial peace with its neighbors that would bring prosperity to all? What would, should and could both sides possibly give up making this a reality.
Josh, my generation has done you a disservice. We began to raise questions about Israel’s behavior before giving you the chance to fall in love with the country on your own. You see, my generation was the last generation to unequivocally support the need for a Jewish state. As teenagers and even adults we spent time with our grandparents who survived the holocaust. We listened to our parents whisper “Jewish” in public. We watched Shalom Sesame to feel that Judaism was part of pop-culture. We may not have felt it directly, but we understood that anti-Semitism was still out there...somewhere. We knew that Israel was a place not only where we could be safe, no matter what, but also a place where we did not have to explain eating matzo for a week every spring or missing school on Yom Kippur. Of course we were going to spend a summer in Israel. Our parents were not going to send us to France or Italy or Peru instead. This gave us the opportunity to develop our own relationship with the country.
That is how I came to see Israel as my home. My parents and grandparents were ardent Zionists. My grandparents even took my entire family to Israel when I was 9. But, it was not until I went on my own that I truly understood the power of the country. You see Josh, when I was a senior in high school I did an exchange program in Israel. I spent two weeks traveling the country with Israeli teenagers. I got to see it through their eyes. This is when I met one of my closest friends to this day, Yishai.
Yishai had just turned 18 when we met and he was proudly preparing for the army. He was excited to join the Israeli Defense Force and have the opportunity to defend his country. He loved the land – the beauty of the Golan Heights, the history of the Beit Shean valley where he lived, the beach of Tel Aviv, the religious center of Jerusalem. He loved the people – the Orthodox Jews and the Ethiopian Jews, the Russian Jews and the Sephardi Jews. He would speak about the traditions of each culture and when they clashed and when they complimented one another. I saw Israel through his eyes, and the eyes of my Israeli friends and I could not help fall in love with the land, the food, the culture and the people.
It is from that love that my friends and I became the first generation to question Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank. We asked them together with our Israeli friends. We asked them because we wanted Israel to be, as the prophet Isaiah described, a light unto the nations. I will never forget having conversations with Yishai as he took a break from patrolling the Lebanese border or from a west bank check-point. We talked through how the interactions he witnessed between Israeli-Arabs and Israeli-Jews and Palestinians both inspired and saddened him. We continued these conversations through many visits, exploring tunnels outside of Jerusalem, lying on the beach in Tel Aviv, walking the trails of the Galilee. We discussed Israel’s future – our hopes and fears.
Our conversations were as important as ever when he was called to serve during Operation Protective edge. We texted as he proudly took on his duty to serve the Jewish people, as he wondered about some of the governments decisions, as he worried about his wife home alone.
You see, it is from this devotion that my generation inquired about how Israel might treat the Palestinians and Arab Israelis better. We felt uncomfortable giving Israel a free pass to use force however she deemed necessary. We began to criticize the Israeli government while pushing for a two state solution. Israel, many of us felt, was not living up to the morals and values associated with a Jewish democratic state. Israel could do and be better, and our work was to make it a light unto the nations. We want Israel to live up to the values as written in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel which said: “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.”
Josh, I owe you an apology. With you and your peers I think we started with questions rather than sharing our love of our land. You see Josh, we want you to love the Jewish state, but we also want you to know it. We do not want to paint you an idyllic picture because we know that you will discover that Israel is not perfect. We do not want you to be crushed when this happens. We want you to love Israel, warts and all. I now understand for that to take place we Jewish professionals, Jewish educators, parents, and grandparents need to give you historically accurate and nuanced answers to your hard questions. We are obligated to show you how Israel struggles to be a democratic and Jewish state, how competing values make it hard to protect its people and take care of the stranger. We must teach you the importance of Israel, not just to us but also to the world. Israel is where we are able to live our calendar, see our history, and walk in the footsteps of our ancestors. Israel is where the desert blooms, solar power prevails, water is conserved and the internet came to life. We want to ensure you know all this, but we must teach you while listening to you. It is essential that we hear your concerns. We need to discuss all of Israel’s actions with you. We have to ask you questions. If we don’t then you will get your information from other sources, and I am sure these will not include all that is good and wonderful about Israel.
Israel is the birthplace of our people. There we can trace our history, visit the graves of our ancestors, see where they first prayed, debated and dissected Jewish law. As we see our history come alive we learn about ourselves. I asked a few students who recently visited Israel why they chose to go. Their answers were moving. One shared: “visiting Israel has enhanced my understanding of Judaism and brought me closer to my roots”. Another said: “In Israel, I felt fully Jewish, I saw the community as my family, I felt I could truly be myself.”
Many adults spend much time defending Israel to non-Jews. Many attend AIPAC and J-Street events in order to support Israel. They donate to politicians in hopes they will influence pro-Israel legislation. All of these things help, but Josh, if we don’t get you and your friends to fall in love with our country then the support of today will not last until tomorrow. Life is complicated and messy. We crave easy answers, black and white scenarios, but the truth is that we live in the grey in between. It is not possible to always agree with something or someone you love. Just as our parents and siblings can annoy us like no other person, they are also the people who we love the deepest and depend on the most. No important relationship in our lives will be easy, simple, or infallibly happy. Often our most important moments of growth and insight come out of conflict. I understand that I must work to help you and your peers treasure Israel so that you will ask questions in order to improve Israel and so that you will defend the land of our people, the land of our history, and the land of Israel to anyone who wants to cause her harm. Only in this way can we ensure a bright and lasting future for the Jewish state.