This past June we made Aliyah. In less than two months we’ve been thrown into the complex reality that is life in Israel. We’ve mastered the rough seas of bureaucratic processes and citizenship requirements; we’ve found a wonderful neighborhood to live in, schools for our children, employment, and inspiration in the Cottage Cheese Revolution’s transformation to a call for Tzedek Hevrati - Social Justice. And then the sirens started followed by missiles. As a new immigrant, an Oleh, I was prepared for the administrative web of absorption - draining one’s every ounce of celebratory eagerness upon arrival to Israel. For this we were prepared, however there is no preparing for the unexpected – having to run for our lives to shelter from missile attack. We live in Be’er Sheva. In Be’er Sheva is where we imagine the start of our new lives and there is where I got a job as Director of Hillel at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
The first siren hit us at 11:30pm. With not much intellectual analysis of the situation as it occurred, we grabbed our two boys, fast asleep in bed, and ran for shelter. The kids (6 and 3 years old) weren’t quite sure what was going on and didn’t remember a thing the following morning; that all changed the next morning at 5:51am. We jumped out of bed, grabbed the kids and into the bomb shelter. That siren didn’t escape their consciousness, they were wide awake and the questions started pouring in: Why are we in here? What’s that sound? What was that boom? And why is someone doing this to us?
Prepared for dealing with Aliyah and having received a detailed list of offices and procedures we needed to get through in order to receive citizenship – there was no hand out detailing what to do in the event of a missile attack. However there is instinct, in this case instinct to live - simple but complex. Simple in that we strive to live, strive to create life, build homes and relationships. Judaism emphasizes our role as active participants in creation, Zionism the catalyst for action. It is complex because I have never had to run for my life, as a Jew, living in the United States; wretchedly complex because here in the Jewish State, the one place in the world Jews should be free to live life – we run for cover. Not since the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin and the birth of our children has my perspective on life and death been so dramatically altered as it has in reaction to the recent missile attacks.
Serving Jews of North America as a rabbi, educator, organizational professional and lay leader, I was focused on creating innovative Jewish curricula and projects, and teaching “authentic Israel”. I now know there is nothing authentic about teaching Israel in the Diaspora, and there is no way to authenticate this field of study without having Israel, the geographical and metaphysical space, with all her complexities, rooted in Jewish curricula and programming.
I am as proud as any other Jew of our little Start-Up Nation. I’m proud of the country’s accomplishments in 63 years, and I can spew talking points highlighting all that Israel is – all that inspires us - but this is just half of the story. Behind the accomplishments and inspiration stands a People that pays a heavy price for all our “feel good” compliments. It is a matter of life and death, and no one is talking about it. Choices of life or death consistently impact Jewish memory and experience. These choices have shaped our way of life from the days of Ancient Israel to the present state of affairs.
I’m all for innovation, turning the page, and creating a Zeitgeist like formula that will catch on to the winds of change thereby re-uniting Jewish Peoplehood, but I’m not for it if it means repeating the same mistakes the generation of David Ben-Gurion committed in their imagining the “New Jew”, a tree whose roots are weak but whose branches are strong. One gust of wind and the tree is uprooted. Being a Jew is wonderful, but being a Jew is also tough and requires deep seeded conviction.
Hoping for this last Shabbat to be a quiet one we posted peaceful status updates on Face Book. That hope for peace was quickly abandoned in a heart skipping beat when a siren went off at 9am, except this time we weren’t home and we couldn’t get to our bomb shelter in the 7 seconds recommended between hearing the siren and finding shelter. Thankfully we are fine.
For thousands of years we have been raising our hearts in prayer to Zion, and for thousands of years Israel has been our shelter, really. The hope of our People as they cried by the rivers of Babylon, and the inspiration it brought our grandparents in the face of humanity’s abandonment of the Jewish People before, during and after World War II. Our children want to know the truth; they need to know the truth. It’s time we remove the blinders of individual causes and politics, and rediscover the essence that is our People’s unity and mission in this world – it starts with Israel. Innovation is not as necessary as honesty. Formal and informal education can engage students in a period of Israeli/Jewish current events, funding school trips to Israel upon graduation, active recruitment for Israel trips and volunteering, and a parent-teacher track providing knowledge, tools and the confidence needed to discuss Israel in the classroom, at home, and the greater community. These are just a few simple ideas that come to mind as I sit here thinking of the critical need for genuine dialogue. The point is we must be honest with ourselves and we must be honest with our children. Only by internalizing and actively perpetuating the value of “kol Yisrael arevim zeh b’zeh”, all of Israel is responsible one for the other, will our children get the point and get on board. Before we can heal the world we must heal ourselves, Tikkun Israel before Tikkun Olam.
Need to run – the sirens are blasting - it’s a matter of life or death, really.
**Rabbi Leor Sinai made Aliyah with his wife and two boys this past June. He is outgoing Executive Director of The Jewish Lens, a Vice President for the American Zionist Movement, and is incoming Director of Hillel at Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Jewish Peoplehood = Israel
Imagine this: Jews worldwide put differences aside and embark on a global campaign focusing on the Jewish Homeland, Israel. Is it possible? Yes. Is it necessary? Absolutely.
This upcoming Shabbat Shekalim is the first of four distinctive Shabbatot leading to Passover. Its text provides us with a very practical approach to fundraising: equal opportunity investment. Moreover its context, the journey from slavery to freedom, reminds us of the transformation our people underwent so long ago. Journeying through the Sinai wilderness forced our ancestors to stop looking back and instead look to the future, a future free from slavery. Within forty years the children of Israel exiting Egypt became the People of Israel entering The Land. Though Moses initiated the idea, the people needed to act.
The verses read in Shabbat Shekalim (Exodus 30:11-16), which I submit is the Jewish People’s first development plan, requires each and every Israelite to donate half a shekel. The text is very specific: “…from twenty years old and above… The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel…”. This equal opportunity fundraising plan served as a census of the people and a collective investment; every Israelite held stock in the project, and everyone was accounted for.
These verses highlight the notion that the collective act of giving money helps people to form a unifying sense of purpose. Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, borrowed the same idea in the Zionist Movement’s conception of a Jewish National Fund. The development plan we find in Shabbat Shekalim was proven through the success of the blue box, whereby each and every Jew contributed to and was invested in developing the Jewish homeland.
But for there to be investment there must be a cause, a driving force that inspires others to take action. For Moses, the cause was born out of the suffering of the Israelites in slavery. For Theodore Herzl, the cause was in reaction to the persecuted status of the global Jew. For both the solution was a return to the land.
While today’s Jews in and outside of Israel aren’t crying to be freed from slavery or foreign oppression, our collective reaction to internal crises has been to attempt to enhance global Jewish connectivity, or “Jewish Peoplehood”. As a result, agencies are realigning their missions and supporting innovative programs focused on multiple entry points to Jewish life. And yet there is one crucial element of this equation missing–Israel. Both Moses and Herzl had it right when they recognized the importance of Israel as the home of the Jewish People. Israel has been the end point to each of their campaigns; for the Israelites in the wilderness and for the Jews scattered worldwide, it was about making Aliyah, coming to Israel.
What is interesting in today’s campaign for “Jewish Peoplehood”, is that Aliyah is hardly encouraged, let alone addressed. Not in day or supplementary schools, youth groups, agencies or any other realm of Jewish community; at least not in mainstream Jewish life. Instead institutions are focused on their own missions highlighting the environment, social justice, arts and culture, and so on. The notion of living in Israel, of Aliyah as a goal, has been relegated to an administrative sphere—a logistical support network offered through Nefesh B’Nefesh—when it should be driving our collective aspirations.
The “Take Back Zionism” campaign has initiated the important dialogue [of redefining what Zionism means to the 21st century Jew]. However, without a real cause, or an agenda for action, this dialogue will have no real impact and Zionism will remain just that, a dialogue.
Now is the time to encourage action, to give our dialogue a real cause. Israel needs to be on every organizational agenda. In the face of conversion issues, political instability, and an ever-increasing water crisis (to name a few challenges), the totality of our People (and not just a few) must act.
Igor Stravinsky in his Poetics of Music in Six Lessons writes: “My freedom … consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned… The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself of the claims that shackle the spirit.”
With so many varying Jewish initiatives and organizations today, the Jewish collective has not mobilized behind a single cause. In order to do so, there need to be some boundaries, a more concentrated focus on a single unifying cause. It needs to be a space wide enough to include the diverse opinions that is Klal Yisrael, and yet narrow in its agenda to free the dialogue from limitations introduced through open-ended ideas.
The genius of Moses and Herzl was the collective entry point accessible to all of Israel. It wasn’t about any particular tribe, denomination, or interest. The land of Israel was an all encompassing value important to all.
As we continue to imagine and hope for what Israel should be, we must recognize what Israel actually is. It is what we cried and longed for in exile by the rivers of Babylon, it is in response to thousands of years of persecution, and it is now the platform upon which we are free to live out our potential. Israel is the essence of Jewish Peoplehood.
Today, Israel needs us, not just for words of encouragement, money, or a visit, Israel needs us there.
As we enter this Shabbat Shekalim, this first of four distinctive Shabbatot leading to Passover, we are reminded of the beauty of community and the power of a collective to administer change. However that potential must be focused. History has proven, that the unifying cause of Klal Yisrael is Eretz Yisrael. By reinstating that cause, I believe we will succeed in the campaign for “Jewish Peoplehood”.
This upcoming Shabbat Shekalim is the first of four distinctive Shabbatot leading to Passover. Its text provides us with a very practical approach to fundraising: equal opportunity investment. Moreover its context, the journey from slavery to freedom, reminds us of the transformation our people underwent so long ago. Journeying through the Sinai wilderness forced our ancestors to stop looking back and instead look to the future, a future free from slavery. Within forty years the children of Israel exiting Egypt became the People of Israel entering The Land. Though Moses initiated the idea, the people needed to act.
The verses read in Shabbat Shekalim (Exodus 30:11-16), which I submit is the Jewish People’s first development plan, requires each and every Israelite to donate half a shekel. The text is very specific: “…from twenty years old and above… The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel…”. This equal opportunity fundraising plan served as a census of the people and a collective investment; every Israelite held stock in the project, and everyone was accounted for.
These verses highlight the notion that the collective act of giving money helps people to form a unifying sense of purpose. Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, borrowed the same idea in the Zionist Movement’s conception of a Jewish National Fund. The development plan we find in Shabbat Shekalim was proven through the success of the blue box, whereby each and every Jew contributed to and was invested in developing the Jewish homeland.
But for there to be investment there must be a cause, a driving force that inspires others to take action. For Moses, the cause was born out of the suffering of the Israelites in slavery. For Theodore Herzl, the cause was in reaction to the persecuted status of the global Jew. For both the solution was a return to the land.
While today’s Jews in and outside of Israel aren’t crying to be freed from slavery or foreign oppression, our collective reaction to internal crises has been to attempt to enhance global Jewish connectivity, or “Jewish Peoplehood”. As a result, agencies are realigning their missions and supporting innovative programs focused on multiple entry points to Jewish life. And yet there is one crucial element of this equation missing–Israel. Both Moses and Herzl had it right when they recognized the importance of Israel as the home of the Jewish People. Israel has been the end point to each of their campaigns; for the Israelites in the wilderness and for the Jews scattered worldwide, it was about making Aliyah, coming to Israel.
What is interesting in today’s campaign for “Jewish Peoplehood”, is that Aliyah is hardly encouraged, let alone addressed. Not in day or supplementary schools, youth groups, agencies or any other realm of Jewish community; at least not in mainstream Jewish life. Instead institutions are focused on their own missions highlighting the environment, social justice, arts and culture, and so on. The notion of living in Israel, of Aliyah as a goal, has been relegated to an administrative sphere—a logistical support network offered through Nefesh B’Nefesh—when it should be driving our collective aspirations.
The “Take Back Zionism” campaign has initiated the important dialogue [of redefining what Zionism means to the 21st century Jew]. However, without a real cause, or an agenda for action, this dialogue will have no real impact and Zionism will remain just that, a dialogue.
Now is the time to encourage action, to give our dialogue a real cause. Israel needs to be on every organizational agenda. In the face of conversion issues, political instability, and an ever-increasing water crisis (to name a few challenges), the totality of our People (and not just a few) must act.
Igor Stravinsky in his Poetics of Music in Six Lessons writes: “My freedom … consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned… The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself of the claims that shackle the spirit.”
With so many varying Jewish initiatives and organizations today, the Jewish collective has not mobilized behind a single cause. In order to do so, there need to be some boundaries, a more concentrated focus on a single unifying cause. It needs to be a space wide enough to include the diverse opinions that is Klal Yisrael, and yet narrow in its agenda to free the dialogue from limitations introduced through open-ended ideas.
The genius of Moses and Herzl was the collective entry point accessible to all of Israel. It wasn’t about any particular tribe, denomination, or interest. The land of Israel was an all encompassing value important to all.
As we continue to imagine and hope for what Israel should be, we must recognize what Israel actually is. It is what we cried and longed for in exile by the rivers of Babylon, it is in response to thousands of years of persecution, and it is now the platform upon which we are free to live out our potential. Israel is the essence of Jewish Peoplehood.
Today, Israel needs us, not just for words of encouragement, money, or a visit, Israel needs us there.
As we enter this Shabbat Shekalim, this first of four distinctive Shabbatot leading to Passover, we are reminded of the beauty of community and the power of a collective to administer change. However that potential must be focused. History has proven, that the unifying cause of Klal Yisrael is Eretz Yisrael. By reinstating that cause, I believe we will succeed in the campaign for “Jewish Peoplehood”.
Monday, February 14, 2011
A rabbi for your wedding
Having the opportunity to serve as a m'sader kiddushin (a wedding officiant), a sanctifying facilitator, is priceless. The following link: http://vimeo.com/19879729 - is a beautiful reflection of one couple I was fortunate enough to guide on their journey towards unity... Mazel Tov!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
MLK and Herzl: Continuous Revelation
In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt that “…this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: …that all men are created equal." Dr. King’s dream extended beyond healing African-American suffering; his vision was meant to impact and heal society as a whole. In 1895 Theodor Herzl shared a similar vision for Jewish emancipation when he stated that “the world will be liberated by our freedom…" (Der Judenstaat, “The Jewish State”).
In both movements the calls for freedom and self-determination for a specific group has had the potential to extend beyond that particular group. But how can we realize that potential when racism still exists and the People of Israel remains beset by internal as well as external challenges?
Martin Luther King Day should not be marked simply as a memorial day. It is a day of action; a day that inspires us to imagine and realize the collective dream of a better tomorrow.
It has been nearly half a century since Dr. King shared his dream, and over a century since Herzl shared his. Yet, the passage of time has placed the greater potential of those dreams further from our grasp. Today, sharing in Dr. King and Herzl’s dreams means that we must move from merely longing for what might be in the future and rather focus on what can be in the present. Acting out Dr. King or Herzl’s dream is a continuous journey; a journey whose very purpose is in the present.
Paramount in both dreams is identifying the common denominator that unites a people. For the African-Americans in the 1960s, it was a common struggle against hundreds of years of slavery, oppression, and inequality based on color. For the Jews in Herzl’s time, it was a struggle to put the Jewish collective back on track following 2,000 years of wandering and persecution, through geo-political self-determination. However, for the Jewish People of today, who cannot recall what life was like before the establishment of the state of Israel, the dream as described by Herzl may seem irrelevant. After all, the pogroms of Europe and Czarist Russia and the Shoah are distant in our collective memory. Today we must face the challenges presented by the disintegration of Jewish Peoplehood, the movement to delegitimize Israel, and the hijacking of Zionism.
Today’s Zionism is better served by engaging in a “Tikkun Yisrael”. It is an old concept, really. Moses engaged in “Tikkun Yisrael” when he convinced the Israelites to leave Egypt for a return to the Promised Land, and Herzl engaged in “Tikkun Yisrael” when he convinced the world that the answer to the Jewish question was a return to Zion. Today, we must continue to push for a return to Zion, a “state” of self-determination in the face external and internal challenges.
As supporters of the Civil Rights Movement stand proud in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King and continue to live out his dream, The Zionist Movement continues to serve as a platform where honest and passionate debate leads to inspiring ideas and effective action on how to confront the challenges facing the Jewish People today. Through “Tikkun Yisrael” we can once again realize the journey that is the dream, and impact the world for good by returning to Zion.
We stand atop the shoulders of these visionaries to become inspired by the potential of the journey ahead, a journey that started at Exodus, inspired Dr. King to lead his people to the “Promised Land”, and moved Herzl to declare the founding of the Jewish State fifty years prior to its establishment. This is a journey that will continue to realize its potential so long as we continue to engage in “Tikkun Yisrael”. For the sake of Zion we must continue to will it and Zion will never be subject to dreams again.
Rabbi Leor Sinai is Vice President for Young Leadership Initiatives at the American Zionist Movement
In both movements the calls for freedom and self-determination for a specific group has had the potential to extend beyond that particular group. But how can we realize that potential when racism still exists and the People of Israel remains beset by internal as well as external challenges?
Martin Luther King Day should not be marked simply as a memorial day. It is a day of action; a day that inspires us to imagine and realize the collective dream of a better tomorrow.
It has been nearly half a century since Dr. King shared his dream, and over a century since Herzl shared his. Yet, the passage of time has placed the greater potential of those dreams further from our grasp. Today, sharing in Dr. King and Herzl’s dreams means that we must move from merely longing for what might be in the future and rather focus on what can be in the present. Acting out Dr. King or Herzl’s dream is a continuous journey; a journey whose very purpose is in the present.
Paramount in both dreams is identifying the common denominator that unites a people. For the African-Americans in the 1960s, it was a common struggle against hundreds of years of slavery, oppression, and inequality based on color. For the Jews in Herzl’s time, it was a struggle to put the Jewish collective back on track following 2,000 years of wandering and persecution, through geo-political self-determination. However, for the Jewish People of today, who cannot recall what life was like before the establishment of the state of Israel, the dream as described by Herzl may seem irrelevant. After all, the pogroms of Europe and Czarist Russia and the Shoah are distant in our collective memory. Today we must face the challenges presented by the disintegration of Jewish Peoplehood, the movement to delegitimize Israel, and the hijacking of Zionism.
Today’s Zionism is better served by engaging in a “Tikkun Yisrael”. It is an old concept, really. Moses engaged in “Tikkun Yisrael” when he convinced the Israelites to leave Egypt for a return to the Promised Land, and Herzl engaged in “Tikkun Yisrael” when he convinced the world that the answer to the Jewish question was a return to Zion. Today, we must continue to push for a return to Zion, a “state” of self-determination in the face external and internal challenges.
As supporters of the Civil Rights Movement stand proud in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King and continue to live out his dream, The Zionist Movement continues to serve as a platform where honest and passionate debate leads to inspiring ideas and effective action on how to confront the challenges facing the Jewish People today. Through “Tikkun Yisrael” we can once again realize the journey that is the dream, and impact the world for good by returning to Zion.
We stand atop the shoulders of these visionaries to become inspired by the potential of the journey ahead, a journey that started at Exodus, inspired Dr. King to lead his people to the “Promised Land”, and moved Herzl to declare the founding of the Jewish State fifty years prior to its establishment. This is a journey that will continue to realize its potential so long as we continue to engage in “Tikkun Yisrael”. For the sake of Zion we must continue to will it and Zion will never be subject to dreams again.
Rabbi Leor Sinai is Vice President for Young Leadership Initiatives at the American Zionist Movement
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