Rabbi's Musings

Before I was at CBSW, I served a congregation in Chicago. We sent our students to a Reform Jewish camp in Wisconsin. The camp had an all-Hebrew unit of seven weeks wherein about eighty Reform Jewish high school students would eat, study, and pray in Hebrew with Israeli counselors. I served as faculty. These students were highly educated and committed Reform Jewish youth.
 
One Shabbat afternoon I met with the students alone, with no Israeli counselors present. This traditional event was to allow them to “ask the rabbi” questions. What shocked me was the number of questions regarding Israel and their belief that Israel was not a place they could respect because of the Palestinians.
 
I told them I understood their concern about the need for Palestinians to have their own country if they could learn to live peacefully with Israel. That is when the students made clear that what they wanted was one state that was run by the Arabs. When I asked them why, they said: “It’s their turn to be in charge. What’s the worst that could happen?”
 
Not all the students thought this way. But enough did to make me fear for the future because what I heard was the inability of these students to imagine the evil that is in the world. To imagine October 7. To imagine the Holocaust!
Would that wishing would make it so.
 
What is so frustrating is that, after October 7, there are still some Jewish youngsters who don’t understand that Jews are not safe, and Israel has nothing to do with it. The student uprisings on our campuses are not about ending a war. They are about not allowing Jews to defend themselves. This is about returning to a world where Jews depend on the kindness of others. And these students do not care to learn what happens when that kindness does not appear.
 
We owe it to our children to help them feel prepared for an uncertain future. And part of that preparation is to understand the harsh truths of the world. And how lucky we are to have the State of Israel, whose birthday we celebrate in a few days.
 
Am Yisrael Chai!