Thursday, April 19

March of the Living 6:45

Social Hall: 5614 N. University

Guest Speaker: Dr. Heini Halberstam

Dr. Halberstam was born in 1926 in Most, a city in the north
west of Bohemia, a German speaking region known as the
Sudetenland. His father was an Orthodox Rabbi who died in
the fall of 1937. In September of 1938 Heini and his mother
moved to Prague. Dr. Halberstam left on the second Kindertransport a few
months later. The Kindertransport was the rescue mission that took place just prior to the outbreak of World War II, rescuing nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany.

If you are interested in helping out, please e-mail Rabbi Karen at rabbikaren@anshaiemeth.org.

Adults (Temple members) – $18     Adults (non Temple members) – $25     Children under 12 – $7    College students – $10
Your check is your reservation.

Please call Chris in the Temple office if you want to attend but haven’t reserved your place. 691-3323

Speakers:
Jane Eisner; Editor, The Forward
Rabbi John Rosove; Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel of Hollywood
Hannah Weisfeld; Director, Yachud
Ilyse Hogue; Contributor, The Nation; Former Political and Communications Director, MoveOn.org

Rabbi Donniel Hartman

• G-d’s command to us, “You shall be holy, as your G-d is holy”
• to be a Jew means:
• to continually aspire to be better than we can ever actually be
• Aspirational Judaism is the core of every Jewish life
• “I aspire to be an aspirational Jew; I am an aspiration Zionism”
• Aspirational Zionism
• asks, “How do I get up in the morning and make sure that today is better than yesterday”
• “My love of Israel is not exhausted by what it [Israel] is”
• “If we were really serious about the song Dayeinu, it would only have one line.”
• “My deepest love of Israel is about what it can be. By the values and ideals that we can live to make it a reality”
• Our Judaism
• “we’re the first Jews of choice. For the first time, we have to choose to be Jews. The outside world won’t force us to be Jewish.”
• “The outside world doesn’t hate us enough; they won’t remind me of who I am if I don’t want to be who I am.”
• “A judaism of mediocrcity is a death sentance. A Judaism which isns’t compelling isn’t going to get people to stand up and say, ‘I want to be a Jew’”
• An Israel of mediocraty is the same.
• “Just as Judaism must earn the choosing of the Jews, so must the future of Israel earn that love”
• A New Conversation Around Israel
• “A conversation around which Jewish ideals and values challenge us to build”
• We must look at the complexity of Israel and ask, “how can we build a homeland for the Jewish people in a crappy neighborhood.”
• “It is only when your values aren’t nuanced that you turn everything into ‘us and them’”
• How do Jews think about power?
• Power is an essentially part of what it means to be a human being
• In Genesis, G-d creates G-d’s replacement
• it is our world to rule
• it is the blessing and responsibility of power
• Self-defense is a Jewish value; but at what point do you take a chance and not shoot.
• we need a new conversation, where the purpose of the conversation is not to feel good about ourselves, but instead to actualize our values into uniting Jews worldwide to build a new Jewish country. We need an aspirational Judaism.”
• “It’s difficult to be aspirational in our neighborhood; but because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.”
• Inspirational Zionism is difficult because we don’t agree on what those aspirations are
• Do we do a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank?
• What should the borders be?
• “If G-d is the infinite, there is no room for anybody else. In Lurianic Kabbalah, G-d contracts (TzimTzum) G-d’s-self to make room for the world. If we’re going to learn to love Israel together, all of us are going to have to learn to live TzimTzum. We’re going to have to contract our anger, contract our frustration, and even contract our certainty. And then contract our language in order to create a language in which we don’t vilify and don’t insult. In which others can be carriers of values.”

Jane Eisner

• Very interesting and speaking well…but not much ‘content’ to pass on (at least so far)

Rabbi John Rosove

• My Family
• some of the founders of Petach Tikvah over a hundred years ago.
• a cousin helped found Hebrew Univeristy
• another cousin is the sitting speaker of the Knesset (Reuvin Rivlin)
• The Goal of My Life
• to join the two parts of my life
• A liberal American Jew
• a lover of Israel
• We must bring these two things together
• “Social justice must be applied to all of the major issues confronting Israeli society, including LGBT rights, Palestinian rights, poverty, education, justice, religious rights. Israel becoming a just society must be our end-game.”
• “We must put our money where our mouths are, and support progressive Israeli organizations.”
• I highly recommend “http://hiddush.org/”, an org working for the seperation of shul and state in Israel
• The challenge for me as the rabbi to people who disagre
• “Progressive, pro-Israel pro-peace advocacy is the future of Israeli activism, because the alternative is the continued oppression of another people, an oppression which is the single greatest threat to the future of Israel.” — Rabbi John Rosove

Ilyse Hogue

• “While my progressive political resume is long, my resume for progressive Jewish activism is very short. Which is why I am here today.”
• “I feel like we need to learn from Harvey Milk…nothing that I have done has scared me as much as what I am doing right now: so I’m here to say it–I’m out. I’m proud. I’m a JStreet supporter.”
• “Because I love my parents (who are AIPAC supporters), I have avoided progressive Israel advocacy so as not to upset them… But I love Israel. I love Israel too much to stay quiet.”
• “I love Israel with everything I have, and because I love Israel, I can’t help notice that the range is getting smaller. When American teen tours go, they don’t go to the shuk anymore, they don’t go to Bethlahem anymore. I can’t help but notice that we are retracting. I can’t help but notice that hope seems to be retreating, and everyone seems to be hunkering down.”
• “I can’t be silent anymore, because I understand that in order to secure the future of Israel so that my nieces can go back and create the sorts of memories that I have…we cannot continue with the status quo. We have to challenge the conventional wisdom that says that ‘questioning itself’ is heresy.”
• “I am the future of pro-Israel, and I invite you to join me and come out. Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Avishay Braverman (MK; Labor)
Zehava Galon (MK; Meretz–Chairwoman)
Raleb Majadele (MK; Labor)
Amram Mitzna (Former Mayor of Haifa, Former MK; former head of IDF Planning)

• Peter Beineirt’s suggestion to boycott the settlements
• Mitzna: “I’m not sure that this is helpful, unfortunately.”
• “But, the window of opportunity in the middle-east has a timetable, and time is against us, against the moderate Arab states in the region. Therefore, I am scared that we are risking the state of Israel if we are not taking our fate in our hands.”
• Majadele:
• “I am against all boycotts in principle. I feel that even in the context of boycotting Israel in the academics. But, we must be clear: settlements are the obstacle for peace. We cannot give them a chance to keep on thriving, and we can’t keep helping them. Therefore, this is a very special boycott. (you sound like a Rabbi–yes or no, are you in favor of the boycott??) “I am against any boycott against Israeli society or the Israeli state, but I am in favor of this pinpointed boycott to this great obstacle for peace.”
• Galon:
• “For more than 20 years, I have been boycott settlement products. When I go to the supermarket, I won’t buy settlement products.”
• “I have put a bill forward in the Knesset that would label those products made in the settlements.”
• “People need to understand that there is a real price to continuing the occupation. Right now, the settlers are getting the money, the suplements, the welfare, and we (the rest of Israeli society) are paying the price.”
• “Whether or not we boycott, the settlement boycott is an important idea because it brings the problem of the settlements to the forefront.”
• Braverman:
• “The road to hell is paved with good ideas. I like the intention of the boycott, because it is about putting pressure on ending the occupation. But I believe that this policy will be ineffective and counterproductive in the end.”

[I’m here @ JStreet with three great Hillel Students]

Speakers:
Avishay Braverman (MK; Labor)
Zehava Galon (MK; Meretz–Chairwoman)
Raleb Majadele (MK; Labor)
Amram Mitzna (Former Mayor of Haifa, Former MK)

Moderator: Arad Nir (Israeli News Personality)

Avishay Braverman

• “We must get out of Gaza and the West Bank NOW, or we will be left with one state west of Jordan river with an Arab majority.”
• “We are the most unequal economy in the western world…except perhaps for you [USA]!”
• Trickle-down economics
• “Netenyahu learned this theory of economics from your right-wing Republican party, and it never has served anyone in any country except for the rich who sell it to the rest of us!
• The Ultra Orthodox
• Unless the ultra-orthodox begin to work and begin to participate in the army and in society, they will eat us alive. It is time for their exemption to end now!
• (he’s now ragging on Ronald Reagan. Pretty funny for an Israeli…”you should know, R.R. was a greater Kenseyan than anyone else…he increased the budget more than the Obama”
• Israeli Political System
• “our political system is defunct and must be changed now”
• “we need once again to create a serving-elite in Israel, instead of a selfish-elite”
• The Social Protests Last Year
• This is going to change Israel. We must learn from them
• “My Economic Teacher is Rabbi Hillel”
• If I am not for myself, who will be?
• If I am only for myself, who am I?
• If not now, then when?
• “I believe the time has come for a major change…and it must include the social movement in Israel, it must include our political parties, and it must include JStreet and Americans who will work for real change and who will support Israel in a way that will bring important and necessary change”

Raleb Majadele

• An Arab Israeli MK for Labor
• Speaking in Hebrew, with translation
• “I believe that the only way to end the conflict between my people and my country is for there to be two states.”
• “The Arab League has come a long way since the ‘three nos’ of 1968.
• in 2008 they offered to normalize relations with Israel (22 countries) in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
• “The current coalition of PM Netanyahu cannot have real negotiations”
• “Netenyahu and Lieberman are blocking every chance to move forward. Only a different government, based on a different coalition that is committed to peace, can restart the process and move forward”
• “We must win the battle against those who are hopeless and those who seek war”
• “Who would have believed that the 100-ear-war between England and France would turn into the bilateral reality that there is today”
• “Who could imagine that Germany would today be Israel’s staunchest ally”
• “Who would have believed that Jews lived in dignity under Islamic rule in Spain for 500 years”
• This golden era can bee seen in the work of the RamBaM.
• Racism in Israel
• racism is growing against arabs…but also against Ethiopian Jews
• Social disparity is growing
• 25% of Israelis live in poverty.
• 35% of children
• 53% of Arabs
• Note: this guy was really impressive.

Zehava Galon on the Threat Israeli Democracy Faces

• “This assembly is proof that we are desperately in need of a liberal, humanistic, progressive movement in the United States and in Israel”
• “Today I want to talk about the anti-democratic campaign currently taking place in Israel”
• “Today the struggle in Israel is between those who are struggling for a democratic society, and those who are willing to sacrifice the ideas of human rights, justice, and democracy on the altar of a messianic delusion”
• “Let us call it like it is: it is the occupation that:
• undermines Israeli democracy
• isolates Israel internationally
• has undermined the social safety net for all but the settlers. We have undermined the welfare state for the people who need it in exchange for a welfare state for the settlers”
• “This government has trampled on the basic rules of the democratic game, and has moved to persecuting the opposition and undermining the democratic process as a whole.”
• What now?
• “I believe that democracy and equal rights cannot co-exist with the occupation of another people”
• I am hopeful that the anti-democratic bent of the current government will stimulate the democratic antibodies of Israel, which will jump into the fight and destroy those forces which
• “You must not allow the anti-democratic far right in both the United States and Israel to win. They want blind loyalty without criticism, but a true friend must tell the truth: continuing the occupation endangers the Israeli state and destroys our moral character.”
• To JStreet
• “We need your help! We need your voice! Now is the time to act!

Amram Mitzna — On the current security situation

• The Supreme Court of Israel
• The Guard-wall of Israeli democracy
• we must pray for them to continue their work
• On JStreet
• “I wish that JStreet was invented many years ago. We have been waiting for you for a long time. You must be out there showing that there is not only one way to be pro-Israel.”
• “I don’t believe that there is any other pro-Israeli organization that has succeeded in attracting as many youth as JStreet, and I salute you, JStreet”
• The bottom line of my speach
• “The continuation of the occupation is extremely risky for the state of Israel. I am speaking from a security point of view. The vital interest, from a defense point of view, from a military point of view, is that we end the occupation. This is not just about right and wrong–this is strictly about our military needs. We must end the occupation to protect the State of Israel.”
• “In the long-term, Israel will not be able to protect itself without a two-state solution. Those who are talking about one-state for two peoples are talking about an another Arab country. If you believe in Israel, you must support two-states for two-peoples.”

This is my first post from JStreet–we didn’t get in until 1am last night, so I apologize if my writing feels a little groggy….

The Panel: Ilyse Hogue, Jim Gerstein, Eric Alterman

Moderator: Lynn Sweet

The take on the panel right now is, in short: the ‘Israel’ issue in the election is a) going to fade in importance as the election goes on, and b) not really about the Jewish vote, but instead the Christian Zionist vote.

On Obama and Israel: Obama has been damaged in regards to Israel. We see this amongst more conservative (Republican leaning) Jews as well as amongst southern Jews. They usually can’t articulate what Obama has done ‘wrong’ about Israel, but Fox News, Bibi Netenyahu (Likud) and Fox News have managed to “Swift Boat” him on this issue. The panelists generally agree that this doesn’t exist in reality. To them, Obama has been much too willing to go along with the Likud position, to the detriment of the long-term interests of Israel.

The other side of this is that when Jews are asked about their opinions on Israel, they are to the left of President Obama; yet they have been convinced that Obama is significantly to the left of them.

In the beginning of his administration Obama looked like he was going to make overtures to JStreet and to more mainstream Israeli opinions on these issues (rather than hard-right Likkud positions). AIPAC / Fox News / Bibi Netenyahu have managed to make this politically impossible.

Lots and lots of people asking questions…even more people making comments in the guise of questions.

Notes Below:

• Eric Alterman
• This is a White House that initially said things like, “Being Pro-Israel has too often been confused with being Pro-Likud”
• There has been a political calculation (dealing primarily with Christian Zionists) that has destroyed this
• AIPAC has demonized any but the most hard-right position on Israel
• Bibi Netenyahu does not seem particularly interested in moving forward on the peace process
• —Hogue
• Will Israel remain a big theme during the election?
• It has been so far, but she is guessing that it will fade
• Issues of the economy, the war on women, etc.. will take precedence
• Problem
• there has been such a monopoly on how we speak about Israel
• AIPAC has done a good ‘Fox News’ job of saying there is only one way of being pro-Israel
• Solution
• this election (for progressives) isn’t going to be about changing policy on Israel
• this is not going to happen during an election cycle (particularly because of Christian Zionists)
• What this can be about is expanding the conversation, showing other ways of being pro-Israel

There is still time to suggest more projects!  Please contact Hedy Stone at 444-7174 if you have ideas.  The next planning meeting is Sunday, March 25 at 4:15 at the Temple–come help plan the day!

The Women’s Circle will be hosting a Passover bake sale on April 4^th and 5^th from 5:30-7:30pm at Anshai Emeth, with a pre-bake on April 3^rd from 5:00-7:00. What can you do to help? Either come to the pre-bake with all of your ingredients and make something at the temple (with lots of other fun people), or bake something and donate it for the bake sale! Keep in mind though that it must be Passover friendly!

RSVP to Jennifer Wiebrecht at artgirljen2000@yahoo.com and let her know if you are coming to the pre-bake, what supplies you will need, and what you plan to make!

March 25^th – Rosh Chodesh Nisan: Champagne Brunch and Painting

10am-12   -   Anshai Emeth Social Hall  -  $7

Join us as we celebrate Rosh Chodesh Nisan and the birth of spring with a delicious champagne brunch followed by water-color painting. It will be a great time to let loose your inner-artist and schmooze with some fantastic women!

RSVP to Jennifer Wiebrecht at artgirljen2000@yahoo.com