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>> SUSANNAH HESCHEL: I have been
told that there are some people
who are connected, feel
connected to the State of Israel
but don't like
the word Zionism.
I find that very puzzling.
Seems to me that to be involved
with Zionism means to be
involved with an ongoing and
constantly developing project.
It's a project of
the mind, of ideas.
It's a project of morals,
it's a project of values.
It's about the future.
To be involved with Zionism is
to be involved with one of the
most intellectually and
politically challenging
movements of history,
of all human history.
Zionism is actually for
me about exploration.
It's about our history.
It's about our future.
It's about our present.
There are those Jews who
choose to be disaffected,
to say they don't want
to talk about it.
They don't want to talk
about Zionism, about Israel.
They want to walk
away from the debates.
And you know what I
call those people?
Boring.
So boring.
How can anybody walk away
from the thrill of engaging
with all the passions that
surround us on this issue.
This is about the most
exciting thing a human being
could be doing.
And we're lucky enough to be
living in this day and age.
Of course, there are some people
who feel disaffected with Israel
and Zionism because
they're angry at certain
Israeli government policies.
I understand.
Actually once there was a
visiting professor who came
to my university when I
was a graduate student
at the University
of Pennsylvania.
She started in.
She wasn't Jewish.
She said she used to go
to Israel all the time.
She loved Israel.
But she won't go anymore
because she doesn't like
the government policies.
And I said you don't like the
Israeli government policies
and you come to the United
States where Ronald Reagan
is the President
and he's all right?
And she stopped --
absolutely stopped walking,
and she said I never
thought of that.
I thought that
was remarkable.
I'll never forget that.
She never thought of that.
All right.
So there are some places of
course in the Jewish world
where it becomes difficult to
raise questions, to disagree,
to express the intense
emotions that Israel evokes.
There are some places I know
where I feel I can't talk about
Israel, because unless I say
what this person wants me
to say, they'll be
angry at me.
That's very unfortunate.
That's not how the
Jewish world should be
and ever has
been before.
We don't put a kind of muzzle on
Jewish expression of opinion.
It's tragic.
We should be listening.
We should be engaging
with all points of view,
even those we may find annoying,
repugnant, make us angry.
It's okay.
Let's discuss, let's debate.
Let's argue.
And always remember that
Zionism has a lot of diversity,
a lot of different opinions,
a lot of debates.
And in that way, through
debate, it unites us as Jews.
The point is Zionism is to
unite us, and not divide us.
And not allow us to lose
Jews who are disaffected.
We have to bring them in, and
listen to what they have to say,
whatever it is.
Engage them.
I find when I start to talk to
a student, I find you know,
there are ways of talking to
someone, of pointing out
you don't know this, or perhaps
we can debate that point.
The engagement
draws them back.
And I would say that what
I love about Hadassah
is precisely that; that
Hadassah unites us.
When I go to Hadassah meetings,
I don't hear about enemies,
enemies of Israel,
enemies of Zionism.
I hear that too often in
other Jewish gatherings.
I don't want to hear that.
I hear polemics often
against the Jews
who disagree politically.
I don't like that.
At Hadassah we come together
as one, and we come together
to do constructive work.
Hadassah is the largest Zionist
organization in the world,
and its members have done
something extraordinary.
A real concrete legacy, and that
is building one of the most
renowned medical centers
in the world in Jerusalem.
And I could go further and say
that the Hadassah medical center
in many ways is actually
a fore taste of the future
that we hope for
Israel itself.
At Hadassah, Jews, Arabs,
Christians, people from
all over the world come
to receive medical care.
Israeli Jews, Israeli
Palestinians, Muslims,
whatever they are, they
come together as patients.
And they also come together
on the staff to provide
that medical care.
Doctors, nurses, patients.
Doesn't matter what the religion
is, what language they speak.
Doesn't matter what
their ethnicity is.
We all come together.
We all come together in a
wonderful expression of
Jewish values in a Jewish
medical center to heal.
And that to me is a kind
of moment, allegory,
fore taste of what Israel
will come to be also.
