By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Two local rabbis are taking the lead from an Israeli leadership think tank and challenging Seattle-area Jews — and Jews worldwide — to re-imagine a more Jewish-values based Israel going into the future.
The Jewish Day School’s assistant head of school Rabbi Stuart Light and Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation’s Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum say Jews need to shift their vision of Israel from a refuge-based, post-Holocaust-era homeland dedicated to harboring endangered Jews everywhere, which they say it has since achieved, into a more ethical society that is more fair to religious and ethnic minorities, the poor, aliens, and even those in their midst who may be hostile to the Jewish State.
Teaching from the “Engaging Israel Project: Foundations for a New Relationship” series developed by the Shalom Hartman Institute, the two rabbis will take students back to the future to study noted Jewish thinkers and politicians like Martin Buber and David Ben-Gurion, and texts from Maimonides to the Mishna to create a “new narrative” about Israel, they say, one that “allows for criticism and conversation with worldwide Jewry in a pluralistic approach that transcends politics and religious divide.”
“Israel has been the homeland for the refugee, the home for the outcast, a place where all Jews can be free, the place where no one [need] be ashamed of their heritage, and that has been tremendously powerful for Jews in the past,” Light told JTNews from his JDS office. “Now, we see a shift because the United States is a place where a Jew can very much express everything about [his] identity. But what happens when you no longer need that place of refuge, when you no longer need to go there if everything is horrible? What’s the value of that place? That’s what this class is about.”
According to the institute’s marketing materials, “The Engaging Israel Project,” which is part of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, was developed to address the increasing feelings of “disenchantment and disinterest toward Israel among an ever-increasing number of Jews worldwide.”
Bristling to some degree at that particular language, Rosenbaum, who couldn’t speak highly enough about the quality of scholarship at the SHI, clarified his approach and told JTNews exactly what predicament he believes Jews both in and out of Israel find themselves in, and what he hopes to accomplish in the classes.
“It’s a fresh approach and a paradigm shift,” said Rosenbaum. “There’s a flotilla in Gaza, we have to react to that. There’s a move by the Palestinians to get recognition unilaterally in the United Nations, and we have to respond to that. There’s a constant attempt by people around the world to delegitimize Israel and we have to respond to that, but this is a chance to dig deep, to go back to our own terms.”
The SHI was founded in 1971 by a Montreal rabbi and professor, David Hartman. The congregational rabbi moved to Jerusalem hoping to realize his vision of creating a scholarly Jewish institute where the best and brightest Jewish thinkers could innovate new ideas and meet the challenges that he knew would inevitably come upon Israeli society.
According to the institute, it generally believes that Jews around the world are looking for new meaning to reinforce their connection to Israel. SHI also believes that Israel has wandered from its Jewish foundations, and may be betraying its original mission.
Other questions examined in the SHI course materials include an analysis of the benefits of Jewish sovereignty, a critique on the use of Israeli military power, and a look at some of the problems associated with governing a Jewish democracy.
Although both Light and Rosenbaum agree that this series is not politically based, they both say it’s nearly impossible to separate Israeli society from political concerns.
“This is not a propaganda piece with a particular point of view,” Rosenbaum said. “This is a conversation. What’s our vision? We need to be motivated by a reason to be beyond survival.
“At the same time, North American Jewry looks to Israel and thinks, ‘How can it be that the values that I’ve been taught about Judaism aren’t manifested in the place that I’ve been told is the beacon of everything a Jew stands for?’”
Each rabbi will teach his own nine-session evening course. They will use the same class materials, though both rabbis will apply their unique personal styles in the discussion format. Both rabbis welcome any and all Jewish denominations, secular and religious Jews, non-Jews and any interested community member.