In tribute
to Chaim Weizman
Sunday we
will celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday. Beth Yam will conduct its now
annual celebration and we will enjoy the sounds of children and our choir
singing Israeli songs. We will pray for the future of the State as we shall
respectfully remember her fallen soldiers who gave their lives in the defense
of the nation. We shall read letters from the children of our own congregants
who currently live in Israel explaining why they love Israel so much. I hope we
will all participate.
On this
Shabbat it is also a fitting moment to go back in modern Jewish history and
remember in honor of Israel’s anniversary an important speech delivered by its
first President Chaim Weizman. It was a speech that revealed a great deal about
how Israel became a state, about the meaning of Jewish National existence and
also about where Israel is today. And for all these reasons please allow me to
give us a taste of this speech and engage us in considering whether or not we
are contending with the same issues today when it comes to the meaning of
Zionism and Jewish identity as Weizman and the generation of Israelis faced
some 77 years ago.
It was
November 25, 1936 and Chaim Weizman was known at that time as the greatest
ambassador and spokesperson on behalf of the Jewish people in Palestine. Israel,
then under the control of the British, was a long way off towards becoming a
state and who could possibly foresee in the next six years the ravages of
Nazism and Fascism’s decimation of European Jewry and the onslaught of World
War Two. Still Dr. Weizman came to London to address the Peel Commission set up
by the English Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to address the issues of the
Arabs and Jews after a series of Arab attacks against Jews. Weizman believed
that this commission would open up a new and decisive phase in the diplomatic
process for determining political boundaries of the burgeoning Jewish state
which was then referred to as Palestine.
Right before
the he addressed the Commission his associates new the importance of his
testimony and whispered “hashem yatzliach darko” (May God cause his way to be
successful). Weizman himself later wrote of the speech. “I felt that I would be
speaking for generations long since dead for those who lay buried on Mount
Scopus and those whose last resting places were scattered all over the world. I
knew that any misstep of mine, any error, however involuntary, would be not
mine alone but would redound to the discredit of my people. I was aware of a crushing sense of
responsibility.”
In trying to
explain the dilemma for Jews in the Diaspora and why they needed their own land
Weizman writes, “In all countries we try to do our best, but somehow in many
countries we are not entirely accepted as an integral part of the communities
with which we belong. This feeling is one of the causes which have prompted
Jews throughout the ages, and particularly in the last hundred years, to try to
make a contribution towards the solution of the problem and to normalize –to
some extent to normalize- the position of the Jews in the world.”
Yet, Weizman
goes on to say, “There should be one place in the world, in God’s wide world,
where we could live and express ourselves in accordance with our character, and
make our contribution towards the civilized world, in our own way and through
our own channels.”
And I think
this next part of his speech is very telling for Israel today when Weizman
finishes the thought by saying, “Perhaps if we had, we would be better
understood in ourselves, and our relation to other races and nations would
become more normal. We would not have to
be always on the defensive or, on the contrary, become too aggressive, as
always happened with a minority forced to be constantly on the defensive.”
“What has
produced this particular mentality of the Jews which makes me describe the
Jewish race as a sort of disembodied ghost-an entity in accordance with the
usual standards which are applied to define an entity? I believe the main cause
which has produced the particular state of Jewry in the world is its attachment
to Palestine. We are a stiff-necked people and a people of long memory. We never forget. Whether it is our misfortune or whether it is
our good fortune, we have never forgotten Palestine, and this steadfastness,
which has preserved the Jews throughout the ages and throughout a career that
is almost one in the long chain of inhuman suffering, is primarily due to some physiological
or psychological attachment to Palestine. We have never forgotten it nor given
it up.”
The Peel
Report recommended partition into separate Arab and Jews states. This was
viewed as a drastic solution that was rejected by the Arabs and many Zionist
leaders but was eventually accepted by Weizman.
It was never implemented by the British government. World War Two
eventually came and it was only after the war when the United Nations attempted
to revive the idea which Israel again agreed and again the Arabs countries rejected the
proposal which then launched the War for Independence.
If we read
the Jerusalem Post or other news articles about Israel today we will see that
these tensions that Weizman identified seventy five years ago are still
present. Israel so dearly wants to belong to the world and be a normal nation
in the family of nations. They want to use their talents and make a difference
for their own citizens as well for the people of this planet. The truth is that
they have done so. They have succeeded at bringing Jews from the most remote
parts of the world to Israel. Even the new Miss Israel is Ethiopian Jewish. We
cannot begin to list all the technological achievements of the State of Israel.
Think about the arts and Israel’s military prowess and the result is that Zionism has been a successful movement.
At the same
time Israel still contends with the same pressures that seek to isolate her that
Jews faced in the days when Weizman spoke. In that regard the names have
changed and the entities have changed but the mysterious resentment and ongoing
hatred that Israel’s adversaries have towards her continues. And still Israel
must face the indignities of being portrayed not so much as the victim but
today as the oppressor. Either way it is about adversaries using multiple narratives
and fomenting propaganda that either the Jew is subhuman or a conspirator or a
brutal oppressor. Still Israel finds herself struggling alone in the world of
public opinion to the point that the President, on his recent trip to Israel, says “Atem lo
lavad, You are not alone.” That one reassuring statement captured more truth
about Israel’s place in the world than I wanted to think about.
So on this
Israel independence day I advise that we not despair or let the continuing
political chatter dominate our ability to see the big picture that the
overwhelming mission of Zionism to resettle the land and to rebirth a national
homeland has been achieved. Like all nations it is an ongoing effort to rebuild
a nation that requires each generation to redefine what Zionism means and to
reinvent it and to redefine how Judaism fits for a largely secular state that
needs to express itself with Judaism as a religious system although not necessarily within the
traditional Orthodox ways of practicing Judaism.
Yes, our
memories are long and we carry Israel in our hearts wherever we live. And yes
Weizman’s lesson to the Peel commission was worth taking note for today. We
never forgot Palestine. We never have forgotten and have never given it up.”
May I add nor shall we ever again put ourselves in a position to lose it for
Israel may stumble may struggle but it shall shine through the darkness and rise
above the rivalries and hatred of other nations. Let us not lose our own faith
and hope tikvah in Israel’s future as we have kept faith with her past which
ultimately is our past as well.
Even our
Patriarch Jacob could see the future in the land of Israel and not get
sidetracked by short term distractions when according to the Midrash he
returned with his large family and flock to Canaan and met up again with his
brother Esau. He sold all his flocks and set up the proceeds in piles of
gold. He said to Esau, “You own equal
shares with me in the area of the Cave of Machpelah (the burial place of the
ancestors of Israel near Hebron) which do you prefer—to take these piles of
gold or share Machpelah with me?” Esau
said to himself: “What do I have to do
with this cave? I‘ll take the gold.”
(Midrash Tanhuma Parashat Vayishlach) Even then Jacob knew that by keeping
faith with the past he would secure the future. So to it is with Israel today.
Shabbat
Shalom
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