Israel at 60

Our congregation will celebrate Israel’s remarkable statehood in three ways.  With thanks to Carla Kiesler and her committee, “Passport to Israel” was a festive tribute linking American Jewish vitality to a deep pride in Israel’s accomplishments.  Our Book Group will explore the State of Israel’s tumultuous origins in the Collins-Lapierre classic, O Jerusalem, (discussion Sunday, June 8th, 3 pm.)  Our Temple trip in July will put us in touch with a living, breathing, embattled, and self-conflicted reality.  So we try to combine our hearts, our minds, and our feet to a drama of immense Jewish and geo-political consequences.

The constant quest for peace and justice for Israel, the Palestinians, and the Middle East will require our continued emotional, mental, and tangible engagement.  We will have to wrestle with criticism from those who doubt Israel’s intentions, with those who mythologize Israel’s apocalyptic symbolism, and with those who deny Israel’s moral and political legitimacy; and we will have to challenge the American Jewish apathy that would rather not enter the fray altogether.

California Jews are more likely to be conversant in the 50-year drama of Giants and Dodgers on the playing field than they are in the 60-year drama of Labor and Likud, Settlers and Progressives, Israelis and Palestinians, West and East Jerusalem.  The stakes, admittedly, are much higher than any baseball salary or season, and the complexities are more entangled than any steroid scandal; but so much depends on the mutual recognition and appreciation of Arab and Jew where either both are winners or both are tragic losers.

At birthdays we are accustomed to wish “To 120!”  To continue for the next 60 years, Israel will require more than well-wishes; it will require the hearts, minds, and the foot-traffic of all those who want to pursue peace in the real world and not just stand on the side-lines.