May 14 will be 220 days since the unprovoked attack and horrific massacre of Israeli civilians, men, women, and children, in the area around Gaza. As I am preparing this article in early April, there are still 134 hostages being held by Hamas, approximately 100 of whom may still be alive.

On May 14, we will celebrate Israel Independence Day, the 76^th birthday of the modern State of Israel. Israel was established on our ancestral land to be a place where Jews could find refuge and rebuild a state infused with our fundamental Jewish values. By any measure, Israel has been a phenomenal success. It has welcomed immigration of individual Jews and Jewish families and entire Jewish communities from around the world and it has prospered. It has reach out in times of crisis to countries around the world with assistance. It has signed agreements of peace and economic cooperation with a growing number of its neighbor countries in the Middle East.

The upcoming celebration of Yom Ha’atzma’ut ought to be an unqualified celebration, yet we cannot celebrate with our full hearts while hostages are still held in Gaza and while Israeli soldiers are still putting their lives on the line to recover our missing and hold those responsible for October 7 accountable for their actions.

Of these two things I am certain:

• If the people of Gaza, who elected Hamas to be their representative government, would rise up and return the hostages to Israel along with the leadership of Hamas responsible for October 7, the war would end the next day.
• If the people of Israel would lay down their arms tomorrow, the hostages would remain in captivity and Hamas would, as they promised, prepare to renew attacks against Israel.

You might wonder whether we should celebrate Yom Ha’atma’ut this year. I do not. I can still see Treblinka, Majdenek, and Auschwitz when I close my eyes, from my trip to Poland last year. Had there been no Israel in 1948, who would have taken in the almost 300,000 European Jews who sought refuge there? The United States took in 150,000 in the 10 years following the Shoah. Israel took in twice that many in just five years. Had there been no establishment of Israel, who would protect Jewish communities of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, and Ethiopia, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, in this era of rising antisemitism? Many of these communities chose to make Aliyah in the years following the establishment of Israel. If Israel were to cease to exist as a Jewish State tomorrow, what would happen to its 7.2 million Jews (out of a total population of 9.8 million)? Where would they go – because one thing is for certain, they are not welcome in the Hamas or Palestinian Authority controlled areas of Gaza or the Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).

It was a Friday afternoon on May 14,1948 when a small Jewish community, led by David Ben Gurion, read the declaration of Independence and proclaimed the State of Israel. I hope you will join me and Ahavas Israel in our celebration of Yom Ha’atma’ut on Tuesday evening, May 14. You can find details elsewhere in the Voice.

Hebrew Phrases of the Month:

• Megillat Ha’atzma’ut – “The Declaration of Independence”
• Tzur Yisrael – “Rock of Israel” – a phrase in the Megillat Ha’atzma’ut that some read as a reference to God, and others, to the Israeli army.
• Medinah Yehudit – “Jewish State” – The Megillat Ha’atzma’ut proclaims the establishment of a Jewish State in …
• Eretz Yisrael – “The Land of Israel” – The Biblical, ancestral, land of the Jewish people, to be known as …
• Medinat Yisrael – “The State of Israel”

We celebrate Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel Independence Day, on May 5. 25 years ago, I could have written the previous sentence without a second thought. But although the vast majority of Jews care about Israel (82%, according to the Pew Research Center), and most of the rest would identify their ambivalence as non-Zionist, the number of Jews who identify as anti-Zionists has grown. So it is no longer a given that the subject of the first person plural pronoun at the beginning of my first sentence is “the Jewish community.” This saddens me.

It saddens me even more that a Chicago-based synagogue, founded seven years ago as a non-Zionist institution, has recently redefined itself as affirmatively anti-Zionist. I’m not in favor of creating a synagogue in which opposition to a long-standing Jewish belief is a founding principle. A synagogue based on eating pork, intact foreskins, feasting on Yom Kippur, or hating the principle of Zionism seems perverse and anti-Jewish. At the same time, creating a litmus test in which pork eaters, Kol Nidre feasters, intacters, and anti-Zionists are specifically called out for exclusion also seems anti-Jewish to me. Jews don’t have a history of carrying out threats of wholesale, widespread, excommunication, do we?

I suppose I’ll continue using the unqualified first person plural “we celebrate Yom Ha’atzma’ut” in the same ways that I say “Jews observe Shabbat,” knowing that what I really mean is that most Jews are aware of the existence of Shabbat, recognize it in their own way, and appreciate its power and beauty when they do. Most people alive today, including Jews, are aware of the existence of Israel, recognize that it sits in the geographical location that gave birth to two of the world’s major religions, and appreciate its power and beauty and history and connection to three major religions. 

So I encourage you to celebrate a world in which Israel exists as the place where our sacred language of Hebrew lives a vibrant life; where the Jewish calendar forms the natural rhythm of the week; where Jewish texts, values and ethics inform the legislative and judicial system; where Jewish history actually began; and as the place where any Jew, anywhere, for any reason, can claim refuge from a world that is not always friendly to Jews.

And I encourage you to be proud of a world in which Israel exists as a light until the nations, as a country nearly always among the first to send support and expertise in the wake of a natural disaster; as a country which take in refugees of any religion; as a bastion of religious freedom; and as an innovative “start-up nation.” 

Celebrate Israel’s 74^th birthday on Wednesday evening, May 4 or Thursday, May 5 with Israel food, watching an Israeli movie or series on your favorite streaming service, listening to Israeli music (My favorite place to go is MyIsraeliMusic.com, The Israel Hour, with Josh Shron), and say a prayer of gratitude for the existence of Israel.

Hag Sameah!

We celebrate Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel Independence Day, on May 5. 25 years ago, I could have written the previous sentence without a second thought. But although the vast majority of Jews care about Israel (82%, according to the Pew Research Center), and most of the rest would identify their ambivalence as non-Zionist, the number of Jews who identify as anti-Zionists has grown. So it is no longer a given that the subject of the first person plural pronoun at the beginning of my first sentence is “the Jewish community.” This saddens me.

It saddens me even more that a Chicago-based synagogue, founded seven years ago as a non-Zionist institution, has recently redefined itself as affirmatively anti-Zionist. I’m not in favor of creating a synagogue in which opposition to a long-standing Jewish belief is a founding principle. A synagogue based on eating pork, intact foreskins, feasting on Yom Kippur, or hating the principle of Zionism seems perverse and anti-Jewish. At the same time, creating a litmus test in which pork eaters, Kol Nidre feasters, intacters, and anti-Zionists are specifically called out for exclusion also seems anti-Jewish to me. Jews don’t have a history of carrying out threats of wholesale, widespread, excommunication, do we?

I suppose I’ll continue using the unqualified first person plural “we celebrate Yom Ha’atzma’ut” in the same ways that I say “Jews observe Shabbat,” knowing that what I really mean is that most Jews are aware of the existence of Shabbat, recognize it in their own way, and appreciate its power and beauty when they do. Most people alive today, including Jews, are aware of the existence of Israel, recognize that it sits in the geographical location that gave birth to two of the world’s major religions, and appreciate its power and beauty and history and connection to three major religions. 

So I encourage you to celebrate a world in which Israel exists as the place where our sacred language of Hebrew lives a vibrant life; where the Jewish calendar forms the natural rhythm of the week; where Jewish texts, values and ethics inform the legislative and judicial system; where Jewish history actually began; and as the place where any Jew, anywhere, for any reason, can claim refuge from a world that is not always friendly to Jews.

And I encourage you to be proud of a world in which Israel exists as a light until the nations, as a country nearly always among the first to send support and expertise in the wake of a natural disaster; as a country which take in refugees of any religion; as a bastion of religious freedom; and as an innovative “start-up nation.” 

Celebrate Israel’s 74^th birthday on Wednesday evening, May 4 or Thursday, May 5 with Israel food, watching an Israeli movie or series on your favorite streaming service, listening to Israeli music (My favorite place to go is MyIsraeliMusic.com, The Israel Hour, with Josh Shron), and say a prayer of gratitude for the existence of Israel.

Hag Sameah!