[yshavurah] Fw: 10 Minutes of Torah - Jewish World
- From: "Cheryl Levine" <clevineys@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Stephen Green-Work" <SteveG@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Mary Talen" <mary.talen@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Deb Rothenberg" <drothenb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Lou Ann Horstman" <horstmania2@xxxxxxxxx>, "Joan and Morty Metersky" <Metersky@xxxxxxx>, "Andrea Herman" <ozonern@xxxxxxxxx>, "Havurah Listserv" <yshavurah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 07:48:49 -0400
I thought you all might be interested in this--
-c
----- Original Message -----
From: Union for Reform Judaism
To: 10 Minutes of Torah - Jewish World
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 3:11 PM
Subject: 10 Minutes of Torah - Jewish World
October 1, 2004 Week 45, Day 5 16 Tishri 5765
Presbyterians, Jews Try to Heal Rift
Yoffie: We are religious leaders, not politicians; as
religious leaders,
we cannot stand aside when Jewish children are murdered in
the name of God,
and we cannot ignore the abysmal plight of the Palestinian
On Tuesday, September 28, leaders of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) came to the New York offices of the Union for Reform Judaism for a
meeting with the leaders of the Jewish community. A press conference followed
the three-hour, closed door meeting, at which Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of
the Union for Reform Judaism, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the
Presbyterian Church (USA); and Elder Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the
PCUSA's General Assembly, discussed answered questions and outlined areas of
agreement. (See press release).
Below is an excerpt from the Rabbi Yoffie's comments at the
start of the closed door meeting; the full text of his comments may be found at
his web site.
Media coverage of the meeting may be found as follows:
a.. The Washington Post
b.. The New York Times, September 29
c.. The New York Times: Sept 28
d.. The Journal News, Westchester, NY
e.. Associated Press
f.. Jewish Telegraphic Agency
--------------------------------------------------------------
We see this meeting as a gathering of great importance. While
some (in the Jewish community) have called for burning bridges, we call for
building them, and we are confident that we can discuss the most difficult
issues without the inflammatory rhetoric that has been heard too frequently in
recent months.
I am a religious leader and not a politician or diplomat. I
can only respond to your Overtures in religious terms. I see them as a
religious document; it seems to me that they constitute a religious statement
with political implications, and not a political statement with religious
implications. And it is precisely as a religious statement that I find them to
be so distressing.
Because what is the religious premise on which Overture O4-32
is based? It is the declaration that "the occupation (is) at the root of evil
acts committed against innocent people..." This is a stunning declaration. An
evil act is an act that is contrary to God's will, and evildoers are those who
defy God's law. In your Overture, Israel's occupation is evil, as are, by
implication, those who carry it out. And yet the word "evil" appears nowhere
else in the Overture. No Palestinian action, no matter how horrific, is
categorized as evil.
The use of theological language in this way has fearful
consequences, which are all too apparent from other sections of the Overtures.
If the Israeli occupation - and the Israeli occupation alone - is the root
cause of the ongoing conflict, and if the Jews - and the Jews alone - are
guilty of "evil acts," then what emerges from the Overtures, even if this is
not your intention, is a moral hierarchy of responsibility. Root causes are
more important than secondary causes, and evil acts are more significant than
other acts, however unfortunate. By this reasoning, therefore, it becomes
possible not only to understand but even to excuse Palestinian terror and
murder by referring back to the Israeli occupation that is ultimately the cause
of it all.
It is not easy for me to say this, but I must share it with
you nonetheless. Jews who have read the Overtures are reacting so forcefully
because the plain sense of the text leads them to ask two questions: Do the
authors of these Overtures value Jewish lives and Palestinian lives equally? Do
they mourn the death of Israeli children in the same way and with the same
intensity that they mourn the death of Palestinian children?
I wish to make it clear that the Reform movement believes
that territorial compromise and rolling back the occupation are essential if
peace is to be achieved. As a religious movement, we understand that the
government of Israel, like all governments, is an imperfect, human creation,
and that granting absolute loyalty to any government is an act of idolatry. We
do not hesitate to criticize Israel's actions when we believe them to be wrong
or improper. Furthermore, we are appalled by the deplorable conditions in which
the Palestinian population finds itself. And we know that without dignity for
the Palestinian people, there can be no dignity for Israelis, just as we know
that without peace for the Palestinians, there can be no true peace for Israel.
But we refuse to jump from there to the conclusion that
Israel's occupation is the root of all evil. Such a conclusion strikes us as
both simplistic and absurd.
And what of divestment? The theology of the Overtures, I have
said, is one-sided, and so too is the approach to sanctions that we find
therein. You present divestment as a club held over Israel's head to compel it
to end the occupation; yet no club is held over the head of Palestinians so
that they will stop their killing of innocents. Is not the message, once again,
that acts of terror are somehow less significant in your moral calculus? Is not
the message that Israel will be pressured into far-reaching concessions without
the need for their Palestinian neighbors to change their conduct in any way?
We understand from your statements that you see divestment as
a partial and limited step, aimed only at those companies causing harm to
innocent people. While we acknowledge that this is your intention, we believe
that it is not a weapon that can be wielded with the precision of a scalpel; it
will become instead a cruel and unwieldy club that will be seen as a latter-day
version of the Arab boycott of Israel or of the international boycott of South
Africa. The ultimate result will be to impose collective punishment against all
Israeli citizens - Arab and Jew - and to undermine Israel's legitimacy.
Is there a religious person anywhere who can ignore the truly
abysmal plight of the Palestinian people? Is there a religious believer
anywhere who can stand aside when Jewish children are murdered in the name of
God or a sacred cause? The answers are self-evident, but the path that will
enable us to resolve these injustices will be difficult to find. What we need
to do, and what Israelis and Palestinians need to do, is to reach out to our
neighbors and listen for God's presence in their voice. I hope that that
listening can begin today.
For more information and recommended reading go to:
URJ Press.
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Judaism -
Department of Marketing & Communication and Department of
Lifelong Jewish Learning.
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