Dear Friends and Supporters,
Israelis marked Memorial Day last Wednesday and celebrated Khag HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) on Thursday. The actual Hebrew date of the 5th of Iyar was Shabbat.
My Khag HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) thoughts for this year in some way echo what I wrote for Passover. In both cases I wrote in the aftermath of an attack. However, Independence Day is an opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished in 73 years, what we have not yet accomplished, and how we might move ourselves closer to what we aspire to. This year is unusual insofar as usually “Kedoshim” is the Torah portion the Shabbat before or the Shabbat after we celebrate. This anomaly gives us the opportunity to recall an important lesson from Metzora, part of the double portion we read this past Shabbat. When a plague is found in the walls of one’s home, one must take immediate steps to remove the infected stones in order to save the entire house from being torn down. In my reflections below I recount a conversation with a young settler in the waning hours of Memorial Day. He was surprised that I celebrate Khag HaAtzmaut because he was convinced that I hate my country. Because I love my country, I and my colleagues endanger ourselves. We do not want to pull our house down. We wish to save it.
In Israel, we are doing our best to refocus the attention from me, to the context of the attack, and the fact that we were there because the Israeli security forces are not putting a stop to the intentional settler policy of sending their flocks into Palestinian fields to intimidate, bankrupt and ultimately expel. I spent yesterday in the field with a Channel 13 TV crew. Today Torat Tzedek’s chairprson Yoav Haas and I were in the field with Ha’aretz in English. They witnessed the lack of failure of the security forces to do their job. Links to my Haaretz Hebrew op-ed and other coverage that has already appeared can be found below.
While we are learning lessons from the recent attacks and taking additional precautions, we must be more relentlessly determined than the settlers themselves. I am very grateful for the outpouring of support, but the real support would be policy change. I am cognizant that this story has been widely covered because I am a somewhat known 61-year-old Jewish Israeli rabbi, and there is dramatic video. We will be much closer to the Israel we aspire to when we feel the same amount of empathy for the much older non Jewish shepherd Haj Mahmud, who has lost his livelihood.
To continue our relentless work, we need your relentless and generous support. We raised aproximately half of our minimum budget in our end of the year campaign, and now must raise the second half. You can make an immediate online donation here, and information about how to donate by check or bank transfer can be found at the bottom of this email.
Please contact me at ravarik@gmail.com if you are willing to organize a Zoom fundraiser in May or June. Covid allowing, I am planning to be in the U.S. in early July for a family reunion. If you feel that it is possible for me to visit your community in person at that time, we can discuss that as well.
B’Vrakha (In Blessing),
Arik
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Executive Director
Torat Tzedek
Recipients of the Rabbi David J. Forman z”l Human Rights Prize for 5779
ravarik@gmail.com
+972 50 5607034
Please find below:
Being Brutally Attacked Again Is Not The Story – Rededicating To The Israeli Dream. The version below is more or less identical to the version that appears on my TOI blog. Clicking helps keep it visible to the non–convinced.
Special campaigns to save the home of East Jerusalem activist Jawad Siam, and for our legal clinic for Israelis in need of public housing.
The Prayer For The State of Israel I wrote on behalf of Rabbis For Human Rights in 1998, along with Rabbis Jeremy Milgrom and Levi Weiman Kellman . Part of it can be found in the siddur ( prayerbook) of the U.S. Conservative Movement. (Hebrew and English)
Our Prayer For The Healing Of The State Of Israel. (Hebrew, transliteration and English)
Here are links to some of the additional coverage of the attack, and the issues:
a. My just published Hebrew op-ed in Haaretz. It lays out the history of inaction by the Israeli security forces, the consequences for Palestinian shepherds, the context of the explicit stated strategy by the settlement movement, the consequences of violence for Israeli society, the demand that Israeli security forces do their job, and that outposts serving as bases for crime and violence even more than the average settlement or outpost be evacuated.
b. Hebrew Segment from Channel 12 evening news. The link gives you a menu of all of the articles from April 8th. In the third row, click where you see a black and white picture of me in a helmut.
c. Jerusalem Post
d. Haaretz in English
e. Times of Israel
f. MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv in the Knesset (Hebrew)
g. Hebrew letter of Support from Rabbis For Human Rights, Tag Meir, Oz V’Shalom, Congregation Kol HaNeshama and the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel.
h. Ynet in Hebrew
KHAG HaATZMAUT THOUGHTS 5781
In 1998, the Israeli army came to demolish the Shawamreh family home in Anata for the first of seven times, for lack of a permit that Israel was determined not to give them. While I was in another location getting ready for a planned demonstration that day against home demolitions, a bus on the way diverted to Anata. Two board members of Rabbis For Human Rights, the NGO I directed at the time, were on the bus: Rabbis Ben Hollander z”l and Max Warschawski z”l. It was a violent day. Bullets were flying. One young Palestinian lost a kidney. Warschawski, the former chief rabbi of Strasbourg, and former partisan who fought against the Nazis, was already an elderly man. His worried family begged him to move back, out of danger. He replied “No. This is where I need to be.”
There are places where rabbis, and indeed all human beings, need to be.
Those who observe the tradition of reading Pirkei Avot on the Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuot, read this past Shabbat (Now Shabbat a week ago A.A.), “B’mkom sh’eyn anashim, hishtadel l’hiot ish” Where nobody is acting with menschlekeit (basic human decency), try to be a mensch (the one who does) (Pirkei Avot 2:5).
Some have questioned why I have been constantly endangering myself over the last few months. I have lost track of how many attacks have occurred, but they have included having my ear ripped up on March 21st, and the vicious attack a week ago. Last week my phone was also stolen.
https://www.facebook.com/744388328/videos/1015897…
Of course I have been reflecting and consulting about where to draw the line between necessary and unnecessary risk. Clearly there was a tense situation because the Civil Administration had evacuated the illegal even according to Israel Ma’aleh Ahuvia outpost just the day before, but had then allowed the settlers to begin to rebuild the same day. I have asked myself whether we should have moved away as more and more stick wielding settlers arrived (including two wearing HaShomer Yehudah V’Shomoron shirts).
I and those who were with me, and the members of Torat Tzedek, are drawing conclusions. However, ultimately I side with Rabbi Warschawski, and Pirkei Avot. I have continued to be in the field every day since, and we continue to demand that security forces stop and prosecute the settlers engaging in agricultural theft on a daily basis.
Ultimately, it isn’t about me. On Khag HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day), we must acknowledge that we must be the ones who act with basic human decency because the people who simply aren’t showing up are the Israeli army and police. The real story is not the admittedly horrific images. It is about the evil and injustice that must be opposed, sometimes physically. After all the sensationalism, what I ask you to remember is that for over three years we have been trying, with slow progress being blocked at every step of the way by Israeli security forces, to get those security forces to defend shepherds who lose tens of thousands of shekels per family when they need to buy feed to replace what settler flocks steal when they enter Palestinian fields to devour what the shepherds were growing for their flocks.
At the recent Amana conference on February 20th, General Secretary Zeev Hever (Zambish) was very clear that the goal in setting up illegal even according to Israel “shepherding outposts” is to “seize” and “guard” lands. He claimed that this is more cost effective than settlements because each such outpost requiring a few people and minimal infrastructure “seize” and “guards” some 1,000 dunam. What these laundered words actually mean is that they intentionally use flocks to force Palestinians to give up and leave even those lands that the State of Israel recognizes as privately owned by Palestinians. I would not have to put my body on the line, if our security forces were not employing the various excuses I have written about previously to avoid fulfilling their responsibility to stop this intentional theft and dispossession, stealing the meager resources of families already living on the edge. I would not have arrived last week to report to the police and the army that the flock of Ma’aleh Ahuvia was again stealing what Palestinians were growing on their lands, in hope against hope that after having just evacuated Ma’aleh Ahuvia they might this time do something, had our security forces not allowed Ma’aleh Ahuvia to rebuild. My colleagues and I will do therefore do everything we can on the ground, legally, and in the public sphere, to stop this desecration of God’s Name.
As a result of the attack, the police are sometimes now arriving more quickly when we report that settler flocks continue to steal what is growing in the cultivated fields of Dir Jarir and Taibe. The army has even showed up once or twice. However, if I take yesterday as an example, they didn’t even get out of their cars and identify the settler shepherds stealing from elderly Haj Mahmud , let alone order them out of the fields.
I want the security forces to come quickly not just because they are concerned about a 61 year old rabbi getting beaten, but because they are determined to defend the well over 61 year old Palestinian shepherd or farmer who stands to lose his family’s source of income.
As a human rights organization, we agree that settlements are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, because we believe that convention does apply in the Occupied Territories. However, we generally leave the question of what to do with those illegal settlements to the politicians. That changes when a settlement or outpost becomes a base for terror, violence and crime, even more than a typical settlement. During the wave of violence in 2005, Ariel Sharon made it clear that where there was a great deal of violence, he would evacuate the nearby outpost. The violence stopped very quickly. Today, we need a similar policy.
The end of this last week’s Torah portion, Shimini, deals with kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. (Now a week and a half ago. A.A.) God tells us to clearly divide between what is pure and what is defiled. Our sages taught that a pig is even more problematic than other non-kosher animals because it tries to deceive. It lies down with its cleft hooves forward, and hides the fact that it doesn’t chew its cud.
This is a lesson that should extend beyond kosher and treif animals. The portion uses the words “tamei”and “tahor” (sacred and profane, or clean and unclean) both after Nadav and Avihu offer strange fire God did not command, and in reference to kashrut. There were right wing media outlets who that wrote last week of how we were harassing wonderful youth, without even mentioning the attack. Some have tried to create an illusion of sweet youth who are dedicated to the Land of Israel, and only use violence to protect themselves. I very much want to believe that there is good in these youth, and we can get them to change their ways and actualize it. But, we cannot let them deceive us as to their current actions. They don’t just use violence to defend themselves. They use violence to further their plans of theft and disposession.
They must be seen clearly for what they are, and stopped.
Yesterday, as dusk approached, I said to the two young settler thieves that maybe they could take their flock out of Haj Mahmud’s field, so that I could go home and celebrate Khag HaAtzmaut. One of them said, “You don’t celebrate Israeli Independence Day. You hate the State.” I replied “I love my country. I believe in an Israel that acts decently, honors God’s Image in every human being, and aspires to be a “light onto the nations.” That is not the case today, but I will continue to work to make that vision a reality.” Stealing from hard pressed families simply because they are not Jewish is not the vision laid out in our Megilat Atzmaut (Israel’s Declaration of Independence) I do not believe it reflects the will of most Israelis 73 years later.
As I have written before. In our divided society, we must learn to manage our arguments without violence.
May we all learn to be the ones who is act with real human decency, even when it entails danger. May we all rededicate ourselves on this Khag HaAtzmaut to the dream we once believed in.
We hope that you have already made a generous online general donation to Torat Tzedek, or have resolved to send in a check according to the donation information at the end of this email. However, we need your additional help for several special campaigns. The good news is that, with your assistance, we have successfully concluded our campaign for a field vehicle. The director of our Shepherding Communities Protection Project, Guy Hirschfeld, will no longer need to travel off road in his little Nissan Micra.
We have been given more time to raise the funds to save the home of key East Jerusalem activist Jawad Siam, and we need to raise the funds to continue the operation of the Ma’abarah’s legal clinic we operate on behalf of Israelis in need public housing.
Each of the campaigns has a dedicated link for donations via Israel Gives. You can save us the handling fees by making a donation via the New Israel Fund, but please write to us so that we know what your donation is designated for. After our previous appeals we had to write to some of you to determine whether your donation was general, or for one of our specific campaigns. The link for NIF USA is included in the information for each of the campaigns. The link for NIF UK, as well as how to donate by check, is included in the full donation information at the end of this email.
1. The heart and soul of the Ma’abarah’s legal clinic is the indefatigable Eti Hen. We are grateful to the Hebrew University law students who also give their all, but it is Eti, herself a long time single parent in public housing, that does intake, pounds on government doors, answers the phone in the middle of the night and gives confidence to the fear stricken. Last year the New Israel Fund cut the Ma’abarah’s funding by half, and we do not believe that we will be receiving any funds for the budget cycle beginning on July 1st. We have raised approximately half of the $15,000 we need for Eti’s salary. Any funds raised beyond the funds needed for Eti’s salary will be used for activities of the Ma’abarah, such as informational evenings and protests.
PLEASE HELP US KEEP ETI AT THE HELM OF OUR CLINIC BY CLICKING HERE TO SEND A DONATION FOR THE MA’ABARAH CLINIC VIA NIF (WITH AN EMAIL TO torat.tzedek@gmail.com) INFORMING US THAT YOU HAVE SENT A DEDICATED DONATION FOR ETI,
OR, 2. Jawad Siam sticks in the craw of the Elad settlers. In his recent Haaretz op-ed, Jawad tells how he is paying the price because he has organized an alternative information center, a community center for the children of Silwan and resistance to the efforts of the Elad settlers to “Judaize” Silwan. Having managed to take half of his family’s home and saddling him with enormous debts for court fees and “back rent,” they are hoping to possess the remainder of his home when he fails to pay his debt.
WE WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN!
| תפילה לשלום מדינת ישראל רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָם, קַבֵּל נָא בְּרַחֲמִים וּבְרָצוּן אֶת תְּפִילָּתֵנוּ לְמַעַן מְדִינַת יִשְֹרָאֵל, מֶמְשַׁלְתָּהּ וְכָל הַדָּרִים בִּגְבוּלֶיהָ וְתַחַת שְׁלִיטָתָה. פְּקַח נָא אֶת עֵינֵינוּ וְלִבֵּנוּ מֵחָדָשׁ לַנִּפְלָא שְׁבְּקִיּוּמָהּ וְחַזֵּק אֶת אֱמוּנָתֵנוּ בְּכֹחֲךָ לְהָבִיא גְּאוּלָה לְכָל נְשָׁמָה. תֵּן לָנוּ אֶת הָאֹמֶץ וְהַהַתְמָדָה לִרְאוֹת תָּמִיד לְנֶגֶד עֵינֵינוּ אֶת הָעֶקְרוֹנוֹת שֶׁהִצִּיבָה לְעַצְמָה יִשְֹרָאֵל בִּמְגִילַת הָעַצְמָאוּת. הֲבֵא לְכַךְ שֶׁנִּהְיֶה שֻׁתָּפֵי אֱמֶת עִם אֶזְרְחֵי יִשְֹרָאֵל בְּהַשָֹגַת הֶחָזוֹן שֶׁטֶּרֶם נִשְׁלָם בִּמְלֹאוֹ. תֵּן לְכָל הָעוֹסְקִים בְּצָרְכֵי צִבּוּר אֶת אֹמֶץ הַלֵּב, הַתְּבוּנָה וְהַכֹּחַ לַעֲשֹוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְלֵבָב שָׁלֵם. הַדְרֵךְ אוֹתָם בִּנְתִיבוֹת שָׁלוֹם וְהַעֲנֵק לָהֶם אֶת הָרְאּיָה לְהַכִּיר אֶת צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בְּכָל אָדָם. חַזֵּק אֶת מְגִינֵּי אֶרֶץ קָדְשֵׁנוּ וְהָגֵן עֲלֵיהֶם מִפְּנֵי אוֹיֵב, חֶרֶב סַכָּנָה וְיָגוֹן. טַע בָּהֶם עֹז לְהָגֵן עַל מוֹלַדְתָּם וְהַאֲצֵל עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת גְבוּרַת הַנֶּפֶשׁ לִכְבּוֹשׁ אֶת יֵצֶר הַשִׁלְטוֹן וְהַכֹּחַ. הֲרֵק אֶת בִּרְכָתְךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל כָּל יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ. יִמָּצְאוּ בָה צֶדֶק וּזְכֻיּוֹת אָדָם לְכָל אָדָם. הַשְׁרֵש בְּלֵב כֻּלָּם אֶת מוּסַר נְבִיאֶיךָ “עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת עִם אֱלֹהֶיךָ” (מיכה, ו’;ח’) וְיִגַּל כַּמַּיִם מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה כְּנַחַל אֵיתָן (עמוס, ה;כד’) לְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ דַרְכֵי סוֹבְלָנוּת וְכָבוֹד הֲדָדִי. יְהִי רָצוֹן שֶׁכָּל יוֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ יַכִּירוּ כִּי “לֹא בָאנוּ לְזֶה הָעוֹלָם בִּשְׁבִיל רִיב וּמַחֲלֹקֶת וְלֹא בִּשְׁבִיל שִֹנְאָה וְקִנְאָה וְקִנְטוּר וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים. רַק בָּאנוּ לָעוֹלָם כְּדֵי לְהַכִּיר אוֹתְךָ תִתְבָּרַךְ לַנֶּצַח (ר’ נחמן מברסלב). פְּרוֹשֹ עַל יִשְֹרָאֵל וְעַל כָּל תֵּבֵל אֶת סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמֶךָ וְקַיֵּם בִּמְהֵרָה חֲזוֹן נְבִיאֶךָ: “לֹא יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל גּוֹי חֶרֶב וְלֹא יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה” (ישעיהו, ב’;ד’). יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ שֱׁיֹאמְרוּ כָּל יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל “הִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד”, כִּי יִתְבָּרְכוּ בִּמְדִינַת יִשְּׁרָאֵל כָּל מִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאֲדָמָה. |
PRAYER FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Sovereign of the Universe, accept in lovingkindness and with favor our prayers for the State of Israel, her government and all who dwell within her boundaries and under her authority. On the 73rd anniversary of her founding, reopen our eyes and our hearts to the wonder of Israel and strengthen our faith in Your power to work redemption in every human soul. Grant us also the fortitude to keep ever before us those ideals to which Israel dedicated herself in her Declaration of Independence, so that we may be true partners with the people of Israel in working toward her as yet not fully fulfilled vision.
Grant those entrusted with guiding Israel’s destiny the courage, wisdom and strength to do Your Will. Guide them in the paths of peace and give them the insight to see Your Image in every human being. Be with those charged with Israel’s safety and defend them from all harm. May they have the strength to protect their country and the spiritual fortitude never to abuse the power placed in their hands.
Spread Your blessings over the Land. May justice and human rights abound for all her inhabitants. Guide them “To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8.), and “May justice well up like water, righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). Implant tolerance and mutual respect in every heart, and may all realize that, “We were not brought into this world for conflict and dissension, nor for hatred, jealousy, harassment or bloodshed. Rather, we were brought into this world in order to recognize You, may You be blessed forever” (R. Nahman of Bratzlav). Spread over Israel and all the world Your shelter of peace, and may the vision of Your prophet soon be fulfilled: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).
So may it be Your Will that speedily and in our day all inhabitants of the earth will say of the State of Israel, “It is very good.” (Genesis 1:31) for she will have become a blessing to the entire world and a “Light unto the nations.”
A “MISHEBERAKH” PRAYER OF HEALING FOR THE STATE AND PEOPLE OF ISRAEL
מי שברך קדמונינו אברהם ושרה, יצחק ורבקה, יעקב לאה ורחל, הוא יברך וירפא את החולים, את מדינת ישראל ואת עם ישראל. הקדוש ברוך הוא ימלא רחמים עלינו לרפאותנו מכל מחלה המקשה עלינו להגשים את הטוב שבנו ואת השאיפות לצדק שבליבנו; ביניהן: העיוורון להמצאותך בכל אדם והעיוורון למציאות, החירשות לקול הדממה הדקה בתוך רעש הפחד וההפחדה, קול הענות והמלחמה במחנה; והפקודות; האטימות לסבל של האחר/ת; הרישומים שנשארו מכל מה שסבלנו, השיכרון מהכוח ומהשלטון; השנאה לחושבים אחרת מאתנו; והאהבה היתרה לארץ ישראל, למדינת ישראל, ולעם ישראל ולכל דבר קדוש המסנוור אותנו ומסתיר ממנו את צלמך ורצונך. אנא, החזק בנו את היצר הטוב והחיה בתוכנו את האמונה בעולם המתוקן במלכותך וביכולתנו לקרבו. שלח לנו במהרה רפואה שלמה, רפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף, בתוך שאר החולים/ות, השתא בעגלא ובזמן קריב, ונאמר אמן.
Mi sh’beirakh kadmoneinu Avraham v’Sarah, Yitzhak v’Rivkah, Ya’akov, Leah v’Rakhek, hu yivarekh v’yirapeih et ha’kholim, Medinat Yisrael v’Am Yisrael. HaKadosh Borukh Hu yimaleh rakhamim aleinu l’hakhlamatanu v’l’rfuatanu mi’kol makhalah ha’makshah aleinu l’hagshim et ha’tov v’et ha’sheifah la’tzedek sh’b’libeinu-beiniehen: ha’ivaraon l’nokhakhutkha b’kholadam v’ha’ivaron l’mitziut; ha’khershut l’kol ha’demamah ha’dakah b’tokh ra’ash ha’pakhad v’ha’hafkhadah, kolot ha’onot v’kolot ha’milkhamah b’makhaneh v’hapekudot; ha’atimut l’sevel shelha’akher/et; ha’rashumim sh’nisharu mi’kol mah sh’savalnu anu; ha’shikaron mi’koakh u’mi’shilton; ha’sinah l’khoshev’et akheret m’itanu; v’ha’ahavah ha’yiterah l’Eretz Yisrael l’Medinat Yisrael, v’l’Am Yisrael, v’lkhol d’var kadosh ha’misanveir otanu u’mastir m’itanu et tzelamkha v’ratzonkhah. Anah, he’khezeik banu et ha’yetzer ha’tov v’ha’khayeh et emunateinu b’olam mitukan b’malkhutkha u’v’yekholteinu l’karvo. Shlakh lanu b’meheirah refuah shleimah, refuat ha’nefesh v’refuat ha’guf, b’tokh sh’ar he’kholim/ot, hashta b’agalah’ u’v’zman Kariv, v’nomar amein.
May the One who blessed our ancestors Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Rachel, bless and heal the ill: the State and People of Israel. May the Holy One of Blessing be full of mercy and us to heal us from every illness that keeps us from fulfilling the good and the aspiration for justice that is within us – Among them: Blindness to Your Presence in every human being and blindness to reality; deafness to the Still Small Voice within the thundering fear and fearmongering, the sounds of war and singing in the camp, and orders; hatred of those who think differently than us, disproportional love for the Land of Israel, the State of Israel, the People of Israel and every holy thing that blinds us to Your Image and Your Will. Please strengthen within us our good inclination and revive our faith in the possibility of a repaired world under Your Sovereignty and our ability to bring that world closer to reality. Send us complete and speedy healing of body and soul, along with all who are ill, speedily and in our day. And let us say, Amen.