Rabbi's Blog

Dear OZ family,

On this long Independence Day weekend, let us acknowledge the Hakarat Hatov that we as a people owe what Rav Moshe Feinstein called a “Medina shel Chesed”. From the time of our first exile, over 2,500 years ago, we have never been as welcomed as a people as we have been in this country. Banishments, exiles, inquisitions expulsions pogroms and worse, followed as wherever we went. In this country, we never faced the ignominies that were heaped upon us in other lands. No doubt, we faced difficulties like many other groups and ethnicities, but we were given opportunity and we grasped it. My father felt as if the Statue of Liberty had spread out her arms to embrace him as his ship sailed into Ellis Island in March 1949, after he had lost everything in Europe.

This country declared at its founding that “All men are created equal”, but this was a promissory note that still lacked sufficient funds well into the 20^th century. But to say that we are still an inherently racist country is a patent lie. To say that systemic racism pervades the fabric of our country is a willful disregard of all the strides we have made since the Civil Rights act of 1964, and decades of strengthening the Great Society. The United States, the nation of Israel, and the State of Israel share a natural affinity. They all were created and borne out of an experience of tyranny and oppression. The Hebrew language narrowly lost out on a vote of what the language of this new republic should be after breaking away from England. Early emblems of the new nation had pictures of Moshe leading his people across a parted Red Sea. The eagle, that became a symbol of the new nation was taken from the Biblical verse regarding entry into a promised land on the wings of eagles (Shemos 19:4). It is not surprising then, that those who are sure that the US continues to be racist at its core, would also be virulently opposed to the state of Israel, while remaining silent about the many places in the world where slavery is still practiced.

I remember meeting with Maxine Waters on a lobbying trip to Washington, for the State of Israel. She rebuked our group at the time because Israel wasn’t letting migrants into her borders. I reminded her that those migrants were passing 7 to 10 countries on their way to their destination with no intention to stop at any of them. There is a reason why so many people were trying to make their way to Israel. It is the same reason why so many are trying to make their way to this country. Because they see that they afford the best opportunity for them to find freedom and prosperity. It certainly behooves those who are here to appreciate that. No doubt, we must come to grips with our imperfect past, but we have been doing that to one extent or another for 150 years and for the last 50 years in earnest. This great country protected the world from great threats to freedom in the 20^th century. Some of those threats remain and the world needs a strong and resolute United States to continue leading the way. That starts with her people appreciating that, with her all her faults she is still one of the two greatest countries on Earth.    

Be well. Be healthy. Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Congregation Ohab Zedek

118 West 95^th Street | New York, NY  10025-6604

Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200 | Fax 212.663-3635

E-mail ras@ozny.org

Website:  www.ozny.org