With this issue of Masorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism, we mark a momentous milestone in the history of the Jewish people: seventy-five years of Israeli independence and national sovereignty. This is a time lovingly and thoughtfully to renew our personal ties to the Jewish State and to marvel at the miraculous quality of its 1948 founding.
It is a fact beyond dispute that Israel faces numerous, profound, and concerning challenges, as well as threats both external and internal. This year’s milestone beckons us with equal force to confront those challenges with moral integrity and clarity of purpose. In so doing, let us not forget the tenuous condition of the United States when it was seventy-five years old. In 1851, Millard Fillmore (among the most ineffectual of presidents) was in office; the vice presidency remained vacant. Construction of the United States Capitol had only just begun. The California gold rush continued. Sojourner Truth delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. America was less than a decade from the Civil War.
Although America has come a long way, challenges and critical flaws certainly remain. We pray with confidence that Israel, too, has a bright future. That future, as well as present challenges and a proud history, are examined in this volume. We are indebted to the contributing authors for this collection of personal reflections and retrospectives, scholarly inquiries, and shared visions. A special note of thanks to poet Danny Siegel for his original contribution introducing these essays.
A new feature of this journal, “Yashan Noshan,” in which we reprint articles of historic significance, is introduced in this issue. Robert Gordis’s 1948 essay “The Biblical Basis of Democracy” explores the transformative hopes the Jewish people vested in the newborn State of Israel at its founding: “It may well prove an indispensable prelude to the triumph of the ideals of democracy the world over.” Seventy-five years later, we continue to pray that the Jewish State will come to realize its fullest potential.
As the current issue of this journal was being prepared for publication, we observed the fortieth yahrzeit of Rabbi Saul Lieberman, of blessed memory, an all but unrivaled scholar. At the time of his passing, Rabbi Lieberman was Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary, rector of the Rabbinical School, and rabbi of the Seminary Synagogue. In that synagogue, it was my privilege as a young undergraduate to serve as shamash, learning immeasurably and gratefully (and with considerable trepidation) at Rabbi Lieberman’s knee. Rabbi Lieberman famously divided his time between New York and Jerusalem. He received the Bialik Prize for Jewish Thought, the Israel Prize for Jewish Studies, and the Harvey Prize of the Haifa Technion. He died peacefully on a flight travelling to the Jewish State, a poignant further reminder of his impact on the Jewish communities of both nations, and of the reverent esteem in which he was held on both sides of the Atlantic. Even as we celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, may Rabbi Lieberman’s scholarship, piety, and Zionism continue to illumine our path. Yehi zikhro varukh.
We also note with sorrow the passing during this period of Rabbi Harold Kushner, celebrated author of, inter alia, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and editor of this journal from 1980 to 1984. He demonstrated through his distinguished rabbinic career the wisdom of his own counsel: “I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.” Rabbi Kushner spent much of his career helping and encouraging fellow Jews and others to make sense of our tradition, its theological challenges, and the vicissitudes of the human condition. This journal has much the same goal.
As did the founders of the Jewish State, let us place our trust in the Rock of Israel as we set about our sacred task.
Joseph H. Prouser is rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and editor of this journal.
