Update from Rabbi Ashira Konigsburg:
Today began with everyone informally checking in about how we all fared in last night's siren. People seemed to fare okay, though we know that one siren hardly compares to what residents of the South have experienced and were experiencing today. All throughout the day, alarms were going off in communities in the South. Even by standards from earlier in the month, a particularly high number of rockets were launched today.
Our formal program began with Dr. Yehuda Bauer speaking over breakfast about "Anti-Semitism today." He explained that statistics about the number of attacks are misleading as they don't reflect the root cause or the degree. There are three elements that make up Anti-Semitic Europe:
- Extreme right wing nationalist groups.
- Second and third generation Muslim immigrants who are discriminated against and disadvantaged and resent Jews for being a successful minority.
- Liberal intellectual Anti-Semitism. This is the most dangerous of the three (in Europe), and manifests in intellectual circles and in the media.
Bauer said that we should be most concerned about fundamentalist Muslim Anti-Semitism which has extremely vicious ideology and he warned that the world should pay more serious attention to this. Much more was said than I can go into in this update. It was a facinating talk.
We then headed to the Supreme Court where we met with Justice Hanan Melcer. He gave background on the Israeli Supreme Court and what makes it unique. One uniqueness is that it hears cases from the occupied territories. One such petition, being considered tomorrow, is about whether "Tzuk Eitan" should be considered an operation or a war and he proceeded to explain the implication of the results.
We then headed to Kehilat Moreshet Yisrael and heard from Natan Sharansky. Sharansky spoke about the Jewish Agency's efforts to aid the South during the war, and told us that no one who was scheduled to make aliyah cancelled as a result of the war. At the end of his talk, Steve Wernick thanked him for his leadership which has benefited the Conservative movement.
Our next speaker was Prof. Asa Kasher, author of the IDF Code of Ethics. Kasher spoke about the purpose of codes of ethics: alleiviating the calamaties of war. This is done in two important ways:
- By making a distinction between combatants and non combatants.
- Evaluating the proportionality of a response. This is often misunderstood, as it is not about comparing numbers of deaths on both sides. Proportionality is decided by the military commander as s/he is in the best position to judge the right course of action after weighing the military advantage of an action against the possibility of collateral damage. The IDF code of ethics is unique because it holds Israeli soldiers to a higher standard than international law with respect to preserving life and using restraint.
The next meetings took place at the Masorti kehilah in Ramot. First Dr. Thabet Abu Rass of the Abraham Fund spoke about being a Palestinian during this war. He has family in Gaza, and spoke of how complex this situation is for him. In response to a question about anti-Arabism in Israeli society, he said that right now, we are in crisis, but he has hope that things will improve. Then MK Yitzhak (Buji) Herzog spoke. Buji criticised Netanyahu's actions leading up to the war. He would prefer that the government offer the israeli people a vision and hope, and that they ally with moderte forces to combat terror. In question and answer, Herzog addressed the question of religious pluralism in Israel and equal funding. He answered that the Masorti movement in Israel is doing important work, and that the Israeli market is ripe for it. His advice was to continue to grow the movement and gain support and that eventually the situation for Masorti will improve. Rabbi Arnie Ben-Dor also greeted our delegation, thanked us for visiting his community, and pointed out where, until a week ago, an Iron Dome battery had been stationed in Ramot. His community members used to bring food to the soldiers stationed there on shabbat.
The group was scheduled to meet with Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit, but he was called away, as the cooalition was meeting regarding the recent escalation. Instead we headed to the Foreign Ministry where Benny Dagan answered questions on the current situation. He made the point that it is important to translate military and diplomatic gains into real workable systems. The three main concerns of the moment are Gaza, Iran and ISIS. Then Akiva Tor, the Head of the Bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions, spoke about Europe and US relationships to Israel.
Lastly, we were hosted by Ruth Cummings and Raphael Lehman for a lovely evening on their terrace overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. Shuli Natan, a member of the Masorti Kehilah in Kfar Sabba, performed a few songs. Shuli is best known as the original singer of Naomi Shemer's Yerushalyim Shel Zahav, which she sang in that beautiful setting. It was a lovely way to end the day. As we head into tomorrow, we hope for a quiet night, for us in Jerusalem but especially for our sisters and brothers in Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Omer and the rest of the South.
Photos from today are posted on Facebook.
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