Six weeks ago, on a Friday morning, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove stood outside the UN building in New York and delivered an assertive speech. At the same time, only meters away, Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium at the UN General Assembly. "My heart is on Kaplan Street, but I am in the west!" the Rabbi began his address, paraphrasing R. Yehuda Halevi's famous words some 900 years ago. Cosgrove spoke of his love for and commitment to the State of Israel, of the fact that in his community, Park Avenue, the largest Conservative synagogue in New York, with almost 2000 families, instilling values of Zionism and the love of Israel is not merely a central component of Jewish education but also a natural one. "That's why I'm here," he proclaimed to the audience of thousands standing before him, "that's why I'm demonstrating here, alongside the demonstrators in the streets of Israel, because all Jews are responsible for each other! For Zion's sake, I will not remain silent!"
Three weeks ago, on Friday morning, Rabbi Cosgrove once again stood in front of a large audience – this time, at the Kabbalat Shabbat service in his synagogue. It was exactly a week after that terrible Shabbat in southern Israel, and the synagogue was crowded. The sermon he delivered was no less forceful and Zionistic than his speech outside the UN. "We may share many internal disagreements but make no mistake: we have no disagreement with those seeking to destroy Israel! There can be no discussion with those coming to destroy Israel! The IDF speaks in my name!"
That evening, during Kabbalat Shabbat, from the bima of his synagogue, Rabbi Cosgrove raised pledges for $18 million for the State of Israel and the rehabilitation of the communities along its southern border.
At approximately the same time, at the other end of Manhattan, Rabbi Angela Buchdal stood and delivered an impassioned sermon of her own. Buchdal is the Rabbi at Central Synagogue, the largest Reform community in New York. She was born in South Korea and, as a child, moved with her family to the United States. The daughter of a Jewish father and a Buddhist mother, she decided at age 21 to convert to Judaism. Since then, she has grown spiritually and professionally and is now one of the most well-known and influential female Jewish leaders in the world. And no one is a bigger Zionist.
She opened her sermon in Hebrew: "Ein Milim," she said, "There are no words." She described her profound shock in the wake of the events of the horrific Shabbat of October 7 and spoke of how deeply disappointed she was with her colleagues, leaders of the non-Jewish religious communities in Manhattan. She is one of the leaders of an interfaith group that failed to agree on a joint statement condemning the terrible atrocities in southern Israel. Her colleagues insisted on including a reference to "the cycle of violence of which both sides are guilty." Rabbi Angela opposed the inclusion of such a statement. Not because she is indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians throughout the years. On the contrary, she has written several times and even participated in demonstrations advocating a two-state solution, but on this occasion, there was a clear demarcation line. Anyone viewing the events of that Shabbat as part of the history of Palestinian struggle for recognition and equality is no longer able to distinguish between good and evil. Anyone incapable of independently, clearly, and unequivocally condemning acts of beheading young children, raping women, and burning people alive is devoid of integrity. "It's amazing," she said, "how people who immediately oppose any form of violence always insist on considering 'complexity ' when it comes to the Jews."
Rabbi Cosgrove and Rabbi Buchdal are two of the more well-known and influential rabbis in America today. Both have been active in the wave of protests against the proposed legal reforms in Israel, and both stand today at the forefront of pro-Israel advocacy and fundraising for the "day after." This is not the other side of the coin – it's the same side. There is no paradox here. The love for Israel that motivated them to demonstrate against the Israeli government just a month ago is the same love for Israel that motivates them today.
The Jewish Federations of North America has declared a fundraising goal of $550 million for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the communities in southern Israel. The Jewish Agency will raise an additional $100 million in North America, and Jewish communities in Latin America, Europe, and Australia will raise a further $100 million via Keren Hayesod -The United Israel Appeal.
I was heartened to see the demonstrations a month ago, just as I am heartened to see the manifestations of Jewish solidarity today. In my eyes, this is genuine proof that the State of Israel is indeed the nation-state of the Jewish People.
Dr. Yizhar Hess is the Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization