If is in!

The question what if is one of those delicious questions that captures our imaginations and opens the floodgates of speculation of how things might have been: if. Over the past few years the question of what if has come into vogue in scholarly and literary circles.  An entire series of books have been published with the provocative title: What If: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. In the books, historians ponder such historical conundrums as What if Lincoln chose not to free the slaves? What if William had failed to conquer England? What if Pope Pius the XII had protested the Holocaust? Scholars then speculate as to how the world might have changed if different choices were made under those circumstances.   The books challenge its readers to think about history in a far more fluid way, and to ask we might change our own history once the what if’s are identified.

Not to be outdone Jewish novelists have recently taken up the “What If” banner.

Phillip Roth published his novel The Plot Against America a few years ago where he speculated about what would have happened if America maintained a policy of neutrality with the Nazis and then elected Charles Lindbergh as President.  Without Jackboots and arm bands the America that Roth envisions is a terrifying place to behold.

Then there is Michael Chabon who published a book this year entitled: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.  In it, he considers a different chilling historical what if: What if Israel lasted only three months in 1948 before being conquered by the Arab armies.  In his dark fantasy the Jews of Europe were given refuge in the Sitka District of Alaska. In Chabon’s novel this was a makeshift solution, the idea being that Europe would in due course take them back. But now the District itself is about to revert to America and the doors to Europe remain closed.  While focusing on a murder that has taken place in Sitka and the detective attempting to solve the case, Chabon reflects on the Jewish condition in the Diaspora without a State of Israel.  He compares the Jews of Sitka to "goldfish in a bag, about to be dumped back into the big black lake of Diaspora."

This morning I would like to address myself to another what if in Jewish history and consider with you what we might learn as a community, and as a people from a controversial decision made by American Jewish leadership at a pivotal moment.  The reason that I have chosen today to discuss this issue is because more than any other day of the year Rosh Hashanah is set aside for universal, global considerations.  The Mahzor makes this explicit

On this day the destiny of nations hangs in the balance; war or peace, famine or plenty. 
 
Just as in Biblical times, the Shofar calls our people to gather for the purpose of standing before God to celebrate our accomplishments, to express gratitude for our blessings, to acknowledge our mistakes and to consider our role in the world today.  Teshuvah is the act that makes a better future possible.

When considering the Second World War there are more “what ifs” than we could possibly count.  It is unlikely that any one of them would have ended the war, but singly or collectively they might have had a significant impact.  The “what if” that I propose for your consideration is a failed boycott of Germany spearheaded by the Jewish community in 1933.  You will recall that this was the year that Nazi Party came to power.  It was also a year of world economic depression that was being especially felt in Germany, a country that had been forced to pay heavy reparations since the end of the World War I.  In his book Mein Kamf, Hitler made his anti-Semitic fantasies about the Jewish connection to Germany’s economic demise known to the world.  Upon seizing the Chancellorship, he began acting against the Jews of Germany. Though Hitler had come to power in a series of stunning victories the key to holding on to office would depend on his ability to salvage the German economy. 

Jewish communities around the world understood this and began to respond with the most powerful weapon in their arsenal: the boycott.  The Jews of France were first to begin a boycott of German goods, the Jews of Poland were quick to follow on another border of Germany. The Jews of England joined in the effort as did the Jews of Czechoslovakia.  Their actions were duly noted by the Nazis.  Goebbels wrote this in his diary: The horrible propaganda abroad gives us much trouble.  The many Jews who have left Germany have set all foreign countries against us…We are defenselessly exposed to the attacks of our adversaries.

There is no question that Nazis were very concerned with this boycott.  

American Jewry would ultimately decide if the boycott would be international in nature.  The people showed a willingness to engage the boycott; its leadership was another matter.   For a whole host of reasons ranging from pressure from the American government, to a fear of disturbing the isolationist mood in this country, as well as a concern that such actions would put German Jews at risk, the leaders of Jewish organizations chose not to support the boycott fully.   Looking at the records of those meetings with the knowledge that Hitler meant every word of Mein Kampf makes you want to cry out.  The people sitting around that table could not have possibly known that while they engaged in the politics of the moment, the unthinkable was taking shape; and the lives of one out of every three Jewish men, women and children were hanging in the balance.  

While it would be grossly unfair to lay the responsibility of the destruction of European Jewry at the feet of those who were in leadership positions, we are justified to ask: what if? What if they heard the voices that supported the boycott and made a different choice that day?

There is a possibility that we might have begun an effort that would have brought the Nazis to their knees.  But even if the boycott would not have succeeded fully, which is more likely, we would have at least made a statement of Jewish resolve in the world and strengthened the unity of the Jewish people to fight together against the Nazis.  It would have forced Hitler to show himself to the world at the very onset. The Jewish community would have been unable to close its eyes to the seriousness of the threat they were facing. Had the boycott gone into effect a violent confrontation with the German Jewish community would have taken place sooner than Kristalnacht in 1938.

That is, before the Nazis were secure enough to act with impunity.  It would have been harder for the world to laugh at Hitler or ignore him.  It is conceivable that many of those young Jews being raised as Zionists would have seen the writing on the wall sooner and made Aliyah.  This might have paved the way for a Jewish homeland before the British closed the gates in 1939.

What if indeed!

Many years ago, Mordecai Kaplan coined the phrase: When You have a Rendezvous with Destiny You Dare not be Late.

On Rosh HaShanah of 1945, confronted by the reality of the Holocaust, an event that would have been considered unthinkable in 1933, world Jewry resolved to be on time with their rendezvous with destiny in the future. We decided that we would be the architects of our future instead of the slaves of the past. World Jewry, now led by American Jewry discovered its voice and  helped to create the State of Israel.  The Organized Jewish community of the United States has learned from the lessons of its past and has through the good work of Federations, the Joint Distribution Committee, Aipac and too many other organizations to list and have created a new future for millions of Jews. As a result, there are a number of remarkable victories to acknowledge.

    ~ American Jewry has helped to create significant support for Israel on capital Hill, as a result
        Israel has been the recipient of billions of dollars of aid and the most advanced weaponry.
    ~ The American Jewish community can take credit for creating the climate to ensure the exodus
        of Russian and Ethiopian Jews..  
    ~ Through a remarkable infrastructure created across the world no Jewish community in the
        world will be abandoned

As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristalnacht, and as Israel reaches it 60th Birthday in the year that we begin this day, we have much to ponder and much to be proud. During these years since the war, we have not been late to our rendezvous with our destiny.

Now as Israel approaches this 60 year milestone it is also facing the greatest existential threat since the creation of the State.  Here I am not talking about Hamas and Hizbollah which are dangerous but do not threaten the existence of the country.  Here I am not talking about Syria which has been massively rearming itself this past year.  I am not even talking about the weakness of Israel’s current leadership which presents its own threats to the country.

No, I am talking about a leader and a country that present the greatest threat to Israel and world security today.  Obviously, I am speaking about Iran. 

Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs he speaks for has openly threatened to destroy Israel.  Hear his words:
    Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise
    statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in
    the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has
    in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world…

Ahmadinejad has openly Denied the Holocaust, or as he puts it:
    They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and
    the prophets...

Ahmadinejad threatens America as well. At his World without Zionism Conference held this past year, he said this referring to other Arabs: 
    Such people are using words like “it’s not possible”. They say how could we have a world
    without America and Zionism? But you know well that this slogan and goal can be achieved and
    can definitely be realized.

Ahamdinejab threatens world security.

Beyond the rhetoric of labeling Israel little Satan and the United States big Satan Ahamdinejb has shown himself to be a shrewd tactician.  Iran is the greatest threat to the United States efforts in Iraq, creating as much unrest, carnage and the deaths of as many American soldiers as possible.

They have become the greatest supplier of armaments and help to the terrorists.  The missiles fired by Hamas on the Israeli city of Sderot come from Iran.  Terrorists know that they can have safe haven in Iran. 

In the past few months,   Ahmadinejad has become more brazen.  This past Summer Iran took 15 British sailors and Marines hostage.  Under normal circumstances this would be understood as an act of war.  The British relied upon what they called “soft power,” or international negotiations to release their country men.  In this theatre of the absurd, Ahamdinejb, the captor, claims the role of the gracious liberator in releasing the British sailors.  This only after forcing the female amongst them to change from her British Naval uniform and wear the veils and clothing of Iranian women.  It would hard to imagine a more humiliating outcome for the British.

John Bolton, our former Ambassador to the United Nations suggested that the Iranians were testing the British and Western Europe to see if there would be any consequences for this act of war.  The British response showed a weakness not seen in the world since Lord Chamberlin’s immortal statement after signing a non-aggression pact with Hitler:  “I believe it is peace for our time."

All this said without even mentioning Iran’s quest for Nuclear Arms.  Let us raise the question of what if and apply it not to the past, but to our own future: What if the day actually comes when Ahamdinejb ends his bluster and shows the world that Iran possess nuclear arms. 

Let there be no question that the world will change on that day in a very bad way. In the words of our Mahzor: וְעַל הַמְּדִינוֹת בּוֹ יֵאָמֵ   
The whole world hangs in the balance!

Whatever is left of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will evaporate into the air.  Every country in the Middle East will feel threatened and will do everything in its power to get similar weaponry.  Worse yet, nuclear armaments will become available to terrorists organization.  The point was made clear to me the other night.  I had the privilege of being at a small gathering with former President Clinton and had the opportunity to ask about his thoughts on Iran.  He spoke about the grave and complex dangers Iran posed.

He pointed out that it is not simply a nuclear bomb that the world has to be concerned with.  Nuclear enriched material the size of a girl scout cookie mixed with the amount of fertilizer that Timothy McVey used in Oklahoma would blow up half of Washington.   President Clinton then went on to talk a strategy of deterence with Iran.  He said that if Iran should achieve a nuclear bomb he would advise the President to remind President Ahmandinajab about Cold War realities.  If Iran were to use its nuclear weapon the United States would send its bombs to Iran and Ahmanidinab would have to be reminded that we have many more nuclear bombs than they do.   If there would have been more time that evening,  I would have asked the former President what he made of the thinking of the greatest authorty of or time on the Islamic Word: Bernard Lewis. 

This is what Mr. Lewis had to say about nuclear deterence:
    For Ahmadinajb, mutual assured destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement. We know
    already that [Iran’s leaders] do not give a damn about killing their own people in great
    numbers. We have seen it again and again. In the final scenario, and this applies all the more
    strongly if they kill large numbers of their own people, they are doing them a favor. They are
    giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its delights.

If Iran has nuclear capabilities Israel will find itself in an untenable situation.Were Amadinajab to threaten Israel with nuclear weapons Israel would be forced to respond.  The results are too horrifying to consider.  Suffice it to say that the man who denies the Shoah took place under Hitler is threatening Israel with a different a nuclear Holocaust. The Islamic world will survive such a war, Israel will not.   But the fact is that Ahmadinejad can do massive damage to Israel simply by going on nuclear alert. If that were to happen Israel’s economy would be destroyed as international business would immediately leave Israel and tourism will shrivel to nothing.  Many Israelis would begin to look for a new place to live and Israel would likely die a death of attrition.

Let us move beyond Israel for her destruction is not Ahmadinejab’s ultimate goal, it is the only the beginning.   The aim of this radical faction of Islam is to bring the West under Islamic rule either through the acceptance by choice or by force.  Ahmadinejad has read the West as a place that has little resolve to fight and will acquiesce under pressure. Certainly, the response of Western Europe to his outrages gives him reason to hope.

The United States is the only country which can lead an international effort to derail Iran from its present course.    Here American Jewry has a role to play.  On this Rosh Hashanah the Shofar is calling us together as a people, the shofar is also sounding the alarm.  More than any other people in the world we understand the degree of danger that is lurking.  More than any other people we understand the need for action.   This is not an as if scenario, this is our reality, and the parallels to 1933 are rather dramatic.  Economic woes, a desire to move away from a global presence, a naive belief that people of good will can negotiate with fanatical dictators are a part of our world just as they were in 1933.  There is one significant difference in the Jewish community this time: Jewish organizations are unified in their efforts to fight Iran every way possible.  Our Federation is do an admirable job supporting legislation that will both isolate and effect Iran as well as getting the word out.  So too, Aipac is doing extremely important work in this regard on Capital Hill.

For this rendezvous with destiny, I believe that the organized Jewish community is doing everything in its power not to be late.  The problem this time is with Amcha, our people.  We are simply far too complacent on this issue.  At the time when we need American Jewry to stand together and fight a man who denigrates the six million, a regime that regularly threatens the security of the State of Israel not simply through threats but by supplying Hezbolah and Hamas with weaponry and man power.  To respond to a power that has had a strong hand in creating the chaos in Iraq.  To work to stop a regime that taunts the United Nations and its sanctions and regularly announces his progress in creating weapons of mass destruction. American Jewry is focused on other things.  Ironically, all this is happening at a time when there are indications that Iran’s economy is vulnerable.  All this is happening at a time when people are protesting within Iran because of their hardships.

I ask you, are we going to repeat the mistakes of 1933?

The Shofar calls our people together for an accounting of their actions and their inactions!

The Shofar demands Teshuvah!
I remind you this day that Maimonides defined complete teshuva as a time when a person encounters the precise same situation in which he had committed a sin, and, despite experiencing the same desire to error, he acts correctly.

We are in the the midst of the exact situation that Rambam described at this very moment!

Now I am well aware to whom I have the privilege of speaking to you this Rosh HaShanah day.  I know that in many ways I am preaching to the choir.  The people who make up this congregation may be more connected to these issues than any other synagogue in Chicago, and maybe the country.  There are people in this room that serve as leaders of major Jewish organizations: people who are working diligently on this issue.

But you also know what I know: despite our best efforts as a community more and more of our people, especially amongst the young are disaffected with Israel and the issue of which I speak today.  This alienation also affects many of your friends, relatives, your business associates who are far more interested in speaking of more pleasant things than this.  

On this Rosh Hashanah of 2007 we have a rendezvous with destiny and we dare not be timid for we can not afford to be late.

Part of our destiny is to sensitize our family members to the importance of this effort.  So I ask you to take this piece of paper and do what it asks.  Check your investments if you have not already done so, check your retirement funds. In addition to selling the stocks of energy companies that are helping the Iranians, let your investment professionals know why they are selling those stocks and urge the creation of terror free mutual funds.  If major investment companies hear from enough people they will take these issues as seriously as you do.  Write to your Congressmen, call their offices and make sure that they know that you are concerned about Iran.  Then let your children and your grandchildren, your brothers and sisters know that you are doing these things and why.  Show them this document and ask them to do the same.  Email 10 people that you know who may not be involved and tell them why you are involved and then ask them to join the effort.   Pay attention to the JUF and Aipac websites and then send those people in your circle of family and friends the articles of interest.  Walk with your family in Israel; show them what our people has created.  

Take your children or your grandchildren to the next AIPAC policy conference and expose them what the American Jewish community can accomplish.  Show them that we have nothing to fear from ex Presidents like Jimmy Carter, whose writings threaten  Israel with the use of Apartheid in the title of a flawed one sided book. Teach them that the only way to counter books that aim to denigrate the pro Israel Lobby and American Jews exercising their democratically guaranteed rights is to stand together and expose the unbalanced pro-Arab bias of its authors. 

But more, American Jewry needs to become the shofar that Ahmandinajab will hear saying no to him and those who support his efforts.  On September 24th, this despot will travel to New York to speak to the United Nations.  I invite you to join me with thousands of other Jews from around the country to let this despicable and dangerous dictator that we fight him with all means possible and make our voices heard wherever possible to respond to dangerous lies and vitriol.  

Friends, this is not an as if scenario, this is our reality on Rosh Hashanah of 2007 as the destiny of the world hangs in balance.  As this New Year begins, we have the opportunity to no longer be slaves to the past, but architects of a new Jewish future--one where we act as one people against a new Haman, a new Hitler.   Much depends on our willingness to end the trends of our past and walk on a different more confident path.   The first step is to take Ahmadinajab at his word and do all that we can to bring his evil regime down.

I close with a story that Abraham Joshua Heschel told of his experience of hearing the story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac as a young boy.  As the story came to an end Heschel remembered weeping uncontrollably.  Why, his father asked, was he crying so, knowing that the ram was sacrificed instead of Isaac.  Heschel remembered asking: “What if the angel came late”  “What if….”  The father replied to his son:  “angels do not come late, only people do”. 

Over the years, our people have learned that people and nations can come too late, and sometimes angels do not come at all!

This is our rendezvous with destiny, and we will not come late!