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Rockets fired toward Israel from Gaza are intercepted by Israel s Iron Dome on May 10, 2021. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
Gaza, going for another round. Riots by Arab Israelis, the burning of synagogues, Jewish and Arab lynch mobs roaming the streets, and the seeming end of hope for a new era of coexistence between Israel’s citizens. How did we get here? Where do we go next?
In this special episode of the podcast, Donniel Hartman, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Elana Stein Hain check in with each other and talk about how one can respond to a moment like this.
For Heaven’s Sake is a podcast from the Shalom Hartman Institute’s iEngage Project that revives the lost art of Jewish debate for the sake of illuminating a topic, not sowing division. The podcast draws its name from the concept of
Rabbi Stephen Slater talks a lot about God. He credits his Baptist missionary parents. Rabbi Stephen Slater at the entrance of Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, Ala. (Kim Eriksson)
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(JTA) Rabbi Stephen Slater’s rabbinate breaks the mold in all sorts of ways.
Though he graduated from the unaffiliated Hebrew College Rabbinical School, he identifies with the Conservative movement and is the only one of the suburban Boston school’s graduates to join the movement’s rabbinic group.
Though Slater came to the rabbinate as the culmination of a decade of spiritual searching, he has thrown himself into interfaith and social justice work at the Alabama synagogue he has led for the past three years, spearheading the growth of a visitor’s center highlighting the Birmingham synagogue’s role in the civil rights struggle and developing close relationships with local Black pastors.
One of the speakers featured during IAW was BDS leader and self-proclaimed co-founder Omar Barghouti.
Barghouti has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution, which would create an independent Palestinian state next to Israel, ensuring self-determination for both peoples. Barghouti has also dismissed the historic ties of Jews to the Land of Israel, asserting repeatedly that Jews do not have a legitimate claim to the land.
Finally, he has endorsed a particularly nasty form of historical revisionism that whitewashes completely the persecution faced by Jewish refugees from Arab nations. In an interview with Le Monde, Barghouti claimed: Jews “did not suffer in Arab countries. There were no pogroms. There was no persecution.”
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The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement has grown quickly since its creation in 2019, attracting members of Congress and mayors of major cities to its online events and building a coalition of more than 300 Jewish organizations. It presents itself as apolitical, though its coalition skews conservative and includes the Clarion Project, which has been labeled an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, or JILV, also states that it is nonpartisan, “opposes the imposition of ideology, encourages open discussions of challenging topics, and is committed to achieving a more just America.”
David L. Bernstein, the founder and chief executive, is a former head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the board includes other notable Jewish leaders including Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. Misha Galperin, a senior advisor to Combat Anti-Semitism, is also a board member. In