Rabbi Eric Yoffie is the President of the Union for Reform Judaism. This piece originally appeared in Reform Judaism magazine.
When the history of Reform Judaism is written a century from now, its authors will ask many questions: Did Reform Jews study Torah, perform mitzvot, bring justice to the world? But most important of all: Did we do enough to safeguard the security and well-being of the State of Israel?
I am worried now, not because we don’t love Israel, but because we are distracted. As we learned in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, during tough economic times North American Jews turn inward, focusing on personal problems and not the problems of the Jewish people. Though understandable, this is a huge mistake at a time when the government of Iran, supported by Russia and China, is inching toward the nuclear threshold–and the potential to deliver on its off-repeated promise to destroy the Jewish state. Not since the Yom Kippur War has Israel’s survival been more precarious.
What Israel needs from us now is unconditional support. It needs our
visits, our dollars, and our engagement. And it needs our political
activism. We must call upon the U.S. and Canadian governments, both
devoted friends of Israel, to impose the toughest possible economic
sanctions on Iran – with others if possible, unilaterally if
necessary – if it refuses to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Iran will
stop its nuclear program only if it feels real pain, and what has been
done up to now is not sufficient.
Israel needs our help in other ways, too, and this means
hearing our criticisms. Unconditional support is not the same as
uncritical support. We love the Jewish state, but we must hold firm to
our vision of a Jewish, democratic, and pluralistic Israel. We cannot
accept settlement in the heart of the West Bank, where a Palestinian
state must one day arise. We cannot accept the relegation of Orthodox
women to the back section of buses in Jerusalem. And we cannot accept
the denial of Reform Jewish rights by Israeli lawmakers. We will always
reach for the highest ideals of the Zionist dream, seeking justice for
all of Israel’s citizens and for her neighbors as well.
At this critical juncture, however, let us not forget, even
for a moment, that all will be lost if Tehran has its way. Time is
running out. God and history will not excuse us if we are silent.