What Does It Mean To Be Part Of Am Yisrael?

Ever since the beginning of the semester, we have been asking ourselves the question "What does it mean to be part of Am Yisrael (a.k.a. the Jewish people)?"  What do you have to do in order to be a part of the Jewish people?  According to ancient Jewish law, if your mother is Jewish, then you are considered Jewish.  According to modern Reform Judaism, if you define yourself as Jewish, then that is good enough.  In my opinion, the minimum requirement for being Jewish falls somewhere in the middle of those two.  You have to put a little bit of effort into being a Jew.  You have to take part in the religion of Judaism.  To me, you at the very least should go to High Holiday services, although you should also do a bit more than that.  Judaism is not just an issue of how you define yourself to me.  I believe that Judaism is more about how you take your definition of yourself and put it into action.

Washington Jewish Week

Today, I found out something about my Washington D.C. which is the fact that it has a Jewish newspaper.  One that has been around since 1930, nonetheless!  To me, to think about D.C. as a highly Jewish area seems crazy, considering that I can name about twenty Jews in my high school, two of them being my twin brother and myself.  So for me to realize that there are enough Jews for a Jewish newspaper is absolutely crazy.  I believe that it is important to have a Jewish news source, so that the only reporting on Israel is not just about the conflict, but also about Israel as a country.  A Jewish newspaper in many places could help get rid of the false belief that Israelis are a bunch of warmongering Jews who just hate Palestinians.

Preferred Seating

Today, Anat Hoffman came and spoke to us, and talked about all the problems the IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center) is trying to fix.  One that stuck out to me was that, on a flight, an ultra-orthodox man is not allowed to be seated next to a woman.  If they are, it is almost certain that they will request a seat change or request the woman's seat to be changed, and the flight attendants will sometimes help them move/get the person next to them to move.  To me, this is not okay, not only because it is illegal, but also because it is simply not okay.  You could possibly make the argument that within Israel, Jewish laws should apply, because that is within a jewish state.  However, to apply that same logic to a flight, that is not even in Israel while it is in the air, is not okay.  In Israeli society, the people who aren't Orthodox already have to make sacrifices.   They should not have to make a sacrifice on a plane to leave or come into Israel.

Hillary Clinton vs. Oppression

In a recent statement written by Hillary Clinton, she talked about how she wanted to work to eliminate anti-semitism in the United States, and how this paralleled how in the times of our slavery in Egypt, when Jews were treated poorly.  She said that she wanted to ensure that those who did not have a voice on their own got someone to speak for them in the media.  She mentioned that it is our moral obligation to give hope and to give help to those who are in need of it.  She also talked about how Israel's safety is non-negotiable, and that we can not make the mistake of being neutral in this conflict.  In a time of increasing anti-semitism, it is refreshing to see a prominent figure in today's society speaking out against it.
In today's society, there seems to be concerning levels of anti-semitism, so when someone as important as Hillary Clinton mentions that we need to fight it, it is somewhat refreshing.  Jews around the world need to do what we can to combat this 'epidemic' of anti-semitism.  To see Jews being attacked on college campuses is sincerely worrying, and just to see anyone being oppressed is concerning.  Even though we, as Americans, have almost all of what we need, we need to work to help those who don't.  Even if not everyone has everything, when someone important brings up the issue, it feels like we are at least making a good start.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/fighting-oppression-inequality-and-injustice-on-passover/

The Ultimate Sacrifice

This week, in class, we've been discussing the six-day war.  Yesterday, in the morning, we went to Ammunition Hill, and learned about what happened there, as well as in other places that were important to the six-day war.  Of all of the important sites from the six-day war, we talked about how ammunition hill was among the most dangerous.  They were walking through long, thin trenches, and one person had to be outside the trench and cover them.  While the people inside the trench were in much danger, the death of the person outside the trench was almost certain.  And yet, we heard survivor accounts that said that, whenever the leader pointed at someone and told them to get out of the trench, everyone who he asked to do that did it without fail.  Now, we all may agree that it is important that everyone has a home.  However, would any of us be willing to jump into almost certain death to defend our right to have a home?  To do that requires an extreme courage and an extreme determination that not many of us have.  Luckily, we have grown up in a time when there already is an established Jewish state, but if there wasn't, would any of us be willing to give up our lives for it?  For these people, the answer was yes, but for any today, I have doubts that it would be the same.

Free Speech vs. Morons

Today, I read about a somewhat troubling article about a recent speech by the mayor of Jerusalem.  The mayor, Nir Barkat, was speaking at SFSU, when a group of pro-palestine protestors yelled him off the stage and into a corner with the people who came to actually listen to the speech like civilized human beings.  Now, I am all for free speech.  And perhaps these protestors will use the excuse of "we were speaking against something we disagree with".  If they do, their argument is fundamentally incorrect.  This is obstructing free speech, and not allowing people who want to actually listen hear.  Protest when it doesn't obstruct someone's constitutional right.  It frustrates me that these people could be so frustrated that they refuse to not only let themselves listen to him, but also refuse to let other people listen to him, even if they want to.  These morons are acting like little children and not allowing people to speak because they disagree with them.

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/77319/sfsu-president-promises-full-investigation-after-protesters-disrupt-jerusal

Violent vs. Necessary

Today, we went to an old, no longer in use prison in Jerusalem, and walked around while learning about the movement for Israel's independence.  We learned about the four different military groups during the movement for independence, the Palmach, the Hagana, the Lechi, and the Etzel.  Each group had a different strategy.  The Palmach were the strike force in case of a Nazi invasion, the Hagana used self-defense, the Etzel was a mix of self-defense and attacking, and the Lechi was a somewhat extreme group who used the "whatever it takes" approach.  While there were many disagreements between the groups, one major one was when the Etzel decided to blow up the King David Hotel, killing 91 British soldiers.  What is notable about this is that the British left one year after, and most likely, this event was one of the reasons.  An ongoing debate is if this was the right method of resistance.  In my opinion, it was the necessary thing to do at that point.  We had been asking the British to leave for years, but our requests fell on deaf ears.
While some, like me, see this as a necessary action, others, such as David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, see this as unnecessary and too violent.  They might say that killing would just make the British control us more, or make them angrier thany  before.  While these are both valid points, we had been under British control for far too long, and they even restricted immigration during the time of the Nuremberg Laws.  This effectively prevented a multitude of Jews from escaping the Holocaust and potentially survive past World War 2.  At this point, we could no longer let the British stay in control of Israel.  It did not seem like other methods were effective enough, and so this was a necessary action to take.  Though it was violent, it was needed.