#ComeTogether: Some thoughts from the AIPAC Policy Conference

The numbers are almost unreal. 

Over 18,000 pro-Israel activists from all 50 states (including over 4,000 students).  Thousands of members from 350 congregations and over 500 rabbis from around the country and across the denominational spectrum.  And KJ has over 200 participants in our community's delegation.

Wow!

These are impressive numbers.  Especially in a Jewish world that excels at not being able to come together.

Jews are good at disagreement.  We're good at asking questions. We're good at cheshbon ha-nefesh, self-examination and self-criticism.  We embrace machloket l'sheim shamayim - disagreeing for the sake of heaven.  We cannot and should not ignore the differences between left and right, Republican and Democrat, and the differences of denomination.  At the same time, we must remember that we are a people and a family.  What effects one, impacts all.

In a Jewish world where broad agreement and opportunities to come together are few and far between, AIPAC remains the place where common purpose can be found in ensuring a safe, secure Israel and a strong US-Israel relationship. 

AIPAC is one of the few places in the Jewish community that understands the power of a common cause and unified message, and it's not really even a Jewish organization.  It's all about Israel.

AIPAC is not perfect.  There are plenty of things you or I may want to see done differently.  But AIPAC gets a lot right in its commitment to strengthening Israel and its relationship with America.

In my first hours in Washington, this power of unified purpose even among diverse populations was on display in a number of examples.

1)  My first session was entitled "The Progressive Case for Israel" and was a panel consisting of a Democratic congressman, a Reform rabbi, a Labor Party Knesset member, and a campus activist.  Each came with an extensive resume of involvement in progressive issues like immigration, wage equality, LGBTQ inclusion, and pro-peace activism.  What they each also had in common was the declaration, "I am a Zionist!"

A little later, I attended a session entitled "Why the Next Generation of African American Elected Leaders Supports Israel."  I listened to several young African American elected officials describe the common cause their community has with the pro-Israel community.  In a room full of African American pro-Israel advocates, I have a common cause with a much broader community than I often realize. 

Where else do progressives gather together in common cause, with so many who disagree with that agenda?

2)  Natan Sharansky spoke at the Synagogue Delegation luncheon.  He is a hero of the Jewish people and shared his insights and reflections on issues impacting Israel and the Jewish community.

Here is a quote of Sharansky's that was read while introducing him:

"If anyone would have asked me in prison if I felt more solidarity with Labor or Likud, religious or secular, orthodox or Reform, I would have considered the question ridiculous...I was certainly aware of internecine rivalries and conflicts...but in prison these differences were meaningless..."

(To which I add: They really are meaningless even out of prison...)

"It was the connection I felt with all the people of Israel, with our mutual history and destiny that was the source of my strength."

(To which we all should respond: Amen!)

Let's try to move beyond the disagreements.  There's plenty of time the rest of the year to duke out our differences.  We dare not forget, however, that we have a common goal uniting us beneath the layers of disagreement.

3)  AIPAC makes a point every year about treating all speakers with respect as if they're guests in our home.

This year, in particular, the refrain is ever present and repeated more clearly and more often.

Some people may scoff or roll their eyes.  Why?  What's wrong with a little plug for Derech Eretz, for treating people with respect?  Our world seems to prioritize the loudest, most divisive voices.  Here at the AIPAC Policy Conference, it's actually refreshing to have a chance to rub shoulders with those with whom I disagree.  And it doesn't matter.  We're all here for a common cause.

That's really hard this year.

Much has been written and said about Donald Trump's appearance on Monday night at the AIPAC Policy Conference in a Washington, D.C.  

From the time AIPAC announced Trump would join Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich as presidential candidates addressing the convention, the reactions have been pouring in fast and furious.  Ron Kampeas summed up some of the ways to act: Walk in wearing stickers.  Stay out bearing placards.  Get up and walk out when Trump walks in.  Just don't go.  Go but don't clap.  Blame AIPAC.  Don't blame AIPAC. 

I'm sure it will be a typical Jewish gathering: Lots of everyone doing different things.

I get it.  Donald Trump is, putting it mildly, complicated.  It seems unbelievable that he is now the presumptive Republican nominee with a realistic chance to be the next President.

Donald Trump has said things that many consider outrageous, offensive, and even dangerous, and he is clearly not the conventional candidate.  There are many different opinions out there.  Jonathan Tobin offered one in Commentary Magazine:

"Leaving aside the fact that he is  clearly unprepared for the Oval Office, Trump's behavior has been offensive in a way that in a saner world than the one we're living in would have disqualified him for the presidency."

That might be an understatement. (Check out David Brooks' recent op-ed.)

What are we supposed to do in a case like this?

Well, we live in a democracy.  We should respond with our vote and our voice.

We should be frank and honest in our discussions about and criticism of Donald Trump and any other candidate.  There is no place in American public discourse for anti-Muslim statements or even the semblance of justifying hate speech or violence.

We should also take a deep breath and focus on what matters in this (or any) election: the issues and the policies and the strategies that candidates put forth. 

What do the candidates believe and what will they do?  Let's get them on the record.  At AIPAC Policy Conference, we'll hear from almost all of them on the subject of Israel.

Let's get the facts.  Let's focus on positions and strategies and not let any candidate off the hook with more media attention that doesn't provide the people with the truth.

Unfortunately, Trump's campaign, in particular, feeds on the media circus surrounding every controversial remark as well as those who oppose him.  As Allison Kaplan Sommer wrote in Ha'aretz:

"A circus atmosphere surrounding the Trump speech plays directly into the theatrical candidates’ hands.  Trump has shown that he is the master of turning opposition into a boomerang, and using it to fire up his supporters."

AIPAC is doing what it always does: striving to promote a strong US-Israel relationship.  It is not perfect, but it is consistent.  It is staying on message by inviting the candidates to go on the record with their attitudes towards Israel and how America should relate to the Jewish State. 

We may not want to hear from all the candidates who will be speaking - or we may want to hear from Bernie Sanders who declined the invitation.  Let's hear what Donald Trump has to say.  Let's hear from Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.  Let's hear all of their positions on Israel.  Let's hear how they plan to implement their vision.  Let them go on the record in front of an audience of 18,000 activists dedicated to a strong America and a secure Israel, and we'll find out whether they embrace the values of freedom, democracy, and opportunity for all that define both countries.  Maybe one or all will impress us beyond our expectations.

If you don't want to listen, don't.  Thank God, we live in a democracy.  Stay away.  Protest civilly.  Making a huge issue only gives more ammunition to those who divert the focus of the campaign away from the issues at hand.

Life, elections, and so much more are complicated.

We just began reading the book of Vayikra.  There is very little narrative in the third book of the Torah.  There are lots and lots of sacrifices, laws of the Kohein and the priestly service, and rules relating to holiness and purity.  Some may find it a little boring or irrelevant. 

Rabbi Berel Wein, a noted educator and rabbi now living in Jerusalem, teaches that Vayikra comes to remind us of our limitations.  The focus on the sacred which can't be fully understood underlines the fact that we cannot always fathom God's motives or rationalize the world.  We always want to be in control and take charge. The teachings of the third book of the Torah are meant to humble us. There is much that we are powerless to control.

Rather than despair at the state of the crazy world around us, let us commit to remain optimistic and appropriately engaged in pro-Israel activities, election year politics, and being good Jews and good people.

That's a platform worth supporting. 

Bernie Sanders and The Fonz

I would vote for this guy!

As I hope you are aware, this is a picture of Larry David, who has played Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live.  (It’s REALLY funny.  See here.)

I would never vote for Bernie Sanders for a whole bunch of reasons.  (I would never vote for lots of other past and current candidates this election season.)  It should not be ignored, however, that there is a Jewish candidate who is not doing half bad as a major party candidate.

How Jewish is Bernie Sanders?  A lot has been written and speculated.  He spent time on a Kibbutz.  He sounds really Jewish.  The latest news is that he will not attend the AIPAC Policy Conference.

Charles Krauthammer wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post last week about the Holocaust and Jewish identity.  In a recent Democratic debate, Anderson Copper asked Bernie Sanders about his Jewishness.  Sanders responded, “I am very proud to be Jewish.”  He then explained that the Holocaust had wiped out his father’s family and that he remembered as a child seeing neighbors with concentration camp numbers tattooed on their arms.  Being Jewish, he declared, “is an essential part of who I am as a human being.”

Krauthammer went on to analyze the three ways American Jews explain the role Judaism plays in their lives.

1.  Practice: Judaism as embedded in their life through religious practice or the transmission of Jewish culture by way of teaching or scholarship.

2.  Tikkun: Seeing Judaism as an expression of the prophetic ideal of social justice.

3.  The Holocaust.  It has become increasingly common for American Jews to locate their identity in the Holocaust.

Leaving presidential politics aside for a moment (I know it’s hard!), it is unfortunate when Jewish identity is shaped exclusively – or even primarily – by the Holocaust.  Obviously, the Holocaust has shaped Jewish life today, but it need not be the defining characteristic.

The Holocaust is evil, but, as much as we must remember it, we should not be dwelling on that evil.

Like The Fonz.

There was another article in the Washington Post recently.  It was about Henry Winkler (who played The Fonz on the hit show Happy Days) and how he still maintains and cares for the plant that his "aunt" brought with her when she escaped Germany in a coffin.  It is a fascinating and moving story.  

When Winkler left home, he took a few items with him – one of them was the plant.  He said, “I grew up with it, I heard the story, and I thought maybe it’s my responsibility to make sure it lives.”  When asked what the plant means to him, he responded, “Life, tenacity and will.”

These two stories stand out for me as contrasting.  They are both rooted in the Holocaust, in the worst evil the Jewish people has ever faced.  There are those who let this evil color everything else.  I get it, but there needs to be more.  We need to move beyond the past.  It informs who we are, but we can take a difficult past, cultivate it, and transform it into a glorious future.

As Jews, we live with our history constantly.  Will we get lost in the darkness of our struggles or will we rise to the occasion and recognize that Judaism gives us the opportunity – the privilege – to live meaningful, purposeful, lives while creating a brighter society?

I vote for the latter.

Fonz, what do you say?  Correctamundo!

Tefillin on Death Row & Happy Second Adar

Did you see this picture?

This is a picture of Rabbi Dovid Goldstein, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of West Houston, Texas, and Jedidiah Murphy, a death-row inmate in a West Livingston, Texas prison.  (Guess which one is which. J) 

The story was picked up in the Jewish press a few weeks ago, and there is longer story about this subject on Chabad’s website.  Rabbi Goldstein enabled Murphy, convicted for killing a 79-year-old woman, to lay tefillin for the first time.  It was not easy to arrange as state law prevents death row inmates from having direct contact with their visitors.  Goldstein provided the tefillin and a kippah for Murphy and instructed him through the glass.  Rabbi and prisoner celebrated the “Bar Mitzvah” with chips and soft drinks from the nearby vending machine.

(This was not Goldstein’s first time putting tefillin on a death-row inmate.  In 2013, he helped Douglas Feldman put on tefillin one week before being executed by lethal injection.  That time, he was allowed direct contact with the prisoner since the tefillin were considered part of his last rites.)

What can we take away from a story like this?

There are Jewish criminals…Chabad is dedicated to every single Jew…It’s never too late to perform a mitzvah…

I find myself thinking about how we approach second chances.  Murphy never had a Bar Mitzvah or a chance to act in a Jewish way.  It took a death-row encounter with a truly dedicated rabbi to create this mitzvah moment.  Often, we seek out second chances in moments of extremis.  We repent in time for Yom Kippur or we try to spend more time with someone after not spending time with them earlier.  As the saying goes, “Better late than never…”

Why can’t there be more opportunities to seize the moment?  How about more positively-induced second chances?  We could each benefit from proactively wanting to do all these good things because they are too good to miss out on, and we want to experience them again.

Do you remember this commercial?

A father and his daughter are sitting watching a sunset, and, as the sun sets, the dad says, “Going...going...going...gone!”  And then the girl says, “Do it again, Daddy!”  It is really cute.

There are so many things we should try to experience again because they are just so special and awesome that, heck, why not?  We don’t need to wait until the last minute – or when it is too late – to try and spend more time with our family or enjoy the beautiful weather or read that book or try that new experience.

Today, we are reminded of just such an opportunity.  It is Rosh Chodesh Adar Sheini (the second).  Adar is a happy month, and…guess what?  We have a second opportunity to be happy!  We had one happy month, and now we have another one.  We have a chance to grab the opportunity for a second consecutive month of joy.  Had enough?  No way!  Enjoy while we can.

We may not be able to make the sun set again, and we, most certainly, don’t want to need to be on death row to push us to perform a mitzvah.  For now, let us savor a second month of simcha and think about what other positive experiences - for religious and personal growth or spending time with family or just doing wonderful things – we can grab. 

Happy Adar once again!  Let’s enjoy it all while and when we can!