Reform Jews: West Bank & Rabbinic Confessions

Day 4 Hanukkah Letter to Reform Jews: Rabbinic Confession #1

As we connect more deeply with the Maccabees’ victory over the Greek-Syrian Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes, we try to understand how that historical moment relates to today’s.  Antiochus is gone and so is Sinwar, Deif, Nasrallah,  Haniyeh and others.  Here’s a question worth asking – why are the Books of Maccabees absent from our Jewish canon.  But for the Christian tradition, the Books of Maccabees  would be lost.  Why? 

Judah Maccabee is every generation’s poster-boy for Reclaiming Zionism.  The Maccabees enabled the Jews of Israel to establish the Second Jewish Commonwealth around 160 BCE.  But on the other hand, Judah’s victory devolved into a Jewish civil war and within 100 years we lost our sovereignty, the Second Jewish Commonwealth came crashing down.  Civil war between us Jews clearly contributed to the loss of our sovereign control of the land of Israel. 

Today, we Reform Jews are part of a deeply polarized people.  Only time and the decisions we make will tell what comes of our internal unity.  Will we Jews listen more carefully, speak with more humility to each other? Will we Jews, Americans and Israelis, like descendants of the Maccabees, suffer the heartbreaking  loss of our Third Jewish Commonwealth?  What insight might Reform Jews take from the light of Hanukkah? 

Just back from a month of talks (in synagogues and living rooms) with Jews in the US,  the West Bank is on the mind of many, many Reform Jews. “Meir, this Hanukkah, I’m so upset about the West Bank; about IDF actions against Palestinians, Bibi’s coalition and Ben Gvir’s racism, about new settlement plans and the horrible violence of West Bank settlers.”  This year, even before Iran and its axis, before vile anti-semitism everywhere and even before rabid anti-Zionism on university campuses, many Reform Jews are laser-focused on the West Bank.

“Meir, don’t whitewash or condone those terrible Jews in the West Bank. What has come of you?!” 

Having served for 4 years as a federal prosecutor (in Los Angeles), before becoming a rabbi, I understand well the critical importance of protecting all citizens from destructive and dangerous criminals and the great danger of not punishing criminals for their violent and destructive acts. So first, to my Reform family – I categorically condemn criminal acts of settlers – against cars, houses, mosques, olive groves etc.  West Bank criminals, Jews and Muslims, must be prosecuted.  Israel is a democracy with a criminal justice system and Bibi must ensure that his government prosecutes Jewish criminals as well as non-Jewish criminals.”  

But Hanukkah is here and almost 3 years after aliyah and 15 months after October 7, I write as a Jew and an American congregational rabbi (for 20 years), not as a prosecutor.  I am keenly aware of our own rabbinic choices over the years.  As the co-senior rabbis, Tara and I welcomed many Muslims to our synagogue and visited many Mosques.  We convened a conference on forgiveness and tried to inspire our congregants to have a broad and deep appreciation for Muslims, for Muslim practices, and for their feelings about Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel. 

Confession #1 – we never once invited a “West Bank Jew” to introduce themselves to us, to share why they chose Judea or Samaria (West Bank) as their home.  We never spent a shabbat learning whether peace with Palestinians mattered to them  their dreams for peace with their Muslim neighbors.  We never created a “Reform Jew-West Bank Jew” dialogue group.  It didn’t occur to us to dignify ‘Jews living in the West Bank’.  The NYT, I suspect, sated my curiosity.  Confession: I was terribly uncurious about the life experiences, the basic values and the highest dreams of my Jewish cousins on the West Bank. 

Many Reform temples have a Muslim-Jewish dialogue.  How many have a “Reform Jew-West Bank Jew” dialogue?  Why did I (we) work so much harder to honor the narratives of our Muslim second cousins than our Jewish first cousins?  So much of my rabbinate was about validating all kinds of experiences and identities.  I completely failed to apply that core value to my extended Jewish family.

I write here with a big question.  Regularly, we Reform Jews reach out to scarred and flawed people, with a deep commitment to understanding and compassion.  Our synagogues often seek to redeem, to forgive, to expand our capacity for empathy and forgiveness.  How many of us believe: “Not every Palestinian agrees with Hamas. Yes, their education is horrible, full of hatred for Jews. And yes, obviously, Palestinians live in abject fear of Hamas!”  Have you had this thought – or something like it?

In my entire rabbinate, I don’t think it ever occurred to me that our compassion for Palestinians’ fear – of Hamas – should flow as well to Jews.  Here’s my question.  Why didn’t my rabbi-self ever ask – shouldn’t we also understand, amplify, validate the intense fear that West Bank Jews feel of Hamas?  Might we try to ask “West Bank Jews” if they feel they are fighting Palestinians or Ayatollahs?  Where do all the Palestinian weapons come from? 

If we work so hard to validate Palestinians’  massive fears of Hamas, shouldn’t we do the same for Jews’ fears as well?  Can we try to feel the terror, dread and abject fear that our Jewish cousins might feel after October 7? 

Might our anger and judgment (maybe even hate) of “West Bank Jews” be mixed with more curiosity and compassion?  Where is our deep Reform empathy, compassion, validation for the massive fears felt by – our Jewish cousins?

That empathy is daily attacked by the “obscenity” distributed by the NYT, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera etc. “The Jews are heartless, violent people. If the Jews just ‘got out’ of the West Bank, Palestinian violence would end.”  But the obscenity is deeper. “The Jews deserve the terror, the violence, the missiles, massacres and the wars!” That’s the message of the lying images they publish. It works. 

Hanukkah is a time to reflect on our failures as Jews. I was relentless at pursuing the belief that Palestinians want peace with the Jews.  Many friends said to me, “Meir, its Tel Aviv, stupid.”  I was largely unwilling to listen, to even become a more serious student of history.  So, let me share a short history of the West Bank, first from 1917-2005.  

West Bank, from 1917-2005 

Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1917, Palestinians have repeatedly said “NO” to a state in the West Bank and Gaza.  Partition and peace with the Jewish people is precisely what they have rejected: the UN’s 1937 Peel Commission Partition Plan; the UN’s 1947 Plan of Partition; and after their disastrous 1967 defeat in the 6-Day War, they tripled down on “No” at the Khartoum Conference – No negotiations, No Recognition, No Peace with Israel.  

In 1979, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula and signed a peace treaty with Egypt.  14 years later, in 1993, Shimon Peres signed the Oslo Accords, as Israel agreed again to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.  In 2000, President Clinton tried hard at Camp David but failed.  Yasser Arafat was offered a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, no settlements, no occupation and a capital in East Jerusalem. It was an historic moment – and tragic.  Overnight, Israeli hearts went from peace with a sovereign Palestinian state, to a 5-year, suicidal Palestinian intifada that killed 1200 Israelis living in Israel – not in the West Bank or Gaza.

After the five years (2000-’05) of 140 suicide bombings on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Avi, PM Ariel Sharon convinced a majority of Israelis to withdraw from Gaza.  In August of 2005, every Israeli Jew was forced to leave their home in Gaza.  Israelis prayed for a sovereign, Palestinian entity in Gaza, committed to peace and prosperity – next to the world’s one and only Jewish state.

West Bank, from 2006-October 6, 2023    

On January 4, 2006, PM Sharon had a stroke.  Ehud Olmert ran to succeed Sharon.  Central to his campaign was an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, just like from Gaza.  Reform Jews, in 2006 the people of Israel embraced Ehud Olmert’s vision of an IDF withdrawal from the West Bank.  They elected Ehud Olmert to become Prime Minister. They voted, so they thought, for peace – for an end to occupation and to settlements, and an end to war.  

Instead, Israel’s vote for a withdrawal from the West Bank and for Palestinian sovereignty – was met with 1000’s of rockets from the Gaza Strip, from which Israel had withdrawn only 12 months earlier.  Today, the vast majority of Israelis agree that a withdrawal from the West Bank would mean national suicide – October 7 massacres all over the heart of Israel.  “Meir, its about Tel Aviv, stupid.”

Israelis left and right believe that the Palestinian cause is about Tel Aviv, not the West Bank and Gaza. Four Prime Ministers, Peres from the far left peace camp, Barak from the center-left,  Sharon from the Likud-far right, and Olmert from the Likud center right tried so hard.  All political sides in Israel have committed themselves to a Palestinian state – in the West Bank and Gaza.  Reform Jews, do we know this history? Do we know any Jews who chose to make the West Bank their home? 

Do we know that the area called the West Bank for 75 years has been known to the world for over 2500 years as Judea and Samaria?  Do we understand that “West Bank” is a purely political term.  All of humanity knew this geographic region as Judea and Samaria before 1948.

Reform Commitment to Understanding & Empathy 

We Reform Jews have worked so hard to understand and to see the best in our Palestinian cousins – Iftars, communal activities, dialogue programs.  Have we done the same with our Jewish cousins in the West Bank?  What to them does it feel like for their Jewish cousins to choose the NYTimes’ political word over more than 2500  years of Jewish and human history?  Have we asked “West Bank” Jews about their fear? Their anger and pain? Have you lost a loved one?  What’s it like to watch peace disappear so many times? 

A young student of ours recently asked, “Do you know anyone who lives in the “West Bank”?”  I smiled to myself, realizing that for him, a mild-mannered, kind and thoughtful Reform rabbi probably doesn’t know any West Bank freaks.  “Yes, I know dozens and dozens of loving, kind, generous, simple, brilliant, courageous and humble Jewish families in the West Bank. All of them pray that one day Palestinians will stop denying, lying about, rewriting our history.  The Jewish people have an historic connection and an inherent right to self-determination, like every other people, to this land, our ancestral home.  

Reform leaders, did we fail to embrace, strive to understand, empathize with our West Bank, Jewish cousins? Have we failed to try to see the best in them?  This Hanukkah, I beg my Reform community – make this a priority.  Encourage your university age children to be in relationship with young Israeli peers.  (If you want, we can help.) 

On this 4th day of Hanukkah, I pray that we make a commitment to this work: to learn, give compassion, even forgive our  Jewish cousins in the West Bank, just as we have so often done with our Palestinian cousins. Hanukkah is a profound time to begin that sacred, holy work.  Our Temple and our sovereignty desperately need our efforts.  

What about the horrific suffering in Gaza?  What about deep, authentic care for the suffering of Gazan children?