Daniel Lubetzky

Some powerful precepts from a conversation I had with Chief Rabbi David Rosen, President of the ICJRC and the pre-eminent leader in relations between different faiths:

There is a lot that divides us [of different faiths], but more which unites us [as human beings with a shared destiny].

If we affirm an omnipresent deity that relates to us in all our diversity, then there must be diverse ways of relating to God.

The idea that you can encapsulate the divine within one religious tradition, or that any tradition should have a totality of the truth about the divine, should be absurd.

Not all religious figures agree.  Some insist they have a duty to try to convert you, like an early encounter that Chief Rabbi Rosen had when he was the Chief Rabbi in South Africa.  South African Dutch Reform Church Minister (Doeminee) reacted with disagreement to the above precepts, ardently insisting, "No, it is my role and duty to convert you in order to save you."  To me, this encapsulates the opportunity and challenge that organized religion has for society.

Another important religious precept from the conversation with Rabbi Rosen:

‘be wary of responding to an extreme action with an extreme reaction.’

And on the very negative side, as reported here, small mistakes led to what is already a tragedy: 3 days of violent attacks between Arabs and Jews in the ancient site of Akko (Acre), within Israel.  If it is not managed through political and communal leadership into an aberration in an area normally known for peaceful relations, it could be an omen for terrible things to come.

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From an email I got from my sister:

Spirituality is a direct measure of how much joy we experience in our lives…It is not how much we pray, meditate, prostrate ourselves; it is in direct connection to how much joy we give to others that surround us, and how much joy we experience ourselves."

- Guru Baghavan

I have no idea who this Guru is, but I liked the sentiment, expounded on by my sister Ileana in her email:

I really believe that. The people that I consider the most spiritual also are the ones who had the greatest capacity to laugh, to joke, to love others, to make someone’s day better even if they were perfect strangers.

This sentiment is at the core of our work with KIND ambassadors and the KINDED campaign.

In a watershed development, Syria recently condemned radical Islamists as responsible for a terrorist act in Damascus.  And Pakistanis are increasingly rejecting Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden (as opposed to a regrettable situation where a significant portion of that population was empathetic in the past).  Across the Arab world and Muslim society, more and more citizens are recognizing the imperative of standing up against all forms of violent extremism…

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Earlier today at a rally when John McCain asked, "Who is Barack Obama?", a supporter shouted back, "Terrorist."

And at a rally led by Sarah Palin, when she mischaracterized a New York Times story as pointing to an alliance between Obama and Bill Ayers, someone screamed "Kill him."

Neither McCain nor Palin have actually advocated such actions or said that Obama himself is a "terrorist," but they and their campaign have certainly engaged in smear campaigns creating enough innuendos to cause an atmosphere where such rants would not be totally unexpected.

This eerily reminds me of the atmosphere before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Israel.  Far-right Israelis had been engaging in a campaign of vilification against Rabin for months.  Right-wing politicians had done nothing to discourage extreme incitement or death threats against Rabin.  Posters filled the walls across Israel with horrifying statements and dehumanizing captions against Rabin.  Extremist Rabbis said Rabin was betraying Jews and was cursed to death.

Then came Yigal Amir, the assassin who shot Yitzhak Rabin at point blank.  When asked, he said he was inspired to kill Rabin to avenge the Jewish people and prevent him undermining Israel.

Suddenly after Rabin’s chilling assassination, everyone was against dehumanization and incitement.  Everyone had condemned such vitriol all along.  Everyone loved Rabin, the martyr and hero.  It was unclear how all those posters got posted on the walls, or who had made all those calls into radio stations with threats against Rabin.

Before Rabin’s fate presages Obama’s, McCain and Palin – and in particularly Sarah Palin, whose hateful accusations earlier today were only little short of the more fanatical ones out there – have the responsibility to draw the line and demand from their followers a civil discourse based on the issues, recognizing the patriotism of their counterpart, instead of raising suspicions about Obama’s commitment to America, as Palin explicitly did throughout her rally earlier today.

If something happens to Obama, not only the McCain campaign but also all the "swift" teams and fear-mongering groups that are crossing the line will share in the responsibility for creating the environment that caused some fanatical follower to avenge the American people.

For Jewish leaders in the Chicago community that know him best, it is striking that so many Jews are suspicious of Barack Obama as a hidden anti-semite or as "bad for the Jews."  If anything, Obama was chastised by some for his particularly close relation to Jewish Americans in Chicago.  But the political aspersions have been cast, so it was gratifying to come across an article in The Forward that highlights Michelle Obama has a cousin who is a Rabbi!  Maybe this will finally dispell some worries?!

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Jerusalem Post Editor David Horovitz’s interview with Barack Obama is one of the most to-the-point expositions of Senator Barack Obama’s stances on Mideast issues.  Horovitz asked strong and straightforward questions, and Obama replied with earnest answers.  Anyone who truly cares about understanding the "real" Obama on these issues should read this interview.

One example:

Horovitz: You’ve said on this trip that you want to work for an Israeli-Palestinian accommodation from the minute you’re sworn in, so let me ask you about the thesis that there is no prospect of Palestinian moderation prevailing and enabling a peace process to really move forward until Iran’s nuclear drive has been thwarted – that so long as the Teheran-backed extremists of Hamas and so on feel that they are in the ascendant, the moderates can’t prevail and that the whole region is now in this kind of holding mode.

Obama: I think there is no doubt that there is a connection between Iran’s strengthening over the last couple of years, partly because some strategic errors have been made on the part of the West. And [the same goes for] the increasing boldness of Hizbullah and Hamas. But I don’t think that’s the only factor and criterion in the lack of progress.

Hamas’s victory in the [Palestinian Authority] election can partly be traced to a sense of frustration among the Palestinian people over how Fatah, over a relatively lengthy period of time, had failed to deliver basic services. I get a strong impression that [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas and [Prime Minister Salaam] Fayad are doing everything they can to address some of those systemic failures by the Palestinian Authority. The failures of Hamas in Gaza to deliver an improved quality of life for their people give pause to the Palestinians to think that pursuing that approach automatically assures greater benefits.

You know, look, I arrive at this with no illusions as to the difficulty in terms of what is required. But I think it’s important for us to keep working at it, frankly, because Israel’s security and peace in the region depend on it.

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If you are struggling to understand why Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both Shiite, are so popular among Arab masses from Egypt to Palestine and Saudi Arabia, where the predominant religion is Sunni, think of it through a different prism: the culture of Resistance.

The culture of Resistance trumps the schisms of religion, as well as other divisions like nationality, ethnicity, and political persuasion.

The Arab world has been so impregnated with an anti-West, anti-colonialist, anti-occupation, anti-invasion, anti-globalization, anti-Israel ethos, that anything or anyone who stands at the vanguard against these modern suppressors will be greeted with enthusiasm.

The challenge for the good of the Arab Middle East and the world at large is how to channel all of these very real frustrations, that have only been deepened by lack of political accountability and continued authoritarian rule seen as imposed by the West on the Arab population, into a constructive path for progress within the Arab Middle East and outside.

It is not an easy challenge to overcome.  If anyone figures it out, they will hold the key to progress and popularity.

At present, you either drive for revolution and cry against oppression in the name of "resistance", or you are part of the establishment and hence seen with suspicion by ordinary Arabs that are not part of the elite.

Great leaders like Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad or Jordanian King Abdullah, who are bringing economic progress to the poor in their country, will have difficulty getting credit, because they are seen as agents of the West.

Democracy and other concepts that should ordinarily appeal to the human quest for freedom similarly have difficulty because they are seen as Western impositions, and part of a cultural colonization.

To the chorus of people who complain that religious leaders are not doing enough to raise their voices against extremism and to improve interfaith relations and foster respect, here is an under-reported but remarkable story about a high profile conference to bring foremost Muslims, Christians and Jews together.  See also this story.

Among the participants was Chief Rabbi David Rosen, who besides being the President of the IJCRC (the highest Jewish body charged with interfaith relations) and the AJC’s representative, is an Honorary Board member of the PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement – and, perhaps granting him the most moral authority – was the Rabbi who got my wife to say yes at our wedding.  

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