This week, different members of our clergy will share thoughts about Israel. Today Rabbi Sari Laufer writes on Yom HaAtzmaut.
Confession:
I have never been in Israel for Yom HaAtzmaut. My Year in Israel, the first year of rabbinical school, coincided with the worst year of the Second Intifada. And in March 2022, after the deadly bombing of Moment Cafe in Jerusalem (coincidentally directly below my apartment; I was in Istanbul at the time), the difficult decision was made to end our program early and allow students to return to the United States before the end of the academic year. And so, while I celebrated Passover that year in Jerusalem, I was not there by the time Yom HaAtzmaut rolled around, and none of my many subsequent trips have coincided with Yom HaAtzmaut. So, let’s just say it is on my Zionist bucket list.
I won’t be in Israel this Yom HaAtzmaut either. I won’t be celebrating the 75th Birthday of the State dancing in the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. I won’t be spraying silly string, or hitting anyone with those silly plastic hammers. I probably will be eating falafel (and you can too, on Friday night for Shabbat HaAtzmaut) and Bamba, and I will be wearing blue and white.
And I won’t be wearing just any blue and white. I won’t be wearing a shirt bought at the shuk or a tourist site, a funny Hebrew pun or an American brand in Hebrew letters.
I will be wearing a shirt I bought on a Saturday night a couple of months ago on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. Because on Saturday nights on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of Israelis spanning the spectrum of Israeli life—right- and left-wing, secular and religious, Ashkenazi and Mizrachi —come together to demand, fight for, and protect democracy. They are there for the Zionist dream, and what more can we celebrate on Yom HaAtzmaut than 75 more years (and then some!) of a renewed and redeemed Zionist dream?
Once again on this Yom HaAtzmaut, my heart is indeed in the East. It is in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, streets I know as well as those of Sherman Oaks or the Upper West Side. It is in the songs being sung and the chants being raised. Because this Yom HaAtzmaut does feel miraculous. Because 75 years is a milestone. Because the Yom Kippur War was 50 years ago. And because these protests and this moment feel momentous—full of peril and yet, at the same time, full of incredible potential.
So, from here in the uttermost West, I add my voice to the chorus. Happy 75th to the miracle that is the State of Israel. Not all miracles are easy—most are messy. And so, it is a birthday wish filled with all of the challenges, pain, beauty, and complexity Israel faces and presents.
Chag Atzmaut Sameach! My beloved Israel, may you know peace, blessing, justice, and mercy for the next 75 and beyond.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer