Reflections on the CCAR conference in Jerusalem

Dear Congregants
I have arrived back in Toronto this morning, having taken the overnight flight from Jerusalem direct to Toronto. I took for granted that Toronto has a direct flight, so many of my colleagues were flying into NYC or Atlanta and then to transfer back to Arizona, New Orleans, Baltimore, Miami, etc. My flight was quite pleasant, as was my final day in Jerusalem.

Yesterday I rode on a bus into the settlements of Israel, Jewish towns and villages in what is known as the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria (each name has political and religious ramifications). The “green line” was set as the border between Israel and Jordan in 1948, and when Israel conquered this land in 1967, its been in dispute ever since. Some believe this was the land of Israel as promised in the Bible. Some believe this was conquered in the war, similar to any other country in the world that acquired land by war, and free to be settled upon by the victors. Some say its Palestinian land as this is where most Palestinians live. Most people cannot agree on anything about this land.

We crossed into the “territories” or “shtachim” in Hebrew by crossing through a very simple checkpoint. The scenery didn’t change, the road didn’t change, it was easier then driving between the US and Canada. We drove into a beautiful settlement area called “Gush Etzion” made up of a group of towns and villages. This spot was actually purchased by Jews in the early part of the 20th century and 4 moshavim were established there. During the war of independence, the fighters fought valiantly but were overcome by the Jordanian army. When Israel re-conquered the area in 1967 it seemed only fair to rebuild the settlement on the same spot, in fact a large oak tree remained through the entire time. The settlements combined have over 60,000 people. Its got plenty of housing, schools, industry etc. We toured around and then met the mayor, a wonderful man who explained to us his vision for Israel that included all these settlements, and it was hard to argue with him. The Israeli government allowed construction on any land that was no man’s land, meaning there were no deeds of ownership, either Arab or Israeli. The entire Gush Etzion bloc of settlements are all built on state land, indeed they have never encroached on private Arab land ever. He explained to us the danger of creating a Palestinian state, based on what has happened in the Gaza Strip, who voted a terrorist organization into power, who attack Israel by rockets on a daily basis. And the West Bank borders Jerusalem and many other cities up and down the country, rockets could easily hit our capital and airport and major industrial centers and power plants. He wonders what kind of industry and infrastructure Palestinians will have since so far the only industries in the Palestinian West Bank villages are olive oil and grapes. Our group challenged him with many questions about how Israeli’s and Palestinians might live together in this disputed land and he confidently answered each one with passion and clarity. We were impressed by his presentation, whether we agreed with him or not.

Then to our amazement, it began to snow, an event quite rare for Israel (expect for the mountains in the north), they even had to close the roads for a while. Clearly the members of the town were not expecting it as they wandered around in sandals. We’ve now had 3 days of rain, but only in Israel people cheer when it rains. In fact we’ve been patting ourselves on the back that since the Reform Rabbi’s came to Israel, the rains have begun, demonstrating to the Orthodox how vital we are to the success of the state. We’ve been told the Sea of Galilee, that supplies fresh water to most of the country, is rising to adequate levels as are the underground aquifers in the Jerusalem area.

Once the roads opened we took a bus to a kibbutz just outside of Jerusalem for our final program. We heard from a labor party representative Ophir Pines Paz, who explained how despite their election loss, the party plans to be in the opposition to Netanyahu and the right wing parties who won the election and stand with their principles and not enter into a coalition. Of course the paper reported the same day that Labor had not ruled out joining the coalition and that Ehud Barak had been offered the ministry of Defense. A typical day in Israeli politics. David Horovitch, the editor of the Jerusalem Post then spoke on the mood in Israel following the Gaza war and the ramifications of the election. As no coalition has formed his crystal ball did not reveal the future of Israeli politics, but he did assure us that Israel had demonstrated much better tactics in the Gaza war, both in terms of military performance and the support of the country for their actions and so the mood in Israel is more positive today then a few months ago.

Upon reflection I was very impressed with the conference. Not only was it organized well, but there were workshops on all points of view religiously and politically. We had inspiring worship services, some serious text study and valuable encounters with Israeli’s on important issues. I look forward to bringing back some new ideas and plans for our congregation for the coming months ahead. I have also found it meaningful to put my thoughts into words for the congregation, and have decided to start a blog at http://www.hockeyplayingrabbi.blogspot.com
I will post reflections to my blog and you’ll be able to read them by clicking on a link in the weekly email. They might be thoughts on Israel, on the Jewish world, on the Torah portion. I might attach articles, pictures or vides of interest. Since this is my first blog I don’t know exactly what you’ll find but that is why you’ll have to log on to find out.


Rabbi Stephen Wise


Shaarei-Beth El Congregation
186 Morrison Road, Oakville, Ontario L6J 4J4 Canada
phone 905-849-6000 fax 905-849-1134 rabbi.wise@sbe.ca www.sbe.ca