A time for Jewish unity
By Paul Haist
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Last week, 28 leaders of the greater-Portland Jewish community met in the conference room at the offices of the
Jewish Federation of Greater Portland to plan the community's response to the crisis involving Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Palestinians in Gaza.
Attending were several rabbis, agency executives and board presidents, several staff members of the federation and other longtime communal leaders and activists.
Attending via speakerphone was Omer Caspi, Israel's deputy consul general for the Pacific Northwest, based in San Francisco.
Caspi was online to advise Portland's Jewish leadership on how to address the crisis.
There was discussion of whether such a gathering should be public or private, whether it should be for the benefit chiefly of the Jewish community or whether is should be a public demonstration of solidarity with Israel and an opportunity to articulate to the general community the Jewish community's perspective on the crisis.
Caspi, pointing to recent similar events in the Bay Area, felt strongly that the gathering or rally should be public, that it should include local political leaders and that the media should be in attendance.
"If you want to do one big event in Portland, it should be public," said Caspi. "Speakers should include—besides the Jewish community—public figures."
Amid a few expressions of concern that a public rally could motivate counter-demonstrators, concerns that were largely dismissed after some discussion, consensus was achieved that the event should be public.
The conversation then turned to what the Jewish community message to the larger community should be.
No one argued that the message should stress the necessity to "stand against terrorism and stand with Israel."
JFGP Executive Vice President Charles R. Schiffman, just returned from Israel with the federation's new president, Robert Philip, said, "We want the hostages to be released, we want Lebanon to deploy its army (along its border with Israel) and we want Hezbollah disarmed."
Caspi suggested that the message also address peace.
"Hezbollah is the enemy of peace,"
he said. "If you want peace, join us. If you go against Israel, you go against peace."
Caspi, noting that Israel did nothing to provoke Hezbollah's attack, said, "We restrained ourselves, but this time a line was crossed."
He said the ceasefire for which some are calling now "will not resolve the problem."
He added, "We need more time?we need to know that Hezbollah has been reduced to a level that it cannot hurt Israel."
While Caspi made the case for Israeli persistence in its defense, Rabbi Emanuel Rose, recently retired from Portland's Congregation Beth Israel, was mindful of the sympathy likely to be found among the general public for the hardships faced by Lebanese civilians during this crisis.
"We have to show some concern for the Lebanese people," he said
All of this is suitable information for a story in our regular news columns. I put it on this opinion page, however, because of something else Rose contributed.
"It's been a long time since there has been such unity in the Jewish world," he said.
The conference table at the Jewish federation that day was a microcosm of the Jewish world.
Seated around the large conference table were at least three Orthodox rabbis. At the table with them were two women rabbis, all taking part equally in the deliberations.
Among what was surely a preponderance of liberal Democrat Jews were known Republican Jews.
Recalling the joke about two Jews and three opinions, the 28 Jewish leaders in the room might ordinarily be expected to disagree widely on almost any given issue. And, very likely, there were more than 28 opinions in the room on exactly what Israel should or should not do today.
But no one disagreed with the necessity to stand up for Israel now.
Israel has been held to a double standard throughout its history, vilified merely for defending itself, for taking actions to protect itself that no one would question in any other nation.
If a terrorist group in Canada began lobbing rockets into the United States and the Canadian government refused or was unable to take action against the terrorists, would the United States stand idly by while its citizens were murdered?
Of course not, and neither should Israel.
Yet there are influential leaders in the world now who are calling on Israel to do just that.
That's insane, yet the media repeats these calls and many people listen, uncritically.
Astonishingly, allegedly thoughtful commentators weigh the issue of legitimate self defense on the Nightly News Hour, the Sunday talk programs and on leading opinion pages.
The Jewish community here and around the world must speak with one voice on this issue, that modern Israel, legally established by the world as an independent nation in 1948, has the same rights and responsibilities of every other nation.
The Jewish community especially needs to speak out now, loudly and clearly, in defense of common sense and justice, and against the forces of terror and evil.
It is gratifying that the 28 Jews who met in Portland to plan their community's response to the current crisis understand that.
So should every one else, all of whom should take action now in defense of Israel and the immutable values for which it stands.
It is a battle not just for Israel, but also for civilization.