Rabbi Landsberg's Blog

Off to the World Zionist Congress..

Together with my wife - Rabbi Landsberg - we have arrived in israel for the World Zionist Congress. During the Congress I shall be posting reports to give a flavour of the events and convey what it means to this Canadian ARZA delegate.

A little Jargon busting: ARZA Canada is the Zionist movement of Canadian Reform Judaism. Together with its sister movements throughout the world, Reform Zionists are part of ARZEINU which is the global Zionist movement of Reform Judaism.

Thanks to Rabbi Landsberg for letting me use her blog during the Congress.

It's been a long time...

It has been a while since I posted to this blog - more than a year, in truth . The reasons I stopped are  shrouded in mystery (otherwise known as preparations for the Chagim (High Holy Days) last year).   I say ashamnu.  I miss this route for contact with Temple Emanu-El folk; my days were often invigorated by a congregant's thoughtful response to a post.  I never cease to be amazed by our congregation's love of learning and the Jewish people.   So today I begin anew.   I have chosen a new design with blooming new flowers to both celebrate the relaunch and to hearten me against the snow outside.     

There is so much going on at Temple Emanu-El, and I  know not everyone can attend it all, given our busy lives.  A few weeks ago we were honoured to have Professor Moshe Halbertal of the Hebrew University, The Hartman Institute and NYU.  Professor Hartman spoke about many things:  forgiveness in Jewish tradition, and State and Religion in modern Israel.   But Professor Halbertal also spoke about the Goldstone Report and what it means for Israel.  His words are bracing and not always easy reading for those of us who hold Israel dear, but I recommend them to every Jew who wishes to posses a morally grounded but not demagogic understanding of the challenges facing the Israel Defense Forces today.   The presentation that Professor Halbertal made was a preview of a much remarked upon article he has since published in The New Republic - read it here. for an alternative view on Goldstone amongst many may I direct you to this view of Professor David Shulman also of the Hebrew university.

"The Time Has Come to Say These Things.."

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a much talked about interview in Yedhiot Ahronoth.   Read it here.        

My congregation teaches me...

One of the many rewards of congregational life at Temple Emanu-El is the collective learning of my ever-probing congregation.  An example:  here is a link to an article on the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict that was recently forwarded to me.  Probably on my own I would not have come across it.

The piece  is by Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former Foreign Minister in the Ehud Barak government.  It is a review (in the magazine Foreign Affairs) of the new Benny Morris  book about the 1948 War of Independence.  Ben-Ami outlines in his review, what was achieved, but also the grisly and ongoing cost of Israeli independence for both Jews and Palestinians. 

Looking clearly at events shrouded in national myth is hard but vitally necessary.  To engage young Jews who are skeptical of any national narrative in today's less credulous age, I must be prepared to talk tachlis, as it were.  The facts of Israel's founding do not undermine my love of Israel nor my Zionism, but they do impact how I speak; my Zionism is grounded in a harder, more nuanced world of power and painful compromise than the softer and simpler world of myth.  Instead of myth, I offer young Emanu-Elniks (together with us older ones) a relationship with Israel unafraid of fact and grounded in a Zionist commitment, that can love the Jewish nation in Israel and beyond "warts and all" .  

So, for your copy of Foreign Affairs left in outside my study door:  thanks, Phil!

Kosher Talk...

Kosher mobile phone, originally uploaded by Gideon Lichfield.

This phone is stamped with the seal of approval of "the rabbinical committee for communication affairs". It has internet access and is possibly text messaging disabled.

The photo is from Gideon Lichfield, the departing Israel and Palestine correspondent for The Economist. Apart from Mr Lichfield's incisive coverage and reportage he is also an exquisite photographer. To continue the photographic theme started Wednesday, explore his photos here on Flickr.

You can read more of Gideon Litchfield here where he brings us up to speed on the latest developments of Israel's haute bourgeois  in his blog Fugitive Peace .  

We women and our daughters

Michelle and Hillary (and yes, I am watching the Democratic National Convention all too intensely and yes--though it is rather late at night--we have been allowing the children to watch with us).  Admittedly, the link below has nothing whatsoever to do with Mrs. Obama or Sentor Clinton, but I first wanted to acknowledge them as my inspiration for this post today.

Rachel Papo, a U.S. born Israeli photographer, has a compelling series of photos of young women in the IDF, entitled "Serial No. 3817131"  In her description of the photos, she speaks of her her motivation behind this project:

Almost fifteen years after my mandatory military duty ended, I went back...Serial No. 3817131 represents my effort to come to terms with the experiences of being a soldier from the perspective of an adult. My service had been a period of utter loneliness, mixed with apathy and pensiveness, and at the time I was too young to understand it all. Through the camera’s lens, I tried to reconstruct facets of my military life, hopeful to reconcile matters that had been left unresolved.

I find the photos challenging--mostly for their true otherness of experience.  As a Jewish woman in North America, I have not faced military service nor had to look ahead to it for my daughter from her first moment of life.   The chasm between my life as a Jew here rather than in Israel is real.  It makes me need to eschew any notion of using "we" when speaking about Jews here and Jews in Israel. 

Yes, "we" do claim each other--we claim history and relationship. But "we"--when speaking about Israel and its citizen soldiers--is claiming something too easily.  Until my daughter's life is on the line, I will talk of "here" and "there".  I will talk of "Jews" only when I do mean Jews everywhere and reserve  "Israelis" for those bearing the peculiar burdens of citizenship there.   And I will identify for Noa, my daugther, Israeli women who should inspire her, and there are many...and the American Jewish Woman that I am will hope that she remembers the first time she saw Michelle and Hillary.

As well...

And, speaking of Adam, he also handed me this article from the New Yorker immediately upon my return from Israel. It is a profile of the ever-fascinating Sheldon Adelson, the gambling magnate who underwrites, amongst other things, a large portion of the Birthright program.

There is much to say, but for an opinion let me direct you to Daniel Levy and his incisive thoughts on Mr Adelson's underwriting Israel 60th Anniversary presidential conference. Read it here.

Books from marriage...

One of the pleasure of marriage is combining your separate collections of things until they no longer are "yours" or "mine" or "just ours." This happened to me in many ways, not least of all for books. One of the many books I stumbled across on our bookshelf at home was In the Land of Israel by Amos Oz (my copy has been languishing for years on a shelf in my study at the synagogue). There is much to be said about this classic piece, but I am fortunate that is has been said already here by Jonathan Freedland here.

Freedland writes of Oz that he has

"an aching kind of patriotism, a love of his people which sometimes forces him into the most stinging criticism. He cannot help it: he loves Israel so much, he wants it to do better. As I read the book, I saw that there need be no contradiction. You could want the best for Israel - and still open your eyes wide to its flaws..."

Too true. As the bloggers say, "hat tip" (and happy belated anniversary) to Adam. I will let you know what other books I can claim as family-by-marriage in the months ahead.

going to the doctor for a check-up...

As a transplanted American rabbi in Canada, I still pay attention to the Jewish conversation south of the border. Over the last few months there have been stirrings of change in talk about Israel. It's hard to tell how enduring it will be, but it does matter for all Jews everywhere (if simply by virtue of American Jews being the elephant of Diaspora life, so to speak).

A young columnist of The American Prospect, Ezra Klein, occasionally tips his hat on his relationship with Jews and Judaism. [He is, btw, the man if you wish to follow the vicissitudes of the US health care debate and many other issues.] As far as I can surmise his feelings are warm if not necessarily defining.

He wrote this article back in April, No Time For Neutrality, which was a call for support for the new J Street progressive Israel lobbying organization. By way of introduction he articulates his dissatisfaction with the nature of Israel talk in synagogues. This is how he puts it:

"More often, the pull of identity overwhelms the call of the ineffable, and whatever mysticism should exist is shattered as the Rabbi does his or her best to rally the assembled Jewry in defense of their besieged brethren -- and shame those who don't go along. It's an odd feeling, akin to going to the doctor for a check-up and being subjected to an angry lecture on payment rates in the upcoming Medicare law"

I do think that Ezra might have a sense of Judaism that leaves little space for the nuts and bolts of actual peoplehood, which is part and parcel of Am Yisrael. Still, I take his point. It matters that was is said in a synagogue not only has sacred sources, but employs an argument for Zionism qualitatively different from the necessary hard ball of the public square. Ezra Klein is (a mere) 25 - that makes his critique all the more important. It matters deeply that a man such as he believes that synagogues are the locus, not the flight from, thinking every bit as sophisticated and nuanced for Zion as he could encounter in other spheres of life.

And you thought you were Jewish....

After a very long hiatus and a three week study sojourn in Jerusalem at the Shalom Hartman Institute I have returned to the virtual world.

So much is happening in the Jewish world and the pace of change is dizzying that it is hard not be a little overwhelmed by the pace of change.  I intend to adopt a new style of blogging and pass on links to the many affecting article and sites I see in the Jewish world.

In that vein let me share this with you Conversion: The American Machers Protest. It from the ever excellent pen of Gershom Gorenberg author of amongst other things The Accidental Empire: Israel And The Birth Of The Settlements, 1967-1977. If you ever want to know in accessible journalistic style the story of how Israel came to Settle about 450,000 people in the West Bank without ever quite realizing it this is the book to read.

I digress. Read Gershom's blog post. It is the $64 million dollar question for the Jewish people. It is happening now and it affects us all.