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Kibbutz Beeri and Nova Beggar Description

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The things I saw beggar description…The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the near future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”   Dwight D Eisenhower This famous quote from Eisenhower could well describe what we experienced today with visits to the site of the Nova Music Festival where hundreds of young people were slaughtered on October 7 and to Kibbutz Beeri, the largest Kibbutz in what is known as the Gaza envelope, the main area outside the Gaza Strip that was infiltrated by Hamas on October 7.  It felt very much like my visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, though it’s entirely possible that the cruelty perpetrated in these places was even greater, as hard as that is to believe. We heard from one of the survivors , a young man named Or, all am
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A Bar Mitzvah and a Slide Show

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  These are separate topics. This is mostly just to show the final slide show from my 4 months in Israel, but one quick final story. On our very last day, a longtime friend of mine, Alex Lubarsky, who goes back to elementary school, even, as well as BBYO, asked me to officiate at his son's Bar Mitzvah at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall. It was an honor to do so, and it was a beautiful occasion. Getting there was something else. The first part is mostly a story for another time, but let me just say that the official Conservative/Masorti movement in Israel, of which I am a dues paying part of and who manages the egalitarian site, was the complete opposite of helpful. So it took a wild goose chase for me to find a Torah (thank you Congregation Maayanot) and Siddurim, Prayerbooks (thank you Israel Maven Tour Company). These were very far away from my residence and the Wall, and it was massively inconvenient. But the last part of the journey was something else. It was a 40 m
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It's All Over But the Shouting

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The title refers both to our time here, which is coming to an end, and the vote today by the Israeli Knesset. A Worrisome Day for the Future of Israeli Democracy . Today was a very sad day for much of Israel. After months of protests, intensifying greatly over the last few days with thousands camped in tents in the park that lies between our apartment and the Knesset, Israel's parliament passed the first part of a Judicial Reform package. An excellent editorial by David Horowitz of the Times of Israel expresses a lot of both what happened and how I feel about it quite well.  The specifics of this piece are that the courts can no longer overturn a law that the Knesset passes based on it being what the court considers "unreasonable." This has the potential to give the Knesset unlimited power, without the check and balance of the court. This is especially concerning for several reasons: (1) there is no third branch of government to constrain it, since the Executive branch,
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Hartman Institute and JCC Maccabi Games

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  Scholar Micah Goodman of the Hartman Institute Learning at the Hartman Institute . I have spent most of the last 10 days learning at a think tank called The Shalom Hartman Institute . They call themselves the " leading center of applied Jewish thought and education, serving Israel and North America." They are an intellectual center that has some terrific and famous (at least in the Jewish academic world) scholars, and they run all kinds of programming, including a fair amount of Israeli-Arab dialogue. Every summer about 100 rabbis, mostly Conservative and Reform but a few others as well, for an intensive learning seminar centered around a common theme. This year the theme was exploring the tension between individual autonomy (a very American value) and communal obligation (a very Jewish value). In the modern world, they are held in great tension, and each speaker, utilizing Jewish texts, explored a different facet of this, such as Creed, Sacrifice, Shabbat, Holiness, Convic
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A Week Off? Plus Kiryat Arba, a Ben-Gvir Sighting, Burger Rankings, and More Friends

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  Synagogue on Jaffa Street I never noticed I needed a full day of afternoon sleep to recover from the congregational trip, and I was very much looking forward to a week without structured activities before I began the 10 day Hartman Rabbinical Seminar. But that hardly meant a week off. I filled it with all kinds of activities. There is so much for me to do in Israel. And, even at that, as my friend Howard Zangwill reminds me, you should look up every once in a while. I'll explain the picture above at the end. So what exactly did I do?  Visiting Kiryat Arba . Genesis 23:2 "Sarah died in Kiryat-Arba, also known as Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Avraham came to mourn Sarah and weep for her." Hebron is one of the most important and controversial cities in Israel. It is where most of our patriarchs and matriarchs are said to be buried, in the Cave of Machpela, the first piece of land purchased by Jews (Abraham from Ephron the Hittite), and it is equally venerated by Musli
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Temple Beth Abraham Explores Israel

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  I'm going to let the slideshow do most of the talking. We had 43 participants from our synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham, join me in Israel for an 8 day tour. The group included several non Jewish staff members: preschool teachers, the Facilities Manager/Head Custodian, the Secretary, as well as members of all ages from the synagogue.  Our tour provider, Israel Maven led by JJ Jonah and our Tour Guide, Jonty Blackman, were amazing. As one participant put it, they finally understand why I can't stop talking about how much I love Israel and how it is so much more than the political conflict. It's a real place with real problems, real pain, and real joy. But it's also a special place, with a holiness that can't be described unless you see it for yourself. Anyway, here is a snippet of our journey. L'hitraot!
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Stakes, Steak, Wine, and Black Jewish Relations

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  Josh Washington, Director of IBSI, Rabbi Mark Bloom, Minister Dr. Ruth Pauline Plummer of Church of God in Christ and Covenant Daughters Network, Jason Chukwu, Christian descended from the Igbo of Nigeria, Valerie and Pastor Dumisani Washington (Founders of IBSI, Institute of Black Solidarity with Israel), soon to be Rabbi Yaaqov James Walker This one will move from the seemingly trivial to the much more important. Only the most dedicated readers will get to the metaphorical "meat." Stakes and Steaks. The stakes for Israel and the Jews, particularly when it comes to Black Jewish relations, couldn't be higher. For more details on that, read below. When it comes to steak, Karen and I went out to dinner at a high end steak restaurant I have been wanting to try for years. It is called the Red Heifer, which is a great name for a Kosher steak house, since the Red Heifer in the Biblical Book of Numbers 19 has great significance in the Torah. But it may have been the worst meal
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