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Rabbi Karp's Sermons ...
ISRAEL REFLECTION 2002
delivered by Rabbi Henry Jay Karp
Temple Emanuel, Davenport, Iowa
March 22, 2002
As most, if not all, of you know, the
Cantor, Helene, and I just returned from a visit to Israel. We were there
for three reasons: (1) to attend the annual convention of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis, which is held in Jerusalem every seven
years,(2) to visit Shira who is spending her junior year
of college studying at the Hebrew University, and (3) because we consider
Israel our spiritual home, and we needed our spiritual Israel fix. Those
were our reasons, but I have to admit, not necessarily in that order.
Helene and I left for Israel several days
early, so that we could spend some quality time with Shira. She, met us at
Ben Gurion airport, and a driver who was arranged for us by our travel
agent drove the three of us down to the Dead Sea, where we enjoyed a great
weekend together! The Cantor, not being able to get away earlier due to
her responsibilities with the Variety Club, arrived just in time for the
convention.
With this sermon in mind, I started keeping
a journal of our experiences and of my reflections. Pretty soon it became
quite clear that those notes would far exceed any one sermon I could give.
In fact, while we were still at the Dead Sea, Shira commented on how long
my sermon would be if the amount of writing I was doing was any measure.
And she was right. For when I finished the journal, it was a handwritten
40 notepad pages, both sides. Not exactly a book, but definitely not a
sermon!
Since I cannot share the full text of that
journal with you this evening, I thought that I would share with you some
excerpts from it. For me, this visit was an emotionally charged one,
filled with both joy and pain. I hope that these excerpts will effectively
communicate that experience.
Days 1 & 2 - Tuesday & Wednesday,
February 27th & 28th
Traveling to Israel is seldom without its complications. This trip was no
different. It used to be that El Al flights would leave Chicago and fly
directly to Israel. However, these days, tourism to Israel is so down that
they have combined flights. Now one flies from Chicago to JFK, changes
planes, and then continues on to Israel. While that may be a hassle, it is
understandable. However, it does gets complicated when the flight from
Chicago leaves an hour later than scheduled. Will they hold the flight in
New York for us? Arriving in New York, we were received by a hostile crowd
of delayed New York flyers.We went straight from one plane to the other.
This flight, an enormous 747-400, seating hundreds of passengers, was
completely booked. That is really saying something when you consider that
El Al reconfigures the seating on these planes to accommodate more
passengers than any other airlines. My seat was so snug that had I been
bigger, I would not have fit in it. Still, considering the political
situation, I was amazed at the numbers flying to Israel. Yes, flights had
been combined, but still, a full plane is impressive. And ours was no
fluke. Shira’s flights had also been full. And I received the same report
from Maddie Gottlieb, who had just returned from her grandson’s, B. J.
Cohen’s, wedding. As I surveyed the crowded flight, it soon became clear
that the vast majority of the passengers were ultra Orthodox Jews. Black
hats, peot (ear locks), and women’s wigs abound. Now I am no lover of the
ultra Orthodox - quite the contrary - but one must give the devil his due.
Their devotion to the land of Israel, if not necessarily to the nation of
Israel and the totality of the Jewish people, is profound. While the rest
of us American Jews cower in our homes at this time of Israel’s need,
these people fearlessly journey forth to be with her. They go with their
wives. They go with their children. When these dangerous days are past -
and someday, God willing, they will pass - and the situation will be
normalized, and American tourists will return to Israel, I have every
expectation that the Israelis will remember who were their true friends
and who were not. As they say, "A friend in need..." Our movement and the
Conservative movement have been battling these ultra Orthodox to secure
the rights of liberal Jews and liberal Judaism in Israel. However, our
"fair weather friend" behavior only makes that battle so much more
difficult to win. It is all the more tragic considering that these are the
people whose positions and actions stand so painfully in the path of
peace. They have their own
particular vision of Israel, and they invest themselves in it with their
bodies as well as with their dollars and the voices. We can disagree with
them, and disagree with them bitterly, but unless we are willing to match
their commitment, we will not prevail over them.
Day 4 - Friday, March 1st - at the Dead
Sea
As Shabbat was closing in, we had some decisions to make. Somewhere in the
hotel there was a traditional service. Not wishing to celebrate Shabbat
apart from my daughters, I passed on it. We did have dinner at the hotel.
By this time the hotel was packed with Israelis who were weekending in the
sun. I was taken with how well dressed they were for Shabbat dinner, even
if they did not observe Shabbat itself. While they may not hold onto the
forms of Shabbat, they do cling to its spirit. For
them, Shabbat may not be a Yom Tefilah, a Day of Prayer, but it still is a
Yom Meyuchad, a Special Day. It saddened me to think that for us American
Jews, if Shabbat is not a Yom Tefilah, a prayer day, then it is not a Yom
Meyuchad, a special day. One thing was disturbingly obvious as we ate our
Shabbat dinner in the crowded hotel buffet. We were in a significant
minority, as Americans. English was not a language being spoken throughout
this hotel. It was an awkward, and for me, completely new Israel
experience.
Day 5 - Shabbat, Saturday, March 2nd
The day began with an exciting two hour jeep tour of the Negev Desert. On
this tour with us were four Israelis - an older man and a man from Tel
Aviv, perhaps in his late thirties, with his two sons. Our tour guide was
a pleasant enough young woman, but our fellow passengers had to keep
reminding her to speak in English, which was another sad commentary on the
lack of American tourists. Indeed, the fellow from Tel Aviv commented that
we were the first Americans he had seen this year; a painful testimony
which only intensified a certain odd sense of loneliness which I have not
felt while traveling since the time I visited the Soviet Union. We stopped
at a beautiful vista overlooking what I though was part of the Dead Sea,
but I was wrong. We were below the Dead Sea. What was before us were man
made industrial pools, constructed for the purpose of extracting minerals
from this mineral rich region. Primary among those minerals is bromide.
Israel is the world’s leading producer of bromide. It is in the very air
one breathes in the desert. They estimate that the Negev contains enough
bromide for the next
2,000 years. What irony! Bromide is the main ingredient in many sedatives.
This area of the world, so torn by violence and unrest, has the chemical
capability to pacify the rest of the world!
Day 6 - Sunday, March 3rd
After breakfast, we spent the morning packing and resting. While doing
both, we listened to the news on TV, on the BBC network. The night before,
we had watched the Israeli news in Hebrew, and the big story, as best I
could make it out, concerned some sort of terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
However, on the morning BBC news, the main Middle East news story was
about a Palestinian who was driving his pregnant wife to the hospital, to
deliver their baby. Being in a rush, he decided to run the Israeli
security check point. The Israelis opened fire and the expectant mother
was wounded. Only later did we learn that the Jerusalem attack took place
in an ultra Orthodox neighborhood in central Jerusalem, as these Jews were
leaving synagogue at the close of Shabbat. As a result, an entire family
was slain - the Nehmad family; Shlomo (40) and his wife, Gafnit (32),
their two daughters, Shiraz (6) and Liran (3), as well as their nephew,
Shauli Nehmad (15) and two cousins, Lidor (12) and Oriah Ilan (18
months). Shauli’s brother, Eli (16) was also badly injured, having lost an
arm. This tragedy was only mentioned in passing by the BBC, as a bomb
attack in a Jerusalem neighborhood. While they showed pictures of the
wounded Palestinian woman, they did not even mention this family and the
very existence of its child victims. Nor did they mention a sniper attack
on an Israeli check point that took place earlier that morning, leaving 10
dead. This was the worst 24 hour period for Israel in the 17 months of
this intifada, leaving 21 Israelis dead, and all the BBC could report on
was one Palestinian woman who was wounded while trying to run a security
check point! How much clearer could it be that the media can be horribly
biased; that they not only ignore the news, but that they actively work to
slant public opinion against Israel? Perhaps even more insidious is that
the western media fails to report that, according to Palestinian
journalists, almost all the attacks on Israelis now are being
conducted by the Fatah’s Tanzim militia, through the Al Aqsa Martyrs’
Brigade, which is under the direct control of Yasser Arafat, the same man
who claims that while he wants peace, he cannot control the terrorists who
attack Israel. The media conspires to promote this myth of a powerless
Arafat when indeed he is engineering these acts of terrorism and reaping
the benefit of them in terms of an ever growing base of support among the
Palestinians. I was used to such slanted reporting on the part of CNN. I
was used to the lack of accurate and sufficient coverage on the part of
the major networks and newspapers. But this experience really drove home
to me the point of how alone Israel stands in the
arena of world opinion. I see this as just the latest manifestation of an
ancient evil - antisemitism. The media’s unjust criticism of Israel is
just an old hatred set in a politically correct format. When we checked
into the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, they gave us a welcome envelope with
our keys and various hotel information. Included in that packet was what I
found to be a disturbing letter to the rabbis from the general manager of
the hotel. He meant it to be positive, but it just saddened me. He said,
"I am aware that times are difficult worldwide and the future may seem a
little cloudy, however as you can see, here at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel
life continues as usual. The strength and leadership you have shown by
joining us, to help create a better future for our people, is very
admirable." For Jews, going to Jerusalem should not need to be a
demonstration of strength and leadership. It is not an "admirable" act. It
is supposed to be an instance of personal fulfillment. It is not what we
bring to Jerusalem. It is what Jerusalem gives to us. If we Jews persist
in looking at going to Israel as an act of remarkable courage, then we
have already handed the terrorists their most fundamental victory.
Now, for the sake of time, let me jump to
some of the events that occurred toward the end of our stay.
Day 10 - Thursday, March 7th
Once again, the morning newspaper was filled with depressing news.
However, one thing that really struck me was a full page color ad. The top
of the ad had two color photos, side by side. One was of an incident on
March 5th, in which 16 Palestinians, including 5 children and 2 women were
killed. The other was of last Saturday night’s attack on an ultra Orthodox
neighborhood in which an entire family was massacred. Under the photos was
a banner which read, "Ariel Sharon. Yasser Arafat. What are you waiting
for?" Beneath that was the statement, "Stop Shooting. Start Talking." And
below this was the following quote from Yitzhak Rabin, in Hebrew, English,
and Arabic - "The Road to Peace is
Preferable Over the Path to War." The ad was sponsored by a group called
the Parents’ Circle. If anyone questions the existence in Israel of those
who desire peace, let them see this ad! The great sadness is that you will
not see anything resembling such an ad in a Palestinian, or any Arab,
newspaper. Israelis yearn for peace. They are desperate about it. If only
the Palestinians demonstrated but a fraction of such eagerness! Later that
day, while riding in a cab returning to our hotel, we heard the shocking
news of an aborted suicided bombing attempt that afternoon at a restaurant
called Kaffit, on Emek Refaim, a Israeli yuppie type shopping street, just
a ten minute walk from our hotel. We had just been on that street, very
near that very same restaurant, the night before. It appeared that the
waiter noticed that the suicide bomber looked suspicious. He dragged the
bomber out of the restaurant, tackling and disabling him before he could
detonate his devise. When we got to the hotel, we saw the police road
blocks, as they were searching the area for a possible accomplice. The
hotel lobby was buzzing. Indeed, some of my colleagues and their wives had
been dining at that restaurant at the time of the incident.
Day 12 - Shabbat, Saturday March 9th
While I was in the hotel lounge, socializing with some of my colleagues,
the Cantor and Shira decided to take Helene and her new found friend,
Shifrah, the 7 year old daughter of one of my colleagues, to the park
which was right next to the hotel. It is called Liberty Bell Park because
it has a replica of the
Liberty Bell in it. It is a fun park for kids. I remember taking Shira and
Helene there seven years ago, on a Shabbat just like today. While I
declined their invitation to join them, about 10 minutes later I and the
wife of a classmate decided to go and find them. While searching, we came
upon an Ethiopian wedding reception. It looked like these folks were
having a grand time. As we continued our search, we came upon an Israeli
police woman who stopped us and told us to leave the park immediately.
They had found a suspicious package and did not wish to take any chances.
As we left the park, we spotted the Cantor and the girls. We rushed to
them. The Cantor was obviously shaken, for they had been at the place were
the package had been found. In fact, Shira showed us a digital picture of
the robotic devise that the Israelis used to retrieve the thing. We still
do not know whether that package was indeed a bomb or just a misplaced
wedding gift. But no matter what it was, that experience was a shocking
reminder as to how dangerous - personally dangerous - this situation is
for all people in Israel. Later that night, while we were in our hotel
room, we started hearing the sirens of emergency vehicles as they rushed
by our hotel. The sirens did not stop. They seemed endless. The Cantor was
upset by them and by what they might portent. So I went down to the lobby
to see what I could learn. As I stepped out of the entrance to the hotel,
I was confronted by a continuous flow of police cars and ambulances. As I
was able to piece the event together, it turned out that a restaurant near
our hotel, the Café Moment, had been blown up by a suicide bomber. This
very popular restaurant was directly across the street from the Prime
Minister’s residence, and was consider safe. But it had become
excruciatingly clear that in Jerusalem nothing any longer can be
considered safe. Having had three terrorism related experiences in the
past three days convinced the Cantor that we could not set enough
restrictions on Shira to insure her safety. Therefore, she wanted Shira to
come home. On Sunday night, after the Hebrew Union College had announced
that it was ending its formal classes for its
first year rabbinic, cantorial, and education students, as of Pesach, and
giving them the option of studying in Israel or returning to the States,
the Cantor asked me, "Would you be very upset with me if I insisted that
Shira come home?" All I could say to her was, "Not as upset as you would
be with me if she stays and something happens to her." I had come to the
decision that while my principles are very important to me, the well being
of my family is more important.
I left Israel deeply depressed over the
situation there. The hope for peace in the Middle East is exceedingly dim.
What is all the more depressing is that while, when I went there I truly
believed that both sides wanted peace but could not get together on the
terms, as I left I was even more convinced that the desire for peace is a
one-sided wish. The Israelis want peace. The Palestinians want the
destruction of Israel, and nothing less.
Let me end this long sermon by sharing with
you something that Rabbi Martin Wiener, the President of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis, said in his presidential address. He told
of how the children in his religious school were learning the song "Od
Yavo Shalom Aleinu," "May Peace Yet Come to Us." He loves that song. But
as he listened to them sing it, he was saddened because he did
not know of any Palestinian peace songs. So he called various Palestinian
leaders in the San Francisco Bay area, where he lives, and asked them
about it. No. There are no Palestinian peace songs. Why don’t the
Palestinians sing such songs? Because that is not to what their heart
aspires. And that is the most frightening thought of all.
AMEN
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