From The Bimah: Jewish Lessons For Life

How do we think and talk about Israel now as its new government (In Israel, a Hard-Right Agenda Gains Steam. Patrick Kingsley, NY Times, 1/11/23) takes power? Here are five options. Do not think and talk about Israel. It is too upsetting. It is too much. We have our hands full. There are synagogues and rabbis who do not talk about Israel because it is too divisive. Protest and/or boycott members of the governing coalition whose words and policies are anti-democratic and anti-pluralistic. More than 330 American rabbis signed a letter doing just that. Improve your Hebrew so that you can follow contemporary Israeli discourse in Hebrew. As Danny Gordis points out, there is far more nuance, complexity, and movement within Israel than is reported in English newspapers, and we should have humility before giving up on an eternal homeland whose language we do not speak and read fluently. Words matter. Sound the alarm, eschew complacency, for the many red lines that violent words from newl