Because we at Texas Hillel believe so passionately in the need for a strong, democratic Jewish State of Israel (witness our active Texans for Israel group and our largest annual event, the Israel Block Party),  I share with you a few reasons why today’s college students have a dramatically different experience of Israel than did their parents.   It is critical that those interested in Israel advocacy on campus understand that we cannot do “business as usual” with the millennials and emerging adults on campus today.

Here are a few reasons why advocacy on campus right now is different than at other places in other times:

• Today’s college students have no memory of a world without Israel, no memory of 1967 or 1973 and no memory of a pre-intifida Israeli/Palestinian narrative.
• Today’s college students are much more likely than their parents to have visited Israel (thanks to Birthright, NFTY, USY, BBYO, etc.) so their attachment is more nuanced.   They see an Israel that doesn’t need tzedakah because its economy is stronger than our own.  They have met Israeli soldiers and know that the story of Israel is complex.
• Today’s college students likely have no personal experience of anti-Semitism and are not swayed by the “everyone is out to get us” mentality that fueled their grandparents’ Jewish identities.   Many have never met a Holocaust survivor.
• Today’s college students have multi-layered identities, like windows on a computer screen.  Sometimes their Jewish identity window is maximized, sometimes it is minimized and sometimes it is closed altogether.  Israel is but one piece of that Jewish identity, and it is very often informed by anti-Israel bias they hear from professors, read online or see on TV news.

As a result of all of this, traditional pro-Israel advocacy models won’t work for the overwhelming majority of students.   They are more likely to believe that Israel is invincible and their idealism tells them that if Israel gives more land/money/rights to the Palestinians then the problem will be solved.   They fail to recognize that for Israelis the matzav is not Israel vs. Palestine but Israel vs. the radicalized segments of the Muslim world and world opinion that deligitimizes Israel.

Some students are naturally drawn to Israel advocacy, but there are fewer than you’d think. And telling them “If we don’t stand up for Israel, no one will” is not convincing enough Jewish students that the cause is just.   They have been led to believe that Israel is responsible for the problems of the Middle East (and beyond) and so our task is to tell a different story and get them engaged in sharing the alternate narrative with their peers.

What we’re trying to do at Texas Hillel is to connect with Jewish college students on their terms.   Scare tactics don’t work, so we celebrate Israel’s diversity and demonstrate how Israel is the only country in the Middle East that shares their Western values. We have our annual Israel Block Party on campus (not at Hillel) and draw thousands of participants (and always some protesters).  The Israel Block Party has themed pavilions appealing to student interests and Israeli accomplishments in multiple areas.    We sponsor Texans for Israel and its ongoing advocacy so that our story has a chance to compete with the anti-Israel propaganda that is so well-funded and easily accessible.

Advocating for Israel on campus is frustrating.   Some think we are soft and are giving up too much and some think we are stubborn and not giving up enough.    I am trying to steer our Hillel to the middle, making it clear that we have to be a safe place for pro-Israel students to celebrate the Jewish State while at the same time promoting a mature relationship between American Jews and Israel.   That mature relationship means loving Israel, supporting her, advocating for her right to exist within self-defined and secure borders… and also speaking the truth with each other about what more can be done to realize the dreams of the State’s founders.   Israel is not perfect, but she is ours and she is democratic and she is far from being morally equivalent to terrorists, racists and mass-murderers. Adolescent love (Israel can do no wrong) and married-for-sixty-two-years frustration and anger (Israel can do no right) are not reasonable options for today’s students.   They need nuance and honesty and they need us to provide them a place for the discussions.

I invite you to share with Texas Hillel in our attempt to enrich the lives of the largest population of Jewish students in the region. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s decision-makers and if we can’t convince them now that the State of Israel is legitimate and righteous, we may lose them forever.

It has never been external forces that have kept Judaism alive. Quite the contrary. Dedication to the ideals of ethical monotheism (the idea that there is one God who expects humanity to behave in a particular way) and a passionate commitment to learning have sustained our people for thousands of years, and they sustain us still.

Tuesday evening May 18th begins the festival of Shavuot, one of the three pilgrimage holidays during which our ancestors would flock to the Temple. Shavuot commemorates the giving and receiving of the Torah seven weeks after the Exodus from slavery. Passover was about freedom, and Shavuot is about responsibility. A Jewish people that is only free from bondage is destined to wander, while a Jewish people committed to the Torah’s principles is more than simply free. Freedom is more than being free from something, it is being free to do great things. The Torah has freed us to live fully in accordance with how the universe is supposed to be ordered, with distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. The Torah also gives us the tools to interpret the gray areas of life. Moses freed us from physical oppression and seven weeks later he freed us from spiritual bondage by bringing us an eternal covenant, sworn to Abraham and Sarah, for all generations. A Jewish people without Torah has no anchor, no connection to its past or vision for its future.

Many communities celebrate Shavuot with an all-night study session, bringing people closer to the tradition of learning that has kept our people spiritually alive for millennia. Working in a university setting, where learning is my congregation’s full-time job, I am keenly aware that the life of the mind is paramount. This Shavuot, with classes having ended and new graduates celebrating their achievements, I hope that we will all see ourselves as eternal students and teachers of Torah, bearers of the everlasting light of knowledge that has illuminated the way for generations of Jews before us.

Yes, we suffer. But we also celebrate, and Shavuot is a time for celebrating the Jewish commitment to study and learning. The Hebrew root of the word Torah is the same as the root for teacher and parent, and the thirst for knowledge is an essential component of our Jewish birthright.

Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Rabbi David Komerofsky

Exodus 30:11 – 34:35

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When you take a census of the Israelite people according to their enrollment, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled. This is what everyone who is entered in the records shall pay: a half-shekel by the sanctuary weight — twenty gerahs to the shekel — a half-shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, shall give the Lord’s offering: the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving the Lord’s offering as expiation for your persons. You shall take the expiation money from the Israelites and assign it to the service of the Tent of Meeting; it shall serve the Israelites as a reminder before the Lord, as expiation for your persons.

These verses will be read around the world this weekend for Shabbat Shekalim, the Sabbath preceding the beginning of the month of Adar. Adar is a month of joy of celebration that includes the festival of Purim.

The central message of these verses for Shabbat Shekalim is simple – every member of the community bears equal responsibility for the building of the tabernacle.  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch commented on this text that the mission of Israel is dependent on the unity of the whole.   We are whole as a people when we see ourselves as personally responsible, not relying on others to do what needs to be done.

Every generation of Jews has been building community – tabernacles at which we can worship and to which we can flock for celebration – by making personal investments in the well-being of the whole.  How much better the whole world would be if every person did his or her part!   Small acts of kindness and generosity can make all the difference, and the instruction in the verses for this Shabbat are clear:  do what you must not because it is convenient or makes you feel good, but because the world depends on you.

So realizes Jacob as he awakens from his dream of a ladder from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending.   Midrashic writers have understood the ladder as an historical allegory of the Jewish people’s suffering under the rule of tyrants… the empires rise and fall but we remain.   Other interpreters note that the angels go up and down (in that order), meaning that the angels begin on earth and accompany us through important moments in our lives.  Angels and messengers are everywhere around us if we’ll stop and notice.

This week the parasha coincides with Thanksgiving,  a holiday during which we,  like Jacob,  can get a new perspective on life if we stop to remember that no matter where we are,  G-d is in this place.  Thanksgiving is not specifically a religious holiday but it has some of the trappings of a Jewish holiday… particularly the focus on food and family. It is the story of our American culture’s founding on religious freedom and that is a principle that has been very good for America’s Jews.   Here we have been free to practice Judaism as we choose,  to celebrate our traditions openly in our own ways even as we share cultural practices with others.

On Thanksgiving I hope that you will be able to pause amidst the tumult and turkey not only to give thanks,  but also to remember that the special people in your life can be angels on your own ladder.  They can support you when you fall and celebrate with you when you triumph.   G-d is always in this place,  no matter where we might be,  and you need look no farther than those who enrich your life every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On a personal note,  I am very proud of my sister and aunt for the culinary gifts that they have given our family over the years.   They are experts in kosher cuisine in Columbus, Ohio and you can find some of their terrific recipes online to make your Thanksgiving delicious!

Far be it from You to do such a thing, to wipe away the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous be just like the wicked. Far be it from you. Should not the judge of the whole earth do justice? (Genesis 18:25)

In his pleading for the welfare of the hypothetical good guys in Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenged God in a way that Noah never did. Noah did not ask if the earth should be saved before the flood, he did as he was commanded and built the ark and saved his family. Lacking chutzpah, we know that Noah could not have been a good pioneer for the Jewish people. Abraham, however, could not stand by and say nothing if there were innocent people being destroyed because of their proximity to the wicked. In Genesis 18:25 Abraham asks if that’s justice, that the good and the bad should be judged as one.

What nerve. Abraham thinks he knows better than God? As if. But God engaged Abraham in the discussion and agreed to save the city for the sake of the few righteous who might be found in it (not to give away the ending, but there weren’t any. Bye bye Sodom). And from their debate we learn something valuable – we are supposed to stand up when we see injustice and speak truth to power. There is no greater authority than God, so why be afraid to speak up to any person when you see wrong being done? Abraham had chutzpah and guts. A fitting ancestor for a perpetually dissatisfied people who look at the world and ask “why not?” Chutzpah is a Jewish birthright… we’ve had the nerve to survive and thrive for thousands of years against great odds and overcoming enormous obstacles. We survive because we are here for a reason – to be a light unto the nations and leave the world better than we found it – and often that means conforming to conscience instead of convenience. If it means that we are misunderstood and despised, so be it. The judge of the whole earth does justice, and so should we.

A final thought on Abraham’s debate. Abraham pushed God to consider the justice of punishing the righteous just because they are near the wicked. We know that it is easy to be bad when others around us are setting the bar low. We should distance ourselves from people who bring out the worst in us, and strive to do good by surrounding ourselves with people who help us kindle our divine sparks.

Discussion Questions:

• What principles are worth being unpopular to protect?
• Is Jewish chutzpah good, or too pushy?
• Why should Abraham care about these strangers in Sodom?
• Why were there no righteous people to be found amongst the wicked in this case?
• What lesson does this parasha (Vayera) teach about collective punishment?