When Prof. Asa Kasher, Israel Prize laureate and author of the IDF’s ethical code, delivered the Shalem Center’s annual Zalman Bernstein Memorial Lecture earlier this week, one of the first questions from the audience was from a young woman studying at a posthigh school, pre-army program in Aderet.
“You spoke of how the singing of Hatikva still moves you,” she said, “and it moves me as well. But it doesn’t move everyone. What role do you believe the government ought to have in instilling a sense of Zionist passion in a younger generation of Israelis?” OK, she didn’t phrase it precisely that way, but that was what she wanted to know. Her question, I thought, was important because it was a reminder that we’ve got a hungry young generation here. They’re desperate to believe that by virtue of their living here, they’re part of something important, even majestic. Does anyone else still believe what she does, she wanted to know? One can understand why she’s asking.
Whatever you think our policy toward thousands of illegal Sudanese refugees ought to be, there’s no denying that images of Jewish immigration police rounding up helpless refugees is a distressing one. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be discomfited, not to wonder if a country created by people who had nowhere else to go 60-something years ago couldn’t have dealt with this better.
“You shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). Does the fact that this is a Jewish country not have anything to say about this, many young Israelis are asking.
Compare this government’s silence to the story that Yehuda Avner recounts (in his extraordinary book, The Prime Ministers) of Golda Meir telling her charges in the Foreign Ministry, shortly after she was appointed foreign minister, that reaching out to the countries of Africa would be a top priority.
When they looked at her quizzically, she pulled out a copy of Herzl’s Altneuland and read them this passage: “There is still one question arising out of the disaster of the nations which remains unsolved to this day, and whose profound tragedy only a Jew can comprehend. This is the African question. Just call to mind all those terrible episodes of the slave trade, of human beings who, merely because they were black, were stolen like cattle, taken prisoner, captured, and sold. Their children grew up in strange lands, the objects of contempt and hostility because their complexions were different… Once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my own people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans.”
LIFE IS different here than it was when Herzl penned those words in 1902. And it’s more complicated than it was when Golda was foreign minister. But why has no one mentioned Altneuland as the police fan out across the country picking up refugees who once thought of the Jews and their country as a beacon of freedom, as a haven. It may well be that we can’t accommodate them all; but have we no shame? Do we not believe in anything anymore? Not even ourselves and our history? As if that wasn’t sufficient, that young woman from Aderet and her companions awoke on Tuesday morning to newspaper accounts of how anti-Zionist haredim (ultra- Orthodox) defaced memorials at Yad Vashem with graffiti reading: “Thank you Hitler for the wonderful Holocaust you arranged for us. Thanks only to you we got a state from the UN. [signed] World Zionist Mafia.”
Does our government still believe in this country? Will it have the courage to find a way to kick out – forever – the people who spray-painted those horrific words and those who encouraged them? Or are the Sudanese the only ones we’ll figure out a way to expel? Is nothing sacred here anymore? It’s a sad day when young people feel a need to ask.
Stuck at Hadassah University Medical Center over Shavuot and the Shabbat that followed (I was staying with someone who was ill), I found myself in the famed Chagall Windows synagogue. There was but one synagogue for all of us, a motley crew who would, under normal circumstances, never choose to pray together. Haredim and religious-Zionist types. Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Healthy people visiting the ill, and sick people with IVs on poles that they wheeled with them as they were called to the Torah. Religious doctors with phones and pens and secular people who, you could see, just wanted to be in shul at that moment.
Lo and behold, it turns out that all of these people can actually pray together. We don’t usually have to, but when there’s no choice, it can be done. It was actually very moving.
With one exception, though. When we got to the point at which the prayer for the State of Israel was to be said, it suddenly became clear that the rabbi wasn’t going to recite it, and neither was the cantor. So someone in khaki pants, a white shirt, and a crocheted kippa stepped forward and recited it. Some of the assembled responded “Amen”; others just stared at the floor.
“Really?” I found myself wondering. Even here? These people are witness to the real miracle of Israeli life in one of the great healing centers of the world, and even here, someone had to step to the front and “insert” the prayer for the State of Israel into the liturgy?
ONE CAN easily understand why that young woman chose to ask the question that she did. Who around here believes in what? Which brings us to Masada, where the Israeli Opera performedCarmen this week. It was one of those incredible extravaganzas, impeccably organized and beautifully performed. A whole series of magical moments.
Immediately before the overture, the “theater” went dark. From somewhere, a sonorous voice said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Hatikva.”
Instantaneously, the entire mountain of Masada was lit up, and spontaneously, without instruction, 7,000 people rose, stood silently, and then sang Hatikva just a bit faster than the orchestra was playing it.
Three and a half hours later, as thousands of exhausted, dehydrated and utterly thrilled people exited, you could hear them talking.
And you could see it on the Facebook chatter the next day. They’d loved the opera. But what they would never forget, they said, was Hatikva. Given what happened on that mountain 2,000 years ago, the sight of thousands of Jews gathered again, to listen to music, wrapped in confidence and security, was the boost that we all needed.
Amazing, I thought. That young woman is not alone. Most of us are desperate to live in a place that believes in itself. Israelis should not have to head to the sweltering desert to listen to Bizet just to be reminded how deep run the reservoirs of our belief. There are moments, every day, when the leadership of this country could act – and speak – as though it did.
When we expel the Sudanese, is it just because the police can’t control riots in Tel Aviv, or is it because we have a Jewish vision for what this country should be and how it should act? Will we hear anyone say anything about that? When parasites deface Yad Vashem, do we believe in this country enough to rid ourselves of them? When Israelis gather together in iconic synagogues, must the prayer for the State of Israel be an appendage?
Yes, we need to respond to that young woman. Yes, we still believe that Zionism is about the transformation and ennobling of the Jewish people. Yes, we believe that sovereignty leads to responsibility, and yes, reasonability means articulating our basic philosophical and ideological commitments.
Yes, we need to say. And then we need to start acting like we mean it.
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Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center, where he is also a senior fellow. The author of numerous books on Jewish thought and currents in Israel...
The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else. 
Daniel,
One of your better columns in a long time. I’m old enough to remember MICHAEL ELKINS ON CBS screaming into the radio on that Monday morning back in 1967 “it’s over, it’s over” Ezer Weitzman’s Air force had destroyed the Arab air forces,mostly on the ground.
I guess hearing Hatikva on Masada must have made people feel the same way.
Thank GOD for Israel
Thank you, Rabbi Gordis! Your words of wisdom – always perfectly expressed – leave your readers with much to contemplate. As an American Jew planning aliyah for my family in the near future, I would suggest that more and more Americans now suffer a similar “identity crisis,” thanks in no small part to a lack of political leadership and accountability by those in the Executive and Legislative branches, who are interested in retaining political power without regard for ethics, values, sound judgement and accountability. As much as I enjoyed and shared “Saving Israel,” I look forward with even greater anticipation to your forthcoming release, “The Promise of Israel.” Thank you for the important work you are doing, and for the opportunity to write.
I think that the State is right to send back the Africans from wherever they came. Israel is a JEWISH State for which many died and we cannot absorb thousands of un-educated Africans who need medical attention as well as learning Hebrew and a job. We simply don’t have enough land for this. Have we asked the UN to help repatriate them? It is not Israel’s responsibility to take care of them. Dr Gordis I feel like you that the ultra religious who don’t believe in the State should be housed in the Negev or asked to leave. They have no right to stay there and take monthly fees from a country they don’t accept.
Very inspirational, as usual. I visited Masada 6 years ago, and your description of the opera, with Hatikvah, brought it all back. I’m not Israeli, but it seems that the refugees ought to be helped. The idea that they don’t fit in, no room, etc., is what the US said about Jewish refugees in the 30′s and 40′s. Maybe they can’t all fit into Israel, but something can be done.
Rabbi Gordis, once again you have spoken for me and far more eloquently than I could have. The sense of mission, of tikkun olam which I have always associated with Israel sometimes gets drowned out…would that we would all strive to live up to the possibilities that the State of Israel has made possible for us all.Todah rabah for your eloquence and clarity!
Dear Daniel Gordis
I may not have understood fully your article but to me some of your statements are quite misleading and misrepresenting the actual situation on the ground.
For example you write: “Whatever you think our policy toward thousands of illegal Sudanese refugees ought to be, there’s no denying that images of Jewish immigration police rounding up helpless refugees is a distressing one.” and “as the police fan out across the country picking up refugees who once thought of the Jews and their country as a beacon of freedom, as a haven. It may well be that we can’t accommodate them all; but have we no shame? Do we not believe in anything anymore? Not even ourselves and our history? ”
Are you absolutely sure that all the people who are smuggled through our Egyptian border by lawless Bedouins are refugees??
If they were or are so helpless where exactly did they come up with the ransom money of $3K-$5K per head that they pay to the Bedouins to smuggle them into Israel?
Can it be possible that not all are refugees?
Is it logical to assume that most of them are work seekers for a better life for their families?
Are they all Sudanese? I was under the impression that most of them are from Eritrea and other African Nations.
How many of them do you think that our taxpayers can absorb, when only 45% of the capable workforce is actually working and contributing to the GDP?
Dear Dr. Gordis,
As a New York Jew who has lived in Rome, Italy for the past 36 years & who worked in the Voter Registration Drive in Mississippi in the ’60s & later on for CORE to fight against all the injustices faced in those years by black people & other minorities in the US, I feel that African refugees from countries at war or where they fight discrimination & intense poverty should not be turned away by Israel. Naturally, it may be that Israel cannot absorb all who request asylum, but a strong effort should be made to accept as many who ask & aid should be given as simply a humane act to people in need. Jews must never forget their past & frankly I find it terribly wrong for the state of Israel to continue to support the orthodox who rail against the state, do not join the army & express hatred against all who do not agree with them. I find them no different from the various Ahmadinejads of the world. By the way, my friends, Sharon & Jeff Sells first put me in touch with your columns to which I now subscribe on my own.
I look forward to buying your book. Keep up the dialogue!
Best,
Marlene Deutsch
!אמן ואמן
What a lovely column, Daniel.
Analogizing kicking out the haredim and the Sudanese refugees is dramatic.
Yet, would not the stronger analogy be your “have we no shame”!
We won’t ever kick out those whom you suggest.
But we can encourage them to ask themselves “have we no shame”!
Shabbat Shalom U’Mevorach
I am Arnie Draiman’s sister and planned my recent trip to Israel because Carmen is my favorite opera and while it was quite an amazing experience, the singing of Hatikvah was so very moving and it is the first thing I relate to others when telling them about the opera.
Thank you Daniel Gordis for expressing, as usual, uncomfortable questions in accessible clear language, in your paper A Country Still Desperate to Believe.
I would like to add my two shekels’ worth regarding the Israeli youth’s question about “instilling a sense of Zionist passion in a younger generation of Israelis”.
For us, children of the Diaspora and inheritors of 60 generations of being trampled by just about every people we have lived with, Israel is first and foremost a place where no anti-Semite can call me a dirty Jew, for the simple reason that I have a gun pointed at his face. It does not matter that I live in the Diaspora, that is what Israel is to me.
But back to the student’s vital question: why the State of Israel? An Israeli, of all people, understands what it is like to live in a state of perpetual threat. But it is a communal threat, felt within a Jewish State capable of forceful self-defense. So, can a Sabra understand, at a gut level, what it has been like to have no choice but to live your whole life in someone else’s land, more often than not at the mercy of someone else’s benevolence, and without anything remotely akin to a strong brethren and a State (and, wonder of wonders, a Jewish Army!) behind you? Can someone who has not tasted, personally, what it was like before 1948 for ALL the Jews in the world, deeply feel why the State of Israel is unique and uniquely vital?
We sponsor Diaspora youth to visit Israel. Perhaps we should also sponsor Israeli youth to spend a few weeks living among the common folk in today’s Norway, or in Paris or Toulouse, or in the campus of York University in Toronto. (I pick those because they are supposed to be “civilized, democratic” places. I am not even suggesting places where simply being a Jew puts you in mortal danger. Just think of Cairo.) It might give them a small taste of what it has “always” been like; a taste of what, God forbid, not having the State of Israel would perpetuate, for all Jews. It might help them realize what they have, which no Jew has had in two-thousand years, and what it would feel like to not have.
Dear Reb Gordis:
Thank you for the timely message. Israel has dealt humanely with the stranger before. Despite the harsh treatment of the Sudanese, she will devise a comprehensive plan to deal with undocumented workers in the months to come.
Be well,
Bob Choderker
Thank you, Rabbi Gordis. I look forward to your new book with great anticipation. It is terribly sad to see what is happening with the Sudanese refugees. We have many Sudanese now in Australia, and generally they contribute well, work hard and are a lot of fun, but they also have gangs, violence and murders. We, however, can treat them just as we would any other Australians because we have the space – and plenty of it. I wish that Israel had the space, and that the demographics were different, because I believe that in those circumstances Israel would act honourably. The question, Are All Really Refugees? that someone else has raised here – well, this is a world-wide problem. Many tell lies in order to flee their countries, for whatever reason, and often we have to give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove us wrong.
With regard to young Israelis not understanding what it is like to live life entirely at the mercy of anti-Semitic populations – perhaps the person writing above is correct: Send them to live in Poland or the Ukraine for a year, and they will feel it very strongly. Their ancestors would have lived in fear every single day of their lives. Without Israel, we are vulnerable to every kind of torment, libel and insult. Young Israelis could even try living a while in Australia with some success in discovering anti-Jewish attitudes and violence, I’m sad to say. The State of Israel is the best thing that has ever happened to the Jewish people. As someone above has written, it is “unique, and uniquely vital” to us, and somehow our Sabras need to internalize this.
Great column. Many of your readers have forgotten that Israel voluntarily imported ‘On Eagles Wings’, thousands of Africans. It is overwhelming to expect Israel to alone support all those illegals who wish to live there. What other country has offered to teach them a vocation and then send them home with a stipend? Undoubtedly, some will be permitted to remain and may become productive citizens.
I received this article only just now, a fewdays ago.
First I was stuck when you write:” Shavuot and the Shabbat that followed”, now, in my calendar it was Shavuot that followed Shabbat – or did you mean the Shabbat of the next week? Or maybe because we here in Israel we write from right to left?
The migration problem is an universal one and it affects countries near to Africa and along a seashore more than the enlightened north. And in Israel it affects more Eilat and South Tel Aviv than Jerusalem and North Tel Aviv. (I live in neither.) But whenever I dee a humanitarian attempt, I always ask who is “humanitarian” and who is not, and what are the circumstances,
And there is also a question of proportion, 60000 illegal migrants in Israel are about 1 percent, and where starts the overflow?
Nice words are what they are, nice words, but who will have to bear the problems of the nice actions, if you materialize them?
That about the problem with migration.
About Charedim, I cannot bear them, since my previous life abroad. There are keen to “cooperate” with the Zionists, in gathering certificates (during WWII) for their rabbis.
Your observations are timely ,beautifully expressed and moving to a south african jew as i am.
A question Did any of the refugees seek asylum in Egypt, through wich they had to pass?
Your observations and comments are timely, neccessary, and beautifully expressed. To an unobservant,secular South African Jew, as I, Hatikvah is still moving as it has been since I frist exeperienced the singing of it some seventy years ago.
Your article makes a strong case for removing the Rabbi and Cantor (who refused to reciete the prayer for the state-their employer-from thr public payroll, and perhaps al such figures (as in your native USA)