Holding out a Hand - Rabbi Jeffrey Newman
Written by Rabbi Jeffrey Newman Friday, 29 April 2005
AS I ARRIVED ON THE second day of Pesach at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue to begin my ‘vigil’ for the Omer Project, the Senior Rabbi there, Alexandra Wright – in a characteristically generous and thoughtful way – thrust into my hand Voices for Peace, a book published after the New York terrorist disaster of September 11, 2001, in association with the charity War Child (Kiernan, London, Scribener, 2001). The foreword, by the Dalai Lama, became the watchword of the seven week project:
If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome? These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all.
This succinct and powerful piece updates the teachings of many religious traditions. To ‘love one’s neighbours’, even one’s enemies, may no longer be a luxury but a necessity. War and Peace in World Religions (Schmidt-Leukel, London, SCM, 2004) is another thoughtful compilation. Here we read not only the usual apologetics, proving why ‘my religion is better than yours, and speaks only of peace’ – though there is certainly some of that – but also plenty of honest and sometimes painful self-scrutiny, including a spirited romp through Judaism by Dan Cohn-Sherbok, though he limits himself almost entirely to the Bible. What is missing is much evidence that the words of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have yet been taken seriously: ‘If religion is not part of the solution, it will certainly be part of the problem’ (The Dignity of Difference, London, Continuum, 2003) and the most interesting articles turn out to be those of the Catholic theologian Hans Küng on Global Ethic: Development and Goals and one on the World Conference of Religions for Peace, which transcend religious difference and demonstrate the necessity for new approaches, particularly in conflict areas, like the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East.
It was frustration with old thinking – ‘we’re right, they’re wrong’; or even ‘they’re right, we’re wrong’ – that brought about the Omer Project. Sheikh Yassin was assassinated. Five young Israelis, who objected to serving in the Occupied Territories, were imprisoned. And I woke early torn apart – we are killing each other, and what am I doing? My first thought was to camp outside the Israeli Embassy – but that would be to turn Israel into ‘the enemy’, and to be joined by all sorts of questionable companions. Spending seven weeks in a synagogue, the omer period between Pesach and Shavuot, thinking, praying, discussing, reading, meeting, learning seemed more acceptable. But – what was the purpose?
Initially the act itself was its own purpose. I had become ‘disengaged’ from Israel, unable to find a way to respond to a government with whose actions I strongly disagreed. The situation seemed only to be deteriorating – but what could one person do?
To my astonishment, I discovered ‘quite a lot’, though this emerged, oddly, at the end of the Project, only following the question, again of Rabbi Alexandra Wright, at the time of the disturbances in Gaza, and the demonstration by Israeli activists opposed to house demolitions where a protestor was killed by a tank shell. Alexandra’s question was: ‘Shouldn’t we be doing something?’ The question was ‘What?’ and the answers which emerged were unexpected. Though simple protest is always a possible and sometimes necessary response, it is always limited. Overall, it seemed that we need to adopt and foster ‘the positive’. This was a revelation, even though it is clear that what is positive for one person may be negative for another. Here ‘positive’ means those people and projects which foster good relationships, working partnerships, educational ventures, the search for righteousness and justice between Jews and Palestinians, remembering always that almost 20 per cent of Israel’s population is made up of Arabs, including Druze and Beduin, whose living standards and general welfare need much attention.
So ‘Rabbanim b’tikvah’ was born – ‘Rabbis in hope’ – a grouping dedicated to supporting Israel and the Palestinians through what Rabbi Tony Bayfield has termed ‘principled Zionism’, by allying ourselves to a small number of key groups working in Israel in those centrally important areas we have identified. Partially, this will enable us, as rabbis, to speak knowledgeably about what is happening and feel part of it. It will help us to arrange tours and it will ensure that Israeli and Palestinians who visit the UK will be able to meet with members of our communities. But does such work have any effect?
Many of us are sceptical. The scale of the problem is so vast, the entrenched fear and even hatred so great, the intransigence of the ‘other side’ so strong that we tend to feel that ‘nothing can be done’ and certainly that we, ordinary individuals, can do nothing.
Such pessimism is ill-founded. Here are three examples, where ‘ordinary people’ are bringing about change.
The first is contained in a book with the dry title Track II Diplomacy (Feldman, Khalidi, Schiff, London, MIT Press, 2003) which deals with all the ‘backdoor’ contacts and informal discussions in the Middle East to clarify outstanding disputes and explore options for resolving them. ‘Ordinary’ people, several of them people I know, have here played important roles – university teachers, economists, business men, doctors – ordinary people who are trusted by those in power and who have the freedom to meet with the ‘other side’, unconstrained by the usual limitations. Track II Diplomacy outlines the work that can be done when there are sponsors, that is individuals, groups or governments who are prepared to finance and support such contacts and when the discussions are held with the assistance of ‘mentors’, people in leadership positions who will ensure that ideas, documents, understandings that are reached in the unofficial ‘negotiations’ have a wider influence. Reading this book, with its detailed analysis of Oslo, and Stockholm, of Project ‘Charlie’ where right-wing settlers met secretly with Palestinians, meetings that contain more seeds of hope than any of us could expect, of Israeli-Syrian contacts and discussions, provides understanding and inspiration of what is possible – and the limitations. I am proud to know Ahmad Khalidi, who is one of the four authors, together with a Palestinian colleague and Shai Feldman of the Jaffee Centre, and Ze’ev Schiff, defence editor of Ha’Aretz.
John Marks, the Founder and President of Search for Common Ground (www.sfcg.org) is someone else I have just met whose major work is making a difference, not only in the Middle East and Africa, in Indonesia and the Ukraine, in perhaps fourteen of the most conflict-torn areas in the world, but also in the United States, where he is based. Another ‘ordinary person’, whose vision and determination and drive is bringing about change and hope, whose organization, in fact, acted as Sponsor to some of the key Track II meetings in the Middle East, John demonstrates once again that we can, with care, act in the face of inertia and hostility and help develop trust.
No one, perhaps, exemplifies this more than Awraham Soetendorp, rabbi in the Hague, who has become an ambassador of the Jewish people throughout the world in his tireless work, especially for children and the environment, with people of all faiths. His Leo Baeck College thesis was on the ‘waters’ of Creation, in Genesis and Psalms: how strange that now he is also working in Green Cross International (www.gci.ch) with the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (whom he met all those years ago when campaigning on behalf of Soviet Jewry) on issues of ‘water’ throughout the world. One story that Awraham tells is of a Palestinian woman whom he met when at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. When he was introduced to her, she started shouting at him, furiously, venting her rage on this representative of Israel and the Jewish people, who had destroyed her dream, who was oppressing her people in countless ways, and whose anger was uncontrolled. Would it be possible, wondered Awraham, to stretch out a hand even in the midst of all this fury? Literally, Awraham – how was this possible? – sensitively and timorously offered his hand to her, which she grasped tightly, all the while continuing her tirade. And yet it slowed, gradually she calmed and gradually too, over a period, they began to talk, seriously and sensibly and openly.
So – will Rabbanim b’tikvah flourish or disappear as quickly as it has emerged? Fortunately, it is being hosted, for a while, under the shelter of the Rabbinic Development Foundation, a charity which was started about four years ago precisely to support the work of rabbis in Britain and Europe – there is an organizational framework already available of which we can take advantage. How will we know whether we are succeeding? Perhaps in the fact that we rabbis can speak confidently about developments in Israel which we know are contributing to a peaceful and just settlement. There are so many issues which need addressing and we and our communities can be part of the solution. As Jews, we have so many resources – financial, educational, intellectual, spiritual that we can bring to bear when we are determined. And we do need humility – the awareness that with all our power we cannot control but that we must listen and understand and then help, as sensitively as we are able.
And what of the Omer next year? Will it, once again, be a period of renewal and reawakening? Of course n
RABBI JEFFREY NEWMAN, emeritus rabbi of Finchley Reform Synagogue has been involved in Israeli-Palestinian work for some years. He currently works as rabbinic advisor to the Rabbinic Development Foundation and the Assembly of Rabbis and is a Governor of LBC-CJE.
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