Is today a day of joy or
a day of sorrow?
Today Israelis and Jews across
the world celebrate Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s
Independence Day. It’s a very special anniversary: 70 years since Israel was
welcomed into the family of nations as an independent Jewish and democratic
state.
Looking back to 1948, we
have much to celebrate. The ingathering of Jews from displaced persons camps in
Europe, from anti-semitism in the lands of North Africa and the Middle East,
from starvation in Ethiopia and from oppression in the former Soviet Union, are
a modern miracle for the Jewish people.
Israel catalyzed the
revival of the Hebrew language, the foundation of contemporary literature,
music, and art that draw on the two-thousand-year-old heritage of Jewish text
and thought expressed in our ancient tongue.
Israel is the only place
on earth where Jews welcome Shabbat and holidays in the spirit of a myriad of
Jewish ethnicities that characterize our people’s global sojourns and refracted
through multiple lenses of Jewish religious observance.
I’ve traveled to Israel
over 20 times, including 2 extended stays: one with my husband, and one with
our children (our son Yonah was born in Jerusalem). For me, Israel is home and
family, a source of joy and pride. I am fully an American Jew, but for me,
there’s just something different about being in the land of our ancestors and
in a society where Jewish creativity is part of the landscape.
We also have reason for sorrow.
Our gratitude for a homeland stands in sharp contrast to the displacement of people
who call our shared land by a different name, Palestine, and who have been
denied full rights, whether as citizens of Israel or as an occupied people. To
the Palestinian people, today commemorates the Nakba, the catastrophe, which followed when the British ended their
mandate and Israel arose as an independent state.
And yet….
And yet, this year I have
found reason to hope.
Returning from our visit
to Israel in February, I felt hopeful because of the unsung remarkable, passionate,
and effective Palestinian and Jewish leaders who are working together on the
ground to create a better homeland for all.
Returning from the
JStreet 10th Anniversary Conference this week, I feel hopeful
because of the open-hearted dialogue between Israeli Jews, American Jews, and
Palestinians who spoke. I feel hopeful because of the 1200 JStreet U college
students at the conference who are vigorously protesting the demolitions of
Palestinian homes in the South Hebron Hills. I feel hopeful because of our
meetings with Congressional representatives and Senators who hear and respect the
voices of thousands of JStreet supporters who seek to maintain Israel as a
Jewish and democratic state, committed to a two-state solution that brings
peace and security to the region.
In this world of pain and
possibility, it is our obligation to hold on to both realities, the celebration
and the sorrow. It is up to us to remain engaged with our Jewish homeland, to continue
to support those in Israel and Palestine who are working for human rights,
economic sustainability, and peace and security, and to stand against those who
continue to deny the rights of Palestinians, who reject moderate Palestinian
leaders, and who attack the forces for civil society and equality.
On this 70th
anniversary of Israel’s birth as a modern nation, I recommit myself to do all
that I can to work for the kind of Jewish and democratic state envisioned by
its founders.
I turn to Psalm 30 to remind me of the long view:
Redeemer,
you have raised my spirit from the land of no return,
You
revived me from among those fallen in a pit;
For
God is angry for a moment, but shows favor for a lifetime,
Though
one goes to bed in weeping, one awakes in song;
You
changed my mourning to an ecstatic dance
You
loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with joy.
May the next 70 years
bring more song than weeping, more joy than mourning, for our people and for
those with whom we share our sacred land.
