Rabbi Susan Grossman: November 2007 Archives

Rabbi Stern has many good reasons to be pessimistic about the ultimate outcome of the peace discussions begun this week at Annapolis.

However, not everything appears as dark to me as it does to Rabbi Stern. Why? For several reasons. First, because at Annapolis, Saudi Arabia met for the first time directly with Israel. This is big news.

Speaking to my congregation last week as part of our series on “Israel: Can There Ever Be Peace?,” Rabbis for Human Rights Director Rabbi Arik Ascherman, explained that our wariness over provisions in the Arab peace plan proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 have obscured how monumental a step it was that Saudi Arabia--protector of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city--was willing to publicly acknowledge its willingness to officially recognize Israel and sign a peace treaty with it. This is a far cry from the 1967 Khartoum Resolution of the Arab States that cited the three “no’s”: no peace, no negotiations, and no recognition of Israel.

According to an article in this Sunday’s Washington Post, “The debate over how to overhaul the nation's health-care system is underscoring a dramatic chasm between the two parties, as Democrats battle over which candidate will most quickly expand health insurance to cover all Americans while GOP contenders compete over who can best minimize the role of both government and employers in delivering care.” Reporter Perry Bacon, Jr. writes that of the 47 million people in our nation who have no health insurance, 9 million live in households that make more than $60,000 a year, while 30 million live in families who have annual incomes below $40,000. The article also reported that the cost of insurance is a major barrier, according to data collected in a poll conducted by the Post in conjunction with Harvard University and the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

In memory of our valiant soldiers who gave their lives in this travesty of a war in Iraq, in honor of all those who have come home wounded in body and spirit, and in mourning for the destruction of lives and lifestyle of the Iraqi people (even if they may have been our enemies even before the war), I think Rabbi Waxman has let Pres. Bush and his administration off too easily. The President is certainly guilty of hubris, as Rabbi Waxman points out. But he is also guilty of much more.

There is a little known website put together under the authority of Rep. Henry Waxman, then minority member of Congress’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that lists 237 misleading statements that the Bush Administration made about the threat Iraq posed, which convinced many--myself included--that this war was necessary and justified due to an imminent threat. Click here for the full report.

There is a growing gap between rich and poor in this country, which should concern us, as Jews and as Americans.

In the olden--i.e., Biblical--days, the gap between rich and poor was regularly realigned. Every seven years, during the sabbatical year, loans were forgiven and land lay fallow so everyone was free to gather what was available. Every 50th year, during the Jubilee year, property was returned to its original owner and indentured slaves were freed. In between, those who had land were required to give a wide variety of charity, for example by leaving the corners of each field and the gleanings for the poor.

These are just a few of the Jewish laws reminding us that as Jews, we have a religious stake in the economic policies of our nation.