News Highlights Ahavat Yisrael

Hebrew College President, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, is quoted in an article appearing in The New York Times Magazine on November 7, 2021.

The article is entitled “Generation Exodus” (print version) and “Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism: How a new generation of Jewish leaders began to rethink their support for Israel” (digital version).

The article looks at generational trends in the relationship between North American Jews and Israel, in response to a statement written and published in May 2021 by rabbinical and cantorial students from seven major non-Orthodox seminaries in North America.

The article quotes a letter Rabbi Anisfeld wrote to students last May, affirming their right to express dissent and raise moral concerns about Israeli actions, but describing what it might have sounded like for them to express their concerns with a deeper sense of Ahavat Yisrael:

“It would have sounded like a willingness to affirm the dignity and sanctity of all human life, and at the same time hold a special place in your heart for the Jewish people you have dedicated your life to serving — not because our lives matter more than any other lives, God forbid, but because we are responsible to and for each other.”