![\"jews\"](\"https:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com\/2014\/06\/jews.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nListening to a concert, I struck up a conversation with someone standing next to me. I told him I was a rabbi, and once we got past the usual incredulity and discussion of why I don\u2019t have a beard, he turned serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Irish,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd I love Irish music. I\u2019m here celebrating being Irish. But I don\u2019t plan to move to Ireland. I don\u2019t talk about it all the time. Why do Jews care so much about Israel? It\u2019s all I hear\u2014Israel, Israel, Israel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judging by his tone and manner, my new friend did ask this question in a pejorative way. He simply did not know. He thought Israel functioned for American Jews in the same Ireland functioned for Irish-Americans or Italy for Italian-Americans. A place of fondness and sentiment, but not of existential concern.<\/p>\n
Many Wonder<\/strong><\/p>\nHis question is asked by many others. And it is of critical importance today, when Israel faces existential concerns, and when one of America\u2019s largest church groups, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to divest from several companies operating in Israel.<\/p>\n
I found the very best way to sum up my answer is with an insightful joke from Israel\u2019s first president Chaim Weizmann. Someone asked Weizmann why the Jewish people would only accept a state in the land of Israel. There are so many other places where you could live.<\/p>\n
Weizmann replied, \u201cThat\u2019s like asking why you would drive 50 miles to see your grandma, when there are so many other nice old ladies in your neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nIsrael’s Blessing<\/strong><\/p>\nIsrael is not just another country. It hold a unique place in our hearts. It is where the Bible was written. It is where Moses led a people scarred by slavery but enlivened by God\u2019s promise. It is the place the prophet Isaiah described as God\u2019s holy mountain, the source of truth and righteousness.<\/p>\n
The Jewish people left only because they were forced out. And each time they were forced out, they sought to return.<\/p>\n
Without Israel the Jewish people may not have survived the physical and psychological destruction of the Holocaust.\u00a0Without Israel, there would be no Judaism, and the world would be poorer for it.<\/p>\n
Feeling the Pain<\/strong><\/p>\nRobert Frost once defined \u201chome\u201d as the place where \u201cwhen you have to go there, they have to let you in.\u201d Israel is that place for the Jewish people. Even those of us who do not live there recognize this truth.<\/p>\n
Israel is not perfect. No country is. But Jews care about Israel in the some way a mother cares about her children. The Prophet Isaiah makes this very comparison, proclaiming “As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you and in Jerusalem you will find comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n
When others unfairly attack our children, we feel pain. In the wake of the Presbyterian vote to divestment, we feel that pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year I attended the Irish Fest in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The music and ambience make it one of most unforgettable days of the year. Listening to a concert, I struck up a conversation with someone standing next to me. I told him I was a rabbi, and once we got past the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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