A scene from Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film, Munich, pierces the heart and resonates right now
Excerpt from Tony Kushner and Eric Roth’s screenplay for Munich (2005)
The context for the scene above is that a secret Israeli assassination team authorized by then Prime Minister Golda Meir has been finding and killing Palestinians that the Mossad claims were responsible for the planning of the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. After the Israeli team has killed several of its targets, a hit-woman hired by a Palestinian group manages to track down and kill one of them. She seduces the Israeli assassin and kills him in their hotel bed.
In the scene excerpted above, the Israeli assassins have just decided to add the woman who killed their teammate to their list of people to kill, and they are assembling at a train station as they prepare to carry out this mission. One of the members of the team, Robert, has misgivings about this plan. He confronts the team leader, Avner, on the train platform.
The full scene is viewable here:
This is the part of the scene I keep thinking about these days:
Robert: We’re Jews, Avner. Jews don’t do wrong because our enemies do wrong.
Avner: We can’t afford to be that decent anymore.
Robert: I don’t know that we ever were that decent. Suffering thousands of years of hatred doesn’t make you decent. But we’re supposed to be righteous! That’s a beautiful thing. That’s Jewish! That’s what I knew. That’s what I was taught. And now I’m losing it – I lose that … that’s – that’s – that’s, that’s everything. That’s my soul!
Avner: (after a pause) You need to go rest somewhere. You don’t have to do this one. (Tenderly puts a hand on Robert’s cheek.) When I need you again I’ll find you.
As the body count surges in Gaza, the US Administration is taking a chance at turning the war into a sudden catalyst for Oslo’s two-state solution and regional peace treaties
First, I want to acknowledge that I have not posted anything here since the Hamas massacres of October 7. When it comes to personal writing on the horrible events of the past month, I have been tongue-tied. In my day job, I am immersed in the crisis, consulting with synagogue leaders about how things are playing out in their communities, supporting the leaders of the organization I work for in their efforts to make difficult decisions about statements and invitations to co-sponsor various initiatives, and participating in online meetings of leaders of many different advocacy organizations all seeking to understand each other’s messaging and sometimes to coordinate advocacy positions. In my family life, I am in conversation with several people in Israel who are living in the midst of this on the Israeli side, and then there’s my internal life, which has felt like being inside a tumble-dry cycle that keeps changing speeds and direction.
If you want to know my opinion, about which I have real self-doubt, it’s basically this: I support the goal of defeating and, if possible, removing Hamas from power in Gaza, but not at any cost in innocent Palestinian lives. So as of today, I’m a “no” on unconditional ceasefire, but a strong “yes” on pauses to deliver far more humanitarian aid to Gazans and bring far more civilians to safe zones. The fact that as of this morning Israel’s government is refusing the US request for those pauses to start now is disappointing to me. The fact that Israel is conditioning the pauses on the release of the hostages is understandable to me. It’s possible that the different US and Israeli positions are in part coordinated to try to get Hamas to at least release some hostages in exchange for a pause. I just hope pauses and massive aid and evac can happen ASAP.
Here’s another part of my opinion I’ll be candid about. I said that I could not support defeating and removing Hamas at any cost in innocent lives. Part of me feels that the number of innocent lives lost already is too high, and that the longer I support Israel’s war effort as it currently stands the more innocent blood I have on my hands. The unvarnished truth is that I can’t be sure that what I’m standing for right now is the most moral position.
But it is where I’m standing. I take responsibility for it. I can’t / won’t (I’m not even sure which it is) move into the “unconditional ceasefire now” camp. My position is based partly on my intense fear. I am terrified of Hamas. And one of their leader’s public statement’s a couple days ago, that given the chance Hamas will repeat its Oct 7 attacks until Israel is wiped out, only adds to my fear.
Offered to String of Pearls congregation (Princeton, New Jersey, USA)
Rosh Hashanah is, according to our tradition, the birthday of the world, the day that cosmic Creation happened. Now for the scientifically minded among us, the birthday of the universe is an idea that immediately invites questions, beginning with how you reckon what a day is according to the creation story found at the very beginning of the Torah. But in the realm of the religious and mythic imagination, we are seekers of meaning, not astrophysicists. However the universe as we understand it sprang into being – and the James Webb telescope seems to be raising fresh questions about how we attempt to date that event – Rosh Hashanah is the time on the Jewish calendar when we come together as a people and celebrate Creation.
As many of you know, the Torah gives us not just one but two creation stories in the opening chapters of Genesis. Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 tells the first creation story, a highly structured narrative that describes what God did on each of the first six days of Creation. God starts with light, moves into establishing the sky, land and sea, then vegetation, followed by animals, and ultimately followed by the creation of the first humans together, male and female, on the sixth day. Then, we are told that God ceased from all these labors and rested on the seventh day.
But then, beginning with Genesis 2:4, the Torah presents us with a very different account of Creation. This story is about an idyllic garden in the Fertile Crescent where God created a man, Adam, and then went on to create the animals in part so that Adam would not be lonely. But, even after Adam met all these critters and even named them, he still felt incomplete. And so, God took part of Adam’s side and from it formed a woman, Chava (Eve), and told the two of them to be fruitful and multiply. And, of course, we all know the rest of the story. God tells the two humans that they should feel free to enjoy the garden but that they must accept one prohibition. They must not eat from a special tree in the garden called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. All is going smoothly in the garden until one day a serpent speaks cunningly to Chava, urging her to eat the forbidden fruit. This leads us to one of the most famous of all biblical passages, Genesis 3:6-7:
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…
And thus was born one of the most famous – and, from the perspective of feminist biblical studies, one of the most damaging – mythic moments of the Western canon. Why does the story portray the woman as the first human to break one of God’s rules – to sin? Were the authors misogynistic? Or, was it later generations of Jewish and Christian religious authorities who read sexism back into a story that may not have cared who sinned first? After all, both of the humans knowingly broke God’s one rule. Chava could have said no to the serpent, and Adam could have said no to Chava. One could even make the case that Chava’s act was more respectable than Adam’s. At least she faced the serpent, weighed his argument against God’s instructions, took some time to take a closer look at the tree, and then made her choice, even if it was the wrong choice. Adam seems not to have given the matter much thought at all. If Chava’s action appears rebellious and defiant, Adam’s action appears indifferent and lazy.
Netanyahu, Trump, and Musk – three peas in a pod (if the peas were all telling huge lies)
I 100% agree with the Jewish Council on Public Affairs’ (JCPA) statement today on recent public comments by the three men mentioned above. Here’s their statement:
JCPA STATEMENT ON NETANYAHU AND TRUMP COMMENTS
For Immediate Release: September 18, 2023
NEW YORK – Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick released the following statement:
“This Rosh Hashana, we saw both Prime Minister Netanyahu and former President Trump take a page directly from the authoritarian playbook – attacking Jews who vote or peacefully protest against them as enemies of the state.
Former President Trump’s claim that Jews who vote against him are ‘destroying’ the U.S. and Israel follows a long history of antisemitic comments attacking the vast majority of Jewish Americans as ‘disloyal’ to him and to Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comment that Jewish pro-democracy protesters in Israel and the United States are ‘aligning themselves with the PLO and Iran’ should be offensive enough on its own. It’s all the more dangerous with Netanyahu himself meeting with Elon Musk, who has done more to normalize antisemitism than nearly anyone – including this weekend, during Rosh Hashana, when Musk promoted the same Great Replacement conspiracy theory that has fueled the murder of Jews and so many others in recent years.
All of this makes Jews less safe, while seeking to further erode democracy in both countries. And as an American Jew, it’s simply heartbreaking to watch – and to worry that the two places we were told we’d be safe may no longer offer that safety.
The fight for democracy, here and in Israel, is our fight too as American Jews – and our safety, our future, and our values obligate us to make that clear.”
I am so frankly disgusted by the ways in which Bibi and the former president lie and work to undermine democracy, fairness, and the rule of law, projecting their authoritarian narcissism in an unending stream of gaslighting and whopper sized fabrications. And Elon Musk … don’t even get me started.
I encourage all who care about democracy in the U.S., Israel, and elsewhere to support the pro-democracy Israeli protest movement, and to support Democrats, Independents, and anti-Trump Republicans who are determined to never let an authoritarian liar anywhere near the White House again. Call out the lies, stay true to your values, and remember that authoritarianism is a spiritual, political, and moral dead end. L’shana tova (a good new year) to all.
The J6 indictments improve the odds of Biden’s re-election, but by now we must learn to always plan for the worst.
I am, like many of you, overcome with welcome emotions in response to Jack Smith’s announcement of the four serious indictments against Trump and his efforts to overthrow our democratic system and steal the election he lost. Those feelings include: deep appreciation for the methodical diligence and hard work by Garland and Smith and the many, many professionals who avoided damaging leaks or foolish fumbles with witnesses or evidence; profound thankfulness for the degree to which our system of courts has remained independent, going all the way back to all of team Trump’s late 2020 failures to get courts to validate their baseless claims of election fraud, even with Trump appointed judges involved; and finally, enormous gratitude for the mountains of work that the J6 House Committee did, paving the way for this moment.
As a friend put it earlier today, these indictments are the third major public moment of accountability that has happened since the J6 insurrection. The first was Impeachment, the second was the J6 House Committee Report, and now Smith laying out the evidence for why Trump’s behavior was criminal. Even without knowing how the future will unfold — when it will go to trial, if the trial go smoothly for the prosecution, if there will be convictions? etc. — this is an historic moment.
Considering the 2024 election
It’s also reasonable to think that the overall impact of these indictments will damage Trump’s chances of winning the 2024 election. Sure, he’s fundraising a ton off this and probably the same GOP leaders who’ve refused to ditch him will continue to lie for him. But anything that reduces Trump’s odds of reclaiming the White House is welcome news.
There are other good reasons for optimism about Biden’s re-election. He’s presiding over an economy that is improving and probably will continue to improve incrementally over the next 16 months — maybe not enough to convince the mainstream media to depict Bidenomics as genius policy, but very likely enough to give him plenty of bright narratives to highlight (so much new infrastructure getting built, new American manufacturing, new EVs on the road, better wages for people who were making the least hourly money, low unemployment, and he’ll be able to play the “are you better off than you were 4 years ago” Reagan card too.)
The current Republican Party has picked the group of Americans it wants to demonize in the hope that enough voters in the mushy middle will vote Republican in order to keep all of us — especially “the children” — safe from this social menace: transgender and non-binary people. This is a mean-spirited, cynical, ugly campaign of fear, intimidation, and hatred aimed at a group that is one of the most vulnerable communities in the US today. The kind of people a bully looks to target. Pretty par for the course in what has become of the GOP at this point.
I’m not going to repeat the many powerful arguments against transphobia or go over the many reasons why “protecting the children” is such utter nonsense. If people want to talk about protecting our children from actual menaces, I’m ready to talk — about how many school kids’ lives could be saved if we banned military assault weapons and closed loopholes that let people with severe mental illness or criminal histories access guns. I’m ready to talk about educating families and schools about bullying, including online bullying, and building support systems to interrupt and prevent those problems. I’m ready to talk about after school programs with proven successful track records for kids living in poverty, about nutrition and exercise and efforts we can make to build a healthier, less violent, and more mutually accepting society.
But according to the likes of DeSantis and a bunch of other new “family values” social warriors, apparently the great threat to the health and well-being of America’s kids comes from — wait for it — people who don’t conform to gender norms.
Which makes me ask: do the peddlers of fear of gender non-corming Americans also hate rock ‘n roll? I mean, they must, right? I mean, American rock ‘n roll — one of the greatest and most lucrative cultural exports any country has ever made to the rest of the world — would not be the amazing thing it is without gender play and gender bending.
I mean, if gender bending and gender fluidity is wrong, it certaintly seems to be incredibly popular. And fun. And sexy. And thought-provoking. And profitable! And deeply part of the American and British rock scene. Lest we forget, one of the most badass all-male rock bands of all time bore the name…
Headline and photo from Times of Israel on June 21, 2023
A couple days ago I visited the websites of my House Rep and both Senators and sent them versions of the following message. Please feel free to copy and paste (or modify) as you wish. The content speaks for itself.
Dear Senator _________,
I am writing to express my strong support for the comments of US Ambassador Nides, in which he reportedly told an audience of Israeli and Palestinian young adults today that the US will not stand by and do nothing while vigilante settlers rampage through Palestinian towns in the West Bank. I say this as a rabbi and a Zionist – as someone who believes in the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians, and who still believes that Jews and Palestinians have a chance to have a good future together in two-states, living side by side. I am appalled by the pogrom-like raids that extremist Israeli settlers have carried out over the past few days, and I hope that the Biden Administration and members of Congress will make Nides’ words reality, and take meaningful actions to use US influence to help bring these vigilante raids to an immediate halt. Like Ambassador Nides, I also am appalled by the Palestinian terror attack that murdered 4 Israelis in the West Bank earlier this week, and I also strongly believe that it is right and just to mourn for the victims on both sides of the conflict. All of that is true, and so is this fact: this vigilante violence is a new kind of threat that has to be stopped. It threatens Palestinian townspeople and villagers who are among the most powerless people in the dynamic of the entire conflict, and it also threatens the stable rule of law and democracy in Israel. None of this is okay, and none of it squares with US foreign policy. I and many other Jewish-Americans will proudly stand behind elected officials who stand for these principles.
Thank you,
Rabbi Maurice Harris
By the way, while I was sending these emails, this headline broke on the Times of Israel website:
Also from the Times of Israel today:
This right-wing coalition government in Israel invited in extremist political parties including new Knesset members who pay homage to the racist and ultra-nationalist legacies of Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein (may their ideas wither and die speedily in our days). It is this government that has emboldened these extremist vigilante settler groups, and it is under this government that the Israeli army is acknowledging that it is unprepared to deal with rampaging gangs of vigilantes attacking Palestinian towns.
The Columbo Fandom Wiki describes one of my favorite TV detectives like this: “Columbo is a disheveled, shabbily dressed, seemingly slow-witted police detective whose fumbling, overly polite manner makes him an unlikely choice to solve any crimes, least of all murder. However, he is actually a brilliant detective with an eye for minute details and the ability to piece together seemingly unrelated incidents and information to solve crimes.”
Columbo’s most famous strength as a detective is his gift for getting people to underestimate him. But that strength alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Columbo is also an excellent judge of human character and behavior. He usually hones in on his prime suspect right from the beginning, but spends a lot of energy smokescreening his initial clarity about who-almost-certainly-dunnit.
Often, however, Columbo’s relationship with the prime suspect shifts about halfway through each episode. At this point Columbo begins tightening his orbit around his suspect, showing up at inconvenient times, still professing to only be looking for some missing tidbit of information that would help tie up a loose end, but by now we know that Columbo and the suspect both know that he’s not going to stop dogging their heels. At this point Columbo’s biggest asset is no longer his ability to get people to underestimate him, but rather his relentless drive to keep adding pieces of evidence that narrow the baddie’s options until they’ve all run out. Finally, Columbo’s arrests almost always involve an exhausted and exasperated suspect who has surrendered peacefully to the lieutenant. (There’s only one episode out of 69 in which he fires a gun.)
My latest thoughts on the Jewish festival of Shavuot, as presented in the Jewish Exponent: https://www.jewishexponent.com/consider-how-revelation-happens/. Please visit the link, or click on the image above, to head over there and read it. Would love to hear your comments too!
I am the child of a family of Moroccan Jewish refugees who found refuge in Israel. My mom was 16 on the day in 1956 when her entire life in Morocco abruptly ended — the day that her father was tipped off by an Arab friend that he was marked for death by the Moroccan liberation fighters (who were trying to oust their French colonizers) because he was discovered to have assisted other Jews to emigrate to Israel. She and her many siblings and their parents packed what they could take with them in suitcases and left their home in the middle of the night, taking their place in steerage on a ship loaded with livestock and other Jewish refugees. They headed to a refugee camp near the southern French coast, penniless and waiting to figure out their future.
Israel gave them that future. The Israeli government settled them, at first, in a small town just south of Tiberias called Poria. After some years, they moved to Shkhunat Hatikvah, which at the time was a heavily Mizrahi Tel Aviv neighborhood known for poverty, rat infestations and street gangs. The family grew — a new baby almost every year until there were 12 siblings in all. My grandfather rebuilt his furniture-making business in Tel Aviv. My mom, who had avoided being married with kids by age 20 like many of her sisters, valued her independence and ventured to America in 1961, eventually marrying my Midwestern American Ashkenazi father in 1966. He helped her parents finally move out of the slums and into an apartment in Bat Yam. Over the next two decades, most of the rest of the family made similar treks, moving into apartments in Bat Yam, Holon and Azor, residential enclaves of southern Tel Aviv. Today, the Elkouby family is a classic Moroccan-Israeli clan, a multigenerational web of 80-plus people mostly still centered in Holon and Bat Yam, but with branches in Rishon Letziyon, Herzliya, Eilat, Los Angeles and Miami. The reigning matriarch of the family is my Aunt Soulika,[1] now in her 80s, who lives on the second floor of a house in Azor above her daughter and son-in-law, and their young-adult kids below.
My maternal grandmother of blessed memory, Messouda Elkouby, attending evening classes to learn Hebrew in Israel along with other new Jewish immigrants – taken in the late 50s or very early 60s.
Part 2: Azor
Since my high school days, I’ve spent lots of time at my Aunt Soulika’s house. Many of my happiest memories took place there — afternoon al ha-esh (barbecue) gatherings, late nights eating fresh fruit on the balcony with chain-smoking cousins, the first time my wife came to Israel with me. I’ve walked all around the neighborhoods of Azor, past the mini-grocery stores that are open at night, past the schools and community center, and along narrow streets with cars half-parked on sidewalks. It’s not a particularly beautiful part of Tel Aviv, but I love it, and it is one of the places on earth where I have felt most loved.
The name Azor has its origins in antiquity. There is an archeological tel (hill or mound) at the town’s center and a layered history, including battles between Crusaders and Muslims. The town’s current name is the Hebrew version of its pre-1948 Arabic name, Yazur, a Palestinian village of 4,000 residents that was attacked by Irgun forces and forcibly depopulated in April 1948, about two weeks before the British Mandate formally ended and Israel declared independence. In 2000, the Israeli historian and political scientist Meron Benvenisti published Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, in which he noted that at the time, a synagogue in Azor was meeting in a building that was a former Muslim shrine, and that an adjoining Muslim cemetery was in disrepair and was being used as a garbage dump for local yard waste.[2]
This is the intersection in my life where my growing awareness of the Nakba meets my own family’s story of survival. I struggle to hold this dual consciousness and these competing emotional impulses every day — in my conversations with my relatives, in the Israel-related parts of my job, in my activist choices and in my private thoughts.
The Accidental Rabbi 