Shabbat Gathering: Anti-Zionism does not equal anti-Semitism.

Dear Chevra, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 5113 1550
Password: 1989
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

Right now, one of the most important political questions vexing Jewish life is this: If someone is anti-Zionist, are they automatically anti-Semitic? According to our Anti-Defamation League, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and that’s just not right.

Keeping my mouth shut.

When I became a Jew, I had opinions about Israel, but I didn’t dare express them. My family belonged to a Reform synagogue, Congregation Beth Emek in the East Bay of San Francisco. At that time, the synagogue didn’t tolerate negative comments about Israel. Some members had relatives in Israel. More members had traveled to Israel many times including birth right trips. Most members had grown up going to Jewish summer camps where the counselors were hip young people from Israel. My daughters did. My daughters attended Hebrew school where Zionism was part of the curriculum. Why my daughters never took a birth right trip I’ll never know. At that synagogue, being an anti-Zionist was heresy. I didn’t dare express my opinions for fear of ostracizing my family from the synagogue at the center of all our social connections and our lives.

So when I joined Congregation Shaarei Shamayim, I felt liberated. Suddenly, I was able to say for the first time, “Some of the things Israel is doing are wrong.” And then, I discovered that Congregation Shaarei Shamayim not only “allows” that type opinion, it encourages and creates a forum for frank dialog about Israel including the “a” word, apartheid. Our synagogue has regular programming about Israel’s continuing oppression of Palestinians. Good for us.

Building a new Jerusalem in our hearts.

Beginning in the year 70 CE, when the second temple fell to the Romans, generations of rabbis worked to make our faith portable. We carry our faith with us wherever we go and we’ve gone around the world. Now, I believe the next great mission for Jews is to expand our faith from our hands into our hearts. Yes, our faith is so big we’ll always need to carry it in our hands, in our acts, but we also need to anchor our faith deeper into our hearts. In Exodus 24:7, the Israelites say to Moses, who has just received Torah, “We will do and we will understand.” Now we must understand what we have done. We have removed people from their homeland and continue to oppress them. And another thing for us to understand is that Jews in diaspora need to pull together, not pull apart, especially on “hot button” issues like anti-Zionism.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!

All my love,
brian.

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