Sublime

Rabin’s rise to the office of prime minister marked the beginning of a new era. He was the first prime minister born in the twentieth century and the first native-born. He was the first who had received his entire education in Israel and was the first to emerge from the ranks of the army. Israelis felt ready for a new sort of leader.

The problem, as always, starts and ends with education, and this is where I do have a real issue. One of the political deals that’s been cut with the Orthodox parties over the years allows the Charedi community to create its own education system, which is sponsored by the rest of Israeli taxpayers. That system is based on studying the Torah and its

for Jewish ethics, the path to universal love is through partiality rather than around it.

American Jews, I held, should uphold Israel’s right to defend itself and to exist as the Jewish State. They should respect the responsibility that Israelis bore by choosing their leaders democratically. Israel, for its part, must acknowledge American Jewish pluralism and behave as the nation-state of all the Jewish people.