Yet we live at a moment where there is much debate and an increasingly polarized community. There are, suddenly, two formal, Washington D.C.-based advocacy groups for the State of Israel; one of them, J Street, is accused of disloyalty by leaders of the state it professes to promote. On the other side of the country, a set of guidelines was introduced last month by the San Francisco Community Federation for grantees; the guidelines could be seen as a litmus test of loyalty to Israel.  And similar proposals are being considered by other organizations nationwide.  The Forward’s editor, Jane Eisen, wrote recently in a moving recollection of the late, much-acclaimed novelist Chaim Potek, that in stark contrast to Potok’s time —when loyalty to Judaism was measured mostly in terms of Jewish ritual observance — it is now, by and large, seen in terms of one’s stance toward Israel.

Some now argue, as does Roberta Seid, in the lead essay in Sh’ma’s April issue, that threats to Israel from Iran and elsewhere necessitate the closing of ranks for the sake of Israel’s survival. Others, in the same issue, object to that argument as alarmist and preemptory. The issue also contains glimpses at the often profoundly uneasy relationships that many outstanding figures of modern Jewish life (Mordecai Kaplan, Martin Buber, and Hebrew University’s President Judah Magnes) had with organized Jewish life at the time.  Certainly, the Sh’ma issue doe not propose that the only form of true loyalty is principled dissent — this is among the more egregious of Goldfarb’s misreadings. Rather, the journal suggests alternatives to acquiescence, and offers a full, complicated view of the many ways to embrace present-day Jewish life, politics, and culture.

Susan Berrin, Editor of Sh’ma

Bob Goldfarb’s essay http://www.ejewishphilanthropy.com/is-loyalty-outmoded/print

a.       Not affiliated with existing institutions
b.      Self-identify as Jewish

In the spirit of the piece I was writing, I took poetic license and made the following generalization: 80% of Bay Area Jews self-identify as Jewish, and therefore may engage in Jewish activities, one of which may be a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and, since they’re not affiliated with existing institutions, including synagogues, may “do Jewish” on their own and design their own ritual. The statement was meant to frame the larger point that I would argue IS accurate – the majority of Jews in the Bay Area are not having their Jewish needs met by existing institutions, and, until recently, have been left to their own devices to either engage or not in meaningful Jewish opportunities. Now, as a result of a surge in new Jewish nonprofits, there is the opportunity for communal opportunities to “do Jewish” in ways that are more resonant and meaningful to the Bay Area’s Jewish population.—Maya Bernstein

I strongly disagree with David N. Myers’ view of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Its report is simply another example of the U.N.’s anti- Israel bias.  Several members of Goldstone’s “impartial” panel issued denunciations of Israel before investigations had begun; the commission willingly accepted testimony from Palestinian “eyewitnesses.” (Such testimony has often been discredited. Recall, for instance, the Jenin massacre that never took place).

Israel warned civilians of impending attacks and attacked civilian areas only because: 1) Hamas fighters hid among civilians; 2) Hamas fired from schoolyards and apartment blocks; and 3) Hamas stored munitions under mosques, schools, and hospitals. Israel halted fighting for hours each day to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and set up field hospitals to treat civilian casualties (while the Egyptian border remained closed to the entry of supplies into Gaza and the exit of wounded from Gaza).

It is unconscionable that the world continues to gloss over Hamas’ crimes, committed  both against Israeli civilians and the Palestinians of Gaza. The lot of the Palestinian people will not be improved by those who seek to delegitimize Israel. The Palestinians’ only hope is that the world will finally stop enabling the Arab leaders who are using them as pawns in their relentless drive to destroy Israel.

Toby F. Block