Publisher's Notebook
Commentary
Continued from page 28
America. With apologies to Chrysler,
this may be an "imported from
Detroit" product whose value won't
depreciate.
A Common Dream
Over the past few years, Bankole
and I have written columns for each
other's publications and moder-
ated panel discussions together. I
have been a guest on his television
programs and identified emerging
Jewish leaders for Detroit and the
Michigan Chronicle to honor. I have
introduced him to my friends, family
and professional colleagues, and he
has done the same. In many ways, the
creation of the Black-Jewish Forum is
an extension of the behavior we have
been trying to model for our respec-
tive communities and the region.
We invite you to join us on
Wednesday (Oct. 26) from 7-9 pm
at Temple Beth El, 14 Mile and
Telegraph, to listen and learn from
our distinguished panelists, to inter-
act with the diverse audience that
will be attending, and to embrace
an initiative that has the power to
strengthen existing black-Jewish
initiatives while creating an updated
model, and contemporary agenda, for
collaboration. (RSVP is required —
email: faithandpolitics@
globalmarkmakers.com ).
Beyond Differences
Building bridges will help secure future of America and Israel.
Boston
T
he community relations busi-
ness today is fraught with
a serious deficit of civil dis-
course, particularly within our own
Jewish community. The politics of fear
has entered into our communal dis-
course and, in many places, has led to
sinat chinam, baseless hatred.
What I have seen and experienced
these past several years
in Boston and in so many
communities across the
country is nothing short of
sinat chinam. Two exam-
ples: the discourse in our
Jewish community about
Israel and the approach
we have taken in regards
to relationships with our
Muslim neighbors.
I cannot tell you how
many times while I was
executive director of
Boston's Jewish Community
Relations Council (JCRC) that rabbis
and other communal leaders told me
they could not discuss Israel in their
congregations or with their friends
and colleagues. I consider myself a
centrist on Israel, but I was repeatedly
defamed and accused
of not being support-
ive enough of Israel
because:1) I chose
to engage with mem-
bers of the mainline
Protestant community
who had questions;
NOT
2) or I failed to get a
Methodist church to
renege on its contract
BROTHERHOOD.
to rent its facility for
O
a Sabeel conference
featuring Desmond
Tutu; 3) or it was the
JCRC's fault that the
Episcopal bishop dem-
onstrated in front of
the Israeli consulate
about settlements.
We also were criti-
cized for accepting J
Street as a member of
the JCRC. In Boston,
we believe in a "big
tent" and felt that if
an organization sup-
ports a two-state
solution to the Israeli-
Dry Bones
THE
POST-MUBARAK
GOV'T OF EGYPT
WILL
FIGHT
THE MOSLEM
THE
POST-MUBARAK
GOV'T OF EGYPT
WILL BE THE
MOSLEM
BROTHERHOOD.
Palestinian conflict and denounces the
BDS (boycott/divestment/sanctions)
movement, it could be in the tent. But
we said no to Jewish Voices for Peace.
Valued Echanges
The danger of being too quick to attack
someone as anti-Israel, assuming that
only those who agree with you really
love Israel and that unless everyone
agrees with you Israel is doomed, is
that you force people out of
engagement. Wouldn't it be
better to engage them in a civil
discourse and hear their con-
cerns than to push them away?
What are we so afraid of? Why
is healthy discourse about
Israel so hard to do in so many
of our communities across the
country?
No one person has the answer
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
or it would have been solved
long ago. So we must treat
one another with respect and
engage in discussing it. The whole field
of community relations is based on
speaking openly with each other about
difficult issues in order to promote har-
mony and community wholeness, klal
Yisrael – the Nation of Israel. Only when
we take the time to build relationships
within and outside the Jewish commu-
nity is our work effective.
As Rabbi Steve Gutow, president and
CEO of the New York-based Jewish
Council for Public Affairs, explains,
"Civility is about how we speak and
about how we listen. It is about how we
act and how and when we stand up to
incivility and call it what it is." Civility
is most difficult for us to attain when
talking about our work with certain
parts of the Muslim community. It is an
area fraught with contradictions and
concerns, but one that we cannot con-
tinue to ignore. The issue we struggled
with in Boston is who are our partners
and who makes those decisions for us?
The Muslim leaders I worked with
in Boston were engaged with us on
a whole host of domestic issues we
both advocated for, including uni-
versal health care for residents of
Massachusetts. We do not pick their
leaders and they do not pick ours. We
need to go in with our eyes wide open,
but we are talking about American
citizens who have as much of a right to
have their houses of prayer as we do
What are we so
afraid of? Why is
healthy discourse
about Israel so hard
to do in so many of
our communities
across the country?
to have ours. Yes, there are probably
Muslim cells in America the likes of
which perpetrated the heinous crimes
of 9-11, but there are many members of
that community who are trying to build
their community just like we have built
ours. Muslims in America are being
treated as badly as Jews were treated
in another period of American history.
Don't they also deserve the benefit of
First Amendment protections?
Shaping Alliances
Let us search our hearts and souls
for what Rabbi Daniel Pressman calls
reservoirs of ahavat chinam, cause-
less love. Let us search for common
ground with our fellow Jews and lovers
of Israel even though we may differ
on ideology or strategy. Let us reach
out to our Muslim neighbors even if we
have concerns about their affiliations
or their organizations. Rather than
walk away from our differences, let us
embrace our differences and use them
to learn from one another and operate
based on a climate of hope rather than
fear. Let us engage our differences with
civility and mutual respect. There is
too much at stake both here in the U.S.
and in Israel to write off potential allies
because they may disagree with us on
strategy or tactics.
In this time when we do teshuvah –
turning – let's turn toward a more civil,
respectful way of working together
across our lines of difference. As we
learn in Pirkei Avot: "Who is wise? The
one who learns from everyone, as it is
said 'From all who would teach me, I
have gained understanding."
If not now, when? Li
Nancy Kaufman is president and CEO of the
National Council of Jewish Women and former
executive director of the JCRC in Boston.
October 20 2011
29