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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Somber Party 
Since Yom HaAtzma’ut, I’ve found myself wrestling with ambivalence, far beyond anything I’ve experienced before. I’ve posted the Yom HaAtzma’ut New York Times, Jerusalem Post and Haaretz editorials. Additionally, I’ve posted the open letter from journalist Ari Shavit to Prime Minister Netanyahu. I strongly recommend you read all of them. As Ethan Bronner pointed out in the NYT piece, regardless of one’s Israel politics, a dark cloud colors a normally festive party. All of the writers speak eloquently to the issues. I simply want to voice my own difficulties in coming to grips with core issues that challenge Israel and, by extension, challenge my deep bond with Israel, something which has been emotionally vital in my life since my childhood.

Pictures Tell Stories
Below you’ll see two photo montages of Jerusalem. The first one will probably look familiar. The images are of West Jerusalem. The overall “vibe” is celebratory: What an amazing city Jerusalem is! The second montage is depressing. Lots of East Jerusalem is depressing. We don’t usually see those pictures or read those stories. Most of don’t want to. Even surfing that neighborhood of the internet felt like a hostile neighborhood. Israel is cast as the aggressor. The articles feel deeply slanted. But the demolitions are not photo-shopped, and the debilitating cumulative effects of Israeli occupation cannot be airbrushed out.

A few years ago, I found myself confronting an irate Jewish Memphian who took great exception to my using the term “occupation” in an interview with a journalist from the Commercial Appeal. This supposedly radical usage of the term was long after the same word - OCCUPATION - was uttered by none other than Ariel Sharon. Nonetheless, I had the temerity to speak those words to the non-Jewish press, and that branded me as insufficiently patriotic. How painful that our tongues remain tied, how heartbreaking that we haven’t granted ourselves permission to communicate honestly. No matter how beautiful the fireworks, how stirring the folk-songs, how thrilling the military fly-overs, how electric the street scene... how long can we ignore the elephant in the room?

I will always remember the awesome power of experiencing Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzma’ut in Israel. Those sacred times transformed me. But none of that can minimize the painful truths alluded to by the writers of the editorials. The mood doesn’t lie; it can’t be masked any longer. Israel - and everyone who loves her - will have to meet the challenges head on, without berating President Obama, without demonizing his administration. That type of shop-worn theater has failed to move us forward. And the status quo cannot be sustained. We can't walk away from these issues - they are too important.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron

Mood Is Dark as Israel Marks 62nd Year as a Nation By ETHAN BRONNER

In its 62nd year, Israel is in a diplomatic, security and moral limbo

62, under a US cloud (April 18, Jerusalem Post)

19 Ari Shavit to Binyamin Netanyahu