Where is G-d?

By Michael Freund

Yesterday at 11 a.m., air raid sirens sounded across the country. Emergency crews went into position, security forces entered a heightened state of readiness and thousands of people made their way to public shelters.

It was a chilling scene,  as schoolchildren were shepherded to safety, and the innocence of our nation’s youth was disrupted by the din of the alarm. Thankfully, it was only a drill.

As Col. Chilik Soffer of the IDF Home Front Command bluntly noted: “Every country trains for emergency scenarios like earthquakes and fires. Here in Israel we train for those as well as for enemy attacks.”

Living in the Middle East, it would appear, like any tough neighborhood, requires taking all sorts of precautions, however unpleasant.

And while the government tried to calm the country’s nerves, assuring us that this exercise was routine and bore no relation to the dire state of the region, it was hard to escape the feeling that something ominous is in the air. Indeed, the headlines of late have been filled with all sorts of warnings and threats, as our foes dispatch daily reminders that their intentions are anything but peaceful.

In the past few days, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad spoke openly of war and embracing the “resistance option,” while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reasserted his determination to bring about Israel’s demise. To our north, Hizbullah is busy rearming, and its thug-in-chief Hassan Nasrallah boldly declared that Israeli commercial and civilian shipping could come under attack.

Meanwhile, to the south, rocket-fire emanating from Gaza resumed, and Palestinian terrorists sought to  attack soldiers guarding the frontier. In every direction, it seems, our enemies are gearing up for a war of extermination, each one trying to outdo the other in a frenzy of blood-curdling intimidation.

The arc of iniquity that stretches from Beirut to Damascus, and from there to Teheran and all the way back to Gaza, is not just rattling its saber, but may be getting ready to unsheathe it.

IN THE meantime, our closest ally, the United States, has increasingly turned hostile to us and our interests, badgering us to make still more concessions to the enemies gathering at the gate.

Like it or not, we are very much a nation that is dwelling alone.

In the face of all this, there is a knife-like question piercing through the fog of fear: Where is G-d?

Some might take this as a challenge to divine justice, but that is not what I intend. I am a man of faith, and I believe our deliverance will assuredly come.

What I mean to say is: Where is G-d in our public discourse? Why aren’t we turning to Him in this hour of need?

Sure, diplomacy and military readiness are crucial, and we must continue to invest our efforts in these areas, even as we hope for the best. But the piercing siren sounded yesterday brought to mind the wailing of the shofar on Yom Kippur, penetrating the serene obliviousness that characterizes much of our daily lives. This was a spiritual wake-up call, sounding to arouse us and jolt us into action. We can choose to ignore it, but we do so at our peril.

Each night, our generals and defense officials grace the television screens, insisting that “Israel is strong” and “we are ready.”

I’m glad to hear it and hope it’s true. But as we have seen in the past, overconfidence can breed arrogance, which is a recipe for disaster.

A dash of humility and a healthy dose of faith are just as critical to ensuring success. That’s why I’d like to see our leaders projecting a little less conceit and a lot more conviction.

How refreshing it would be to hear them invoking some reliance on the Almighty and putting G-d back into the national conversation,  injecting the sacred into their public discourse – and ours.

This is more than just semantics; it goes to the very heart of the challenges we face. Belief in a higher power and in the justness of our cause is our spiritual ammunition, giving us the strength and determination to turn back any foe.

The great hassidic leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, once asked a student where G-d could be found. The surprised young scholar offered the seemingly obvious answer: Rabbi, He is surely everywhere! “No!” said the Kotzker, with fiery certitude. “G-d is only where we let Him in!”

Now, more than ever, would be the perfect time to do so.

----- from the May 27 Jerusalem Post

Indeed, it is time for the intense longing for Zion embodied in our daily and Sabbath prayers to be translated into a concrete plan of action for North American Jews, and this is where rabbis can step up and make a difference.

The Zionist Elephant in the Room

By Michael Freund

Jews around the world this week commemorated the 62nd anniversary of the momentous rebirth of the Jewish state in the land of Israel with all the pomp and ceremony warranted by such a meaningful day on the calendar.

Across North America, Federations and Jewish community centers held lectures and celebrations, youth movements convened a range of special activities, and synagogues played host to festive services of prayer and thanksgiving.

Participants waved blue and white flags with pride and downed falafel with abandon as they expressed their love and admiration, albeit from afar, for the historic undertaking known as the State of Israel.

And this, of course, is at it should be. The return of the Jewish people to our land and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty are the two greatest miracles of the modern era, so it is only natural that Diaspora Jews would see fit to venerate this turn of events.

As the late Rabbi Ben-Zion Uziel, who served as Israel's first Sephardic Chief Rabbi from 1948 to 1954, wrote in his last will and testament, "Our generation has been granted a great and wonderful privilege in the revelation of the hand of the L-rd, hidden and mighty, on behalf of His chosen people, gathering our exiles and bringing them to their patrimony till we have become a people dwelling in its own land".

Indeed, if that isn't worth celebrating, then what is?

But amid all the revelry and excitement this past Tuesday in places such as New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, there is one central item that was prominently and conspicuously missing from the agenda. And that, oddly enough, was aliyah.

It is, so to speak, the Zionist elephant in the room, a painfully obvious subject which Diaspora Jews are aware of but few wish to touch, because it raises so many awkward and uncomfortable questions about the future.

And while immigration to Israel from North America has been steadily on the rise, thanks in part to the admirable work of the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, the few thousand brave souls who make the move each year still represent just a fraction of a portion of a small sliver of the Canadian and American Jewish communities.

There are surely many reasons for this, and it is easy to point the finger at causes such as a lack of basic Zionist and Jewish education or the misplaced priorities of various national Jewish groups.

But I'd like to direct attention in an entirely different direction, to what I see as perhaps one of the greatest sources of frustration and failure when it comes to encouraging Jews to make aliyah, and that is the silence of rabbis on this critical point.

Sure, communal rabbis have their hands full already. Just keeping their congregants Jewishly-involved and motivated presents a great challenge for many in the free societies of the West.

But as the spiritual and educational leaders of their communities, Diaspora rabbis can and should do more to advance and promote aliyah, especially among the more committed and observant.  

It is time for the intense longing for Zion embodied in our daily and Sabbath prayers to be translated into a concrete plan of action for North American Jews and this is where rabbis can step up and make a difference.

By taking a few simple steps, rabbis can help raise the aliyah consciousness of increasing numbers of Diaspora Jews.

These could include establishing a Rabbinical Aliyah Council, which would coordinate aliyah-centered programming and initiatives at synagogues across America.

By coming together in such a forum, rabbis would be sending an important message to their congregants underlining the centrality of aliyah and placing it squarely on the national Jewish agenda.

It would also serve as an impetus and a reminder to rabbis that they need to tackle this crucial issue.

Synagogues around the country should also devote a special Sabbath each year to the theme of aliyah. A fortuitous time to do so is when the weekly Torah portion of Lech Lecha from the book of Genesis is read in which our father Abraham became the first Jew to move to Israel.

That can be the launching point for sermons, discussions and panel sessions on the history, theology and ideology behind going home to Zion.

Synagogues could also establish an Aliyah Wall of Honor, highlighting members of the local congregation and community who have made the move. This would underline communal respect and admiration for those who make aliyah, and project a sense of aspiration and purpose to members of the younger generation.

There is of course a need for more materials to be written in English on the religious and Zionist reasons for moving to Israel, and for bonds to be strengthened between immigrants and the communities they left behind.

This will serve to strengthen the position of aliyah in the mindset of more Jews, and lend further legitimacy to the idea of considering it as an option.

Rabbis have a central role to play in making this happen, and they would do well to learn from the example in the Talmud of Rabbi Zeira.

One of the Amoraim, Rabbi Zeira was born in Babylonia but longed for the Land of Israel. Prior to moving, he spent a hundred days fasting to forget the methodology of study he learned in the Exile in order to make a fresh start once in Israel (Tractate Berachot 57a).

And when he reached the Jordan River, Rabbi Zeira was so eager to enter the land that he crossed through the water without bothering to remove his clothes.

When a passerby mocked him, Rabbi Zeira replied, "Why shouldn't I be impatient when I am pursuing a blessing which was denied even to Moses and Aaron"? (Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Shevuot 35).

If only we saw a similar level of impatience among the rabbis of North America and the West.

Nonetheless, centuries later, the blessing of which Rabbi Zeira spoke is still here, awaiting us all, in the Land of Israel. Now is the time for the rabbis to encourage Jews to pursue it.

In the past, the typical response by pro-Israel activists to such charges has been to go on the defensive. Well, I say the time has come to stop playing defense and to bring the offense out onto the field. We need to turn the tables and fight back against our opponents by taking the struggle toward their end-zone.

As I suggest below, a good place to be start would be to organize an annual Arab Apartheid Week, which would highlight the decrepit state of human and political rights throughout the Arab world.

Doing so will reframe the debate. More importantly, it will help Westerners to finally begin recognizing the Arab regimes for what they are: a dangerous mix of despotism and dictatorship.

Let's Launch "Arab Apartheid Week"

By Michael Freund

In nearly three dozen cities across the world, a coordinated series of events is being held this week with the express aim of demonizing Israel.

Now in its sixth year, the annual hate-fest known as "Israel Apartheid Week" has sought to portray the Jewish state as a bastion of bigotry, inequality and discrimination.

The organizers do not mince words in describing their objectives, asserting on their website that they aim "to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns" against the Jewish state.

This, they confidently declare, is a key part of "the battle to end Israeli apartheid", whatever that means.

Naturally, behind the sloganeering stands a clear political platform, one which essentially seeks to dismantle the Jewish state by stripping it of territory and flooding the country with millions of Palestinian refugees through the so-called "right of return".

The first step in this campaign, of course, is to equate Israel with the evils of apartheid-era South Africa, thereby laying the groundwork for increased diplomatic and economic pressure to make far-reaching concessions.

And so, as usual, the only democracy in the Middle East once again finds itself on the receiving end of yet another indefensible canard, accused of one of modernity's greatest political sins without any basis or justification.

Simply put, this slur cannot be allowed to stand. It is an insult to Israel and its democracy, and dangerously analogous to asserting that Zionism is a form of racism. If allowed to take hold in the public's consciousness, it could have far-reaching and extremely damaging effects on support for Israel in the near- and long-term.

In the past, the typical response by pro-Israel activists to such charges has been to go on the defensive, responding to the slanders and explaining in great detail the myriad differences between democratic Israel and the racist regime that once ruled South Africa.

Well, I say the time has come to stop playing defense and to bring the offense out onto the field. We need to turn the tables and fight back against our opponents by taking the struggle toward their end-zone.

A good place to be start would be to organize an annual Arab Apartheid Week, which would highlight the decrepit state of human and political rights throughout the Arab world.

There is a solid case to be made that the Arab states remain the last great outpost of despotism and tyranny on earth, and people need to be reminded as much.

Indeed, the Arab world today is a living encyclopedia of outmoded forms of government, from sultanates such as Oman and emirates such as Qatar, to thuggish dictatorships such as Syria and dynastic monarchies along the lines of Jordan. It may be a political-scientist’s dream, but it is a nightmare for the hundreds of millions of Arabs chafing under oppression and tyranny.

Basic and fundamental freedoms such as personal autonomy and individual rights are routinely trampled upon, and ethnic and religious minority groups suffer extreme discrimination and intolerance. Just ask Coptic Christians in Egypt, Bahais in Iran or Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia for starters.

This was borne out most recently by a report issued by Freedom House, the independent Washington-based group that advocates for freedom worldwide.

Its annual survey, "Freedom in the World 2010", would make for eye-opening reading for all those who cry "apartheid" whenever they see a flag with a Star of David.

Consider the following findings from the report.

Of the 18 countries in the Middle East that Freedom House surveyed, only one is considered to be "free".

And just who might that be?

Yep, you guessed it: Israel.

Not a single Arab country – not one! – did Freedom House consider "free". Three Arab states – Morocco, Lebanon and Kuwait – were labeled "partly free", while 13 other Arab states as well as Iran merited the dubious distinction of being branded as "not free".

In effect, then, this means that of the approximately 370 million human beings currently residing in the Middle East, only 2 percent enjoy true freedom – namely those who live in the Jewish state.

So much for "Israeli apartheid".

Not surprisingly, in a press release announcing the report's publication, Freedom House concluded that, "The Middle East remained the most repressive region in the world."

It is this message that Israel and its supporters need to begin highlighting. By casting a spotlight on the subjugation, oppression and tyranny that typify nearly the entire Arab world, we can open some eyes out there and educate the Western public as to who really shares their democratic values.

As Prof. Bernard Lewis has written, the Arab states are little more than “a string of shabby tyrannies, ranging from traditional autocracies to new-style dictatorships, modern only in their apparatus of repression and indoctrination”.

An annual Arab Apartheid Week, held on campuses and at community centers, could be an effective vehicle for driving home this fundamental truth.

Doing so will reframe the debate. More importantly, it will help Westerners to finally begin recognizing the Arab regimes for what they are: a dangerous mix of despotism and dictatorship.

--- from the March 11 Jerusalem Post