Religion and the political arena - advantages and drawbacks

In light of Canadian Remembrance Day, the American election this week, and my recent Reform Rabbi’s conference in Ottawa, I wanted to take a moment to comment on the role of Judaism and our relationship to the government and country we live in.

As a people that spent most of its time living in the Diaspora, and even when the state of Israel existed as an independent entity both in ancient times and today, Jews have always lived in countries around the world and had to establish a set of guidelines in how to understand and relate to the government of that country. 

In ancient times in Israel under Greek and Roman rule, we primarily fought back when a government sought to impose its authority over us, whether politically or religiously.  This often ended in battles and ultimately when we fought the powerful Romans for sovereignty, they destroyed the Temple and sent us into slavery.

Since then we have yearned to return to our own state but also realized the importance of establishing communities in various countries and create positive relations with the governing authority.  When governments gave Jews free reign in commerce and industry, we flourished.  When governments gave us freedom of religion and let our courts adjudicate our own religious matters, we flourished.  When the opposite was true, we languished and often the end result was migration or expulsion.

In modern times, when church and state have separated, individual Jews, and the Jewish community, has thrived.  But we constantly remember the Talmudic dictate, from Pirkei Avot that says, “Ohev et ha’mlacha, u-s’nah et harabanut, v’al teetvada larashoot”.  This translates as “love work (your profession), hate title/dominance, and do not seek undue intimacy with the government”.  In other words, everyone should have a job and enjoy their chosen field, or at least enjoy it enough to make a living from it.  We should not depend on the country we live in for financial support.  Hate the dominance or authority,  that is if you constantly let yourself be filled with the power of a high up position, it will take over your soul.  This was meant to say that those Jews who always sought to lead over others will be buried by it, absolute power corrupts absolutely.  The great medieval commentator Rashi explains further that of all the 12 sons of Jacob in the book of Genesis, Joseph died first even though he was one of the youngest, and that was because he spent most of his life around those in power in Egypt. 

But most importantly is the last part, do not seek undue intimacy with the government.  In Roman times that was seen as blasphemous.  Even today, we should not be seduced with the government and its power.  The Rabbis say if you are seeking to be part of the government, you are really seeking your own needs and not for anyone else.  You will then break away from God and the mitzvot.  On the other hand, the government has a great deal of influence on our lives, to where our tax dollars go, to legislation for human rights, to creating a social safety net for the vulnerable in our society – the poor, homeless, and hungry.  So we have to walk a careful line, especially here in North America.  We want to live independent lives from the government, in terms of having freedom to worship and express our religion – following our customs, our holidays, our dietary habits, circumcisions, holidays etc.  But we want and should be involved in serving our country during war, lobbying for issues that are important to us that contravene our deepest held values and voting for leaders who will fight what we think is important. 

Over the wars of the past century, Jews have served admirably in securing freedom and democracy and even more so, fighting Hitler’s Nazi Army in World War Two, ultimately saving the remnants of the European Jewry from complete and utter destruction.   On this Remembrance Day weekend we remember that Jewish soldiers served in greater numbers, proportionate to their share of the population, than any other comparable ethnic or religious group. More than 17,000 Jews served in the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II. Of these, 420 were killed in action and more than 300 were wounded. Over 200 received decorations for their service to their country.  We acknowledge their sacrifice and dedication to our country and to the Allied effort to end the war and bring peace once again to our world.  Jews continue to serve in the military in Canada, in our peacekeeping efforts, in UN missions, in NATO missions, serving abroad or here nationally, and we are proud of them. 

And what of the election south of the border.  I was trying not to get too caught up in their electoral process, but its hard not to be affected by the outcome as America’s influence stretches around the world, she is our biggest trading partner and her involvement in the Middle East has incredibly high strategic value for our homeland in Israel.  The political rhetoric and commercial messages are quite overwhelming, as is the obscene amount of money spent on this election that seems to take years.  I much prefer our system with controlled spending and short election seasons.  That being said, way more Americans are involved in the process and vote, in swing states as much as 70-80% voting.  In the last Canadian federal election only 60% voted and in Ontario, especially in the most recent election, it was below 50%.  Maybe its because politics are more exciting down there.  Maybe its because the US leaders are so diametrically opposed even though its only two parties, it really matters which side you vote.  Here in Canada, even with 3 parties, the political platforms are much more similar.  While I did not vote, I was hoping for Americans to choose a leader who was fiscally responsible, maintained appropriate taxes on all segments of society, increased the social safety net for the vulnerable including health care and pension, stood up for same sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose, and maintained the strong friendship between Israel and America.  I think President Barak Obama is that leader.  I was especially insulted by the rhetoric of the Republican party that attempted to smear Obama as soft on Israel and Iran.  In fact in speaking with Israeli low level diplomats, they say he has been one of the best presidents for Israel.  Of course that doesn’t sit well with Netanyahu, who wants a blank cheque that anything Israel does is great and the US must supports it.  Obama has a more nuanced approach, understanding its not black and white.  To act as mediator, the US cannot favor one group over another, but we know the US has Israel’s interests at heart, a two state solution based on negotiated settlement of all issues, clear recognition of the other and a fully implemented peaceful treaty.  The hoopla surrounding the election and the attempt to get out the Jewish vote for Romney simply because he was painted as stronger on Israel, fell short, way short.  The Jewish vote went overwhelmingly in favor of President Obama, by something like 70%, showing the Jews were thoughtful about who they voted for, examined all the issues, and voted for a President that led on all the issues I highlighted before.  I can tell you among my American colleagues there was a deep sigh of relief and most decided to continue living south of the border and not move up here.

I watched the election in Ottawa as I was there on a 3 day study conference with the Canadian Reform Rabbis.  16 of us visited the capital, heard from excellent speakers and discussed important issues for Jews in Canada.  We were particularly impressed with our local MP Terrence Young who gave us a backroom tour of the Parliament building, seeing Prime Minister King’s old office and unusual tidbits of history.  We walked into the senate and even the parliamentary library.  We were treated to dinner in the Parliamentary dining room, where each Rabbi got to sit with his or her MP from across Canada and have some informal time to get to know each other.  This is part of the CJPAC mission, for us to get to know our MP or MPP and engage in the political process.  Not to select one party over another, but simply to establish a relationship with all government officials, regardless of party, so if an issue of importance comes up for Israel or our community, we have someone to go to and they might listen to us because we know them.  Terrence Young already has a strong record on support of Israel and our community, and he impressed the entire group with his graciousness. 

We also met with Ambassador Miriam Ziv from Israel.  We discussed at length the very positive friendship between Israel and Canada through the Conservative leadership years.  But when we mentioned how Anat Hoffman was arrested at the wall and the lack of rights of women in the religious sphere - and of liberal Judaism in general, she simply lost her cool. She told us she was secular and had no interest in our concerns. She yelled at us, reminding us that she is a woman in power and seemed unaware and totally disinterested in the role of non-Orthodox Judaism at the Kotel or anywhere else in Israel.  She said if we don’t live there or serve in the army, we can’t be anything but totally and 100% unconditionally supportive of everything Israel does and says.  This goes against everything I believe in, that I, and all of us in this room, have a stake in the land of Israel, as the homeland for all Jews.  She talked about the great relationship with Canada, but seems to disregard Canadian Jews.  We don’t have a vote in Israel but we certainly have a voice and she attempted to silence it.  As you can imagine we were quite upset after her diatribe, and afterwards wrote letters both to her and her bosses, and the leadership of the Reform movement in Israel and abroad, about our concerns.  We will see if she even addresses them, apparently she is quite controversial.  Her staff apologized on her behalf after she left, and that is pretty much their job everywhere she goes.  To hear this from an ordinary Israeli is one thing, where we can debate.  But to hear it from the official representative of Israel in Canada was almost too much to bear.

For the most part though, we enjoyed meeting members of our government.  We sat with Tom Mulclair, leader of the opposition NDP and Bob Rae leader of the Liberals.  We met with Jon Baird the minister of defense and Jason Kenney the minister of immigration.  We were quite impressed that CIJA  - the Canadian Israel and Jewish affairs committee, that has such positive relations with all the parties in Ottawa that we were able to meet with everyone. While each had slightly different views on domestic policy, they were almost uniform on their calls against the Apartheid Israel Boycott/Divestment/Sanction movement among the left in Canada, and uniform in their declaration of support for Israel and the two state peace process.  This was nice to hear, as Baird put it succinctly, Israel does not come up much in the House of Commons or question period, because its not controversial.  All the parties share the same position, which is comforting to know that whichever party retains power or moves into power, support for Israel is established. 

Not that the parties agree on everything, we got a chance to enter Parliament and watch Question period. In a way we know its theater as it’s the only hour when the television cameras are there and the public is watching.  The politicians know in advance the questions, and have prepared their answers, and generally the game is preset.  However there are moments of levity and improvisation.  Plus its fun to see each party declare their intentions to catcalls and yells of support and sarcastic applause.  The best line was actually from Bob Rae, commenting on PM Harper paying to have his armored Mercedes brought from Canada to India for his transportation, Rae said if the PM would finally meet the premiers of Canada, he could bring along his limo to Charlottetown.

There is a delicate balance when it comes to living our lives as Jews and as Canadians.  We must fight hard for our religious freedom and maintain our culture, identity and practices as a minority.  At the same time our tradition calls on us to follow the law of the land, and even more so to engage in the political process, to make sure the leaders in power commit to upholding the values we hold dear, and call them out when we feel they have missed the mark in their duties.  Yet we must refrain from being too close to power, to letting it corrupt us, to letting it move us away from our ultimate goal of being responsible, dedicated and caring Jewish Canadians.  And let that be God’s will.