April 2022

Reading Megillat Ha’atzmaut at the Egalitarian Kotel

Sunday May 1^st

11:30am ET/ 8:30am PT

Every year between Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut, the World Zionist Organization holds a festive event of reading Megillat Ha’atzmaut at the Egalitarian Kotel. They broadcast it live in different languages to the whole Jewish world. This is their way to celebrate Israel’s independence and it strengthen our sense of Jewish peoplehood in Israel and abroad.

Register here

Running in Their Memory

Tuesday May 3^rd

10:30am ET/ 7:30am PT

The WZO Department of Irgoon and Connection with Israelis Abroad in collaboration with the “Derech Haraglaim” NGO

“Running in their Memory” is a unique commemorative venture.

This is an event where at one o’clock at the end of Remembrance Day, we will all set out to paint the streets blue and white for the memory of the fallen.In the “Running in their Honor” event, there is no music or a launch film, nor are times measured and there are no winners or losers.  This is an event that everyone participates in with one national intention – to remember the fallen.

Register here

MASA Yom HaZikaron Memorial Ceremony “These are Our Stories”(In English)

Tuesday May 3^rd

1:00pm ET/ 10:00am PT

Join for the annual Masa Yom HaZikaron Memorial Ceremony. On the eve of Yom HaZikaron, we will commemorate IDF soldiers and victims of terror at the largest virtual ceremony for the Jewish world. For Israelis, this day is one of the most important of the year as we recognize those who sacrificed their lives for Israel.

Watch live on Facebook

Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Ceremony

Tuesday May 3^rd

1:30pm ET/ 10:30am PT

The Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony will be live broadcast on May 3, 2022. The

Ceremony is hosted by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle–Families Forum! Featuring presentations by Israeli and Palestinian artists and speakers, this year’s event is sure to inspire.

Register here

Halev Od Sham- The Ceremony

Embracing Israeli families of the fallen living in the diaspora

Tuesday May 3^rd  3:30pm ET/ 12:30pm PT

The WZO Department of Irgoon and Connection with Israelis Abroad in collaboration with the Petah Tikvah Municipality invite you to the Yom HaZikaron ceremony for Israeli communities around the world.

Register here

Commemorating Israel’s Fallen – A North American Reform Movement Yom HaZikaron Ceremony

Tuesday May 3^rd

8:00pm ET/ 5:00pm PT

Join us as we mark Yom HaZikaron / Israeli Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Terror. Yom HaZikaron is the national Remembrance Day observed in Israel for all Israeli military personnel who lost their lives in the struggle that led to the establishment of the State of Israel and for those who have been killed subsequently while on active duty in Israel’s armed forces.

Join the Reform Movement in North America as we come together in prayer and song with Israeli Reform Israeli musician Shimon Smith and Rabbi Josh Weinberg to mark this moment and remember all those who gave their life in service of the State of Israel.

Register here

Celebrate Yom Haatzmaut with the IMPJ

Thursday May 5^th

1pm ET/ 10am PT

Join the IMPJ and partner organizations in celebrating Yom Haatzmaoot – Israel’s Independence Day.

Register here

Friday April 29, 2022 – כ״ח נִיסָן תשפ״ב

Over coffee at a Jerusalem café more than a decade ago a well-known rabbi, writer, and academic, turned to me and said “Y’know, the problem with the young generation today is that they just don’t know what it was like to have been through the Holocaust, and don’t remember the fear leading up to the Six-Day War. That’s why it’s hard for these young North American students to connect with Israelis, as so much of our consciousness here comes with the underlying memory and pervasive mentality of the Shoah. And, if that’s not enough, every aspect of life here was somehow affected by the Six-Day War.”

“But, is that really what we want?” I asked. “Do we want our young people to feel the Holocaust and the perpetual existential fears? Wasn’t Israel created so that we wouldn’t have to feel like victims; so that one day we wouldn’t live with constant existential fear? Shouldn’t we be glad that the young generation has grown up in a world that was far enough removed from the Shoah that they only know about it from history, and with an Israel that appears to them more of a Goliath than a David?”

While one generation idolized Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan in the movie adaptation of  Leon Uris’ Exodus, Today’s generation has grown up on images of Israel from the stories of “Fauda” or “Our Boys,” in which Israel and Israelis are painted in a still heroic, but much more complex and fallible light.

So, no! They don’t remember despite our constant reminders, haranguing, and guilt-tripping. And even though a relatively high percentage of people remember the Holocaust as important for Jewish identity[1], playing the victim is not going to work if we want young Jews – both Diaspora and Israeli – to feel connected to and a sense of identification with Israel, Zionism, and Jewish Peoplehood – despite reports of record-high American antisemitism this year.

This discussion is playing out this week. Yesterday we commemorated Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and next week we remember Israel’s fallen on Yom HaZikaron and celebrate its 74 years of independence on Yom HaAtzmaut.

This Shabbat, between Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzmaut has been designated as a “special” Shabbat coined “Shabbat Tekumah” – “The Shabbat of Revival.” This “revival” represents the dramatic turn from the tragedy of the Holocaust to the realization of the dream of a Jewish state echoing the ancient paradigm of disaster to renewal thus creating meaningful national and theological moments as we mark modern events.

Israeli Reform Rabbi Mordechai Rotem suggests that these seven days between Yom HaShoah and Yom Haatzmaut be juxtaposed with the ten days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur thus serving a similar purpose to the Yamim HaNoraim that we call“Shivat Yemai Teudah,” (“Seven Days of Bearing Witness.”) He explains:

“During the Seven Days of Bearing Witness the nation of Israel needs to, as a community, examine themselves, check from year to year how much they are succeeding in fulfilling the destiny that has fallen to them, their mission, the legacy of death of the Holocaust, and the legacy of life of Independence Day…[in which]the nation of Israel engages in introspection and self-reflection about how they are measuring up to this destiny that stands before them: to build the future of the nation of Israel. These Seven Days of Bearing Witness need to apply both to the individual and, especially, to society and its institutions, the public institutions..”

This week is our opportunity to reflect on a collective and national level undergoing a collective Heshbon HaNefesh. That said, I want to state without hesitation that the State of Israel is a tremendous success story.

Most remarkable – beyond the building of a physical infrastructure and technological, agricultural, and scientific innovations – is the creation of a modern Jewish public culture that reinvented a New Jew and a New Judaism that lives in Jewish time, space, and according to Jewish values. This is at the core of my Zionism.

As Zionists, we largely cling to the teaching of Pirkei Avot 3:1:

“דַּע מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ”

“Know from where you come, and where you are going…”

In order to appreciate the magnitude of Israel today, one must pay homage to the struggles and sufferings of yesterday. We are a people who remember, and our future is deeply informed by our past. Our modern and ancient calendars mandate us to remember our story before we can celebrate. We understand our place in history along a spectrum of past, present, and future, which provides context, nuance, and complexity in approaching our current reality.

However, that is not the view one hears today in many progressive circles. The celebration and accolades of the Jewish State’s successes and accomplishments are sullied by Israel’s 55-year military rule over territory conquered in 1967. Many in the liberal and far-left camp standardized the term “apartheid” to describe the situation in the West Bank, and often label anyone who offers legitimate criticism and counterarguments as an apartheid-sympathizer. In its 74 years, Israel has become the 3^rd rail, taboo, and the litmus test determinant of one’s progressive/leftist bona fides.

There are those who now say that there is no nuance, and really very little complexity at all. Israel should be seen in black and white, good vs evil. Calls for context, nuance, and complexity are fig leaves and subtle attempts to mollify those who raise their voices against injustices. Connecting the Holocaust with Israeli independence is an attempt to remind the world of what was done to us, thereby obfuscating the harsh reality under which Palestinians live in the West Bank and perpetuating our status as victims in order to not be branded as victimizers.

This is a brutal and harsh criticism that leaves no room for retort or rational discourse.

As a progressive Zionist, allow me to suggest the following:

1. The State of Israel was not a “consolation prize” given by the U.N. and the international community to the Jewish people out of sympathy after being the victim of genocide and the worst crime against humanity in modern history. This characterization of the Jewish State ignores the ancient connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and the modern Zionist enterprise that sought to return an exiled and oppressed people to our ancestral homeland. Israel’s Declaration of Independence states:

“The Nazi Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the urgency of the reestablishment of the Jewish state, which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gate to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.”

2. National self-determination is a recognized human right. Sadly, Israel has had to invoke this right to justify its claims to statehood. No other nation has to remind the world of this basic right. It behooves us all to recognize that just as we Jews have an undeniable right to national self-determination, so do the Palestinians.
3. The Palestinians are not “paying for the Holocaust,” as many contend. It is not the case that the world granted the Jews a state because it felt overriding guilt and sympathy. Serious scholars concur that politics, not morality, motivated support for the Jewish state’s creation. In the establishment of Israel, guilt and sympathy played a minor role, if at all. Israeli leaders evoke the Holocaust, however, when it comes to Israel’s security. We still have survivors among us and eight decades later we’re still reeling from the collective trauma of this event. Furthermore, the world does not really take seriously the despotic leaders, such as the Iranians, who openly threaten to annihilate the Jewish State.
4. If we play the ‘Holocaust card,’ we have a moral obligation to invoke our own suffering for universal purposes. Israel is rightly joining the cause in support of Ukrainian refugees, but should also be an international voice advocating on behalf of stateless nations and victims of persecution the world round – including the Palestinians.
5. If Israel looked to the world to be admitted in 1948 to the “family of nations” it, along with world Jewry, should advocate for others to join as well.

What do the Palestinians want? Far be it for me to opine on this question, as I do not speak for them and that question is as arbitrary and meaningless as asking “What do Jews Want?” However, polling shows that Palestinians remain split on whether a successfully negotiated two-state solution should “end the conflict with Israel and open up a new chapter in Palestinian history” or, in contrast, whether the conflict “should not end, and resistance should continue until all of historic Palestine is liberated.”
Sadly, Palestinian West Bank support for peace following a negotiated two-state solution has dwindled steeply since 2018. As of 2020, 40 percent of Gazans and 26 percent of West Bank Palestinians believe that a negotiated two-state solution should end the conflict.

What do we learn from Independence?

We Jews have agency and can control our fate and destiny, that we can create a revived culture, make the desert bloom, and be a light unto the nations. We learn that our ancient religion can be relevant and inspiring in a modern and contemporary way, and through our own national story, we can make the world a better place. Israel can and should take this moment to look in the mirror and face the inconvenient truths that are holding it back.

As North American Jews, we can take this opportunity to celebrate and learn,.to celebrate a place where our religious holidays are national holidays; where Hebrew is a basic part of daily life; and where Jews reinvent what it means to be Jewish on a national scale. As we, in North America imagine and envision what it means to be Jewish in an increasingly individualistic, diverse, and universalist society, Israel offers us examples to connect with Jewish life, culture, tradition, and wisdom, and to struggle with the moral and ethical dilemmas that come with sovereignty.

Thinking about the lament of one generation towards another leads to bigger questions. No, this generation does not know what it was like to go through the Holocaust and is growing up with much less of a sense of collective trauma. Can they empathize with those who have and can those who live with trauma acknowledge the suffering and the experience of others?  As we prepare to bow our heads in mourning for the high price so many paid for us to have a Jewish State, let us exalt their memories and offer our gratitude for their ultimate sacrifice, and make room in our hearts and minds to apply the lessons of that sacrifice, of strength and security, of imagination and dreaming, of empathy and care for the other.

And let us celebrate everything that has been created and forge on to create the next chapter.

Shabbat Tekumah Shalom!

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-identity-and-belief/

Thursday April 14, 2022 – י״ג נִיסָן תשפ״ב

How can we use this moment to come together around a shared destiny, a common mission to shape our future as rooted in our own freedom and in achieving freedom for others?

1. What does it mean to be “Free”?

The Pesach story is centered around freedom. Our narrative teaches that as a people we went from slavery to redemption. This year, let us ask: what is the true meaning of being free? Was it enough just to be released from captivity, or did something beyond that need to happen?

In beginning to respond to this first question, let us consider the writings of Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997 – a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas) who sees freedom as individualistic:

Israel “restored to Jews not merely their personal dignity and status as human beings, but what is vastly more important, their right to choose as individuals how they shall live—the basic freedom of choice, the right to live or perish, go to the good or the bad in one’s own way, without which life is a form of slavery, as it has been, indeed, for the Jewish community for almost two thousand years. . . .”

Let us also consider the teaching of Rabbi Shlomo Fox who sees freedom as a collective and entailing obligation:

“The real “freedom” is the ‘going out from…’ and not the ‘entering into….’ Entering the Land of Israel is a serious project that brings responsibility and serves as a test for how we shall act and if we will be worthy of settling the Land, a Land about which it is said “It is a Land which your God יהוה looks after, on which your God יהוה always keeps an eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end.” (Deuteronomy 11:12)

The Exodus from Egypt was the beginning of our national freedom but that freedom was incomplete until we reached Mt. Sinai where we received Torah about which we say that “there [are] no free [people] except [those] that involve themselves in Torah learning.” (Avot 6:2) Our physical freedom is complimented only by our spiritual freedom, and receiving Torah is in fact the reason for being free.”

2. Do we have a shared destiny or just a shared fate?

“בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים”
(משנה פסחים י:ה)

“In every generation, each person is obligated to regard oneself as though he/she/they personally had gone forth from Egypt.” (Mishnah Pesachim 10:5)

The holiday of Pesach centers on the most formative moment in our collective history – when we left Egypt. Some argue that this collective experience – that we were all slaves in Egypt – is what makes us Jewish. It doesn’t matter what kind of a Jew we are – Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Persian, Italian, JoC, Israeli, American, etc… we all were slaves. That is our common lived experience, our collective memory, our fate, and our shared covenant beginning at Mt. Sinai, as according to the famous teaching of Rav Joseph Soloveitchik that our Covenant of Fate refers to our shared past (often negative), and the Covenant of  Destiny refers to a shared future based on Torah and Mitzvot.

But question #2 asks whether it is enough only to be a people of fate. Is it enough to define our identity and live our lives based on what happened to us only in the past, or by what others did to us once upon a time?

We were slaves in Egypt and we were at Sinai. We were slaves, and now we are free. As a Jewish community, today we have strength, affluence, and power. We are sovereign in the Land of Israel, our national Homeland, and most of us in the world are free.

How can we use this moment to work towards a common goal and a shared path forward? How can we create our national identity based on our past lived experiences and the values given at Sinai?

“The mission of the State of Israel is neither to terminate the unique isolation of the Jewish people nor abrogate its unique fate—in this, it will not succeed! Rather, the mission is to elevate a Camp-people to the rank of a holy Congregation-nation, transforming shared fate to shared destiny. . . .”

-Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik Kol Dodi Dofek, Listen! My Beloved Knocks (1956)

How can we use this moment to come together around a shared destiny, a common mission to shape our future as rooted in our own freedom and in achieving freedom for others?

As we sit around our Pesach seders, let us consider what our common and joint mission should realistically be?

3. Dayenu – Enough is Enough – What Will Cause You to Act?

The popular refrain from the Pesach Haggadah is that it was “דיינו” – “enough for us” just to have been taken out of Egypt. “Enough” to receive the Torah, to be given Shabbat, and to be taken to the Land of Israel.

When is “Enough” not enough?  Is each step really enough if it had not been followed by the subsequent steps? What, then, is our responsibility to add our own effort to the work of shaping our people’s freedom and future?

As Reform and Progressive Jews, we are often told that we shouldn’t ruffle the feathers too much or push the envelope to alter the status quo. We should accept that Orthodox Judaism is the accepted practice of Judaism in the Jewish State, and only when millions of Reform Jews come on Aliyah (immigrate and become Israeli citizens), then we can talk about change.

The Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs, Yamina Party member Matan Kahane, has been making significant reforms to the official state-sanctioned religious authorities over Kashrut certification and conversion courts. Unfortunately, he sees Israel as an Orthodox state and not a culturally Jewish State for Klal Yisrael inclusive of the entirety of the Jewish people beyond our specific identity with a religious stream.

“…‘The state of Israel, in principle, is an Orthodox state,’ Minister Kahane said in an interview ahead of a meeting with North American leaders of the Orthodox Union. ‘At the same time, Israel is a place that respects the rights of all minority groups.’…”

North American Orthodox rabbis misunderstand that Israel as Jewish State embracing all Jews is first and foremost a democracy that should not acquiesce to the ‘frummest common denominator.’

What does that mean for us? We understand that the Pesach story describes our people as rising up against the Pharoah who refused to acknowledge the rights of others. So too today must we also rise up. That means raising our voices and flexing the strength of our Reform Zionist Movement from North America in league with our Israeli Reform and Progressive movement.

4. What Do We Teach Our Children?

It is fascinating that even before the Exodus from Egypt, we were given the directive to recall this yet-to-happen story and pass it on to our children. On the first day of Pesach, we read:

“וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם׃ ” (שמות יג:ח)

“And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what יהוה did for me when I went free from Egypt.’” (Exodus 13:8).

What exactly are we to teach our children?

Do we tell all the gory details, or censure some of our story? How can we be proud of our story while also acknowledging that we have not always acted in an exemplary manner?  How can we teach our children to listen to our story, to root it as their own, and have it serve as the foundation of our identity? At the same time, how can we teach our children to listen to the plight of the Other – those who yearn to be free just as we yearned to shake off the shackles of bondage? Hearing our story is not enough. We must use our story to hear the stories of others as well. Renowned educator and Israeli cultural icon Muki Tzur (b. 1938) shared the following reflection:

“Our feelings are mixed. We swore never to return to the Europe of the Holocaust, yet we refuse to lose that Jewish sense of identifying with victims. We, perhaps, are the ultimate contrast to the ghetto Jew, who witnessed the slaughter, felt utterly helpless, heard the cries, yet could only rebel at heart while dreaming about gaining the strength to react, to strike back, to fight. We actually do react, strike back, fight, for we have no choice—while dreaming of being able to stop one day and live in peace.”

How can we teach our children to internalize complexity while taking pride in our story? How can we teach them to be each of the 4 children – the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who does not know to ask? And how can we, as parents, learn to accept them for who they are while challenging them to become the best versions of themselves? How can we teach them that there is something inherently unique and special about being Jewish; that they have been given a gift to cherish; that they should use it as a guide for their lives; and that the more they turn it and explore it, the more they will find? How can we teach our children that sometimes we have to do things that we don’t like and make difficult choices, but that we must always err on the side of morality?

How can we teach them that they are part of a people, with a rich history and culture and that they are responsible for writing the next chapter?

This year, I invite you to consider these four questions and add your own responses!

For more Zionist texts to use at your Seder click here!

חג פסח שמח ושבת שלום!

Friday April 8, 2022 – ז׳ נִיסָן תשפ״ב

When you tell the story of your family to your children, or even to guests coming to your home, where do you begin?

We Jews choose this moment to tell our story – the story at the heart of the Haggadah – the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. During the retelling of this story, we say the words, “אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי” (Arami oved avi). This phrase is often translated as “My father was a wandering Aramean,” and other times as “An Aramean sought to destroy my father.” Somewhere between the two translations lies the essence of the Jewish experience: we were a rootless people who fled persecution time and time again.

We are refugees descended from refugees; and on Pesach, we tell the story of how we as refugees sought a safe haven and a chance to reinvent as a free people in our Land.

There have never been more displaced people in the world than there are today. In 2021, more than 84 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. That was an increase of 1.6 million people from the previous year, and the world’s forcibly displaced population remains at a record high. This includes:

• 6 million refugees in the world—the highest ever;
• 9 million internally displaced people; and
• 4 million asylum-seekers.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there have been more than 4.2 million refugees who left Ukraine (as of 4 April 2022), while an estimated 6.5 million people have been displaced within the country.

Since the fighting broke out between Ukraine and Russia, it became clear that thousands of Ukrainian Jews – and their family members – would be seeking refuge in Israel. This influx of refugees, many of whom are eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return, awoke the old debate about what Israel should do.  The question was whether Israel should open its borders wide for the Ukrainian masses looking for shelter and a new home?

For some of us, this is a no-brainer. Yet, naysayers wondered where all these people would live, how Israel could absorb so many people so quickly, and whether it was safe to allow so many unknown people into the country?

The naysayers quickly lost their debate as the majority recognized that the Jewish State was, in fact, created to shelter fleeing Jews. Israel as a place of refuge for fleeing Jews is firmly established in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, its laws, and the very character of the State. More importantly, opening its borders to fleeing Jews is a fundamental value of Zionism.  Accepting fleeing Jews was relatively uncontroversial. Those who came by virtue of their being Jewish, having at least one Jewish parent or grandparent, or having a Jewish spouse, automatically qualified for Israeli citizenship upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. For those that made it in, it was certainly no cakewalk (as Rabbi Eric Yoffie outlines here). The real issue came with the influx of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees fleeing violence.

They were not as fortunate.

Of the more than 20,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in Israel since the war began last month, nearly 11,000 do not meet the citizenship threshold. Even though most have relatives or friends in Israel, they are considered refugees, not immigrants, and therefore subject to stricter rules.

This influx has ignited an emotional debate over what it means to be a Jewish state, pitting the national imperative to maintain Israel’s Jewish majority against the imperative to maintain Israel’s Jewish character and values that demand caring for those in need.

For instance, the firebrand right-wing lawmaker MK Betzalel Smotrich argued that this will “flood the country with gentiles,” while Labor Party Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai emphatically argued that this moment calls for us to focus on “the values of the State of Israel because without them this is not a Jewish state.”

He is not alone. Nahman Syrkin (1868-1924), a Hebrew writer and one of the founders of Labor Zionism, wrote:

“The Jews were historically the nation which caused division and strife, it will now become the most revolutionary of all nations. From the humblest and most oppressed of all peoples, it will be transformed into the proudest and greatest. The Jews will derive their moral stature from their travail and out of the pain of their existence will come to a pattern of noble living. The Jew is small, ugly, servile, and debased when he forgets and denies his character. He becomes distinguished and beautiful in the moral and social realms when he returns to his true nature.”

But – is there a limit? And are Ukrainian refugees different from, say, Eritrean refugees fleeing oppression and persecution? While most Ukrainian refugees were processed and given refugee status almost immediately, we know of tens of thousands of cases of those fleeing from Eritrea and Sudan who were not afforded the opportunity to go through a Refugee Status Determination process. While they were not sent back to their countries (because Israeli officials were aware that that would be an almost certain death sentence), they were also not given status, and many were contained in detention centers in the desert.

The prophet Isaiah forewarned such a situation. In chapter 21 he offers a direct and poignant framing for how we should act towards those seeking refuge:

 לִקְרַ֥את צָמֵ֖א הֵתָ֣יוּ מָ֑יִם יֹשְׁבֵי֙ אֶ֣רֶץ תֵּימָ֔א בְּלַחְמ֖וֹ קִדְּמ֥וּ נֹדֵֽד׃ (טו) כִּֽי־מִפְּנֵ֥י חֲרָב֖וֹת נָדָ֑דוּ מִפְּנֵ֣י ׀ חֶ֣רֶב נְטוּשָׁ֗ה וּמִפְּנֵי֙ קֶ֣שֶׁת דְּרוּכָ֔ה וּמִפְּנֵ֖י כֹּ֥בֶד מִלְחָמָֽה׃ (ישעיהו כ״א:י״ד-ט״ו)

“Meet the thirsty with water, You who dwell in the land of Tema; greet the fugitive with bread. For they have fled before swords: before the whetted sword, before the bow that was drawn, before the stress of war.”(Isaiah 21:14-15)

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz echoes the call of Isaiah. In a recent op-ed this week, Horowitz calls out all those who oppose fair treatment for Ukrainian refugees:

“Even if we were not a country founded by and for refugees, we would still have a moral obligation to extend a helping hand to those fleeing war. Unfortunately, there are some who are placing shameful obstacles before the few who are already knocking at our gates after escaping the Russian war machine but simply were not born into the right religion.

One can only imagine the heartbreak, distress, and difficulties of adjustment of people who do not speak the language here, who have left all their lives and property behind, and in some cases family as well. There is one issue that we must respond to immediately: the physical and mental health of those who have arrived in Israel. Simply put: The State of Israel must provide medical insurance to every refugee – parents, children, and the elderly. That is not a gift or a “favor.” It is a basic, unconditional human right.”

It is not enough just to let refugees in. We must provide them with the ability for a life with dignity. As a result of war, refugees are also weaponized as they deplete the resources of neighboring countries. However, as Minister Horowitz argues, the cost of not providing care in time will only grow in terms of health as well as morally and even financially. This is neither just nor wise.

Ukrainian refugees are not a demographic time bomb threatening Israel’s Jewish fabric. The only thing threatening the Jewish character of the State is the failure to act. We must provide what we can and reject no one – certainly not war refugees whose world has collapsed around them.

It may be hard for us, who by and large sit comfortably in North America, to identify with this. This is why the Haggadah reminds us that we must “see ourselves as if we [personally] left Egypt.”  As we spend the next week preparing to retell our story, let us all make sure that the next generation will be able to tell the story of how we came to the aid of those in need.

Shabbat Shalom.