Advertisement
March 31, 2009
Because American Jews have a vested interest in Israel, the community must not only support the Jewish state, but also learn how to help it overcome its problems.
“We need to have a mature relationship with Israel,” said Rabbi Robert Orkand, the president of the 30,000-member Association of Reform Zionists of America. “It needs to begin with the understanding of both the negatives and positives.”
Orkand delivered the Rabbi Nathaniel Keller Memorial Lecture March 13 at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick.
The annual lecture was established by the congregation to honor its former rabbi, who served from 1931 until his death in 1961.
“We try to honor the things Rabbi Keller stood for,” said Anshe Emeth’s senior rabbi, Bennett Miller, “and he was an ardent Zionist and spokesman for Israel.”
In a phone interview with NJ Jewish News conducted after Shabbat, Orkand said he explained why Israel is different from any other place.
“Israel is our place and is unlike any place we might visit,” he said. “We have every reason to be invested in improving Israel, and at the same time, by viewing Israel as a grand experiment of which we are all a part, we have an obligation to engage Israel and not give up on Israel.”
Orkand said that includes a realistic view of its shortcomings as well as a desire to help the country and its people overcome those shortcomings. Key to having a positive impact is to actually go there to find programs and projects to support.
“We need to find projects we can call our own and become engaged in them,” he said. “In short, not feeling one is an outsider, but that one is an insider.”
The problems that Israel faces range from social issues to environmental problems.
“Twenty percent of the population is Arab, and there is not equality there by any means,”said Orkand, who serves as rabbi at Temple Israel in Westport, Conn.
“Number two, the gap between rich and poor keeps growing,” he said. “The gap between the haredim and those who call themselves secular is growing. There is growing pollution in Israel and environmental problems.
“If you care about any of these issues, get involved.”
To become even more engaged, Orkand suggested talking to people familiar with the issues, reading English editions of the Israeli press, or becoming a member of one of the many Zionist organizations in America.
Despite its flaws, the rabbi said, Israel, with its many accomplishments, justifiably stands as a source of pride for Jews.
“We have every reason to be proud of Israel,” said Orkand, noting nothing embodies the spirit and ethics of Israel more than a prisoner exchange last summer, in which a terrorist was exchanged for the bodies of abducted soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
“The Lebanese cheered this guy who murdered a four-year-old girl and her father while Israelis wept as the bodies of two soldiers came home,” said Orkand.
“I’d much rather be one of us any day.”
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
--TOP--
