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On December 9th at the Boulder JCC, Professor Zach Levy presented a talk titled “Strategic Assessment of Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran”. His talk was important and informative and much needed. The JCC along with Haver, the Boulder Rabbinical Council presented the October 7th Commemoration. The JCC and synagogues sponsor talks on combating antisemitism. All these programs are important and vital for our community.
They are safe. They don’t ruffle any feathers. Perhaps, that’s the way our community leaders want it.
The Boulder JCC touts itself as being “committed to being a safe space for community building and meaningful discourse” and “working to create programming that meets the needs of our community.” “Our mission is to serve our entire community, to connect with one another, and create space for dialogue.”
For centuries we have taken pride in our devotion to learning and questioning, to look at all positions and issues. When it comes to Israel, however, our communal leadership is selective as to the information it presents to the community. In Boulder, we can talk about Iran but not about the Occupation, the on-going displacement of Palestinians in Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank or about Jewish terrorism against the Palestinians.
Haver, on May 3, 2023, issued a statement aligning itself with Israeli protestors against the “judicial reforms” that Netanyahu and his cabinet were proposing that ultimately would put all the power in the hands of the Knesset, thereby, ending the judicial checks and balances a democracy needs in order to survive.
In March of 2023, JEWISHcolorado Board Chair Rob Kaufmann and Interim President and CEO Renée Rockford were among thirty Federation leaders who took a 24-hour visit to Israel to express their concerns with Israeli leaders on these proposed judicial reforms and to convey the implications these changes will have on the North American Jewish community.
What I don’t understand is this: If our leaders are so concerned about democracy in Israel, then why haven’t we had a communal discussion on the “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” and its impact on democracy and the social compact in Israel? Or how the Occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has degraded and eroded the moral fiber of the nation and Israel’s fragile democratic and liberal values and institutions? Or look at the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians including children, some held for years without charges? Or how the management of Palestinian lives through checkpoints, denying building permits, and eviction from their lands continues to fuel generational hatred and enmity?
What about the on-going terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers and soldiers: the torching and destruction of entire villages and orchards, the attacks on Palestinians harvesting olives and the murder of innocent Palestinians? Or when settlers storm an army base that holds suspects in these attacks? Or the failure to find and arrest suspects and, once they are arrested, allow bail?
Don’t these qualify for threatening democracy?
Let’s look at how the Israeli government is responsible for this zealotry and terrorism of the settler movement? How, in a democracy, supposedly ruled by law, are there “illegal settlements”? They aren’t. The Israeli government allows donations from American Jews to fund these communities; the government helps fund them and gives them weapons. In a country supposedly ruled by law, we have a terrorist movement, supported and protected by the government, establishing facts on the ground besides attacking the army. It’s part of the government’s plan to subvert democracy.
Haver has issued statements condemning hate attacks and killings in the United States and in support of the family of George Floyd. What about the death of Aysenur Eygi, an American who was killed at a demonstration at Beita, a Palestinian village near Nablus? Or the death of Rami Hamdan Al-Halhouli, a 12 year-old who lit a firecracker to throw at Israeli soldiers and was shot in the head? Or Mahmoud al-Sadi, 17, murdered by an Israeli soldier as he was walking to school? These deaths are not isolated acts. They are a product of Israeli military policies and a disdain for Palestinian life.
Or what about the killing of Yuval Castleman, an Israeli who responded to a terror attack by killing two terrorists then when the soldiers arrived, he threw down his weapon, opened his shirt, threw his wallet and shouted in Hebrew that he was an Israeli and then they shot him?
If our communal leaders are concerned about hate speech, where is a statement about the racism and hatred spewed from the mouth of Israeli political figures?
Every Shabbat, we examine individual and collective moral and ethical issues through the lens of the parasha, the Torah portion, Talmud, and other writings. Where are the discussions – especially through a halachic lens – that allow the community to examine how Israel is fighting the war in Gaza: her use of bombs and drones, the killing of journalists, medical and humanitarian aid workers, bombing tent encampments, creating “humanitarian zones” then attacking them and the treatment of detained Palestinians that can be verified by videos. How can we not discuss communally the myriad of reports coming from Israeli sources about the actions of Israeli soldiers in Gaza? It is time to start facing the inconvenient truths about Israel instead of condoning or excusing them by bringing up Hamas and the past Intifadas.
In Parshat Shoftim we read about the prohibition against cutting down fruit-bearing trees in war because, after war, we will require food to sustain life. Do we apply that to Israel’s destruction of water treatment plants, hospitals, or to the Gazan infrastructure? According to Jewish law, what actions are considered to be defensive and permitted and what actions cross the line? What is Israel’s moral and legal obligations to ensure the lives and well-being of Gazans whose lives Israel now controls?
As a community we cannot remain blind to what Israel has become. The problem is not Netanyahu and his cronies. The majority of voting Israelis have kept him in power for most of these past 20 years. The Israel political collective has changed dramatically beginning in 1977 with the election of Begin who accelerated the building in the West Bank. There has been no political figure or party on the left that has been able to galvanize a majority of voters to bring a change in policy. The current policies in Israel and in the West Bank reflect what the majority of Israelis want or are willing to accept so their parties can be in power to deliver what they want from the government. I believe the majority of American Jewry has little understanding of the impact of Jewish fundamentalism and zealotry on the social, political and military fabric of Israel as well as the ongoing assault on the integrity of the judiciary and freedom of expression directed by Netanyahu and his cabinet.
In the 10 years I have been in Boulder, I cannot remember any communal presentation of such groups as Breaking the Silence, the Bereaved Families Circle, Combatants for Peace or the Center for Jewish Non-Violence or any talk about Israel’s actions in the West Bank. When has there been a memorial service to honor the late Yitzhak Rabin?
I believe we have lost a significant segment of the younger generations because of our censoring of information about Israel and our acquiescence to whatever Israel does. I would like to see the JCC show “Israelism”, a new documentary about young American Jews who made Aliyah and joined the IDF, serving on the West Bank. The film is about their disillusionment and their sense of betrayal when they came face to face with reality. Another eye-opener is “My Tree,” made by a Canadian Jew who discovered how the JNF planted Canada Park.
Our communal leadership has a responsibility to have programs and discussions on these crucial issues. I am paraphrasing Pirke Avot 5:27 (Ethics of Our Fathers):
We are here to Learn.
And through Learning, to Understand
And through Understanding to gain Wisdom.
And through Wisdom, to give attention to see what needs to be done.
And through this attention, to Act .
On Chanukah we light candles to bring forth Light.
Light comes from knowledge and understanding.
Light shines, it expands outwards. Light is not restriction.
Happy Chanukah
Very well said, Ed. My mother was a refugee, starting at age 7, from Nazi Frankfurt. My parents were agnostics and wanted to leave the old world traditions behind, so to watch Israel use the Holocaust as a justification for another one is the first time I've ever thought of myself as being particularly Jewish. I too am offended by the silence of so-called Jewish leaders.
Einstein, in his "God letter," as the New York Times called it, wrote, "And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and in whose mentality I feel profoundly anchored, still for me does not have any different kind of dignity from all other peoples. As far as my experience goes, they are in fact no better than other human groups, even if they are protected from the worst excesses by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot perceive anything ‘chosen’ about them.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/nyregion/einst…
Now, some Jews, Zionists, are corrupted by the worst excesses of power. Netanyahu is on trial on multiple corruption charges in Israel and for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. He is "wagging the dog," somehow getting Congress to fund and equip Israel's vicious violations of the most important International laws established since World War II as well as six US laws including the Leahy Law, and to give him more ovations than any president in history.
To me a key mark of mature wise people is the ability to self-reflect and self-criticize and self-correct.
Wonderful article. I'm curious about your paraphrase of Pirkei Avot at the end. As far as I can tell, Pirkei Avot chapter 5 does not have 27 mishnayot. https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A0…
The last stanzaa are mine..They yhave nothing to do with the P:irke Avot. I shpuld have stated that. Thanks
My friend, Ed. There is so much that I would challenge regarding your critique of Israel. Locally, though, I question your reliance upon and thus disappointment with Haver for not bringing forward the conversations you'd like to see. I'm guessing that roughly half of Haver rabbis have significant communal/congregational constituency in Boulder, and those constituencies amount to roughly 10% of Boulder's Jewish population. You might find that a DIY organizing approach along with other like minded people could be successful. Just a thought. As for the JCC, I believe that they are fairly open minded about Israel programs, although they do have their 'comfort level'. But have you approached anyone on the Program team, there? They're a pretty open minded crew. Last, regarding local presentations by Israeli organizations such as Breaking the Silence, the Bereaved Families Circle, Combatants for Peace (which I believe has presented in Boulder), the fact that these organizations have next to no traction and financial support in Israeli society drives their American-friends-of tours to be built around sympathetic venues where they can reasonably expect to acheive their fundraising targets, or recieve a fee. Host venues are also often repsonsible for domestic airfare from place to place. As with everything, there are financial considertations to making those visits happen, too.