On a recent broadcast of "Prairie Home Companion," the poet Robert Bly read one of his poems that ended with the line: "William Blake, longing for Jerusalem." He then commented (and this is a paraphrase): "How wonderful it is when a poem ends with the word Jerusalem!"

The poet was right. All of our best poems end with the word Jerusalem; the most poetic of our dreams end with Jerusalem. 

Even our most prosaic thoughts of Jerusalem (read; Israel, Zionism, the Jewish people) contain a kind of poetry -- the poetry of a rigorous discourse that helps define us as Reform Zionists. Therefore, this ARZA E-Alert opens our eyes, minds and souls to the following. 

The fighting in Gaza has ended, at least for now. But the inner struggles continue. In the March, 2009 issue of Commentary, Ruth Wisse muses on what the Middle East -- and the world -- would look like if Israel was truly held to "proportionality" in its struggle against Palestinian violence. Read the abstract of the article here http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/now--about-that--proportionality--15086; you will want to read the entire article, which would require getting your hands on the magazine. It is well worth it.

The political philosopher Michael Walzer, writing in Dissent, wonders aloud about the future of the two state solution after Israel's incursion into Gaza. The best insight: "What is necessary on each side [Israel and the Palestinians] is internal unilateralism." Both sides must make serious, hard-headed decisions that only they can make, and that will require no external negotiation -- only internal moral struggle. Read the entire article at http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=211

Is it only coincidental that "Waltz with Bashir" was nominated for best foreign picture at the same time as the recent war in Gaza? Is the film intended to arouse us into thinking not only of the 1982 War in Lebanon, particularly the massacres of Sabra and Shatilla, but also of Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2009? I personally loved the film, and rather than finding it condemnatory of Israel, I take delight in the fact that a vibrant democracy and intellectually fertile Israel could produce a film that makes the country worthy of its Hebrew name -- Yisrael, those who struggle with God and with meaning itself. Not everyone agrees, however. In the March, 2009 issue of Commentary, writer Hillel Halkin demurs, just a little bit, on the film's portrayal of the 1982 war. You can read the article in full at http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the--waltz-with-bashir--two-step-15082. 

Enough about Gaza; for the moment. Time to focus on the growing wave of anti-Semitism -- an appropriate post-Purim topic, if there ever was one. In The New Statesman, Rhoda Koenig describes the personal dimensions of the growth of English anti-Semitism -- http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2009/03/jews-anti-friend-syria-dinner 

In the Times of London, MP Denis MacShane reminds us of the chilling history of contemporary European anti-Semitism and its economic roots: "As the world enters a new era of crisis, anti-Semitism is back. History, as ever, begins to repeat itself. The slumps and stock market fever expressed in Zola's novel, L'Argent, or the populist anger against Wall Street at the end of the 19th century gave rise to the virulent anti-Semitic politics witnessed in France in connection with the Dreyfus case or the takeover of Vienna by openly anti-Semitic politicians. The Great Depression gave rise to the worst expressions of anti-Semitism ever seen, namely the politics that led to the Holocaust." Read the whole piece at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5740603.ece and then Rabbi Brad Hirschfield's thoughtful response in The New York Jewish Week http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a15028/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html. 

We are grateful that the Obama administration has made the decision to boycott Durban II. For those of you who remember, Durban I, that Woodstock of international anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, occurred literally days before 9/11; at that time, I wondered aloud whether "Durban had led to hurban (destruction). The Obama administration's refusal to go to Durban, despite earlier diplomatic efforts to mitigate the toxic effects of the conference, may be contagious; the EU is now giving serious consideration to dropping out as well. To read how badly the prospects for Durban II are, read this short piece from Jewcy.com --http://www.jewcy.com/post/durban_ii_disgraceful_and_distasteful

And so, along comes Purim with its temptations to metaphor (As Will Rogers might have said: I never metaphor I didn't like). Says Berel Wein in the Jerusalem Post: "Amalek is Durban I and II, it is the pious posturing of the NGOs which call self-defense war crimes; it is the biased media coverage of events concerning Israel and Jews; and it is Iran and its proxies bent only on the destruction of Israel, the state and the people."http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236246867575&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

OK. But on the other hand, not every anti-Semite is Hitler, and most are, assuredly, neither Haman nor his ancestor, Amalek. As the late Jakob Petuchowski, professor of liturgy at HUC-JIR, noted some twenty-five years ago, there is a danger in "thinking in our ancestors' categories." (Check out the essay, re-printed in Studies in Modern Theology and Prayer, published by JPS). When we turn our enemies into Haman and Amalek, or Ishmael or Esau or Torquemada, we reduce them to symbols and archetypes. That makes it convenient for us to forget their humanity and reality, as bloated as it might have been -- and makes ultimate reconciliation difficult if not impossible. 

So let's end on a note of hope -- the only authentically Jewish way of doing business. The Talmud says that "the descendants of Haman teach Torah in B'nei Brak" (Gittin 57b). Apparently, they -- even they -- converted to Judaism. Not bad. Actually, quite good. 

Shalom,

Rabbi Jeff Salkin

Weekly E-Alerts are a new service ARZA provides.  Its purpose is to convey a selection of news and opinion columns to American Reform Jews who may not havetime to read the full spectrum of the Israeli and Anglo-American Jewish press. If you would like to receive a weekly copy, sign up now at arzanewsalerts@arza.org!For an archive of past editions click here.