Invocation at Lunch for Washington Days (KDP convention)

(I was invited to give the invocation over lunch at Washington Days by the KDP chair, Jeanna Repass, March 16, 2024.) 

I want to thank Jeanna for inviting me to do this. I think of it as the invocation I will never get to give on the House floor. Both because I’m a lobbyist and because they don’t want to hear what I have to say. We had a pastor scheduled to give the invocation in the senate and they sent his script back twice because he said that people should have access to health care. I would say more than that.

I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I grew up thinking that if you were Jewish you had to be a Democrat. I kind of didn't know that there was such a thing about you as Jewish Republicans until I moved to Wichita - they have black Republicans there too. I also have no members of my immediate family who are Trumpers. And for this Lord we thank you. We have a cousin who’s a Trumper but we never liked him much anyway.

I don’t have to tell you that we face very challenging times, and part of what makes them challenging is that they are being done in the name of a particular religious understanding. If a particular understanding of Christianity teaches that abortion is wrong then that has to be put into law. if they convince themselves that they’re “helping” LGBT people by oppressing them then that’s what they’ll do. This is called Christian nationalism and it’s the greatest danger facing this country right now. Because they do it in the name of religion they believe in what they’re doing Very very tightly. The only way to stop them is to beat them and the only way to beat them is by winning elections and the only way to win elections is with Democrats.

We are Democrats because we believe that we should help those who need it. We believe that the resources of society should be more fairly distributed so that everyone has what they need to not only survive, but thrive. We believe people should have enough to eat and a secure place to live and a job that pays a living wage and healthcare and access to clean air and clean water and a stable climate. We believe that people should have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies. We believe immigrants are a blessing to our society. We believe in public education! I have often said that Republicans hate public education because it has the 3 things they hate most: public sector unions, public spending, and facts. They’re not a big fan of those.

My friend we are democrats because of our values: on stewardship solidarity steadfastness. Basic fairness. Democracy. Care and concern for the stranger, the widow and the orphan. My friends, these are time honored values, they are sacred values, they are Democratic values.

Whether or not we believe in God, we hold these sacred values very strongly, they inform our work and they are really why we do all this. Beneath whatever disagreements we may have == the conviction that the world can be a better place and we can help make it so – is something we share. It motivates us, our work. It is these sacred values that we much hold on to during times of distress.

May this meal, and our time together here today, be blessed. We express gratitude to those who put this meal before us: the workers in the field, the transportation, those who prepared it and served it to us. May sharing this meal deepen the bonds between us and strengthen our commitment for the work before us. May this meal, and our work, be blessed. Motzi

Remarks at Interfaith Assembly for Palestine – March 9, 2024

After the abortive meeting between interfaith leaders and Rep. Davids in late January, we decided the next step would be a public assembly of interfaith voices. It took place yesterday at Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie Village. Here are my remarks. 

Since the collapse the Oslo process in the early 2000s, Israel has been ruling the Palestinian territories under its control as the victor of a war - expanding its control of the West Bank and strangling Gaza under a suffocating blockade, punctuated by periodic assaults, known cynically as “mowing the grass.” Over these decades Israel has shown no interest or concern for the human rights or dignity of those who have the misfortune of living under its control, and no one, least of all Israel’s main patron the United States, has taken any steps to control it or protect the Palestinians.

Israel was established in the aftermath of genocide as a safe haven for Jews. What it has become is a far-right, militarized ethno state motivated by fear, trauma and a constant diet of propaganda to destroy, in the name of self-defense, those whose misfortune it is to live in the land that we see as ours alone. The attacks on Oct 7 were brutal and indefensible, but the current brutal retaliatory war on the civilian population of Gaza, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the grotesque and indefensible violence that is being done in the name of Jews everywhere – I say no, and I am not alone.

I'm a rabbi who since the 1980s has supported efforts at peace and coexistence between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. But as time has gone on it has become clear that the only thing Israel wants is for Palestinians to disappear. Soon after the attack on October 7 I signed the Rabbis for Ceasefire statement, and I repeat that call today: an immediate, permanent ceasefire with return of all captives and the immediate opening of robust humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population in Gaza. None of the many, necessary conversations about what happens next can take place until there is an end to the violence, which we call for today – right now.

My understanding of the Jewish religion is that it values peace and the preservation of human life. “Seek peace and pursue it,” we are told. Under the precept of pikuah nefesh, human life is held as so sacred that every ritual obligation or religious commandment is breakable if human life is at stake. Yet the people who purport to represent us, to lead us, the people who teach us these values, support actions that are in direct contradiction to these values, actions that are leading to the death of tens of thousands of civilians, of children, of the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, of the use of starvation as a weapon -- this is not just unacceptable, it’s horrifying. It’s a hillul hashem - a desecration of God’s name. Leaders of the mainstream Jewish community will have to reckon with the choices they have made here. But that too is a discussion for another day. But today we say – this is not the path forward! Join us in calling for an end to this killing! Right now!

The absence of Palestinian voices in mainstream discourse often makes this seem like an internal Jewish conversation. But we have to remember who is suffering here, and who is dying. I know that the only way through the darkness is together, which is why I stand in solidarity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters and call for an immediate end to this horrific war.

We call on our political leaders to stand up for the human rights and dignity - the very lives - of Palestinians in Gaza. We call on Israel to stop its genocidal assault on the civilian population of Gaza. We call on Jews and anyone who cares about forging a more peaceful world to join us in calling for the end of arms sales to Israel, the end of diplomatic protection of Israel, the end of Israel’s military dictatorship over the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. This is the only way that we can work toward a world where never again really means never again – to anyone.

Barukh atah Adonai, oseh ha-shalom. Blessed are you, Adonai, maker of peace.