Israel At 78
Floor Speech
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Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record remarks submitted at the request of a Virginia Beach constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman of Temple Lev Tikvah, and are a reflection of his views: Israel At 78
The world's only Jewish state celebrates its 78th anniversary in the shadow of existential war with Iran and its proxies, fighting along its great American partner with shared values and interests. Professor David Passig's work is of particular value. He was born in Meknes, Morocco in 1957 and moved to Israel in 1968 with his parents and four siblings. Passig teaches at Israel's Bar-Ilan University in the Graduate School of Education, heading the Graduate Program in information and Communication Technologies (ICT), along with the Virtual Reality Laboratory. His doctorate in Future Studies is from the University of Minnesota. In his latest book, The Fifth Fiasco (How to Escape the Traps of Jewish History in the Twenty-First Century), he suggests alternative scenarios to past periods with the goal of avoiding repetitions of fateful and costly mistakes and consequently guaranteeing a secure Jewish future in a sovereign and democratic Israeli state. Passig's underlying supposition is quite chilling, ``Therefore, I want to note at the beginning that those among the readers who accept the Biblical account as a given fact, may find it difficult to understand the ``exercise'' of an alternative formulation contradicting the known facts. To those I want to emphasize that the entire purpose is to examine in a refreshed prose an alternative Biblical text that could have prevented the great catastrophe of the destruction of the two Temples. The occupation of providing alternative scenarios for that calamity is critical when fear for destruction returns to echo in the collective Jewish consciousness of the State of Israel in the 21st century.''
The concerned readers the author refers to are Orthodox Jews and the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew affiliated with the Orthodox Jewish Bar-Ilan University, well reflects on the academic open integrity of that institution as well as Passig's. The widespread Israeli phenomenon in recent years of Israelis holding also foreign passports might support the professor's assertion of, if not concrete fear, a certain Israeli unease concerning the future; not for the state's very survival, rather I believe, a lingering disaffection with the deepening divisions and gaps in Israeli society coupled with a frustrating impasse on Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation and explosive old-new tensions with Israeli Arabs. All that in face of a successful young start-up nation with an incredible record of progress, including the recent Abraham Accords. These contradictions highlight the complex Jewish condition with some million Israelis living abroad, mainly in North America, begging soul-searching inquiry. Israel's small size and more opportunities abroad are saliant factors along with the historical Jewish wandering gene.
The author perceptively points out that the long Jewish tradition to ponder the past on a weekly basis with the discussed study of various interpretations of the Torah, maintained the bond with the people's past, but lacked the necessary alternative scenarios, and particularly arousing ones for the future's sake, and thus former mistakes were repeated with fatal consequences. Passig regards a certain sickness of self-destruction to be responsible for the misfortunes that befell the Jewish people throughout its history, though surely other weighty factors are at play such as Israel's geo-political strategic location which lures empires and superpowers as well as a nation's willingness to risk much for the sake of its ethos and ideals beyond the drive for mere survival, and even finding divine justification for its predicaments whether through punishment or reward. The Talmudic teaching (Pesachim 87b) that exile fulfills God's purpose which is beneficial for both Israel and the world at-large is a case in point. It can be argued also that in the nuclear age it is too dangerous to have all Jews concentrated in one place. The current model is of a sovereign Jewish state with a viable Diaspora, mainly American, along its historical antecedents, supports and nourishes each other for the entire Jewish people's sake and survival.
Faithful to his conclusion for the need to present a shocking future scenario serving to wake up to the possibility that Israel's future as an independent Jewish state is not guaranteed, Passig describes a wild scenario-- one of the offered options by Future Studies scholars-- beginning with an Israeli civil war in the 40's of the 21st century, over unbridgeable disagreements between the political left and right on basic issues such as the Law of Return, the Jewish Nation State Law, the annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria and rioting between Jews and Arabs around the Western Wall and Temple Mount. The violent escalation of internal conflicts accompanied by a costly Israeli military incursion toward Syria's Damascus, ultimately resulting at the 22nd century's end in only 20 percent fearful Jews among some 30 million mostly hostile Arabs. Once a flourishing Israeli Jewish state faces the tragic fate of its previous two Jewish Commonwealths.
While he praises the Reform rabbis for turning away from their anti-Zionist stance in 1937, he shares his disappointment with those ultra-Orthodox rabbis who remained opposed to the Jewish state with Rabbi Shach even blaming the Shoah (Holocaust) as divine punishment for accumulated Jewish sins. The traditional approach holding God in charge of human affairs, does not solve pressing dilemmas that require human responsibility which the Zionist movement's revolution exemplified. Passig is also critical of those rabbis who refused to follow protective measures during the Corona crisis in Israel and generally reject the authority of the sovereign Jewish state. He views American Jewish disunity for the failure to bomb the railroads leading to Auschwitz during World War II, The long exile promoted text replacing territory though territory was preserved in the text, while Islam favored territory first.
The author advocates for Israel's urgent need to formulate a briefly declared covenantal mission statement to unify the Jewish majority along with its minorities around a common theme, while serving to highlight its uniqueness in the community of nations. Passig is concerned that Israel is not yet fully accepted as a separate nation. Whereas the United States' motto is ``Personal Freedom'' and the European Union's, ``Unity in Diversity,'' he suggests that Israel should be defined by, ``The Public's Freedom'' in a binding and intricate system of its individuals' interconnectedness. However, Passig may be overstating the impact of a shortly stated national goal as the most critical force behind a nation's success or collapse in history's long-run. Finding a common theme for Jews and Arabs in Israel, indeed a desired aspiration, faces enormous challenge given the complex Jewish-Arab equation.
Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is founder of Temple Lev Tikvah in Virginia Beach. He is a member of the Holocaust's surviving remnant of European Jewry.
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