Pray for My Father

On Monday, August 22, I joined with a group of rabbis for a condolence call.  It was the first condolence call I'd paid to a Muslim family. 

On August 13, Maulama Akonjee, an imam in the Bangladeshi community in Ozone Park, was shot and killed, along with his associate, Thara Uddin, while walking home from religious services dressed in religious garb.

The New York Board of Rabbis (NYBR), which I serve as an officer, contacted the family and asked if they could bring a group of clergy – rabbis and Christian clergy as well – to offer condolences, and the family agreed.

So I drove to the family’s house and stood outside with the other clergy until we were ushered in.  We sat in the living room.  Two of the imam’s sons came out to sit with us, accompanied by other family members, one of whom helped with translation.  (The imam’s sons came to New York from Bangladesh just a few years ago and their English is not yet fully fluent.)

The sons sat quietly as several of the clergy, including NYBR Executive Director Rabbi Joe Potasnik, spoke.   When asked, the sons told a bit about their father – that he was a peaceful man, that he wanted his community to commit themselves to regular prayer and good deeds.

Rabbi Joe Potasnik with a group of clergy at the Akonjee home

A representative from the NYPD, a Muslim, chanted verses in Arabic that are traditionally recited in a house of mourning.  Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in Manhattan and also a cantor, led us in the singing of the 23^rd psalm.  Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale offered a blessing to the imam’s sons.   The oldest son said it was the first time he had spoken with a group of Jews. 

As we were about to leave, we each had the opportunity to offer personal condolences to the sons.  I said a few words to the oldest son.  He offered me a hug and he said quietly, “pray for my father.”

Justice Includes Jews: Thoughts About Black Lives Matter, Jews and Justice

I want to talk about the recent Black Lives Matter statements about Israel for two reasons:  First, this is an issue many of us have been reading about, and are likely passionate about.  Second, it challenges us to navigate a complex political dynamic, to oppose injustice toward others while also insuring justice for ourselves.

Here are some relevant facts and some context:

Black Lives Matter  - an organization launched, according to its website, in 2012 - has sought to advocate in multiple realms for just treatment of people of color.  

At the beginning of August 2016, the organization refined and presented a platform that includes several sections, including:  End the war on black people, Reparations, Invest/Divest, Economic justice, Community control and Political power.

Individual elements within these sections include advocacy for universal health care, fighting climate change and a reallocation of funds from policing and incarcation to education, justice services and employment programs. 

In the Invest/divest section is included the topic of cutting military expenditures, in which the United State is criticized for using excessive funds on its military in order to expand territory and power.  

In that topic, under that section, are several statements pertaining to United States support of Israel.   Here’s the one that was deemed most offensive by a wide political spectrum within the Jewish community:

“ The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” 

Some more context.  Numerous Jewish leaders have worked with the Black Lives Matter movement to protest unfair treatment of African Americans in this country.

Most Jewish organizations, right-wing to left, including those who have collaborated with the Black Lives Matter movement, were angered by these statements and for very good reason.  The statements are distorted, false and incendiary.  Several Jews of color have criticized the platform for being anti-Semitic.  Rabbis across the political spectrum have denounced the statements.

I saw some attempts to defend the statement about genocide on the basis that the authors were using the word differently, to indicate extreme discrimination rather than wholesale murder, but neither that nor any other interpretations were satisfactory to most Jewish leaders, and for good reason. 

Along with the vast majority of Jewish leaders, I say unequivocally that to call the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis a genocide is libelous and anti-Semitic. 

I want to identify two pitfalls that the Jewish community can fall into, neither of which are acceptable, and a possible third approach.

The Past Won't Shut Up: A Brief Tale of Two European Cities

Toward the end of the fourth book of the Torah, we read once again the long list of places that our ancestors stopped through on their way from Egypt to the promised land.  It’s a part of the Torah that gets us thinking about passing through different places, and a nice backdrop for me to reflect on a few of the places that Deanna and I passed through this summer.

But I’d like this to be more than a travel-log.  What emerged for me, especially in visiting some of the places in Europe that we saw recently, is a sense of the strong pull that the past exerts on the present.  Europe has strong resonance with the past.  You walk the streets of its cities and towns and you get pulled in, and pulled back, and it makes you wonder about how these places will continue to respond to current challenges.

So passing through inevitably leads to looking back as much as it leads to looking around.

And with no further intro, here’s my “tale of two cities."  I will in the future reflect on my time in Israel this summer, but today I’m going to take us to two of several cities that we visited in northern Europe - Copenhagen, Denmark and Berlin, Germany.

We spent a full day in Copenhagen on my birthday, actually.  Beautiful city, resonant with history but also in many ways future-oriented.  A city focused on reducing its collective carbon footprint – far more bicycles than cars in the city center, for example.  A city focused on broadening economic opportunity – universal health care coverage, fully subsidized university tuition. 

Inside the courtyard of Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen 

We decided to take a walking tour.  The tour-guide was a young Danish man named Magnus who spoke excellent English and was very well-informed.