Terror in Paris and Jerusalem

There is a well-known story about the Israeli diplomat who was giving a news conference. A reporter shouts to him, “Mr. Ambassador-in a word, how are things”. “In a word?” he responds, “Good!”  Another reporter says to him, “Can you give us a bit more? -- How about two words?” “In two words”, he says, “Well in two words --- not good!”

As we all know by now, this has been a “not good” couple of weeks for the world. First there was the downing of a Russian plane in the Sinai, killing all 224 people aboard. Confirmed as a terrorist act, ISIS later claimed “credit” for the bombing. Then a week ago today Islamic terrorists attacked multiple sites in Paris, claiming as of today 130 lives. ISIS also claimed responsibility for this series of attacks in the City of Lights. Israel has been dealing with its own spate of terrorist attacks in recent months.  In the past six weeks, 19 people have been killed and 172 wounded -- 20 of them seriously.
 On the face of it this terror campaign appears to be spontaneous, but behind this violence there is incitement by the Palestinian leadership. Following the attempted assassination of a radical rabbi who advocated Jewish governance of the Mount, Israel briefly closed access to the site. Mahmood Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, called this action a “declaration of war”.  The spreading of false rumors by Palestinian government officials and the Palestinian media charging that Israel plans to change the status quo at the Temple Mount have inflamed people. Knife wielding murderers are praised as “heroes” by Palestinian authorities and Israelis are blamed for the violence.

Ironically, just this week France introduced a draft text to the United Nations proposing the stationing of international observers on the Temple Mount “to identify possible violations of the status quo”.  Apparently, despite Israeli assurances to the contrary, the French Government believes the Palestinian claims that the Israeli government has in fact changed the status quo, or intends to do so. Here we have a case of rewarding the inciters and blaming the victims.

In July of 2014, with the war with Gaza raging, Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights sent out a tweet. In doing so, he too confused the victims with the perpetrators. He tweeted, “Germans rally against anti-Semitism that flared in Europe in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza war.’” In an article in the Atlantic Magazine Jeffery Goldberg took issue with that statement. “Anti-Semitism in Europe did not flare ‘in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza’ or anywhere else…Jews were victims of hate crimes in Europe before the latest round of fighting in the Middle East. The massacre of Jewish children at a school in Toulouse, France and the fatal attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels are two examples…Anti-Semitic violence and invective are not responses to events in the Middle East…This is for the simple reason that Jews do not cause anti-Semitism. It is a universal and immutable rule that targets of prejudice are not the cause of prejudice…Black people do not cause racism, nor gay people homophobia…it is a manifestation of irrational hatred. Its proponents justify their anti-Semitism by pointing to the behavior of their targets, but ,” concludes Golberg, “This does not mean that major figures in the world of human rights advocacy should accept these pathetic excuses as legitimate.”

David Harris of the American Jewish Committee writes that the terror against France and against Israel has at least one thing in common.  The terrorists, who attacked Paris last week, and last January, detest Western values – and Paris --- with its museums, restaurants, and rich cultural and intellectual life -- is a symbol of that. It is the same reason Al Qaida chose the World Trade Center to attack twice – once in 1994 and once in 2001. The Twin Towers at the World Trade Center were symbols of the power and wealth of the United States. ISIS detests Western democracy, with its openness, its tolerance, its freedom and its secularism. With Israel it is much the same. At its root, Radical Islam does not hate Israel because of how Israelis treat the Palestinians – they hate Israel because Israel exists. They are not interested in sharing the land --they are interested in ruling the land. Just as Paris is a symbol of Western civilization, so is Israel. It is intolerable for Radical Islam to see an outpost of Western civilization in the Middle East.

Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg points to this week’s Torah portion as an example of how victims often get blamed.  He notes that although Jacob behaves honestly with his Uncle Lavan, Lavan repeatedly cheats and deceives him. Jacob has worked seven years for Lavan in order to marry Rachel, yet Lavan substitutes the older daughter Leah for her on the wedding night. When Jacob complains, Lavan tells him that the custom of the land is to marry the older off before the younger. Like Lavan could not have told him this up front?  As Rabbi Wohlberg writes, “And yet, no less than three times, Lavan accuses Yaakov of theft: “You have stolen my heart, you have stolen from me and you have stolen my goods.”  Lavan tells Yaakov, “You have taken my daughters captive, you have denied my children and grandchildren and you have deprived me of the opportunity to send you off with gladness and mirth.”  Of course, Yaakov had never done any of this.  It was Lavan who had done all this to Yaakov.  It was Lavan who had switched Rochail for Leah … it was Lavan who deprived Yaakov of his fair wages … it was Lavan who lied, cheated and swindled Yaakov.  But it was Lavan who managed to blame it all on the victim.”

These are scary and confusing times, indeed.  We must be clear in our thinking and resolute in our actions. We must remember that the thousands and thousands of Syrian refugees are not the perpetrators of violence; they are the victims of violence. French involvement in the war against ISIS does not make them the perpetrators of violence.  They are part of a force fighting against those who want to take hard won freedoms away. We must continue to affirm and insist upon and support Israel’s right to exist as a state.  Israel is not perpetrating a wrong on the Palestinians by being there. Israel is exercising a right to return as a free people to the ancestral lands of the Jewish people. In turn, it is Israel and her people that are being victimized by a terror campaign.  Israel must be allowed defend herself vigorously against those who seek to destroy her. No less than the future of the Jewish people depends on that.

Shabbat Shalom

For Veterans Day : A Forgotten Story

This evening, in honor of Veterans Day which we observed last Wednesday, I am going to tell you a little known and long forgotten story of courage. The courage that I am going to tell you about was not ONLY about courage on the battlefield.  It is also about the courage to overcome bigotry and discrimination. It is about the courage to hold a vision of America as a country where all people, no matter their race, religion or country of origin, could live in freedom and equality. It is a vision of the United States as a country free of prejudice, hatred, and discrimination. It is a vision of America that truly honors the men and women of our armed forces who serve our country so bravely.

Of all of the battles in United States history, the battle for Iwo Jima during World War ll is one of the most famous. Iwo Jima is a volcanic island only 650 miles from Tokyo. It lay midway between Japan and the American bomber bases in the Marianas, an archipelago in the western North Pacific. It was crucial for Japan to maintain control of Iwo Jima to prevent a United States invasion of mainland Japan. It was equally important for US forces to evict the Japanese from this island fortress and use its air fields as staging grounds for bombing Japan.

Twenty two thousand Japanese soldiers defended Iwo Jima. These soldiers were burrowed in underground fortresses. There were no front lines in Iwo Jima. American soldiers fought above ground, and Japanese soldiers fought from underneath them. American soldiers rarely caught a glimpse of the men they were fighting. One hundred and ten thousand Marines, among them approximately 1500 Jewish marines, were transported on 880 ships to invade the island.

The Japanese were given the order to fight to the death. There was to be no surrender. In 36 days of fighting, 6,825 Americans were killed and 19,000 wounded. Virtually all 22,000 Japanese soldiers were killed.

When the fighting was over, Division Chaplain Warren Cuthriell, a Protestant minister, asked Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn, a Marine chaplain, to deliver a memorial sermon at a joint religious ceremony dedicating the Marine cemetery. Rabbi Gittelsohn had been in the thick of the fighting, ministering to Marines of all faiths during the battle. He was awarded three combat ribbons for his service under fire. Yet, the majority of Protestant chaplains objected to Rabbi Gittelsohn’s preaching over predominantly Christian graves. Catholic chaplains opposed any form of combined worship, basing their opposition on Church doctrine.

To his credit, Chaplain Cuthriell refused to change his order, but Rabbi Gittelsohn convinced him that it would be better to have three separate services. Seventy soldiers attended Rabbi Gittlesohn’s service, where he delivered the sermon that he had originally prepared for the joint worship. The following is an excerpt from that sermon:

Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors’ generations ago helped in her founding, and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores.  Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men and poor . . . together.  Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together.  Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color.  Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed.  Among these men, there is no discrimination. No prejudices.  No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy . . .

Whosoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or who thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it commemorates, an empty, hollow mockery.  To this, then, as our solemn duty, sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves:  to the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of white men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the democracy for which all of them have here paid the price . . .

We here solemnly swear that this shall not be in vain.  Out of this and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere. “

Although few people heard the sermon that day, a number of Christian chaplains did attend in protest of the cancellation of the joint worship.  A Protestant chaplain who heard Rabbi Gittlelsohn borrowed a copy of the sermon. He made more copies and circulated them among thousands of soldiers. Some sent it home in letters to their family. The story was picked up by Armed Forces Radio and broadcast throughout the world. Parts of the sermon were published in Time Magazine. Shortly before his death in 1995, Rabbi Gittelsohn read from the sermon at the 50^th anniversary of the dedication of the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington DC. He said, “I have often wondered if anyone would ever have heard of my Iwo Jima sermon if not for the bigoted attempt to ban it.”  

 Each year on Veterans Day, November 11^th, we honor living veterans and the memory of veterans past, especially those we know and love.

We acknowledge the horrific risk they willingly took and the appalling sacrifices they made for the sake of others, not least ourselves.

We also honor the millions of veterans who never saw combat but who confronted its real possibility in their lives, and the 1.2 million Americans now on active duty -- including more than 10,000 Jews serving in our armed forces today.

We remember the families and loved ones, worried at home while their veterans are off at war. 

Let us never forget the sacrifices made by our men and women in the armed forces, past and present, who serve so that we may live in freedom.

To that let us say to that: AMEN!

The Immigrant, the Refugee and the Jewish Experience

The Syrian Civil war has been called “the worst humanitarian disaster of our time.”  It has been estimated that there are 7.6 million Syrians that have left their homes for other parts of Syria, and 4 million Syrians who have fled to other countries -- two million to Turkey, a quarter million to Iraq, a million to Lebanon, three-quarters of a million to Jordan, and 150,000 to Egypt. As we have heard and read in news reports, Syrians, Afghanis and Africans fleeing from their war torn country have sought refuge in Europe. This year alone 700,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe. Some European countries have threatened to close their borders, thus blocking these refuges from reaching a safe haven.

Last week I attended a study session with Rabbi   Saul Berman, a Modern Orthodox Rabbi and an attorney.  Rabbi Berman is an Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Yeshivah University and an Adjuct Professor of Law at Columbia University. The topic of his talk to The JUF Rabbinic Action Committee was on the issue of immigrants and refugees. He reminded us that from the very beginnings of the Jewish people in Mesopotamia, we have been both immigrants and refugees. As is says in Psalms:

                                  

You were very few in number/ little more than strangers in the land/ Wandering from nation to nation/from kingdom to kingdom.

In the Book of Genesis, the Torah vividly portrays the vulnerabilities and compromises that the immigrant and/or refugee must make to his or her surroundings. Abraham and Sarah immigrate to the Land of Canaan from the city of Haran in Mesopotamia.  In Canaan they will found a new religion, Judaism.  But they and their family are strangers in a strange land.

Pharaoh Takes Sarah

The absence of legal standing of the refugee is brought home to us when Abraham and Sarah descend to Egypt.  They are fleeing famine in the Land of Canaan. As they enter Egypt, Abraham resorts to lying in order to assure his survival and that of his wife. “When we are interviewed by the immigration authorities at the Egyptian border,” he tells Sarah, his wife, “and they ask you what our relationship is, tell them you are my sister.” Abraham feels compelled to do this because he knows that as a refugee, he has no rights in Egypt. He has no legal protection, no recourse to the courts if he is harmed. The Egyptians can do with him what they want, and he fears they will kill him and take Sarah by force if they know they are married. So he lies on his immigration application. Sure enough, the Egyptians do take Sarah, thinking she is indeed Abraham’s sister. Apparently Abraham can do nothing about this – he is, after all, a foreigner, a “griener” in Yiddish. He is at the mercy of his host country. Or, as he later explains, after again lying to authorities, “I did not know that there was a respect for the rule of law in this country.”

This is the psychological and physical reality of all refugees, and it is repeated over and over in the lives of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph and of his brothers. As they travel to foreign lands, they are deceived, they are taken advantage of, they are exploited, they are imprisoned unjustly, they are the subject of envy, xenophobia, and prejudice. They are vulnerable, unprotected, and weak. Although initially welcomed in Egypt by Pharaoh, the Jewish people will suffer the humiliation of being enslaved because they are suspected of being disloyal citizens of Egypt. Never fully accepted by the Egyptians as full citizens, their “outsider” status eventually leads to envy, suspicion, dispossession and slavery.

I can imagine my grandparent seeing the Statue
of Liberty as they approached New York

Such is the experience of the Jewish people in the Bible, and such are the experiences of all refugees and immigrants to this present day. Most of us here this evening are the children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of people who sought refuge on these shores. All four of my grandparents were born in Europe and came to the United States as immigrants in their late teens in the beginning of the 20^th century. Like the millions of Jews who came at that time, they were both immigrants and refugees. Immigrants -- in that they were voluntarily seeking to settle permanently in a new country. Refugees – in that they were escaping war and poverty and persecution that was their lot in life in Europe. They were both fleeing danger and seeking a safe haven where they would have an opportunity to earn a living and raise their families – much like the immigrants and refugees today from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa in Europe, and from Mexico and Central America in the United States.

Perhaps the Jewish experience of immigration is why the Torah repeatedly commands -- nineteen times in all – that we should treat the immigrant in our midst with fairness and with compassion.  We know – we have been there. Here is just one example from the Torah, Leviticus 19 verse 34:

“The stranger who sojourns with you shall be as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord Your G-d.”

It is interesting that this particular verse follows the verse commanding us to rise before the aged and show deference to the old. The medieval commentator Ibn Ezra notes that this is no coincidence. Just as the elderly citizen may have little strength due to illness or infirmity, so the immigrant is relatively powerless compared to the native born citizen.  The immigrant, after all, dwells in the land only because the citizen allows it. Both the elderly and the immigrant need special consideration due to their vulnerable position in society.

To say the least, how to deal with waves of refugees fleeing from war and violence is an extremely complex issue. When Menachim Begin was elected prime minister of Israel in 1977, his first official act was to allow 66 Vietnamese boat people, who had been denied refuge in Asia, a haven in Israel. In doing so he compared their situation to the plight of Jews escaping Europe during World War ll. In all, Israel welcomed 360 Vietnamese refugees between 1977 and 1979, granting them citizenship, full rights and government subsidized apartments. Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects the idea of admitting any Syrian refugees to Israel.  Although opposition leader Isaac Herzog says that Israel “cannot remain indifferent” to Syrian refugees and others advocate admitting up to 10,000 Syrian refugees to Israel, the Prime Minister worries that opening the gates to Syrian refugees threatens the Jewish character of the state. He also worries that Israel will be admitting people who are hostile to the very idea of a Jewish State in the area. On top of this, Israel continues to grapple with the tens of thousands of refugees from Eritrea and Sudan who have sought asylum in Israel by crossing from Egypt. Once again, the fear is that granting them permanent asylum will threaten the Jewish majority in the State in future years and the Jewish people will lose control of their own destiny.

I don’t know what the answer is. I am sympathetic to the positions of both sides of the issue. What I am  prepared to say  is that at the present time, we Jews, wherever we live, have a particular responsibility to bring the experience, teachings and values of our people to bear on how we think about, and how we treat the immigrant and the refugee.

Shabbat Shalom