Let My People Go - Today!

Many of you will be at Passover Seders tonight. Those of you that won't, well, chalk it up to bad planning. A Seder features good stories, classic family arguments, a rich liturgy, four cups of wine--required by the service!--and often terrific food. Next year get started early finding Jews with extra space at their table.

No matter which version of the liturgy people use, we all tell the story of Exodus, of enslaved Jews challenging Pharaoh and liberating themselves, with God's help, from slavery. It's such a powerful story that enslaved African-Americans in this country made Exodus their favorite book of the Bible, and identified themselves as the modern "children of Israel." That's why Martin Luther King, Jr. was known as the Moses of his people.

At the Seder, the order of service asks participants to imagine themselves as participants in the Exodus, so as to make the story of liberation alive and powerful in our own time. And I've got a new version of Exodus for you to think about tonight.

All Jews--and non-Jews--hungry for peace in the Middle East will want to celebrate this week's birth of J-Street, a new advocacy and lobbying organization dedicated to real security for Israel through a negotiated settlement in the Middle East. J-Street is already helping to liberate American political dialogue on Israel and Palestine by challenging the Pharaoh of AIPAC, the powerful right-wing lobby that has all but shut down genuine political debate on U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

Full disclosure--my son Isaac Luria works as the web campaign manager for J-Street, and I couldn't be prouder! He and his colleagues have given us something important to talk about at tonight's Seder.

I hope you'll take a look at J-Street and watch its opening video. If we're every going to experience the Exodus from never-ending cycles of violence, this is the kind of effort that we need to talk about and contribute to.

Happy Passover!

Comments

[ECJLA]

Judging from Pagon's comment (12:40 p.m. on 4/19/2008) your son and his new organization have their work cut out for them. I joined but urge them to confront the root issue: the grotesque injustice perpetrated by the highly illiberal founders of the movement which encouraged European Jewish immigration to Palestine beginning in earnest at the turn of the 20th century.

The Arab world had been nothing but predominantly hospitable to Jews during our checkered near-2000 year diaspora and entirely blameless in the rise of European anti-Semitism beginning in the 1870s that led eventually to the Holocaust. As if "adverse possession" by Arabs (and colonizers) for 1900 years were incidental, Jewish migrants asserted divine rights to inhabited land from which their ancestors had been driven, and (ultimately) acted with military hostility toward largely hospitable Arab natives who remained their genetic cousins throughout the Jewish diaspora. Ultimately the Jewish settlers provoked a Palestinian diaspora comparable in size to the Jewish diaspora and long-lasting mutual enmity.

The time has come to end the cycle of madness wrought by the zany illiberal atheistic zealots who founded zionism. There are plenty of formulas for conflict resolution and peace and reconcilliation capable of engineering a soft landing for this perennial crisis. This Passover I pray for an end to Israelis' unconscionable oppression of long-suffering Palestinians and a new era of peace and justice in the holy land and the world.

Eric C. Jacobson
Public Interest Lawyer
Culver City, California

[charlietuna11]

what aipac refuses to understand is the fact that if a true peace agreement becomes a reality in the middle east, that region will explode with tourism, growth, recreational and business opportunities. the israelis could save billions of dollars buying their oil from arab countries instead of russia..arabs could bring billions of dollars into their communities with the israeli state of the art technology.. the two parties could be trading parters at every level.. i wish j street every success..it would be a wonderful thing if the two people who have lived forever together could work this out. it has to be much better respecting each others culture, understanding each others concerns than than witnessing the sadness of needless funerals..i don't believe aipac has any idea the depth of destruction their policies and influence has created..neither arab or jew is blameless in this never ending conflict, but one thing is obvious, aipacs activities have an evil agenda that must be examined in the light of day.. if people take a close look at both groups, iknow they will follow the leadership of j street..

[Pagon]

Your goals are admirable, and your heart is in the right place.

What I want to know is, how there can be reconciliation with people whose only goal is to destroy Israel and Jews everywhere?

That is their goal. If you don’t believe it, read Hamas’ literature (democratically elected) - read Hezbollah’s - read any newspaper or magazine in a Muslim country in the Middle East. Listen to their radio. Read the Mullahs’ sermons.

The Muslim Middle East has different values than us, and we refuse to believe it.

There are splits within Islam and between tribes going back thousands of years. The Koran tells them to disrespect non-Muslims, and even other Muslim sects, and to treat them badly.

These facts have not sunk in to western minds. We continue to believe they are just Americans in different clothing.

Look at the calamities they are willing to suffer rather than make peace with each other, let alone Jews.

What calamities will we have to suffer that – finally - forces us to accept these facts?

Many years before coming to power, Mein Kampf made it very clear what Hitler’s goals were. Most people (and leaders) thought he couldn’t be serious because they, themselves, thought it too horrible to contemplate. Surely, he was just posturing, etc. Yet, he had no problem involving his entire country in his enterprise.

Forget history at your peril.