Statement
of the Rabbinical Assembly on Jerusalem Decision:
Thursday December 7,
2017
The
Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the entire
worldwide Masorti/Conservative Movement listed below, issued the following
statement today following President Trump’s announcement that the United States
will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and take initial steps to relocate
the American diplomatic mission in Israel to Jerusalem:
Jerusalem
is Judaism’s holiest city and the capital of the state of Israel, as the
Conservative movement has long maintained in resolutions and public statements.
We are pleased, at the President's initiative, that the United States
government will now recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin the process of moving the
American diplomatic mission there from Tel Aviv.
The
status of Jerusalem is a matter to be settled in direct negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinians. But in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
and planning to move the American embassy to a location under uncontested
Israeli sovereignty, the U.S. government acknowledges the age-old connection
that Israel and the Jewish people maintain with the holy city.
We urge
the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community to
take the bold steps needed to advance a two-state solution and a regional
accord between Israel and its neighbors. Now more than ever, Israelis and
Palestinians deserve a just and durable peace that protects the security of
Israelis and grants to Palestinians an independent state in which to realize
their national aspirations.
Rabbinical
Assembly
United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Cantors
Assembly
Federation
of Jewish Men's Clubs
Jewish
Educators Assembly
Jewish
Theological Seminary
Masorti
Foundation
Masorti
Israel
Masorti
Olami
Mercaz
Olami
North
American Association of Synagogue Executives
Seminario
Rabinico Latinoamericano
Women’s
League for Conservative Judaism
The single
most important thing to know and to build your thoughts on the week’s news
around is the following. Do you believe
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel? Or
more precisely, had it ever really crossed your mind that Jerusalem wasn’t the
capital of Israel? Even if you were
aware of the details of the situation prior to today – if you were going to
Israel, what’s in your mind about what Jerusalem is vs. what Tel Aviv is? And when you were in Jerusalem, what was the
meaning of seeing the Knesset building, the Supreme Court building, the
President’s residence or walking down the street in front of the Prime
Minister’s house? Were you not in the
capital city of the country?
And so if you
were, if you knew that already, as I did, my first statement is what difference
did it make to you that “officially” the US did not, prior to Wednesday,
acknowledge what you already knew and had experienced? (Although technically, it has been US law
since 1995 that an “undivided” Jerusalem should be considered capital of
Israel, and Trump, notably, didn’t even say that.)
See for me,
as much as I love the United States, it is my country, and it almost feels
preposterous to have declare that out loud as if there were any doubt, I don’t
need Trump or anyone else to tell me what is right and correct, and in this
case, it is that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the heart of the Jewish
people. In much the same way as when the
Pope endorses the position Jerusalem should be a corpus separatum, an international city, or when Iran declares that
Jerusalem is not the capital because
there shouldn’t even be a State of Israel at all – not only do those
statements, unlike what the US said on Wednesday, not only do such statements
completely ignore the reality of what is on the ground, but
more, they are, more than even being
wrong, they are irrelevant.
This is the
lesson of our parshah this morning, when we are told, after all that Joseph has
endured, the pit, servitude, foreign lands, כִּ֥י יְהוָ֖ה אִתּ֑וֹ וְכֹל֙ אֲשֶׁר־ה֣וּא עֹשֶׂ֔ה יְהוָ֖ה מַצְלִ֥יחַ בְּיָדֽוֹ׃ “Lord was
with him, and the Lord caused
all that he did to prosper in his hands.” We Jews have our purpose and calling in life and
it is not defined by others, who, more often than not in history and even in
the world today, would just as soon see us fail as help us anyway.
Now don’t get
me wrong. I don’t mean that any of these
statements, Trump’s, the Pope’s, the Ayatollah’s, are completely “irrelevant,”
of course they all matter a tremendously as their words and opinions shape the
world in which we live. So too, do the
words of fellow Conservative rabbis, of many Jews I know, of the Reform
Movement, that have expressed varying levels of concern or disagreement or suspicion
about this policy endorsement, they all shape the world we live in and must be
taken seriously as part of our reality when dealing with this issue. Just as the calls of Palestinian Arabs to
have autonomy in a land of their own must also too factor into how we measure
reality and be taken seriously.
But consider
the following. For me, my formative
development came in the 1990s. The world
and the Judaism of that period still linger in my mind as a sort of
“baseline.” What synagogue was like then
– Carlebach music was coming into vogue, the sense was Judaism and Conservative
Judaism were doing okay generally, and the spirit in the country was
similar. Sure, there were
challenges. And the looming question of
what was then called “Middle East Peace” was one of them.
But in the 20
years since that era, the world has changed tremendously, as I don’t need to
tell you. The country no longer feels as
optimistic and hopeful. Conservative
Judaism certainly isn’t anymore. A real
and serious question about the place of even the melodies let-alone the reputation
of Shlomo Carlebach is rightfully being had given his misdeeds.
…And, the
question of “Middle East Peace,” and whether that statement can rightfully even
be applied to the Israel-Palestinians question, when Iraq is torn apart by war,
when Shiites and Christians are murdered in Egypt, when Syria is torn apart by
war and genocide, when Yemen is torn apart by war and genocide, when not only
countries like Egypt and Jordan but Saudi Arabia have increasingly decent
relations with Israel, you must question whether you, and the news you consume,
and the opinions that you’ve had are as equally outdated as the Palm Pilot I
also finally got in about 2000. (Incidentally, the notion that “Evangelicals”
shape much of the platform and beliefs of political right in this country stems
from this period too, but is, like the rest equally outdated.)
For the world
in which we live, has a very different Middle East, and thus the decision the
Congress took back in the 1990s and that was too controversial for any
president to act on until now, regardless of party, doesn’t seem so challenging
anymore when one considers the threats felt by ISIS and Iran for much of the
Sunni, Arab, and Turkish worlds, the Palestinian-Israeli Question is
increasingly becoming an unnecessary side-show.
While certainly no Arab or Muslim world leader has, to my knowledge,
come out endorsing the decision, equally noteworthy is it that most of the Arab
countries that do deal on some level with Israel seem as if they are going to
continue to do so, and while there have certainly been protests and even loss
of life, the called for Days of Rage do not, as of yet anyway, seem to be as
violent and virulent as one might have expected
were this decision as meaningfully significant as some would claim it to
be. Also note, most of the protests have
not been calls of “We object to the American Embassy being in Jerusalem” but
rather, “free, free, Palestine” or similar chants – which seem to be protesting
some issue different from, more fundamental than, what Trump said on Wednesday…
What’s more,
Trump’s statement, which, I think it is fair to say without being partisan, is
typically negotiable as his statements seem to be, intentionally or not, good
or bad or otherwise. It sounds quite
strong, quite definitive, quite a break with convention, but it is none of
those things. As I’ve already said, it
really only endorses the 1995 act of Congress regarding Jerusalem, so it’s not
even his idea really. It is short of
specifics, I suspect he hadn’t consulted the Iriya to ask exactly where the municipality borders are. It notably doesn’t refer to “a unified
Jerusalem” which even if it did, it still more than allows for some piece or
corner of eastern Jerusalem to eventually be labeled the capital of a
Palestinian state. Even the notion of
“moving” or “building” an embassy in Jerusalem is, at least to me, questionable
as to what that will really entail, as the consulate in Jerusalem that’s down
the street from Super-Sal, really could just have a different sign put on the
front for all that matters. Therefore,
the statement, apart from not shaping Jewish beliefs in the slightest, doesn’t
even do that much, I think, to change American ones.
We say in
Psalm 122:6: אֲלוּ שְׁלֹ֣ום יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם יִ֝שְׁלָ֗יוּ אֹהֲבָֽיִךְ׃ “Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love you.”
I doubt you
all feel the same as I do, exactly, on this subject. You may mostly agree, you may think I’m an
idiot. I respect that and welcome
it. For that verse is really the guiding
sentiment here. We all, I suspect, love
Jerusalem dearly. And increasingly this
topic makes me sad, that Jerusalem, God’s City of Peace, should be a source of
more strife and discord, particularly among those who love it. That is really the way I hope you’ll take
these words I’ve shared today, as a chance for us to get together as Lovers of
Jerusalem and reflect on what it should mean and what form our love should
take, so that it and all of us, should Prosper.
Shabbat
Shalom!
