We have finalized our spring schedule and we look forward to welcoming you, your friends and your colleagues on one of our upcoming West Bank tours or alumni programs. Please help us spread the word and get Jewish leaders you know on the bus. Please Note: Our May 17-18 trip is open to people with Israeli citizenship.

March 1-2: Bethlehem tour for emerging Jewish leaders, including rabbinical students and others training for careers in Jewish leadership. Priority will be given to those who are in Israel for the year. Click here to learn more.

March 18-19: Bethlehem tour for high-level Jewish leaders who will be visiting the region at this time. Click here to learn more.

April 1: Taking it Home Banquet for all alumni who have participated in our programs this year. Dinner will be served and programming will include a work­shop­ on navigating challenging conver­sa­tions on Israel and the conflict in our home commu­ni­ties. Click here to learn more.

May 17-18: Area B and C tour for current and emerging Jewish leaders. Israeli citizens active in the fields of Jewish and Israel Education are eligible and encouraged to apply. Click here to learn more.

June-July: Stay tuned… Please let us know if you will be in the region during those months by emailing Amy Pearlman, Program Coordinator, amy@encounterprograms.org.

Thank you for helping us to inform and equip our leadership to bring about real, viable solutions for the Israeli and Palestinian people.

I felt a need for more wholeness this Shabbat. We’re starting this new, as-yet-unnamed minyan in Prospect Heights; it’s a new year. And it’s an elections year, which always feel so divisive. So wholeness perhaps we can find in this week’s Torah parsha (Bible reading).

* * *

Parshat Vayehi is the very last in the book of Genesis. The setting is Egypt years after Joseph of the Technicolor coat has risen to Pharoah’s vizier and been reunited with his brothers and his father Jacob, as Jacob utters his last wishes. Jacob’s final words are some of the most clever Hebrew poetry in the scriptures – and more cutting than reality TV elimination rounds. He bitterly denounces his least favorite sons, bestows blessings his favorites, and even promotes his favorite grandchildren above some of his own sons. Talk about family drama. Afterwards, the brothers take his body to Hebron for burial, where they and Joseph reaffirm that they’ve genuinely put aside that whole slavery business. The parsha concludes with Joseph’s passing, who asks too to be buried in Israel.

This parsha is about nationhood as much as it is about family. Scholars say Jacob’s screed (slash) loving blessing seems actually written in the time of the book of Judges – a period hundreds of years later — and is more likely a view of how 12 disparate tribes saw each other: quarrelsome, feuding, uncertain what they shared except common lineage, but genuinely hungry for a sense of unity. It was written to castigate the rights and wrongs of a divided political system of the day – perhaps also, to instigate a better day.

Two parts of the story are cited for that thesis, both vignettes I find moving:

In the penultimate scene, the brothers freak out that Joseph may now take revenge. Imagine this, the Grand Vizier of the Middle East’s superpower accompanies the body of his long-lost father from the metropolises of Egypt to the farm fields of Canaan. He returns, a midrash elaborates, along the very same route that slave traders carried him. He is reliving his own life in reverse.

His brothers see him standing alone thinking and come to investigate. Lo and behold, what did Joseph find to cause him to stop? The pit. Joseph had stumbled across the pit into which his brothers had thrown him. The brothers fear that he is consumed with anger. But instead of revenge, he was reflecting on the unexpected twists in life that had enabled him to save his family from famine.

The other allusion to tribal reconciliation is when Jacob offers his blessings to Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The rabbis say it no accident that this is the first time in the Torah when the younger brother gets the better blessing without starting a new feud.

* * *

To conclude, this year we establish this new minyan. So far we are still coming into clarity about who we are, disparate elements yet to be a whole. We want for this sacred space a reflection of what we want of our country: welcoming, egalitarian, altruistic, diverse, inspiring, spiritual without coercion, educated without elitism, value-driven without dogma.

And while we’d all like our particular American tribe – or alliance of tribes, as party politics feels these days – to get the better blessing in November, we know that we need no new feuds. We know that often history is driven by unseen and ineffable forces that surprise us with unexpected twists. And that we’re hungry for a day where there is more unity between all the tribes.

It’s Shabbes. It’s the day of wholeness. And in this space, we build a home that is like the one we wish to see out there. Thank you for joining us tonight and Shabbat shalom.

Things I oppose today:

One-minute divrei torah (sermons). For a given parsha (Bible reading), one would have to be a masterful speaker to accomplish in 60 seconds an exegesis that makes Torah relevant, thought-provoking and (yes) inspiring to people’s modern lives. I need at least 3-5 minutes.

Subway evangelists. Precisely because the average distance between stops is only about a minute and they, on average, are not masterful speakers. Maybe if they had 3-5 minutes.

Bibi Netanyahu. Who today told a Birthright-Israel mega-event that “Israel is a country where a woman can sit anywhere she wants.” Which is, on its face, sadly not true. And who has put the dati (orthodox) and haredi (ultra-orthodox) in control of the facets of Israeli governance that prevent women’s equality in Israel.

Things I support today:

Obama. Even despite that I read this blistering critique by Greg Greenwald about the President’s progressive credentials. It’s all true. Yet I believe in Barack still. (Hat tip Contra7.)

The Democrats. Even despite this equally blistering historical analysis by Matt Stoller of what “progressive” stands for today. It’s all true. And I’ve rarely been so inspired to fix it.

Twitter disagreements. Even despite the baiting by right-wing tweeters.

Address by Retired Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia
at the New Israel Fund’s Human Rights Awards Ceremony
December 13, 2011
for Attorney Hassan Jabareen (Herman Schwartz Prize)
and Attorney Dan Yakir (Guardian of Human Rights Prize)

The Herman Schwartz prize was given within the framework of the Israel-US Civil Liberties Law Program of the New Israel Fund and the American University. The Guardian of Human Rights prize was supported by the Israela Goldblum Fund and the New Israel Fund.

The presentation of the New Israel Fund awards to attorneys Hassan Jabareen and Dan Yakir is first of all a festive occasion to the prize winners, who represent by their vision, their commitment, and their personal and professional devotion, activity on behalf of human rights in the fullest and deepest sense.

This is of course a day of celebration for the human rights organizations that devote their activities and resources to defending and furthering the rights of the individual. This is also a celebration for the New Israel Fund, which by awarding recognition and appreciation to the winners, expresses not only its heartfelt gratitude, but the appreciation of all those who pursue human rights, wherever they may be, to the extraordinary contribution of these two men in the framework of their organizations to the consolidation and development of human rights in Israel.

This is an important day for Israeli democracy and the system of human rights upon whose core principles it is founded.

Human rights are a core component of constitutional democracy in Israel, without which true democracy cannot be established.

By acquiring a supreme normative status for human rights, democracy extends its protection to the individual, to the minority, to the weak, to the victim of discrimination, and to the stranger from the majority’s power to harm.

The supreme constitutional status of human rights in Israel’s legal system entails their being respected and enforced, even when their defense is not absolute but only relative, by giving both human rights and the opposing public interest due consideration. The human rights organizations—and Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel among them—are the faithful servants of the human rights system in Israel.

They operate in the various rights sectors with the goal of healing the personal and collective wounds to human rights by standing up for respecting political and civil rights, by fulfilling economic, social, and cultural rights, and by standing up for the rights of suspects, the accused, the detained, and prisoners in every stage of the criminal process and punishment.

The Adalah organization has dealt for some 15 years in defending the human rights of Israeli citizens from the Arab sector and the rights of Palestinians from the territories. Under the leadership and the inspiration of attorney Jabareen, the organization works to defend the Arab minority throughout the spectrum of human rights in various channels of activity, among them the initiation of steps before government authorities and the courts, alongside manifold public activity.

Adalah’s petitions to the High Court of Justice deal with a wide range of human rights associated with the Arab public, among them the equal distribution of public resources, freedom of speech and political freedom, family rights, the official status of Arabic, freedom of religion and worship, and various social rights. An important part of the decisions in principle handed down by the High Court of Justice on human rights issues were given in petitions submitted by the organization. The activity of Adalah under the leadership of attorney Jabareen excels in its commitment, determination, and high professional and cultural level. This is an organization that works to advance human rights by legal means, not extra-legal means, by outstanding intellectual power, high moral commitment, and a broad vision of Israeli society in all its diversity. These special characteristics have given the Adalah organization its unique status on the map of human rights organizations in Israel.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has worked for years to defend human rights in Israel in the broadest sense of the term. It is devoted to defending and developing basic rights in all sectors of Israeli society and in the entire rights spectrum. It provides defense without distinction of religion, ethnic group, gender, nationality, or political affiliation. It divides its activities among various channels of action, among them activities connected with legislation in the Knesset, the initiating of legal action in the courts, providing legal assistance to the needy, and widespread educational and training activities on human rights issues.

The fields of action of Adalah and ACRI partly overlap and complement one another.

The importance of their contribution to defending and developing human rights greatly exceeds the specific issues on their public and legal agendas. Their activity contributes to deepening the internal content and general significance of democracy in Israel, and raising the moral level of Israeli society at large. The judicial norms established following the organizations’ initiatives have a wide impact on the entire society. Their activity has educational, social, and moral value that exceeds whatever particular issue that has been brought for resolution.

Human rights are the very heart and soul of Israeli democracy. It is not enough for them to be written in law books and the verdicts of the courts.

In order to give them life, a motivating force is necessary to translate these abstract principles to the everyday reality in the field. The human rights organizations are the connecting link between the principles of human rights and their implementation on the ground of reality. They are the seeing eye, the listening ear, and the attentive heart to what goes on in the field. They are what bring the distress of the individual and the community to the public consciousness and to the test of the ruling authorities. Without them, where would the individuals and communities go that lack the strength to conduct their struggles by themselves?

The central part of the human rights organizations in Israeli democracy is doubly important in this period, in which we must stand guard over the basic constitutional values of Israel’s system of government and justice. At a time when attempts are being made to limit and narrow the ability of these organizations to act in defense of human rights, it must be hoped that the internal restraining mechanisms of Israeli democracy will once again meet the test and not permit these attempts to succeed. But it is not enough to repel attempts at harm. It is necessary to act, to support and encourage the human rights organizations so as to enable them to broaden their activity and fulfill their goals. As much as the organizations’ activity is consolidated and developed, so will the substance of Israeli democracy be strengthened. Without the manifold activity of the human rights organizations, human rights in Israel are liable to wither into insignificance without any grasp on the reality of life.

Behind the bodies and organizations that perform this holy work are always people of vision who act to translate this vision into a living language. As we know, everything in the end rises and falls by the human element, and to a great extent on the worth and level of the leadership that guides the idea, outlines the objectives, and works to fulfill them by translating them into the language of practice. These things may be said about the awardees before us.

Attorney Hassan Jabareen, one of the founders and leaders of Adalah, and attorney Dan Yakir, one of the leaders of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, were both formed from that same special leadership material around which groups focus to fulfill their ideas. Such leadership is characterized, first of all, by a clear vision and complete devotion to it, by an absolute willingness to devote their professional lives to carry it out, and by investing all of their personal resources to that end—even if this entails significant personal sacrifices. It entails a total commitment to realize the objectives, even at the knowledge that the path is not always strewn with successes, and even when it is paved with failures and disappointments. Such leadership does not give in, even when the course is winding and difficult, and expressions of acknowledgement and recognition are not waiting at its end.

As one who has followed the activities of attorneys Jabareen and Yakir for many years in the frameworks of legal procedures they have initiated for their organizations in the High Court of Justice, I can testify that the organizations, the Israeli public, and the country’s constitutional democracy have been privileged with human rights leaders of the highest caliber. They combine vision, total commitment to achieving it, great human sensitivity, and the highest intellectual and judicial level. By their special qualities they have illuminated the path of the human rights organizations and led them to significant achievements in developing human rights in Israeli society. However, the road to achieving the vision is still long, and strewn with obstacles. These awards of recognition being given today by the New Israel Fund are not only an expression of appreciation for past activity, but also an encouragement and incentive to continue forward, without letting up; to progress in defending human rights in all the areas that have not yet found resolution; and to illuminate the corners of Israeli society that are still in the dark.

Permit me to conclude on a personal note. I don’t know Hassan Jabareen and Dan Yakir closely. I’ve never even had the opportunity of having a personal conversation with them. Our periodic meetings always took place in the great hall of the Supreme Court, where a great distance separated the justices’ bench and the lawyers’ table. Nevertheless, in a strange way I feel as if we are old friends, by virtue of our joint efforts—each from his own direction in complex and penetrating legal, national, and human issues, and by way of the invisible thread that links people that passes from the brain to the heart, connecting them by common values and similar hopes.

My heartfelt congratulations to the awardees, and my wishes for the fruitful continuation of this important enterprise.

This above is what Peter Beinart is talking about when he said yesterday that Israel’s discrimination against women is linked directly to Israel’s discrimination against Palestinian citizens. Netanyahu created a coalition comprised of:

Likud: secular right
Yisrael Beiteinu: secular far-right (Russian)
Shas: ultra-Orthodox right (Sephardi)
United Torah Judaism: ultra-Orthodox right (Ashkenazi)
Independence: center-left
The Jewish Home: Orthodox right

All in order to avoid involving either the Arab parties or Kadima (centrist). And the argument that the Arabs are anti-Zionist makes no sense because neither are the ultra-Orthodox. This leads Beinart to conclude his essay as follows:

And why must Israeli prime ministers include ultra-Orthodox parties in their governments? In large measure because they will not include Israel’s Arab parties. Israel’s Arab citizens (those within Israel’s 1967 borders) can vote and elect representatives to the Knesset. But by tradition, an Israeli government cannot rely on Arab parties to stay in power. It must enjoy a Jewish majority in the Knesset. Some justify this tradition by noting that the political parties favored by Israeli Arabs are non-Zionist: they wish Israel were not a Jewish state. But, as it happens, some of the ultra-Orthodox parties that have sat in Israeli governments are non-Zionist too, since many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that the creation of a Jewish state should await the messiah.

What gives the ultra-Orthodox the ability to oppress women, in other words, is partly a political system in which Israel’s Arab citizens are largely barred from power. What the protesters in Beit Shemesh and their supporters in the United States need to remember is the fundamental interconnectedness of equal citizenship. When you deny it to one group, you produce ripple effects that undermine the equality of others as well. Israel’s declaration of independence promises “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of race, religion and sex.” For Israel to fulfill that promise to its female citizens, it must start fulfilling it to its Arab ones as well.

(Graphic mine. Data source: Knesset website.)

Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies