Israel’s cultural contribution to Chanukah could be seen as limited to jelly-filled doughnuts and dreidels that indicate “A Great Miracle Happened Here” rather than “There”.  There are often-recurring issues indicating that the State has not hammered out the pure religious freedoms for which the Maccabees fought off Antiochus.  Progressive expressions of Judaism fend off theocratic religious parties, and how a Judeo-centric Nation guarantees absolute freedoms and access to other faiths and cultures is still a work-in-progress.

On Friday, December 21st, Rabbi Joel Oseran from the Jerusalem office of the World Union of Progressive Judaism will be with us to deliver the Rabbi Joseph Asher Memorial Lecture celebrating Israel’s upcoming 60th anniversary.  On the frontlines of wrangling with the Orthodox power-structure he is not naïve about Israel’s cultural biases.  As a tireless traveler to Central Europe, the Former Soviet Union, to both South and North America, he acknowledges the critical partnership that Israel has with the Diaspora to keep both partners honest and vibrant.  Rabbi Oseran will also speak the previous evening (Thursday, December 20) to our B’nai Tikvah Israel travelers on the accommodation of diverse Jewish cultures into the Israeli fabric, and he will welcome us to the World Union Offices in Jerusalem when we visit in July.

The State of Israel may still have a ways to go constitutionally and on paper when it comes to all the freedoms we champion in this country.  But de facto on the ground and in the charged air that they breathe every day, Israelis are engaged in the greatest experiment in cultural exchange, religious freedom, and diversity in modern times.  When we spin our dreidels and speak of the “Great Miracle That Happened There” at least as wondrous as the cruze of oil is the fuel that Israel has infused into the Jewish spirit.