This summer I began my ninth year in this role, and leading our community at this moment in history is one of the great privileges of my life. So many people are more engaged than ever with Jewish life and the Jewish People. There is a palpable sense that being Jewish matters, that the choices we make right now will shape our future for generations to come. I have never understood more clearly what Am Yisrael Chai means.
As we are in the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I'm also thinking about the state of our community at a time when so much is at stake and things feel incredibly polarized. Many of the hardest topics feel impossible to talk about. We're either avoiding them, or having them ineffectively - talking, or yelling, at one another rather than with one another - while divisive and extreme voices, amplified by social media, fuel distrust of institutions and one another.
Like many organizations serving diverse communities, CJP tends to be cautious about what we do and don't talk about. We want to hold our community together and avoid dividing it further. Sometimes that's wise, even when it disappoints people. Sometimes, it can create a vacuum that extreme voices fill, leave people guessing what I or CJP thinks, or miss chances to bring us together by talking more about what matters. As we head into two consequential elections, this is exactly what we need to do and do better.
In the past several months I have had hundreds of conversations, and in nearly all of them, I hear concerns about this fall's US and Israeli elections and their implications for American Jews, for Israelis, and for our two homes. I hear fears about Jewish safety and the fragility of democracy, and worry that these threats — which, ideally, would unite us — could tear us apart from within.
Elections are reflections of deeper value conflicts at the heart of a society, a nation, a community. Many of us are asking the same questions, even if we reach different conclusions. Questions like:
If I love Israel and have serious concerns about some of what I see happening there, what can I do to effect positive change? How can I have critical conversations about Israel without handing ammunition to those who want to demonize and destroy it — and the global movement behind them?
How can I fight for justice and ideals that have historically protected Jews in this country when I feel politically homeless, and when mainstream political leaders are normalizing hostility toward Israel and Jews?
How do I talk to my children — or my parents — when they see the world so differently than I do?
Much about politics and external forces in both countries is beyond our control. What we can do is refuse to let these elections and our toxic political climate destroy our relationships, our institutions, our sense of community. That starts with making meaningful, joyful Jewish life accessible to more people. It means standing against those who threaten our community and the Jewish People. And it requires us to stay in relationships and talk more with people whose positions differ sharply from our own.
Our goal cannot be to resolve every tension or answer every question. Jewish tradition teaches that a machloket l'shem shamayim, an “argument for the sake of Heaven,” endures forever. This doesn't mean we're stuck. It's just that certain questions don't have one right answer, and as we and our circumstances change, so might our points of view. There are times when leaders and communities need to make decisions, take stands, clarify boundaries — we should, and we will. There is also a living, forward-moving form of argument that endures in the best sense of the word. The disagreements don't stop, but our relationships are strong enough to hold them — and can even bring us closer. That's my hope for our community.
I'm grateful for the many voices, including rabbis and leaders in our own community, from whom we can learn and with whom we can be in dialogue. CJP has an important role in fostering productive, respectful, and honest conversations. I look forward to communicating more and to coming together with you this year — in person and virtually. Below you can find a link to sign up for JFNA’s Israeli election webinar series, and I hope you will join my first In Conversation of the year with political scientist and Tufts professor Eitan Hersh on October 16th.
None of this will determine who wins these elections. All of it will determine what kind of community and Jewish future we build here in Greater Boston, regardless of the results. I hope you'll stay engaged with us, and with one another.
Jewish Federations of North America will host a webinar series featuring Israeli political experts Haviv Rettig Gur and Miri Eisin, focused on “One Week until Israel's Elections” (October 19), and “24 Hours after the Results: What Do We Do Now?” (October 28). Click here for information and to register for all the sessions. For background on the Israeli election system, read the explainer and watch Dani Wassner’s video.