Rabbi's Blog

Theodor Herzl, visionary of Zionism, weeping, Basel, Switzerland, circa 1897, illustration via Yoshi Zweiback.

This week the Jewish world observes Tisha B'Av (9th day of the Hebrew month of Av), a yearly fast to mourn the destruction of the ancient Holy Temples in Jerusalem (586BCE and 70CE) and the exile of the Jewish people from the Holy Land. (We held a special program on Zoom to mark the day.)  For many this is also a day to mourn the brokenness of the world. According to our sages, Jerusalem fell to the Romans in the year 70CE because of baseless hatred and ideological factionalism that weakened the Jewish people.

How sobering, then, that this week we are simultaneously witnessing dire events tearing apart the social fabric of modern day Israel. This week, Israel's most right wing and nationalistic government in its history passed its first law in a plan to weaken the independence of Israel's judiciary, and the streets have been filled (and often blocked) with demonstrations and conflict between Jew and Jew. 

We prepare for Tisha B'Av with three weeks of semi-mourning and reflection. This week's dramatic events were preceded by 29 weeks of steady and growing protests in the streets by hundreds of thousands of citizens, warnings by military and financial leaders, strikes, and refusal to serve by hundreds of reserve pilots and elite military reservists (who are past the age of mandatory reserve duty but continue to serve). After the votes, massive protests went late into the night and the Israeli news reported violence by overwhelmed police against protestors, and some by citizens on both sides against one another.

There was room to consider flaws in Israel's Judicial system. For example, the Supreme Court could be much more diverse and more representative of Israel's population but it remains majority Ashkenazic. Only a handful of Mizrachi Jews (with origins in Arab countries) have been appointed to the court over the years. The first ever Mizrachi female justice in Israel's history was sworn just last year (along with its first ever Muslim justice). 

However, such reasonable considerations were rapidly lost in a debate which has become totally acrimonious and divisive. In the words of Daniel Gordis, a noted pro-Israel, Zionist author who made aliyah from the US, the government has "no interest in a proposal by group of leading thinkers to create a new Constituent Assembly, like that mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. The Assembly would tackle the judicial issue outside the toxic setting that the Knesset has become, but the government is ignoring the idea, for toxicity has become their calling card."

Ironically, earlier this year, Israel was ranked the fourth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report. The data was collected in 2021 and 2022, and I can imagine that Israel's happiness index has dropped sharply in recent months. I think that Israel has been a happy country despite its many challenges, not only because it's a sunny Mediterranean country with great food and beaches, but because Israel has historically had such strong communities and human connections, as well as a sense of national purpose and shared destiny. 

Conflict between Israel's ideological factions goes back even to pre-State British Mandate days, and has been a constant through the decades. But that precious sense of shared destiny and underlying unity always won out - until now. Even during the dueling protests, there were glimmers of that unity, such as when protestors from opposite sides reached out across an escalator to shake hands with their brothers and sisters on the other side. 

Most American Jews are proud of the miracle that is Israel and feel a connection to our ancestral homeland. We treasure the strong historic bond of between America and Israel. Many of us spent time in Israel and/or have extended family living there. That's why I can't be silent about the current crisis, but support Israelis who are struggling for the democratic future of their country. We are ultimately one family and I pray that the lessons of Tisha B'Av will not be lost in the heat of the moment.