March 7th: Tetzaveh
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
The Torah portions in this part of Exodus focus on building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle or tent temple in which God dwells, but I would like to expand the discussion to a much larger dwelling place, the Land of Israel where both God and the Jewish people seek to live. The ancient goal was for the Israelites to “make a sanctuary so that God could dwell among them.” (Exodus 25.8). The modern goal is for the State of Israel to be a place of holiness where the Jewish people can live both autonomously and Jewishly. As we sing in Hatikvah: “Li’h’yot am chof’shi b’artzaynu / to be a free people in our own land.” How best can this be done?
Some Jewish self-governance in Israel began long before 1948 and independence. During both the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, a variety of Jewish organizations supervised and supported life for the Jews in Palestine. This included the charitable, educational, medical, and cultural realms. In addition to the Rothschild and Montefiore charities, there were three major groups. One was the Jewish National Fund that purchased land for kibbutzim and forests. Another was Hadassah which ran clinics, trained nurses, and eventually established hospitals. And there was The Jewish Agency—the Sochnut, funded by the forerunners of the UJA (United Jewish Appeal), that provided guidance and resources for the Jewish soul in Mandatory Palestine. This important social and civic work continued after independence, and all three are still very much active today. While the Israeli government obviously does a lot, the Jewish National Fund, Hadassah, and the Sochnut/Jewish Agency are so important that they function as quasi-governmental and play major roles in educational, cultural, charitable, economic, and health endeavors to this day.
As in pre-independence days, the Sochnut/Jewish Agency functions as an arm of the World Zionist Organization—the one founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. The WZO reconstitutes itself every five years in a World Zionist Congress where the members of that Congress make programming and financial decisions for how modern Israel fulfills the Zionist dream. Our concern today is representation. Who will be the delegates to the World Zionist Congress, and what kinds of decisions will they make?
As you may know, the early years of Zionism saw the involvement of two very different groups of Jews—one focused almost solely on the Jewish religion and the other rejecting the religion and focusing on Jewish nationalism. In this binary approach to Judaism, the religious dimension was generally defined as Orthodox Judaism, while the nationalistic was defined as “secular.” Though there were other approaches and opinions, the politics of Zionism highlighted these two options, and alternative understandings of Judaism like Reform Judaism were largely ignored in Israel. Though there have been liberal Jews (Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist) involved in Israel and Zionism for well over a hundred years, their representation in the World Zionist Congress/Organization has been minimal, and funding for liberal Jewish endeavors has thus been very limited. Combined with the government monopoly over religion held by the Orthodox, liberal Judaism has had an uphill climb in Israeli society for many, many years.
It has been uphill, but it has been a climb. The liberal Jewish movements in Israel have made remarkable progress, offering Jewish expression for thousands of Israelis who want to be religiously Jewish but for whom Orthodoxy is wrong.
One way that liberal Judaism has “climbed” is by participating in the World Zionist Organization and demanding support for liberal Jewish causes and programs in the Jewish Agency. The more liberal Jews who join official Zionist organizations, the more votes the liberal Jewish organizations have in the World Zionist Congress, and the more funding and respect liberal Judaism gets in Israel. Among the liberal Jewish Zionist organizations is ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America.
We are now getting ready for the next World Zionist Congress, and it is therefore time for us to officially join ARZA and increase its/our ability to affect the Jewish Agency.
The election of delegates goes from March 10th until May 4th—all in preparation for next October’s World Zionist Congress, and I am asking you to join ARZA. It is a simple process—only taking about five minutes to complete an on-line form AND paying dues of $5, and the instructions will be available (the website will be open) soon.
For now, please realize that joining ARZA and thus increasing its delegates is an important way to influence Israel and to inculcate in Israeli society the Jewish and democratic values that are part of Reform Judaism. Please think about this and resolve to join ARZA. The instructions will be provided very soon.