Life

High Holidays With AIPAC

By Nathan Guttman September 2, 2009

For those rabbis still working on their High Holiday sermons, AIPAC has some advice. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee put out its High Holiday Resource Guide — a 22-page booklet packed with ideas about how to talk to your congregation about Israel, Iran and about the importance of getting involved in political action.

Some of the ideas in AIPAC’s Synagogue Initiative guide seem almost obvious: the blowing of the Shofar, for example, is a wakeup call reminding the Jews of just how urgent the situation is. Some are aimed at the more creative rabbis and suggest quotes from Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” or from Nike’s “Just Do It” advertisement to send the same message to congregants: It’s time to take action to stop Iran.

So if one of these themes shows up in the Rosh Hashanah sermon at your synagogue, you’ll know where it came from. And just pray your rabbi doesn’t choose to use AIPAC’s suggestion on page 7. It’s a parable about an egg and a poor woman and it is really long. Bottom line: The woman dropped the egg and lost the opportunity to help her family. Moral: Don’t drop the Iran egg.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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