Can we all get along?

For all the talk of community, peoplehood and unity in our tradition, Jews have never been very good at treating each other well. From the time of Abraham’s first children, we have been at each other’s throats. However, it is still hard to understand the kind of ongoing violence and anger that haredim in Israel exhibit towards towards non-orthodox Jews and to the state in particular. According to some, haredim believe that they are the ones under attack. They feel that the mostly-secular Israeli society conspires to destroy their way of life. Do we really need to bring in Rodney King to reach across this divide, or can we all get along?

Two recent incidents in Jerusalem demonstrate this problem. First was a series of riots sparked by haredi protesters against the City of Jerusalem’s decision to open a municipal parking lot on Shabbat. Second was a series of riots that erupted when city social service workers removed a three year old child from his home and arrested his mother for suspicion of child abuse. City case workers and Hadassah Hospital doctors claim that the mother suffers from a mental illness but they had been prevented from making home visits or assessing the mother or child's health. The boy weighed only 7 kilograms (about 15 pounds) when authorities finally took him into their care. See more here.

I admit that I have not done extensive research on this subject, but the shoe does not often go on the other foot. There are few cases of secular violence against religious authorities.

So what does this matter to a group of American Reform Jews half way across the world? One of the central goals of Zionism today is to strengthen the State of Israel internally as well as it has been strengthened against external threats. The appeal to prop up the values of liberty, freedom of religion, speech and conscience in Israel does not have the gravitas of Golda Meir's January 1948 appeal to the Chicago UJA meeting. However, the future of Israel is clearly not certain and its character is yet to be shaped. Our opinions and our visions for the Jewish homeland must be part of the conversation.

Of course there is no better way to be part of Israel and to understand it than to go there (just avoid Mea Shearim on rabbinically-proclaimed riot days). But even to follow the news from Israel on jpost.com or other websites is an important part of the zionist goal. Get involved and get connected. Israel needs you.

We've Got a Jesus Problem

You might have thought that Jews were the only ones who have "issues" with Jesus. Turns out we're not alone. Though Jay Michaelson wrote recently in the Forward about our "problem" with Jesus, you'd be surprised to hear how many Christians have a Jesus problem.

Today at Chautauqua, Rev. John Buchanan gave a sermon, "What About Jesus?" that seemed to me like a basic, good, old fashioned piece of Christian preaching. While trying to explain why people should believe in Jesus, Rev. Buchanan emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus: "He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew and died a Jew." Later, some of my Christian colleagues solicited my reaction to the sermon. I wanted to know why the Jewish identity of Jesus was important. In fact, I told them, it struck as somehow inappropriate from a Christian theological perspective to dwell on his Jewishness. It seems to overemphasize the humanity of Jesus and his connection to a system that he ultimately comes to replace (that is, after all, the core of Christianity, right?) Don't they think that Jesus is God? And it seems odd for Christians to say that God is Jewish.

One answer seemed straight out of Michaelson's article. A senior minister explained: "We have a Jesus problem." She went on to describe a mainline Protestant world where most people are uncomfortable with Jesus. They either associate Jesus with some crazy form of fundamentalism or they squirm in their theological uncertainty with the person-God blending. One of the clergy (at another time) referred to the "spookification" that makes Jesus just too "spooky" for a lot of Christians.

It's a strange world out here in Chautauqua land. So much Jesus but, apparently, so much ambivalence as well. Reverend Buchanan certainly got one point right - the question, "What About Jesus?" needs a real answer for lots of people.