The Torah is Political – Rabbis, Jews and Synagogues ought to be too – Follow-up

The debate in the pages of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal between my colleagues Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Rick Jacobs with comments from other colleagues as well about whether it is ever appropriate for rabbis to speak on “politics” from the bimah recalls a blog I wrote some time ago addressing this issue that I present here again with modification.

It’s important, however, before going any further to distinguish between politics, policy, and partisanship. I do not believe it is the rabbi’s place, under almost all circumstances, to ever endorse candidates for political office from the bimah. If they choose to do so as individuals, they have to accept the consequences of alienating members of their communities.

Supporting policy is a different matter, and Rabbi Wolpe believes that we rabbis are not ordained to discuss policy as such, regardless of what we personally believe. He notes as well that in our pews are people who have far more expertise on matters of policy than are we – and he is right.

However, though good people can bring to bear Jewish values and apply them to different policy options on the great moral and ethical challenges we face as a society, if the rabbi can apply Jewish texts and values to a particular policy position while recognizing that there is a legitimate position from Jewish tradition on the other side of the aisle, I see no harm in doing so especially if the rabbi says explicitly that he/she does not claim the last word.

The matter of politics and Judaism is a larger one, and it is that issue that I have written about in a former blog.

Here are the salient points I once wrote that are relevant here:

….Should we [rabbis and synagogues] speak collectively about contemporary issues confronting our nation in particular, such as health care, economic justice, prison reform, the poor, women’s and LGBTQ rights, racism, immigration, religious minorities, civil rights, climate change, war, and peace, etc? Or should we refrain and concentrate purely upon “spiritual” and ritual matters? What, if any, limitations should rabbis and synagogue communities impose upon themselves?

Before I offer a few operating principles that have guided me, it is important to understand what we mean by “politics.” Here is a good operative definition from Wikipedia:

“Politics (from Greek πολιτικός, “of, for, or relating to citizens”), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs. It also refers to behavior within civil governments. … It consists of “social relations involving authority or power” and refers to the regulation of public affairs within a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.”

The first question is this – Should rabbis and synagogue communities be “political” in the sense of this definition?

I believe we should and have every right to speak and act in the sense of the meaning above.

There are, of course, limitations. What we Rabbis, Jews, and synagogue communities say must be said on the basis of Jewish religious, ethical and moral principles that promote common decency, equality, justice, compassion, humility, human freedom, and peace as founded upon the values of B’tzelem Elohim (that every man, woman, and child is created in the Divine image and is therefore infinitely worthy and valuable) and Ohavei Am Yisrael (that we share a “love for the people of Israel”).

We need to remember as well when speaking that Jews hold multiple visions and positions on the myriad issues that face our community and society. Rav Shmuel (3rd century C.E. Babylonia) said “Eilu v’eilu divrei Elohim chayim – These and those are the words of the living God.” In other words, there are many legitimate and authentic religious and moral perspectives within Judaism that must be respected and deemed as Jewish values even when they seem to conflict.

In the realm of partisan politics, the American Jewish community has no unanimous political point of view, though since WWII between 60% and 90% of the American Jewish community has supported moderate and liberal policies and candidates for political office locally, at the state and national levels. We are a politically liberal community, but there are also conservatives among us.

The Reform movement (represented by the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C., the social justice arm of the Union for Reform Judaism) has consistently taken moral, ethical, and religious positions on public policy issues that come before our government and in our society as a whole, though the RAC does not endorse candidates nor take positions on nominees for high government positions unless specifically determined conditions are met. The RAC’s positions on policies, however, are taken based on the Reform movement’s understanding of the Jewish mandate L’aken ha-olam b’malchut Shaddai (“To restore the world in the image of the dominion of God, which means for us to adhere to standards of justice, compassion and peace – i.e. Tikun olam).

There are a few operating principles that guide me personally when I speak or write:

I do not publicly endorse candidates for political office and have never done so in my 38 years as a congregational rabbi, except this past year when it was clear to me that the Republican candidate for President’s statements, tweets, and policy recommendations were, in my opinion, contrary to fundamental Jewish ethical principles and common decency. I did publicly endorse the Democratic candidate for President – the first time I have ever done so as a Rabbi;

When I offer divrei Torah, sermons, and blog posts, I do so always from the perspective of what I believe are the Jewish moral, ethical and religious principles and concerns involved. At times those statements are, indeed, “political,” but they are not “partisan.” That is a very big difference.

We as Jews ought never to claim to have the absolute Truth. There are many truths that often conflict with one another. Respect for opposing views is also a fundamental Jewish value. The synagogue ought to be a place where honest civil and respectful debate occurs. We at Temple Israel have invited people to speak in our congregation with whom many of us may not personally agree, I included;

When we speak in the media, we have an obligation explicitly to say that we do not speak for our synagogue community but only as individuals;

The Mishnah (2nd century CE) says “Talmud Torah k’neged kulam – the study of Torah leads to all the other mitzvot.” The Talmud emphasizes that action must proceed from learning.

Plato warned that passivity and withdrawal from the political realm carry terrible risks: “The penalty that good [people] pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by [people] worse than themselves.”

Rabbi Joachim Prinz, the President of the American Jewish Congress who spoke in Washington, D.C. in August 1963 immediately before Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream speech” said the following:

“When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not ‘the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.

A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.

America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. Not merely black America, but all of America. It must speak up and act, from the President down to the humblest of us, and not for the sake of the Negro, not for the sake of the black community but for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself.

Our children, yours and mine in every school across the land, each morning pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands. They, the children, speak fervently and innocently of this land as the land of “liberty and justice for all.

The time, I believe, has come to work together – for it is not enough to hope together, and it is not enough to pray together, to work together that this children’s oath, pronounced every morning from Maine to California, from North to South, may become. a glorious, unshakeable reality in a morally renewed and united America.”

Respectfully,

Rabbi John Rosove

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should Rabbis Address Politics From The Pulpit – an LA Jewish Journal Debate

The debate between two colleagues whom I admire deeply, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, is poignant, honest, gracious, and deeply important.

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal has printed Rabbi Wolpe’s initial op-ed and Rabbi Jacob’s response.

I agree with both on a number of points they make, but I side with Rabbi Jacobs.

There is a huge difference between being partisan and political. I do not use my pulpit to preach partisan politics, but I do speak about the great policy issues that have moral and ethical implications. Jewish tradition does indeed say a great deal about those questions and, yes, Rabbi Wolpe is right, there are views that may seem contradictory to each other but are both “Jewish” views.

My friend Yossi Klein Halevy, for example, speaks about Purim Jews and Pesach Jews. The former reminds us not to be naive, that there are enemies out there wishing us ill. The latter reminds us not to be cruel, that we who know the heart of the stranger and have in our history suffered the tyrant’s lash understand the critical importance of our remaining compassionate even in the midst of evil.

See “Why my friend David Wolpe is wrong: A ‘politics free’ pulpit is an empty …”

jewishjournal.com/op…/220363/rabbi-wolpe-politics-synagogue/

Proud to be Zionists

The Board of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) representing 1.5 million American Reform Jews met this week in Brooklyn, New York for our Annual Board meeting.

 

One of our chief strategic concerns is to embrace as Reform and Progressive Zionists the values articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence:

 

“The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants;…based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel… ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex, guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture, safeguard the Holy Places of all religions and be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations.”

 

ARZA supports towards this end a negotiated two-states for two peoples resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and our Israeli Reform organizational counterparts (The Israel Movement for Reform Judaism and the Israel Religious Action Center) advocates in the Knesset, the courts, and in the public domain religious pluralism, diversity, and equality for all Israeli citizens, Jewish or Arab.

 

See our ARZA Website for our positions and rapid responses to recent developments in Israel – http://www.arza.org

 

Rabbi Josh Weinberg (President of ARZA) and I (Chairman of the National ARZA Board) and our Board representing American Progressive Zionist Reform leadership across the country are proud to be Zionists.

 

Reform Zionist Movement’s Position Paper on the 50th Anniversary on the 1967 Israeli-Arab War

Few events in Jewish history are as impactful on the character of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world as was the 1967 Israeli-Arab War that was fought exactly 50 years ago (June 5-11, 1967).

The Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) has posted this week its considered Position Paper about that war on the occasion of this 50^th Anniversary, and it can be read here:

Statements & Position Papers | Arza – www.arza.org/contents/statements-position-papers-

On the same site, you can read our “Position Paper in Support of a Two-State solution.”

Each of these statements reflects the position of the American Reform Zionist Movement representing 1.5 million American Reform Jews.

ARZA’s website can be found at http://www.arza.org/ –

See the section “Statements and Position Papers” and then scroll down to read each of these positions.

Note: I serve as National Chair of ARZA. Rabbi Joshua Weinberg is President of ARZA.

 

 

 

Fifty Years Later – A Time to Celebrate and Reflect

I remember well the anxiety I felt as a high school senior during those six days in June 1967 when the entire Arab world mobilized to destroy the State of Israel and push the Jews into the sea.

 

Knowing that Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and other Arab nations were preparing a coordinated attack against Israel, Israeli leaders took the tough decision to strike pre-emptively. Yet, no one was certain that Israel would or could survive. When the fighting ended, however, Israel had with lightning speed in only six days conquered the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, the Old City of Jerusalem and its Jewish Quarter, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Jewish holy sites that had been inaccessible to Jews during the prior nineteen years were restored to Israel, and the relief and euphoria felt in Israel and throughout the Jewish world were powerful and palpable.

 

The fiftieth anniversary of the war this week shines a light on the great diversity of views about the meaning of the Israeli victory that the war provoked in the Jewish world. Much has been written about the war, its origins and implications for Israel, the Palestinians, world Jewry, the Middle East, and the international community.

 

For the Jewish people, there were many undeniable positives – the victory of the few over the many, the reunification of Jewish holy sites to the Jewish people, the conviction that Israel was a fact of history and there to stay and that it would defend itself mightily against any foe, and never again would there be another Holocaust.

 

There is no question that the war was justified and that the pre-emptive strike was a necessity for Israel’s survival. Many believe that had Israel not struck first the Jewish state could well have been overrun and destroyed. And so, on this significant jubilee anniversary, we Jews are entitled to celebrate unabashedly that remarkable victory by the Israeli Defense Forces.

 

However, there are significant moral, political and historical consequences associated with Israel’s victory in that war. The wisdom of holding territory and ruling indefinitely over a hostile Palestinian population has been debated since the end of the fighting in 1967.

 

David Ben-Gurion urged the government at that time to give back the conquered territory or risk corrupting the moral character and integrity of the State of Israel. No one listened nor heeded his words. Instead, successive Israeli governments followed a disastrous policy of settlement building even though it attempted on several occasions to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians. The failure of those bonafide efforts has condemned Israel to perpetual conflict and endangers Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.

 

We in the Reform Zionist movement are not alone in opposing the occupation and supporting two states for two peoples resolution of the conflict because we believe that Zionism must be far more than justifying our physical presence on every dunam of what was once Biblical Israel.

 

Zionism is about reconstituting the Jewish people in our homeland, promoting the growth of Jewish and Hebrew culture, concretizing the great ethical principles articulated by the Biblical prophets, and promoting democratic principles as written in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

 

Zionism is also about caring for our people in Israel and around the world and reaching out to other nations in times of crisis and need. Zionism seeks to fulfill the prophetic call to be an or lagoyim, a light to the nations of the world.

 

Though Israel lives in the real world of competing political interests and in a violent and dangerous region of the world necessitating it to attend constantly to its security needs and the safety of its citizens, security cannot become an excuse for the oppression of another people and the denial of their national rights.

 

This fiftieth anniversary is an occasion for the Jewish people to celebrate Israel’s victory in the 1967 war and an occasion to continue to advocate on behalf of the best interests of the Jewish state by striving to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regardless of the obstacles that are so obviously in the way.

 

 

 

 

“Why Judaism Matters” Pre-Order My Book to be published September 26

My book “Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to His Children and the Millennial Generation” is a common sense guide and road map for a generation of young men and women who find Jewish orthodoxy, tradition, issues, and beliefs impenetrable in 21^st Century society. By illustrating how the tenets of Judaism still apply in our modern world, I offer direction not only to my own sons but to the sons and daughters of Reform Jews everywhere. My sons, Daniel and David, have written the Afterword. The book will be published on September 26 by Jewish Lights Publishing (a division of Turner Publishing).

Why Judaism Matters -Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation

Rabbi John Rosove

6 x 9, 240 pp, Paperback, 978-1-68336-705-5

http://www.jewishlights.com/page/product/978-1-68336-705-5

Why Judaism Matters: Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation – Kindle edition by Rabbi John Rosove.

The Beleaguered Tenants of ‘Kushnerville’ – by Alec MacGillis

Jared Kushner was raised in a traditional Jewish home with, allegedly, traditional Jewish values. However, as this exhaustive article reveals (it was written by Alec MacGillis and co-published with the New York Times Magazine), Jared never understood that among the most important purposes of Torah law and rabbinic legal tradition is to curb the acquisitive instinct and to instill a sense of justice and compassion in every Jew and in the Jewish community as a whole.

I suggest that whatever Jewish education Jared received, he learned little despite being observant today, and his teachers, despite what I would imagine were noble efforts, failed to instill in him the moral and ethical spirit of Judaism and the Jewish people.

As someone who takes seriously the rabbinic principle Kol Yisrael acharei zeh la-zeh (Jews are responsible for one another), when learning of stories like this one I feel enormous shame.

The article focuses on the following story line:

Tenants in more than a dozen Baltimore-area rental complexes complain about a property owner who they say leaves their homes in disrepair, humiliates late-paying renters and often sues them when they try to move out. Few of them know that their landlord is the president’s son-in-law.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-beleaguered-tenants-of-kushnerville?wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1

Israeli Light #3 – Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem of Holon, Israel

Israeli Light #3 – Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem of Holon, Israel

I received two urgent emails on Friday morning, May 5, asking me to contact Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem, the Rabbi of Kehilat Kodesh v’Chol in Holon, Israel with whom my congregation was in a sister synagogue relationship. Both asked me to extend Galit my emotional support.

One came from Rabbi Nir Barkin, the Director of Domim, a program funded jointly by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) that links Israeli synagogues with Diaspora congregations. The other was from my ARZA President, Rabbi Joshua Weinberg.

Earlier that day in Jerusalem, Rabbi Noa Sattat, the Executive Director of Israel’s Religious Action Center, asked me to give Galit a hug for her that night when my leadership tour would be spending Shabbat with her congregation.

None of the three explained what had occurred that provoked them to reach out to me. I am well aware of how challenging Galit’s work is and I assumed they were just encouraging me to be as supportive as I could be.

Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem began this Holon Reform community located southeast of Tel Aviv five years ago. A thriving city of 250,000 mostly secular middle-class Jews, it is fertile ground for the growth of non-Orthodox liberal Judaism. Given Galit’s keen intellect, open heart, liberalism, and her infectious enthusiasm, if anyone can build a community there, she can.

Kehilat Kodesh v’Chol does not yet have its own building. It rents space for services and classes and has enormous potential to be a center of Reform Jewish life in Holon. Its congregants include people of every walk of life and many highly educated and professionally productive members. For example, the community’s chair is Heidi Pries, a researcher, and lecturer at Tel Aviv University School of Social Work. Her husband Ori is a lead web developer in a Tel Aviv-based web company. Another member, Anat Dotan-Azene, is the Executive Director of the Fresco Dance Company and her husband Uri is the tech director of a leading post production sound studio for Israeli television and film. Another member, Michal Tzuk-Shafir, is a leading litigator in the Israeli Supreme Court and was President Shimon Peres’ (z’’l) legal advisor. Her husband Nir is an industrial engineer working as an information systems manager. Galit’s husband Adar is the former chief inspector of civic studies and political education of the Israeli Ministry of Education and is the soon-to-be manager of teachers’ training at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In association with her congregation, Galit created a Reform Jewish elementary school that is a part of Israel’s national secular school system. More than 100 children are enrolled in kindergarten, first and second grades and a grade is being added every year.

Despite all the activity, Kodesh v’Chol faces substantial financial and space challenges because unlike Israel’s orthodox synagogues and yeshivot, the Reform and Conservative movements receive no government funds due to the political hegemony of the Orthodox political parties.

In the secular city of Holon, Galit did not anticipate what was to take place the night before my leadership group joined her for Shabbat services, which turned out to be the reason for the two emails and Noa Sattat’s concern.

Galit’s elementary school had been offered classroom space in a Holon public school for this coming year by the Holon municipality, and a meeting was planned on the night before our arrival with all the parents. However, four uninvited parents from the public school that was hosting Galit’s congregation’s school crashed the meeting and began screaming obscenities against Reform Judaism, Rabbi Cohen-Kedem and the planned-for presence of the students in the local public school building.

They viciously threatened Galit and warned that the children themselves would be in danger should the congregation’s school be on the premises. They said that they would spit on the children.

Galit confessed to me that she lost her cool, but when I asked what that meant, it was clear (recalling Michelle Obama) that though Galit was deeply offended and upset by the behavior of these parents, ‘when they went low she went high.’

Galit called the principal of the school and though apologetic and embarrassed, she would not take action against the offending parents.

Galit called the municipal authorities who had given the Kodesh V’Chol School its space and demanded that they find new classroom space. At this time, we are waiting to learn where the school will be housed.

I and our group were stunned, but in hindsight, we should not have been surprised. The Reform movement in Israel still has a long way to go in establishing itself as broadly as possible.

At the moment the Israeli Reform movement attracts 8% of all Israelis. According to surveys, however, when Israelis are asked about their attitudes towards Reform and Conservative Judaism, between 30% and 40% say that if there were a Reform or Conservative synagogue in their neighborhood, they would attend.

I told Galit how proud I am of her for the dignity and resolve with which she stood her ground and responded with moral indignation to those offending parents. I was moved as well that she placed the welfare of the children first. She refuses now to use this public school out of concern for the well-being of the children.

I also expressed my own conviction that this ugly incident could be a watershed moment for her community.

When word spread of the Thursday night encounter, many more families showed up for services. There were more than a hundred men, women and children singing and praying together. The children came under a tallit for a special blessing. Modern Hebrew poetry and music was sung along with music from the American Reform movement. The service was warm-hearted, upbeat and joyful.

Galit delivered a passionate and moving sermon based on two verses from the weekly Torah portion Kedoshim (Leviticus 19) – “You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart” and “You shall love your fellow as yourself.”

She did not mention the incident from the night before, but everyone understood the context of her remarks.

Galit represented the very best of Judaism generally and the Israeli Reform movement specifically.

That was a Shabbat service I will never forget and Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem has shown herself to be one of the bright lights in the firmament of Israeli leaders.

An Assault on Holocaust Memory

The following was written by Alan Elsner, special advisor to the President of J Street. Alan is a journalist who formerly covered the State Department and the White House for Reuters. In this letter, he writes as a child of survivors.

 

I share Alan’s angst and deep concern about an assault on Holocaust memory.

 

He writes:

 

“Tomorrow, April 24, is Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day — and never in my lifetime has it seemed more necessary or more relevant.

 

As the child of a Holocaust survivor, who himself is no longer here to testify, I have always felt a great personal responsibility to bear witness. I spent years collecting, writing and publishing my family’s tragic story.

 

I promoted the construction of memorials, both here in the United States and in Europe. Naively, I thought the battle over the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II had been won. After all, we succeeded in erecting Holocaust museums and memorials in every major US city — even in places like El Paso, Texas and Terre Haute, Indiana.

 

I watched with satisfaction as the Shoah was deeply ingrained and widely explored in US popular culture with movies like Schindler’s List, The Piano and Life is Beautiful, as well as many others. Several states — including New York, California, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey and Michigan — passed laws mandating that all children learn about the Holocaust in school.

 

The events of the past year have shattered my complacency.

 

First, as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump allowed his campaign to exploit images and memes clearly drawn from the history of anti-Semitism. Then, in February, his White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Memorial Day excluding mention of the Jews as primary target and victims of the historic crime against humanity.

 

Nearly two weeks ago, White House spokesman Sean Spicer outrageously claimed that Syrian President Assad’s use of poison gas against his own people exceeded in horror the Nazis’ industrial-scale use of poison gas to murder millions of people, primarily Jews. Spicer showed his insensitivity and ignorance by coining the cleansing term “Holocaust centers” to describe the Nazi extermination camps.

 

As if this was not enough, we also have the specter of a leading French presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, denying French culpability for the round-up and deportation of thousands of Jews to German camps, where most died during World War II.

 

In our own country and around the world, there seems to be a rising tide of discriminatory and exclusionist nationalism, exploiting fears and demonizing “the other” for political gain. Time and again, leaders of this trend have demonstrated a shocking disregard for the facts, details and lessons of the Holocaust.

 

Apparently, in an age of “fake news,” “alternative facts” and rising xenophobia, we can no longer assume that the facts of the Shoah are widely accepted, or even known. Spicer’s comments are instructive. Given the endless list of movies, books, plays, works of art and even graphic novels with Holocaust themes that have saturated the culture, it must have taken extraordinary efforts for someone like Spicer — an educated and well-informed individual in the thick of US politics — to close his eyes and ears to them.

 

Presumably, the message of the Holocaust is not one that they are much interested in hearing — or understanding.

 

What about the message might they find objectionable? Perhaps the fact that vilifying, demonizing and targeting an entire ethnic or religious group can lead to catastrophe? That refusing aid and refuge to refugees fleeing conflict can doom them to a horrific fate? That such acts of cruelty may begin small but have a terrifying way of expanding?

 

For those of us concerned with preserving Holocaust memory, there are lessons too. We must consider whether we have focused too much on the chronology and mechanics of the Shoah and too little on the universality of its message, on its urgency and continued relevance in our times.

 

I do believe that the Holocaust is a birthright we must handle with care. We cannot allow its lessons to be cheapened by misused or diluted by overuse.

 

But neither is the Shoah an historical artifact to be guarded and preserved in museums and archives. It is a living legacy that summons and challenges us in all of our political work here, in Israel and around the world.

 

It is a touchstone for all we do and all we are. And this year of all years, the challenge is stark and the task is clear.”

 

– Alan Elsner

The 74th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

On April 19, 1943, under the command of SS General Juergen Stroop, Nazi tanks entered what remained of the Warsaw Ghetto to search out, arrest, and send the final 750 Jewish survivors to the death camp at Treblinka. However, the might of the Nazi death machine came up against one of the greatest acts of resistance by the Jewish people during World War II.

It took one month for the Nazis to put down the uprising and completely destroy the Warsaw Ghetto officially ending the uprising on May 16, 1943, though we know that a few Jews escaped to tell the full story through the sewers of the city.

In the history of the Warsaw Ghetto recorded in real time by Emmanuel Ringelblum, we read:

“Whomever you talk to, you hear the same cry: The resettlement never should have been permitted. We should have run into the street, set fire to everything in sight, have torn down the walls, and escaped to the Other Side. The Germans would have taken their revenge. It would have cost tens of thousands of lives, but not 300,000. Now we are ashamed of ourselves, disgraced in our own eyes, and in the eyes of the world, where our docility has earned us nothing. This must not be repeated now. We must put up a resistance, defend ourselves against the enemy, man and child.”  (“Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum,” ed. and translated by Joob Solan. NY: Schocken Books, 1958, p. 326.)

Henrich Himmler had ordered the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto on April 19, 1943, one day in advance of Hitler’s birthday. When the Nazis entered the ghetto with their tanks, however, the 750 Jewish resisters attacked and burned their first tank. The Nazi soldiers were stunned and retreated.

I encourage you to read the complete story of the ghetto uprising in David Kopel’s article published on October 10, 2015 in the Washington Post, “The Warsaw ghetto uprising: Armed Jews vs. Nazis” (Opinion).

Temple Israel of Hollywood will commemorate Yom Hashoah this coming Sunday, April 23 from 4:30 PM to 5:45 PM. We welcome two survivors and a college student who grew up in our congregation who together participated in the Los Angeles Bureau of Education’s “March of the Living”.

As part of our commemoration, survivors, children of survivors, and grandchildren of survivors will kindle 6 flames in memory of those who perished.

The community is invited.