In This Moment, June 10: Pride Shabbat, Vax-in-Nation, Wandering Elephants and Screaming Cicadas, The First Populist, Something New In Our Sanctuary

In This Moment Celebrating Pride Month Class photo from this week's TBE Hebrew School Graduation Click here for the 7th grade's complete Lifecycle Album and here for Harrison Tronick's Bar Mitzvah D'var Torah from last week. Shabbat Shalom! I am so looking forward to hearing from Elon Green at Pride Shabbat on Friday night at 6. As you can see from the photo above, we'll be welcoming another guest into our sanctuary as well - the banner arrived this week, and immediately we let it flow it from chains (typically used for a huppah) suspended from our bima's skylight. Elon and I will engage in some spirited Q and A, and you are welcome to bring questions of your own. If you will be watching on livestream, email the questions to me in advance of the service (there will be no "chat" function at the service.). And by all means read Elon's book, "Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York," It is a stunning story, meticulously researched and wonderfully laid out. Call to Vax-ion This letter appeared last week in the Stamford Advocate: This evening I'll be participating in a community wide forum convened by the Stamford heath Department, where religious leaders will convene to discuss how our faith traditions can guide us out of this valley of the shadow of death. And - spoiler alert - each faith tradition, in its own way, advocates vaccination. (That said, it is also important for me to add that Judaism also advocates love, understanding and inclusion, which is how one should approach anyone who harbors doubts about vaccination). Below is an invitation from TBE's Meira Rosenberg, who has been very involved in the current effort to vaccinate 70 percent of Americans before July 4, so that American can truly become the world's shining example of a "Vacci-Nation." She shares a volunteer opportunity for TONIGHT: ------------- Hi Everyone, You may all have heard that the National Month of Action to get as many people as possible vaccinated against Covid-19 has just begun and goes through July 4. There are various activities that individuals can join to help with the effort including phone banking, texting, and a growing number of other events. One activity tonight of special interest to our congregation is the Jewish Community Vaccine Virtual Phone Bank from 6-8:30 (with plenty of time for a break from 7-7:30 to attend the Rabbi’s “Faith in the Pandemic” Zoom event). Whether texting or on the phone, the idea is to answer questions about the vaccine, to direct people to nearby places to get vaccinated, and to let people know about Uber and Lyft rides and childcare to make getting vaccinated easier. There are scripted answers for almost everything, and there are people to ask for more information. I joined the national texting campaign over the weekend. It was a great feeling to help people who wanted the vaccine, were not computer savvy, and were not sure where to go. (Not every town in the country has a giant “Vaccines Here” flashing sign in front of a store like Lord & Taylor.)  The website to get involved is www.madetosave.org This week has been marked by images of wandering elephants in China and cacophonous cicadas in the U.S. The Washington Post ran a contest, inviting readers to send in haikus about those annoying insects. Here's my favorite: A cicada's plight. Seventeen years without love Then frenzy and death. The predictable but still confounding emergence of the cicadas after a 17-year hibernation, and the inexplicable year-long, 300-mile wanderings of this elephant herd are mysteries to us. But they both point to the universality of family and our instinctive need for connection and for group survival. Prolonged absence and wandering share a primal desire to get things right. In the words of Anatole France, "Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe." Exodus 23:4 instructs us to assist a wandering animal back to its original owner, even if that owner is your enemy. With this mitzvah, the Torah is teaching us not to be bystanders in the unfolding drama of the natural universe, or to be annoyed if they ruin the plans of the White House press corps, as the cicadas have, or trample fields, as the elephants are doing, but to help, to care, to protect and to learn from these amazing creatures. Brian Skerry, an award winning National Geographic reporter, spent much time recording the activities of whales, He writes, "The photographic results exceeded our wildest expectations. But one aspect of their lives was a complete surprise—they play games with little rocks. In this shallow, three-foot-deep water, belugas will occasionally pick up pebbles with their mouths. They’ll carry them around for a while, and then drop them. Another whale then swims by to pick the pebble up again." He continues, "Ever since I captured these images, I’ve thought often about these polar whales living far away, at the top of the Earth. Their daily lives are busy and challenging. They have to catch food and take care of their young. They deal with social situations, where no doubt conflicts occur. And they have to face predators and serious threats every day. Yet they still make time to play. They find a perfect pebble and carry it around because it makes them happy. How wonderful is that? We can see ourselves in these creatures. Humans also speak different languages, enjoy different foods, and pass down family traditions. But perhaps most strikingly, we also rely on one other."  The Jewish people, whose origin story begins with "a wandering Aramean," and continues through the wanderings of the Wilderness, which this week takes the Israelites to the brink of self-destruction at the hands of the populist Korah - we know more than most how much we rely on one another. Or as another Washington Post haiku-ist put it: Emerge, shed our shells. Meet! Mate! Pulsate! Sing! Take wing! Cicadas, or us? The First Populist I happily lend this space to the late, great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who labeled Korach as the “first populist.” Even as Rabbi Sacks, who died of cancer last November, wrote this in 2018 he could not have imagined what we would be dealing with just three years later - a violent insurrection instigated by a Big Lie in Washington and a Prime Minister of Israel trying to cling to power by libeling his opponents as traitors. As it becomes more and more common to see leaders in supposedly "safe" democracies following the autocrat’s playbook, the lessons of this week's portion become more relevant than ever before. (And if you need a primer on how to recognize when autocracy is winning out, read this). Take it away, Rabbi Sacks! See the original essay here. The Korach rebellion was a populist movement, and Korach himself an archetypal populist leader. Listen carefully to what he said about Moses and Aaron: “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Num. 16:3). These are classic populist claims. First, implies Korach, the establishment (Moses and Aaron) is corrupt. Moses has been guilty of nepotism in appointing his own brother as High Priest. He has kept the leadership roles within his immediate family instead of sharing them out more widely. Second, Korach presents himself as the people’s champion. The whole community, he says, is holy. There is nothing special about you, Moses and Aaron. We have all seen God’s miracles and heard His voice. We all helped build His Sanctuary. Korach is posing as the democrat so that he can become the autocrat. Next, he and his fellow rebels mount an impressive campaign of fake news – anticipating events of our own time. We can infer this indirectly. When Moses says to God, “I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them” (Num. 16:15), it is clear that he has been accused of just that: exploiting his office for personal gain. When he says, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my own idea” (Num. 16:28) it is equally clear that he has been accused of representing his own decisions as the will and word of God. Most blatant is the post-truth claim of Datham and Aviram: “Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you want to lord it over us!” (Num. 16:13). This is the most callous speech in the Torah. It combines false nostalgia for Egypt (a “land flowing with milk and honey”!), blaming Moses for the report of the spies, and accusing him of holding on to leadership for his own personal prestige – all three, outrageous lies. Ramban was undoubtedly correct[3] when he says that such a challenge to Moses’ leadership would have been impossible at any earlier point. Only in the aftermath of the episode of the spies, when the people realised that they would not see the Promised Land in their lifetime, could discontent be stirred by Korach and his assorted fellow-travellers. They felt they had nothing to lose. Populism is the politics of disappointment, resentment and fear. For once in his life, Moses acted autocratically, putting God, as it were, to the test: “This is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord: If these people die a natural death, or if a natural fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.” (Num. 16:28-30). This dramatic effort at conflict resolution by the use of force (in this case, a miracle) failed completely. The ground did indeed open up and swallow Korach and his fellow rebels, but the people, despite their terror, were unimpressed. “On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the people of the Lord” (Num. 17:6). Jews have always resisted autocratic leaders. What is even more striking is the way the sages framed the conflict. Instead of seeing it as a black-and-white contrast between rebellion and obedience, they insisted on the validity of argument in the public domain. They said that what was wrong with Korach and his fellows was not that they argued with Moses and Aaron, but that they did so “not for the sake of Heaven.” The schools of Hillel and Shammai, however, argued for the sake of Heaven, and thus their argument had enduring value.[4] Judaism, as I argued in Covenant and Conversation Shemot this year, is unique in the fact that virtually all of its canonical texts are anthologies of arguments. What matters in Judaism is why the argument was undertaken and how it was conducted. An argument not for the sake of Heaven is one that is undertaken for the sake of victory. An argument for the sake of Heaven is undertaken for the sake of truth. When the aim is victory, as it was in the case of Korach, both sides are diminished. Korach died, and Moses’ authority was tarnished. But when the aim is truth, both sides gain. To be defeated by the truth is the only defeat that is also a victory. As R. Shimon ha-Amsoni said: “Just as I received reward for the exposition, so I will receive reward for the retraction.”[5] In his excellent short book, What is Populism?, Jan-Werner Muller argues that the best indicator of populist politics is its delegitimization of other voices. Populists claim that “they and they alone represent the people.” Anyone who disagrees with them is “essentially illegitimate.” Once in power, they silence dissent. That is why the silencing of unpopular views in university campuses today, in the form of “safe space,” “trigger warnings,” and “micro-aggressions,” is so dangerous. When academic freedom dies, the death of other freedoms follows. Hence the power of Judaism’s defense against populism in the form of its insistence on the legitimacy of “argument for the sake of Heaven.” Judaism does not silence dissent: to the contrary, it dignifies it. This was institutionalized in the biblical era in the form of the prophets who spoke truth to power. In the rabbinic era it lived in the culture of argument evident on every page of the Mishnah, Gemara and their commentaries. In the contemporary State of Israel, argumentativeness is part of the very texture of its democratic freedom, in the strongest possible contrast to much of the rest of the Middle East. Hence the life-changing idea: If you seek to learn, grow, pursue truth and find freedom, seek places that welcome argument and respect dissenting views. Stay far from people, places and political parties that don’t. Though they claim to be friends of the people, they are in fact the enemies of freedom. What to Read... (Note: I do lots of reading so you don't have to. But actually, you do. And some of these articles link you to a paywall. While I support the need to sustain good journalism, and therefore subscribe to a number of periodicals - on your belhalf - if you are unable to access a particular article that you really want to read, drop me a line and I'll send it). Yiddish writers knew from pogroms. Here's what they can teach us about Tulsa and beyond. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Hamas was developing technology to jam Iron Dome system in bombed AP building, Israel says - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - Good to know...but why didn't they just say that then? Change government’ agenda: Electoral reform, budget and Jerusalem building boom - On religion and state, the document said: “The sides agree to advance issues related to religion and state in which there is wide public support,” without elaboration. Direct references to conversion, the Western Wall pluralistic platform, public transportation, and the opening of supermarkets on Shabbat, civil unions, and other issues were removed from the final document, Channel 12 said. The new government is scheduled to be sworn in on Sunday. 12 Jewish Democrats say grouping of Israel and the US with Hamas and the Taliban gives terrorists cover, call on Ilhan Omar to clarify (JTA) The new film ‘Sublet’ explores the US-Israel identity divide from a queer lens - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - Noted Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox has crafted a pensive, dialogue-driven movie about different modes of moving through the world as a gay Jewish man: American and Israeli, early 20s and middle age.  High school football coaches fired after allegedly forcing player to eat pork - This is the next installment in a story I shared last week. I'm not sure what saddens me more about this incident: the sheer cruelty of forcing someone to betray their faith traditions (sort of like the coach who schedules a game for Yom Kippur and forces kids to be there - we've had that around here), OR the fact that the vast majority of Jews would have no idea what the big deal is and just say, "Pass the pepperoni." I live in the real world and know that the fact that this saddens me may anger you. That saddens me too. White House science adviser to be sworn in on a 500-year-old Jewish text - That advisor's name is Eric Lander. Last name sound familiar? He's related to our own executive director. If America Were a Foreign Country, We’d Know Its Democracy Is Dying (Daily Beast) Stepping into the Unknown (Shira Jacobson). Writing in the Buffalo Jewish News, Shira, daughter of Cantor Deborah Jacobson, asks "How can Jewish Buffalo continue to be more welcoming to a diverse array of individuals and families who identify as Jewish? As (last week's portion) Shelach teaches us, we must take steps towards the unknown in order to grow." Why the Leader of the Reform Movement Is Optimistic About the Bennett-Lapid Government (Ha-aretz) - The leader of U.S. Jewry’s largest organization, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, is optimistic about Israel’s likely new government, but cautions that ideological differences will still distance Americans and Israelis. 41 Jewish delis, 1 motorcycle: The Great American Deli Schlep aims to raise awareness about hunger (JTA) HBO’s “Oslo” Captures Rare Moment of Optimism for Peace in the Middle East | JewishBoston ADL Tracker of Antisemitic Incidents - (Incidents zoomed waaay up in May) ADL’s Tracker of Anti-Semitic Incidents is a compilation of recent cases of anti-Jewish vandalism, harassment, and assault reported to or detected by ADL. This list is not exhaustive and incidents in the Tracker may be removed if they are determined not credible upon further investigation by ADL. ADL’s H.E.A.T. Map provides comprehensive statistics on domestic instances of anti-Semitism, extremism and terrorism. The Map is updated monthly with incidents from the Tracker and should be viewed in conjunction with the Tracker’s list of recent events. Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

In This Moment, by Rabbi In this Moment: Rabbi Joshua Hammerman: June 26: Zero Hour for Annexation? Protest or Rebellion; We've Been Here Before

In This Moment

Shabbat Shalom!

We are honored to have as our guest at this evening's service Guy Fortt, the local NAACP president. See the flyer at the bottom of this email for more information.  Over the coming days both Katie Kaplan and Lisa Manheim will officially begin their tenures as leaders of our community - I wish them both the best of luck and look forward to working closely with them over the coming years.

These past 3 1/2 months have been quite a journey for us all.  And now, as we enter July, I'm going to step back and gather strength, while assessing our swiftly changing world and preparing for the challenges ahead, including the High Holidays.  You won't be hearing from me on a regular basis, though I'm sure I'll have reason to reach out from the bunker from time to time.  But the first season of "Coronavirus Update," "From the Rabbi's Bunker" and "In This Moment" officially now ends. 

See the archived past issues for the past three months.

See a book excerpt from "Embracing Auschwitz" in this week's NY Jewish Week.

Did you see our little High Holiday trailer video that was sent out yesterday?  If not, fear not!  You can watch it by clicking on the box below.

You'll be hearing much more about this over the coming weeks, but for now I'll just say these will be the most participatory High Holidays services ever. EVERYONE will get to take part. With that in mind, before I take leave, I'll leave you with two simple assignments that you can complete right away:

- Click here to submit a brief  video New Year's greeting from your family.  5-10 seconds ought to do it - ample time to include everyone - the dog, your cousins from Tacoma on Zoom, your grandchildren, your blankie, whatever.  We'll integrate all these greetings into our services.

- Click here to submit photos of loved ones who have passed away, to be included in our Yizkor services on Yom Kippur.  We will also still have our Book of Remembrance, but this adds a new dimension to the service.  Please remember to include the name of the person in the photo, and feel free to include relatives and friends who passed away this year due to the coronavirus and other causes, along with those who have died in years past. 

The Spirit of TBE

This video, which premiered last night at our Sharing Sacred Spaces program, brings the spirit of TBE to life in the words and experiences of over half a dozen congregants. Many other TBE congregants attended on Zoom as well.  The featured video describes key elements of Judaism and TBE's history.

Korah: Protest Movement or Rebellion?

This week's portion of Korah has great relevance to the current conversation about protest and rebellion.  depending on your point of view, the ____ (rebellion) (uprising) (protest march) (intifada) (hoodlum mob) of Korah against Moses in the book of Numbers could be seen as a legitimate expression of democratic yearning or a craven, manipulative coup attempt against the greatest leader in world history.  Take your pick!

In the words of "Judaism Unbound" podcast host Lex Rofeberg (on Facebook),

"One of the Torah's biggest uprisings, by people calling for an equalization of power, and checks on people in official positions of authority, was bad. The people in positions of authority are heroes, and the people rising up against them were wrong. Even if those rising-up had a point, their tactics were overly hostile and aggressive. I would like the earth to be done swallowing-up people who work toward a more just world. I would like people (whether rabbinic interpreters or others) to stop framing people-who-work-toward-a-more-just-world as aggressive or violent, when others -- in this story and today -- seem to be directing violence toward them."  

Interesting perspective on Korah.  What do you think?  Is the fine line between freedom fighters and terrorists purely subjective?  Or is there a clear standard that automatically differentiates between the two.  Does it totally depend on who wins - and writes the history?

Here's an info packet on Korah that we'll use at services tomorrow. 

Here's the Etz Hayyim text and commentary  for the portion.

Here's the Koren text and commentary by Adin Steinsaltz on Korah.

The Torah.com: Studies in the Portion of Korah

Annexation?

As if we didn't have enough crises to deal with...

It's hard to believe that Zero Hour has possibly arrived.  After 53 years of hemming and hawing, negotiating and fighting, Israel may be on the verge of annexing - or sort of annexing - part of the disputed territories known to most of the world as the West Bank and to others as Judea and Samaria.  

Why now? Because Prime Minister Netanyahu has been promising to do this forever, and he knows that the window may be closing on his one chance to do it.  The recent American peace plan does not call for unilateral annexation of anything, but America has been sending mixed signals and would be unlikely to react punitively.  Netanyahu knows that things could change significantly after November, as many of Israel's staunchest supporters in Washington have made it clear that they do not favor annexation.  Bibi also is an expert at reading polls. So the window is potentially closing.

What would be annexed?  It's anyone's guess, but those areas talked about the most are the Jordan Valley, for security purposes, and either the core settlement bloc near Jerusalem and a few others or, some have suggested, all the settlements.

 

"Annexation Lite," a term bandied about this week, would just include a few suburbs of Jerusalem, rather than the freckled map shown above (some might call it acne).  These are places that just about everyone assumes would be part of Israel in any permanent peace arrangement.  

What are the risks / benefits of doing this now?  Enormous risk, and no benefit to speak of, for Israel, and even for President Trump, whose evangelical base does not seem overly concerned about this right now, but whose Saudi and Egyptian friends are very nervous. Most American Jewish groups think this is a bad idea - and even AIPAC gave legislators the green light to criticize the Israeli government about it, something almost unprecedented (and many have).

Why blow up a relatively stable situation, when Israel has complete security control over the West Bank already, and secure peace accords with Jordan and Egypt? 

Why would Israel jeopardize an already shaky relationship with Diaspora Jewry, particularly among youth, and bipartisan support in the US that is already fraying?  It would just give fodder to those who accuse Israel of heading toward an arrangement perilously similar to apartheid.  It makes no sense.  

Which is why I have joined nearly 700 Jewish clergy in signing this "Letter calling on the Israeli Government to Abandon Plans for Annexing the West Bank."  I take signing letters like this very seriously, but my support for Israel is too strong to ignore the perils of moment. Friends don't let friends drive drunk and do other foolish things like annex the West Bank.

Now don't get me wrong.  Ultimately, I envision that Israel will need to negotiate final boundaries not that different from the map on this page.  Right now I see the Jordan Valley as strategically essential to Israel's security, and I would never want rockets to be fired at Ben Gurion airport from a frontier just down the street; the 1967 borders would need adjustment.  But those land swaps need to be negotiated. There is no reason all of those settlement-freckles need to be annexed. Many do not serve a strategic defensive purpose. Israel is in a much stronger position to do that negotiating now than it was a decade or two ago, and she has more support in the Arab world.  Now is the time to leverage that support and not squander it.

If Israel were to step back from the brink, she would endure some internal political turbulence, but a well-conceived diplomatic effort by the Americans, Europeans and Arabs could leverage this "sacrifice" into some momentum that might yield some tangible benefits for Israel.  Okay, so the idea of well-conceived diplomacy from those entities might be too much to expect right now; so let's just say that it would not hurt Israel at all to let this moment pass.

The equation is simple.

Annexation = All Risk + No Benefit.

Below are bullet points from a resolution opposing unilateral annexation adopted by the URJ this week, representing the official position of the Reform movement:

Annexation would have a deleterious impact on the Palestinian people. Annexation may place yet more Palestinians under direct Israeli control while denying them full citizenship rights.  Israel's moral standing depends on its commitment to ensuring that Palestinians do not live as second-class citizens without the full democratic rights its Jewish citizens enjoy.

Annexation is seen by Palestinians as Israeli repudiation of the two-state solution. As the diplomatic path closes, frustration and despair within the Palestinian community will lead many to abandon faith in the diplomatic approach toward securing their rights, likely enhancing the status of Hamas and other extremist groups who argue that only unilateral Palestinian steps, including the use of violence, can lead to a viable Palestinian state. At the same time, calls will increase for a "one-state solution," which will negate the continuation of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Annexation creates significant diplomatic risks for Israel. It risks making Israel a pariah in growing segments of the international community. Annexation also risks undercutting the improved relations between Israel and some of the Arab nations in the region, as evidenced in an unprecedented op-ed by the Emirates' ambassador to the U.S. in one of Israel's leading newspapers.

Annexation would also provide fodder for those who advocate for Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) toward Israel. In North America, Zionist college students, as well as Israel's most zealous supporters among members of the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament, will find themselves besieged by BDS activists, having to defend what many will view as an indefensible policy.

Annexation jeopardizes Israel's security. Throughout nearly three decades, cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces has thwarted hundreds of terrorist attacks and made life in Israel safer. In recent years, cooperation has been strained by lack of progress on the peace process, deteriorating trust, and frozen funding. The result has been increased strain on Israeli security. Annexation would significantly weaken the PA, reducing or even ending security cooperation and further stressing Israeli security forces. Israel will be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, not less. As the "Commanders for Israel's Security," a highly respected NGO of former key military and intelligence leaders, has observed:

"Palestinian security officers and troops, along with their relatives and social circles, must have a sense that their work serves the Palestinian national interest and is not solely an act of collaboration with the occupation...It is impossible to state for certain...the point at which Israel's unilateral steps, lead to the termination of security coordination by the PA or its collapse."

Annexation jeopardizes North American strategic interests and political support for Israel. Annexation could undermine Israel's decades long peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt and inflame the majority Palestinian population in Jordan, leading to greater regional instability. Such pressures could also undercut the willingness of Gulf States to continue improving ties and strategic cooperation with Israel. All of these shifts would undermine U.S. and Canadian strategic interests in the region, leaving them less effective in ensuring Israel's well-being and further weakening the U.S.'s and Canada's ability to be a power-broker in the volatile region.

Over time, North American political support for Israel would likely be weakened. We are already seeing shifts toward greater sympathy for the Palestinians among pro-Israel supporters, including younger evangelicals.

The bipartisan and cross-party support that Israel has enjoyed for decades in the United States and Canada would be damaged by divisions over Israel's annexation policy. This shift could seriously jeopardize the eight-decade partnerships between the United States and Israel and Canada and Israel, which have been founded on shared democratic values and shared security interests. Annexation will give ammunition to Israel's opponents in their efforts to restrict aid packages and Memoranda of Understanding so vital for Israeli security and well-being.

Annexation will deepen the divide between Israel and North American Jews. The overwhelming majority of North American Jewry remains committed to a peaceful two-state solution. We share that commitment and are deeply concerned by Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement that unilateral annexation would not include any commitment to the establishment of a future Palestinian state or to a resumption of the peace process; even President Trump's peace plan includes those commitments. The ties between Jews worldwide - particularly younger Jews - and the Jewish state are strained by two decades of policies that have dimmed the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expanded settlements, and rejected the full rights of the non-Orthodox streams in Israel. Because the deep, abiding passion of Zionism is rooted in the dream of Israel as embodied in the democratic values of the Declaration of Independence, the more Israel undercuts those values, the more damage it does to Klal Yisrael and to the urgent need of repairing relations between Israel and world Jewry.

As U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, one of Israel's most effective supporters on Capitol Hill, has said, "A directly negotiated two-state solution is a mainstream position and expressing concern about unilateral annexation isn't extreme at all. It's the position of most of the largest cross-section of the American Jewish community." 

We've Been Here Before

Somehow, we are entering territory that feels utterly familiar.  While African Americans often reference the year 1619 - and for good reason - as the period when their long American nightmare began, for Jews the reference point for our collective pain might be said to have been the mid 14th century, when the Black Death broke out.

Here's how the website of the Diaspora Museum describes it:

...The plague brought a completely different type of persecution. This was not just economic oppression, unfair taxation, or even marking Jews with a yellow or purple patch. This was real slaughter. The masses ignored Pope Clement VI's bull that the Jews were not to blame, King Carl IV of Germany's explicit policy and even the public statements of a significant number of European municipalities. A purely economic matter was at play here. Jewish property was perceived to belong to royalty or cities. Jews worked under licenses, trading, profiting and earning their daily bread in the only occupations permitted to them. Kingdoms and local authorities were thus empowered to announce when and where Jews could be killed, how their property would be divided and by whom.

But the masses did not obey. Extremist religious groups, local actions, a series of religiously, economically and socially based mass murders, and mainly unbridled hatred and fear of the Other ensued.

Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed. Jews in Basel were burned in a structure created solely for that purpose, walking distance from the casino in which the First Zionist Congress was held 550 years later. More than 1,000 Jews were killed on the night of Valentine's Day, and Jews were forbidden from living in the city for 100 years. A mass suicide of Jews took place in Frankfurt and the Jewish community of Erfurt was completely wiped out. Information regarding the location of a bounty of treasure, buried by the community's sponsors, was also erased when the plague began. That treasure was coincidentally discovered during an archaeological dig in 1998. Beit Hatfutsot's collection includes a wedding ring that was part of that treasure....

...Despite commonly held belief, we cannot say whether Jews died in greater or lesser numbers of the disease than they did of their neighbors. Many historians believe that halacha mandating hygiene practices like netilat yadayim (handwashing), quick burial of the dead, and tahara (ritual purity); and arvut hadadit, mutual responsibility among members of the community protected Jews - at least from death - by reducing the spread of disease. Halacha also contains strict rulings on isolation during an epidemic like "When there is an epidemic in the town keep your feet inside your house (Bava Kamma 60b.)" or the Halacha's command against double-dipping: "One should not bite off a piece [of bread] in front of his fellow and put it into the bowl of food from which he eats (Masechet Derech Eretz)."

Here is a mock-up front page from the Jewish history series, "Chronicles: News of the Past," which gives is a flavor of what it was like to be Jewish at that time:

Like our African American neighbors, we have experienced scapegoating and systemic oppression first hand.  While in the current scenario, Jews might be seen as being beneficiaries of "white privilege," and to a large extent that is true (read this excellent discussion of that question), our collective memory also places us in a position of great empathy with our neighbors.

For in fact, the same scapegoating against Jews that we experienced during the Black Death is still in play to this day with Covid-19.

But more to the point, any pandemic like this one is an incubator for hate.  People cooped up in their homes for months are just aching to assign blame.  And people who love to foment division and hate are churning out conspiracy theories by the day. And they are aiming their poison darts right at each of us.

So the next time you hear the hate machine whirring, remember that we've heard it all before.  

Shabbat Shalom and have a restful, safe summer!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman