A very skewed view of what Beit Emanuel stands for

DIANE FINE

CHAIRMAN, BEIT EMANUEL SYNAGOGUE

The allegations are untrue, and no evidence was provided to support them:

• The topic of BDS support has never been discussed at any of our meetings, let alone approved.
• The synagogue has long had a policy of discouraging political sermons. Claims that the pulpit has been increasingly politicised, are untrue.

Beit Emanuel’s philosophy is to encourage open-mindedness, diversity and a willingness to engage in respectful debate with others, including those whose views we may strongly disagree with. Diversity is a difficult principle to live up to. It requires an ingredient often in short supply, namely tolerance.

In the past few months, this synagogue has held a huge Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration, and invited Israeli Ambassador Arthur Lenk to speak to the congregation. We have had speakers on a range of topics from outright support for Zionism to those critical of the political systems in Israel/Palestine. We have had one-state supporters and two-state supporters and we try to encourage a space in which they can talk to one another.

Rabbi Sa’ar Shaked, an Israeli himself, is strongly committed to the idea of outreach, something he practised for many years in Israel where he ran an organisation that brought Israeli and Palestinian groups together to talk about their differences and seek accommodation.

Since arriving in South Africa, Rabbi Shaked has worked to open up dialogue with Christians and Muslims, charitable groups, gay Jews, and with the Orthodox rabbinate. He has also opened up dialogue with Jewish Voices for a Just Peace, hoping to encourage them to work as peacemakers within the community.

The Jewish Report article says the rabbi wrote a letter of “wholehearted support” to JVJP, an organisation which “actively promotes BDS”. Nothing in the rabbi’s letter touches on BDS. Nothing in the formal public statements from JVJP suggests organisational support for BDS.  

There seems to be confusion between a radical US-based group called JVP and the local JVJP, which is not affiliated.

The point of the rabbi’s letter, written on the 20^th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s death, was to thank JVJP for organising a successful cultural festival and urge the organisation to “deepen your roots within the Jewish community” and work for peace in the spirit of Rabin.

“The only way one creates peace is by being peace, with deep commitment to non-violence and to the dignity of all humans.”

It is quite extraordinary that a mild-mannered letter like this can provoke such a hostile reaction. Rabbi Shaked has received hate mail and abusive phone calls from here and abroad, all of it from outsiders. I am pleased to say that the congregation itself packed out the seats last Friday night and gave the rabbi and myself a rousing welcome.

Rabbi Shaked has never delivered a political sermon at our shul. He has never expressed anti-Israel views from the pulpit. He is a thinking Jew, who lived all his life in Israel, who served in the IDF, whose closest relatives still live there, and who is deeply concerned with the rapid deterioration of the situation there.  

He is a thoughtful man with a big heart and a vision that goes beyond narrow chauvinism. There ought to be a great many more rabbis like him.