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Looking Forward

(Some) U.S. Jews (finally) take a stand for Israeli democracy

‘What was treyf has become kosher,’ Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove says about American Jews protesting Israel’s judicial overhaul

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl wants you to know that she did not skip out on singing “Hatikvah” at this morning’s rally for Israeli democracy outside the United Nations because of the backlash from some of her more conservative congregants.

It’s not that there wasn’t backlash. Buchdahl, senior rabbi of Manhattan’s mammoth Central Synagogue, got a number of very tough emails challenging her decision to protest outside the U.N. of all places, saying it would only embolden Israel’s enemies. There were plenty of nasty comments online, too, after her Rosh Hashanah sermon saying American Jews “cannot walk away” from this fight went a little viral on YouTube (34,000 views and counting).

But Rabbi Buchdahl responded to each of those emails with strong counter-arguments. Then on Wednesday night, she tested positive for COVID-19.

“I didn’t not show up because people were mad about it, because that is not how I roll,” she told me by phone.

“These days are days that you discern what really matters and what you care about and how we want to behave in this coming year,” Buchdahl said of this period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known as the Days of Awe. “Here is a first opportunity for those who want to see a thriving Israel to act on that.

“This feels like a real act of teshuvah,” she added of the protest, using the Hebrew word for “return” and repentance. “It feels like a kind of return to our Israeli brothers and sisters, who’ve been crying out for the last nine months and we’ve been mostly silent.”

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