A group of hotshot Hollywood television executives sit around a table sipping Evian water, working their cellphones and bemoaning the lack of fresh ideas for a series to pull their network out of the cellar.
Tovah Feldshuh
\n\”I love, admire, and will eternally raise money for Israel because I am well aware that she takes bullets for me. She is my life insurance.\”
\n\nJudd Hirsch
\n\”It\’s not easy to understand how a nation can reclaim itself after 5,000 years of banishment, occupation, and inhumane treatment by so many peoples of the world…
Merav and Roy Lobel are going back to Israel. Since the birth of their baby boy, now eight months old, they have longed to be with their families. Each time they\’ve hung up the phone after a call to Israel, they\’ve felt as if part of their heart was still there.
Not too far from my home there\’s a street named for the German poet Heinrich Heine, a baptized Jew and metaphorical Marrano. Sometimes on Shabbat afternoons, I take a long Jerusalem walk with my son, soon to be a soldier, and Lizzie, our German shepherd, a breed of dog that in my wildest Diaspora dreams I could never imagine owning.
will never forget my first day in Israel when a group of teenagers pointed at my tallit and laughed. It was the summer of 1970, and, at age 15, I had realized my dream of volunteering on a kibbutz. Raised in an American home in which Conservative Judaism melded effortlessly with moderate Zionism, I never suspected that some Israelis would see contradictions between the two, or that I might someday be forced to choose between them.
The first song Ya\’akov Shimoni ever wrote was called, \”Genesis.\” The lyrics — in English, Hebrew and French — were about pollution, global warming, Mother Earth and the destruction of Israel\’s natural resources. It was 1997 — long before \”An Inconvenient Truth\” became a blockbuster and the green movement reached an unprecedented level of hipness.
Israel, girlfriend, what is your problem? Why all this hoopla and hype? Does the whole world have to know that you and I — hey, break out the Botox — are turning 60?
It is a proud and glorious week as Israel, her 7.2 million citizens and millions of friends around the world celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel\’s birth as a modern, democratic nation.
Twelve years ago, newly arrived at the Reconstructionist Malibu Jewish Center, Rabbi Judith Halevy gave a sermon about her long-term commitment to Israel, about how much she cares about the Jewish state.
At its 60th anniversary, Israel needs a new vision that not only will guide its priorities and inform its actions, but also will be relevant to the lives of all Israelis.
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