Rabbi, award winning journalist, author of "Embracing Auschwitz" and "Mensch-Marks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi"

Time to stand down — and stand up for unity

Sep 3, 2015, 10:15 PM

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And Cory Booker makes 35.

When AIPAC is ready to return to true bipartisanship, a whole lot of pro-deal and neutral rabbis will be there, with open arms. I for one, who have stayed neutral on the deal, will be. We need a strong, bipartisan Israel-US relationship. It’s worth a lot more than a few more votes from pressured Congressmen and Senators for a can’t-win effort. And it’s time for other anti-deal Jewish organizations to move on as well, so that American Jewry can go into the High Holidays in a mode of healing, rather than needless conflict.

With the 20th anniversary of the Rabin assassination just a few weeks away, the Prime Minister and all who went through that horrible time are well aware of the dangers of animosity run amok. It’s time for the opponents to stand down, and stand up for unity.

So let’s see how many unprintable comments I receive, thereby proving my point.

About the Author

Award-winning journalist, father, husband, son, friend, poodle-owner, Red Sox fan and rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT. Author of Mensch-Marks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi – Wisdom for Untethered Times and "Embracing Auschwitz: Forging a Vibrant, Life-Affirming Judaism that Takes the Holocaust Seriously." His Substack column, One One Foot: A Rabbi's Journal, can be found at https://rabbijoshuahammerman.substack.com/ Rabbi Hammerman was a winner of the Simon Rockower award, the highest honor in Jewish journalism, for his 2008 columns on the Bernard Madoff case, which appeared first on his blog and then were discussed widely in the media. In 2019, he received first-prize from the Religion News Association, for excellence in commentary. Among his many published personal essays are several written for the New York Times Magazine and Washington Post. Contact Rabbi Hammerman: joshuah@tbe.org