NEW YORK – From the continuing coronavirus pandemic and its highly contagious new Delta strain to the ongoing Afghan refugee crisis, there is no shortage of current events for American rabbis to uncover in their High Holy Day sermons this year.
But for several hundred rabbis from across the United States, the topic of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur speeches in 2021, widely seen as the most important sermons of the year, and for some congregants the only ones they hear all year, will stick to what they see as the most timely and pressing issue for Jews: Israel.
These rabbis are members of the two-year old Zionist Rabbinic Coalition (ZRC), a union of nearly 150 Reform, Conservative and Orthodox pro-Israel rabbis.
“No longer can the Rosh Hashanah sermon be about the need for American Jews to support Israel,” said Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, chairman and founder of ZRC and leader of the Conservative Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. “Instead, our leaders in Israel and across the Jewish world should move the conversation to mutual need and desire for us to be in a relationship with each other.”
Last month, ZRC held a High Holy Day Sermon Webinar for its members grappling with the impact of the recent Gaza war and the increase in antisemitism in the US and globally. The webinar brought in speakers including Yossi Klein Halevi and Rabbi Avi Weiss, and included a video message from Nachman Shai, minister of Diaspora Affairs.
Weinblatt said it is particularly imperative to speak about the US-Israel relationship this holiday season.
“In light of the [Israel-Gaza war] earlier this year, it’s our obligation to reaffirm the common connection with our brothers and sisters in Israel and to dispel the high level of misinformation. Our fate and destiny remains tied together,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
“We are at a critical time and rabbis play a key role in deepening connections to Judaism, Israel and the Jewish people – in creating a bridge between Jews of Israel and American Jewish communities and in inspiring a rising generation of young people who are struggling with their own questions and emotions surrounding Israel,” Weinblatt continued.
In recent years, Israel has become such a divisive topic among American Jews that some rabbis stopped giving sermons about it to avoid bringing politics to the pulpit.
But Rabbi Eric Yanoff, a ZRC leadership team member and head of the Conservative synagogue Adath Israel in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, said rabbis should be discussing Israel regardless.
“My role as a rabbi is to tell people what they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear. Especially during the High Holy Days,” he told the Post.
Weinblatt rejected the notion that support for Israel is political. It’s no different, he said, than when a rabbi encourages his or her congregation to perform mitzvot, keep kosher or do social justice.
“Advocacy for Israel is and should be nonpolitical,” he continued. “Many times when I give a sermon about Israel, someone who is not a member of my congregation will come up to me after the service and say ‘I wish my rabbi spoke that way.’”
Identifying outspokenly as a Zionist rabbi doesn’t always come with high praise though.
Rabbi Ariel Boxman, a ZRC steering committee member who leads the Reform Temple Shalom in Naples, Florida said she sometimes has to hide her pro-Israel identity in her progressive Jewish circles.
“There is such a big bridge between North American Jews and Israel and this bridge is falling apart. As a Zionist rabbi, I’ve felt that I can’t share openly my pro-Israel feelings because a lot of my colleagues and peers don’t feel similarly,” she told the Post.
“The norm has become to bash Israel rather than be supportive.”
Boxman said forming ZRC allowed her to be with similar thinking rabbis.
“It’s given us a place to talk about what it means to be Zionist, the sermon-writing webinar let us talk about how we are going to address Israel this year from the pulpit and how to do it in a way where people will listen and not shut off when they hear the word Israel.”
STILL, THERE is a long way to go, Boxman said.
“I’m part of a Facebook group for Reform rabbis and I haven’t told them I’m a Zionist rabbi for fear of being attacked,” she continued.
During the Gaza war last May, Boxman recalled a group of Reform rabbis in the online group sharing a letter ambushing Israel’s response.
“I think I was the only rabbi in that group who did not applaud the letter,” she said. “A majority of the rabbis thought it was fabulous to take a negative stance on Israel.”
Boxman, who is 35-years-old and the youngest founding member of ZRC, noted that it is especially rare for a Reform Jew of her age to identify as a Zionist.
“The younger generation is where I’m really most concerned that they don’t have a relationship with Israel and don’t see a need to. Even more so concerning is young rabbis who are still in rabbinical school, not even yet ordained, are already coming out as anti-Israel,” she said.
The Jewish Americans in 2020 Pew Study backs Boxman’s claims.
Among US Jews overall, 58% say they are very or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel, a view held by majorities in all of the three largest US Jewish denominations. However, Orthodox (82%) and Conservative (78%) Jewish adults are more likely than those who identify as Reform (58%) to feel this way. Conversely, among US Jews who do not belong to any particular branch, a majority say that they feel not too or not at all attached to Israel, the study released in May 2021 found.
While Orthodox Jews tend to be relatively young and feel a strong attachment to Israel, younger Jews – as a whole – are less attached to Israel than their older counterparts. Two-thirds of Jews ages 65 and older say that they are very or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel, compared with 48% of those ages 18 to 29, according to Pew.
Because Israel is a heated subject, Boxman said that instead of using the High Holy Day sermon as an opportunity to speak at her congregants, she is trying an educational seminar, allowing people to discuss Israel in an interactive and open dialogue way.
“If we want to see the future change, we have to learn the right way to speak to the young generation of Jews,” Boxman said before going back to planning her session for next week’s Rosh Hashanah.