Hard day? The worst.

This is not good.  Simply put, it is very bad.  The worst.  A "flotilla" of six ships bringing supplies and activists opposed to Israel's closure of Gaza was enroute to Gaza with expressed intentions of breaking the Israeli naval blockade.  Israel made it clear they would not allow the ships through and directed the ships to the port of Ashdod (see the video below).

As it became clear that the ships were not going to turn from their objective, Israeli naval commandos stormed the ships.  Anywhere from 9 to 15 (I've seen varying reports) people on the ships were killed by the Israeli forces.  At least seven Israeli commandos were injured, two severely.  The circumstances are in dispute.  The facts are not clear beyond the numbers killed and injured and that this happened about 70 miles out to sea. Already there are widely different accounts from the Israeli government and soliders and the flotilla organizers and participants.  You can see the video below and many others like it that have been posted to YouTube.  Whatever the videos show, it is obvious that something went very wrong.  It also seems obvious that Israel will bear the brunt of the criticism and responsibility for this violent incident.  It also seems clear, however, that these humanitarian protesters were not the non-violent followers of Gandhi nor was this the Middle Eastern equivalent of th Freedom Riders buses in the American civil rights movements.  The UN Security Council is in emergency session about this incident - probably the tip of the iceberg of diplomatic and media (if not, God forbid, outright physical) assault that Israel and Israelis will face in coming day and weeks.



All I can say is that this is a shande - it is shameful, terrible and could have (SHOULD HAVE) been avoided.  It is a shame on so-called "humanitarian" critics of Israel to be defending club wielding thugs affiliated with terrorist groups (watch the video above) and there is nothing for Zionists to be proud of in these killings.

Here's a few links to Jewish sources I follow and their initial reactions and reports of the event:

Scholar and Rabbi Daniel Gordis offers his defense of Israel and its actions on his blog.

Ynet news account from an Israeli reporter, Ron Ben-Yishai.

Haaretz blogger, Bradley Burston, critiques the Israeli action and the Gaza blockade in general.

Moral Clarity, Transition and the Street

As much as I like to read one book at a time, my recent acquisition of a Kindle (love it) has shifted my reading into overdrive.  I am juggling three things at once (not well, I should admit).  I started with Susan Neiman's "Moral Clarity" after seeing it cited in a Haaretz op-ed piece that struck a chord with me.  Neiman is an expert on Kant and the Enlightenment and she turns to that era for guidance for "grown up idealists" today.  She starts by acknowledging that the American left has ceded moral principles to the right and now holds nothing more than "helpless pragmatism."  She puts it like this in her introduction: "This book aims to reclaim moral concepts that the left no longer uses with full voice.  Reclaiming them from the right isn't a matter of packaging but of the conviction that without them we will lose our souls - whatever we take our souls to be.  We will also lose our footing, and our young. The inevitability of cynicism often looks like the twenteith century legacy, but one goal of philosophy is to enlarge our ideas of what is possible... [that] will take us back to concepts that have been abandoned to the right: good and evil, hero and dignity and nobility."  I admit here that my journey from academia to the pulpit was, at least in part, a response to my growing cynicism: frustration (and at times out-right disillusionment) with the leading intellectual ideas on the left, my discomfort with knee-jerk anti-Israel sentiment from the left, my rejection of moral relativism.  Some would see my most recent moves as a shift to the right: I am now reading the Wall Street Journal as my daily paper of choice and the New York Times for Sundays only (I'll still take Frank Rich and David Brooks' over Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan).  When I get to DC, I will surely add the Washington Post to my daily regimen. We'll see how my eyes hold up under the strain.

It is not a shift to the right so much as an embrace of moral clarity. You can call me old fashioned but I believe in the values of duty, patriotism, and character; the power of faith; and the importance of family. I do believe that there is right and wrong, good and evil.  I believe in phrases like "Never Again" and "There but for the grace of God go I."  I believe in the power of ideas (that led me to academia) but it's where the rubber meets the road that we make the world a better place (that led me to the rabbinate).  It doesn't hurt that a congregant is an editor at the Journal while the Times laid off a congregant who had loyally stuck with the paper through ups and downs.  Personal connections matter.

My other book actively open at this time? Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days.  A Harvard Business School publication about executive leadership transition.  Very helpful stuff.  I know you will see its impact on my work and we will all enjoy success through the upcoming transition because of it.  A gem: "The overriding goal in a transition is to build momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build credibility and avoid vicious cycles that undermine credibility."  Sounds easy enough on paper, why's it so hard in practice?

Books of the month: What I just read

Whenever I sat over lunch with my friend Marty Cole, z"l, we talked shop.  He was a sales manager constantly looking to bring out the best in his team and in himself.  He loved ideas and was a "student of the game" who always believed we could improve.  I'd like to describe myself the same way.  I just finished reading the last book he suggested to me, Moneyball by Michael Lewis (soon to be a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill).  Through the story of Billy Beane, Oakland A's general manager, Lewis presents important lessons for organizations and their leaders:  Too often we make major decisions based on nothing but gut, intuition, emotion or appearances. It's not how much money you spend but how you spend it.  Leaders who are willing to break the "rules" (not literally but in terms of industry culture) and use good, measurable, outcome-oriented information to make decisions that contravene the accepted wisdom of their industry can succeed far beyond expectations.  The "club" of industry insiders will reject that success and explain it away irrationally and emotionally rather than admit their own failure (or, the old guard will always dismiss the new guard and the more the new guard succeeds the more hysterical the old guard will become).  Luck and "the human element" can mess up the best scientifically based and perfectly executed theories.  Describing pitcher Chad Bradford, Lewis shows how self-doubt and insecurity can destroy the future success of a person whose past performance otherwise seems to guarantee it: "Chad doesn't know that he will retire batters at such a predictable rate that he might as well be a robot. As a result, he might not do it." The story of Scott Hatteberg teaches how people can grow and improve with the help and support of others.  Hatteberg's wife spent weeks hitting ground balls to him so he could learn to play first base and thereby stay in pro baseball and his fielding coach practically manufactured his skill at picking up difficult throws by constantly calling Hatteberg a "picking machine."  Moneyball has lots of great stories for leaders trying to navigate new territory.  There is applicable material here for the synagogue and Jewish organizational world.  Take Marty's advice and mine: Read it before the movie blows it for you.

We Mourn the Passing of Rabbi David Forman

Rabbi David Forman was our scholar-in-residence at MRT about 5 years ago. He was a well known rabbi and community leader, a prolific writer, activist and more. The following notice was published by the World Union for Progressive Judaism:

WORLD UNION MOURNS THE PASSING OF RABBI DAVID FORMAN

We at the World Union mourn the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Rabbi David Forman z"l, who passed away May 3 in Dallas, Texas, while awaiting a liver transplant. He would have turned 66 next week.

Rabbi Forman made aliya in 1972 and served on the staff of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem, and later led the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, today the Union for Reform Judaism. He was the founder of Rabbis for Human Rights and was always a strong voice for religious pluralism.

His funeral was today in Israel.

Our loving prayers go out to his wife, Judy, daughters Tamar, Liat, Shira and Orly, and all his family. David was the consummate activist whose commitment to the principles of Progressive Judaism, Zionism and human rights for all God's children will continue to inspire each and every one of us. May his memory be for a blessing.

Count your change...

One of my favorite stories from the High Holy Day collections of my colleagues is about change. Hanging near the door or propped by the register at many stores is a small sign that says: "Count your change before you leave." One of those colleagues saw a fitting holy day message there: before you leave the synagogue on Yom Kippur, be sure you look back on the 10 days and count how you've changed.

Well this isn't Tishrei and I don't do sermons on this blog, but it is time to count the change. With my impending move to Washington, I had put the blogging on hold. Then, last week, Meet The Press unveiled their new set. It got me thinking that this is time to change our set. Send me your feedback and suggestions. I'm counting the change.