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April 4, 2003
Optimism felt at UBC and SFU
Avraham Infeld is "inspired" by students' support of
Israel on campus.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
A Zionist leader who came to Vancouver to speak about anti-Semitism
on university campuses was so inspired by the efforts of local Zionist
students that he dropped his foreboding topic and spoke instead
about the joys of Judaism.
Avraham Infeld addressed an overflow crowd at Hillel House at the
University of British Columbia (UBC) on the topic Anti-Israel Activity
on Our Campuses. He was the keynote speaker at the organization's
annual general meeting. Infeld is one of the founders of the Birthright
Israel program, which seeks to instil a love of Judaism in young
people through expenses-paid trips to Israel. He is a leader of
Hillel worldwide and is billed as one of the top Jewish educators
in the world. The South African-born Israeli kept Hillel members
and guests rapt with his message of hopefulness.
"I came here to try to inspire you and I find I am inspired,"
Infeld said after observing the routine business of Hillel's AGM.
"I was going to talk about advocacy, but you people did that."
Students spoke of the empowerment they have experienced this year
in standing up on campus in defence of Israel. Though the academic
year got off to an inauspicious start, according to Hillel members
on Vancouver-area campuses, the emergence of strong pro-Israel activism
to counter what had seemed just months ago to be a one-sided perspective
of the Middle East has apparently reaffirmed the students' faith
in their ability to influence public opinion on campus.
Though the news was not all good – the tenor of debate, particularly
at Simon Fraser University (SFU), remains heated – attendees
were clearly jubilant over the impact they have had at providing
another side of the Mideast story, through Israel Week events at
SFU and UBC, as well as through ongoing information campaigns.
Perhaps expecting a far more negative picture of anti-Israel activities
on campus, Infeld seemed caught up in the moment and dropped his
planned topic to focus instead on optimistic aspects of Judaism
and Israel.
The greatest threat to Judaism, he warned, does not come from external
threats. Over the past 200 years, there has been an unravelling
of Jewish uniformity, beginning with changes in religious expression
and culminating in intermarriage and a drifting away from Judaism
by some in each generation. This lack of uniformity is so significant
that it presents existential threats to Judaism, he warned. Even
so, Infeld finds a silver lining.
"The one thing that Jews do not have is uniformity," he
said. "Baruch Hashem! I could cry about it, [but] here's a
Jewish lesson: If you can't change something, celebrate it. Have
a meal."
Infeld urges all Jews to adopt at least three of five "legs"
of the Jewish table – five legs that Infeld sees as crucial
expressions of Judaism.
The first is Jewish memory.
"Jews do not have history," he said. "Jews have memory."
Everything that happened to the Jewish people in the past is as
if it happened to every Jew alive today, he said.
The second leg is mishpachah, family. Infeld rejects the
term "co-religionists" to describe fellow Jews, warning
that his own religious views might be utterly antithetical to those
of others in the room. Being part of the Jewish mishpachah is to
be among the b'nai Yisrael, the children of Israel, and if
one thinks that membership has its privileges, it also has its responsibilities.
"How do you join a family? You're either born into it or you're
adopted by it," Infeld said. "How do you leave a family?
You don't." Infeld cites the Cardinal of Paris, a Jewish-born
convert to Catholicism who is one of the most powerful Catholics
in the world. Infeld, and others, still view the cardinal as a member
of the b'nai Yisrael.
Infeld's third leg is Sinai, which he said represents, among other
things, the Jewish acknowledgement that there is a higher power
who controls the world, guiding humankind's actions and demanding
tikkun olam, that Jews are called on to repair the damage
humankind has brought to the world. Sinai, added Infeld, is also
an example of the first leg, Jewish memory.
"I remember you all," he said, surveying the crowded room.
"We were all at Sinai."
The fourth leg is the state of Israel and the land of Israel, which
Infeld identifies separately.
"I am not going to get into a political debate, but they are
not the same thing," he told the crowd, repeating one of the
main tenets of the Birthright program: "You don't go to Israel
to tour another country. You go to Israel to tour your own soul."
All of the land of Israel, irrespective of who rules it, is the
warehouse of all Jewish memory, he said.
The final leg is Hebrew, which Infeld denies was ever a dead language.
"Jews always used to say important things in Hebrew,"
he said. "What [the Hebrew revivalists] did was turn a living
language into a spoken language."
If every Jew in some way internalized just three of these five legs
of Jewish civilization, Infeld said, it would mean by sheer arithmetic
that every Jew would share at least one of those legs with every
other Jew.
"I was a math genius," Infeld said.
Not all of Infeld's presentation was optimistic, though. When the
dust settles in Iraq, Infeld warned, someone will pay the price
for an attack on an Arab state.
"I'll give you three guesses who is going to pay the price,"
he said, leaving the audience to ponder the potential consequences.
Infeld also insisted that anti-Israel sentiments can be viewed almost
universally as examples of anti-Semitism, due to the intertwined
nature of Judaism and Zionism.
"An attack on Israel is an attack on the national liberation
movement of the Jewish people," he said, adding that Zionism
is the only national liberation movement that is widely viewed as
not legitimate.
Though he is obviously a passionate Jew, Infeld's baritone oration
evokes evangelical Christianity in style, though with perhaps more
humor.
The oration was one of the highlights of Hillel's annual general
meeting at which new and returning board members were selected.
Most board members from the past term agreed to stay on for an additional
term, including president Kevin Glassman. The three new board members
selected are Joan Emerman, Sherry Stein and Sondi (Ritter) Green,
who just completed a term as president of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Vancouver.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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