Clergy Blog

My Zionist Statement At a Moment of Crisis for Israel

Rabbi Neil S. Cooper        March 8, 2023 / 15 Adar 5783

Dear Friends,

When Lori and I made Aliya at the end of August, we had great plans for the next chapter of our lives in Israel. Our plans, however, did not include the medical crisis we would confront shortly after our arrival. As many of you know, our lives became consumed by surgery and its aftermath. In response to this crisis, we needed a new outlook, a new perspective and new plans for the future. Along with the changes in our personal lives, Israel has undergone political changes which have also created a crisis.  Here too, I believe we need to confront this crisis, gain a new perspective on the situation, and plot a new course for Israel’s future.

The State of Israel began as the realization of a concept called Zionism. It was the great historian, Arthur Hertzberg, in his book, The Zionist Idea, who presented Zionism not as a singular or simplistic idea but as an idea with numerous facets and variations. Even before the State of Israel was established, Zionism meant different things to different thinkers, philosophers, and writers.  Their ideas, hopes and aspirations for the yet-to-be-established state, were rooted in very different religious, philosophical and political beliefs. I mention two of the earliest, most prominent and well-known Zionists.

Theodore Herzl, known as the father of modern Zionism, envisioned a new state which would provide a safe haven for all Jews living in the context of an antagonistic and hateful world. His Israel would be a State for the Jews.  Ahad HaAm, the most famous Jewish author of his time, viewed the possibility of a Jewish State as one infused spiritually and philosophically with Judaism. To him, Israel was less a state established exclusively as a haven for persecuted Jews and more a state infused with Jewish values and Jewish priorities. 

There is thus a tension between Herzl and Ahad HaAm, a divergence between those focused primarily on the physical safety of the Jewish people, and those focused on the spiritual message and meaning of Judaism, between the Jewish body and the Jewish soul. It is within this tension that my Zionism resides.  

Mine is a Zionism pre-occupied with both an unwavering concern for the safety and well-being of Jews and dedicated, as well, to the ideal of a society infused with and dedicated to Jewish values and priorities.  For me, Zionism is at once a political reality, a physical necessity, and a spiritual mandate. My Zionism exists in the dichotomy created by the interests of a Jewish majority and a concern for the needs of Israel’s minorities.  Mine is a Zionism which requires the ideas of both Herzl and Ahad HaAm.

When Israel’s majority loses sight of her minorities, the minorities become imperiled.  When those in power in Israel disregard the powerless, that society’s most vulnerable are endangered. When the basic Jewish values of caring for “the other”, of respecting the humanity, beliefs and opinions of all is devalued, defamed and delegitimized, the Jewish nature of the state is called into question.

Without a secure state of Israel, Jews remain imperiled. But a state without a vision for a just and equitable society for all betrays an foundational pillar of the State of Israel as articulated in its Declaration of Independence:

The State of Israel will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice, and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education, and culture…

The current government has been created as a coalition of extremist elements whose narrow lists of priorities and visions for Israel are neither nuanced, conciliatory or inclusive. They include funding for thousands within the ultra-Orthodox communities to continue their full-time study in Yeshivot, while avoiding conscription into the army. At the same time, they include the further delegitimization of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora and the imposition of steep fines and jail for those who might “dare” to pray in a “mixed” minyan at the kotel.

It is true. Terrorism against Jews continues. This violence must be stopped, terrorists disarmed, and future attacks unapologetically prevented. But what differentiates us from those who hate us is that we reject the dehumanization of any individual, even our enemies. We must reject formulas that see terrorism against Jews as justification for violence perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians.  Incendiary anti-Palestinian statements made by some of the current leaders in Israel, has already led to violence and terror perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians. This cannot continue.

Over the past nine weeks, the streets of Tel Aviv, as well as streets in most other major cities in Israel, have been filled with protesters. Explicitly, these protests, some of which attracting more than 200,000 people, are demonstrations against judicial reforms. The fact is that the protesters are not against the notion of judicial reform. They are against the particular nature of the reforms, to use American language, which invest the executive and legislative branches of government with the power to overrule the judiciary. As such, the notion of “checks and balances”, has been seriously undermined. And without “checks and balances” democracy itself is threatened.  But the issue of judicial reform is but one of many issues which have created the current crisis.

Although there is a great deal of agreement about the nature and causes of the current crisis among my friends and colleagues, both here and in Israel, there is less agreement regarding how to respond, especially here in the US.  Some of my colleagues, who occupy prominent congregations, have informed their communities, in heartfelt and sorrowful tones, how they have lost faith in Israel.  Some have refused to continue reciting the Prayer for Israel.  Others have used their pulpits for their scathing critiques.

As a new “oleh” and Israeli citizen, I feel now empowered to freely criticize Israel.  But I feel, as well, as an Israeli, the pain and damage created by the wrong types of criticism.  How then to respond?

Say the “Prayer for Israel”.  That prayer is, to be sure, aspirational, a prayerful hope for a more ideal Israeli society.  But that prayer is more.  It is a prayer recited by us, inside and outside of Israel, as a moment of solidarity and Jewish unity, expressing our joint sense of investment in Israel.  To stop saying that prayer would signal detachment from Israel.  A moment of crisis is no time to disown or divest. Israel needs to hear our unified voices.

Hold Israel Accountable.  We cannot be silent nor can we ignore the ongoing insults to the Conservative and/or Reform Movements leveled against us by members of the current coalition.  We cannot remain apathetic when the LBGTQ+ community is denigrated.  We cannot welcome into our communities and/or Israel-connected organizations individuals whose words and messages have been so hurtful, whose attacks on our Zionism have been so devastating.  We should make known that we cannot continue to support Israel-connected organizations unless the government of Israel hears and listens to the voices of dissent coming from nearly every corner of the Jewish Community.

Be a proud Zionist.  Zionism is not a matter of partisanship. It is a matter of support for an idea.  For me, that idea has been forged not by current elected leaders but by my affection for Theodore Herzl and Ahad HaAm.  And I will not allow a transient coalition to extract the idea of Zionism from my soul.

B’Shalom,

Neil S. Cooper                                                                                                               
Rabbi Emeritus