Here it is, Rosh Hashanah eve and we have come together in this sanctuary; a gathering of the clan.  There are too few times when we are all together.  Too few opportunities for us to talk Jew-to-Jew about those matters which should touch us and concern us as Jews.

Tonight I want to talk to you about some things that have been of growing concern for me as a Jew.  What I share with you has been brewing in my soul for many months.  What I am about to say is not easy for me to say, and I suspect that it will not be easy for you to hear it.  What you choose to do about it will be up to you.

One of the remarkable things about being Jewish in America has been that, by and large, we have lived in peace and harmony with our Christian neighbors.  The value of religious and cultural diversity is an American invention.  Unlike in Europe, American Jews have never been forced to live in ghettos or shtetls, and thank God, we have never been subjected to anti-Jewish laws, pogroms, and definitely not a Holocaust.  While America does have its own antisemites, and on occasion they may desecrate a synagogue, distribute antisemitic literature, and maybe even harass a Jewish family or individual, still these people exist on the fringe of American society.  They in no way represent the mainstream.  On the whole, our Christian neighbors are just that - our neighbors and our friends.  We share our lives together and they would no more dream of hurting us than we would dream of hurting them.  Life has been good to us in America.

But over the past many months I have more and more begun to wonder whether or not this is beginning to change.  I have come to wonder whether or not we are beginning to witness a dangerous and hostile shift in American Christian attitudes toward Jews.

I know that there are many who think I am overly melodramatic; that I am becoming a doom-&-gloom sort of guy.  But what I am seeing is upsetting me greatly, And if I did not share it with you, for you to decide for yourselves how on or off the mark I am, I would be doing you, my fellow Jews, a disservice.

As many of you know, for quite some time I have had serious issues with evangelical Christianity.  There was a time when evangelicals did not bother me.  But those days ended when it became clear that the evangelicals were no longer satisfied with merely enjoying their freedom of religion but wanted the whole of American society to be molded around their beliefs and values.  In so doing, they effectively wanted to deny the rest of us our freedom of religion; and not just freedom of religion, but freedom in general.

So over the years I have crossed swords with the evangelicals over many issues such as reproductive choice, religion in the public school and in the public square, the offering of the protection of civil rights laws to all people regardless of sexual orientation, the banning of books, the list goes on.

Yet there is something that the evangelicals and I - the evangelicals and the Jewish people - can agree upon; Israel’s right to exist within safe and secure borders.  Indeed, no one can argue with the fact that it has been their support of Israel, more than ours, which has so positively impacted our government’s policies toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  While we American Jews are Israel’s people, these evangelicals may very well be Israel’s best friends, at least for the time being.

Because of this support, there are many in the Jewish world who call upon us to gratefully embrace the evangelicals.  There are even those who call upon us to set aside our differences with them over other issues lest we jeopardize their support.

Over this, I have been deeply torn.  How can I reconcile the profound contention which exists between us over such basic issues of American freedoms with my desire to embrace all friends of Israel?  How can these evangelicals be both my adversary and my ally at the same time?  My adversary over American Jewish issues and my ally when it comes to Israel.

Needing to know what makes these evangelicals tick, this summer I took on a reading project.  I was determined to read the LEFT BEHIND series.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with these books, let me explain.  LEFT BEHIND is a series of books which are a fictionalized vision of the fundamentalist Christian perspectives of what will happen at the End of Days.  When I took up this project, little did I realize that there were twelve books in this series, each between 400 to 500 pages.  I chose to read these books because they are so popular.  In fact, over 65 million copies of them have been sold.  Obviously, the evangelical community in America resonates with their message.  So I wanted to read them in hopes of finding out what that message is, and in understanding that message, better understand them.

The series starts off with the Rapture.  There are Christians who believe that a time will come, near the end of the world, when Jesus will call all the righteous people back to him.  They will physically leave this world and join Jesus in heaven.  That is the Rapture.  However, by "righteous," they do not mean all good hearted and God loving souls.  What they mean are those who have fully accepted Jesus as their lord and savior.  For them, that is the litmus test of who is truly righteous.  You may be the kindest, gentlest, most giving and caring person on the face of the planet, but if you do not accept Jesus, you will never be saved; you are condemned to ultimate destruction.

The focus of this series is on that time between the Rapture and the second coming of Jesus - what they call the Glorious Appearing.  This is a time when those "left behind" will have a second chance to bring Jesus into their lives.  These times will be tough.  They will be dominated by a character known as the Antichrist, who is evil incarnate.  The final period of human existence will last seven years and will be called the Tribulation.  This period is marked by massive destruction and suffering, during which the vast majority of humanity is killed.

Now where do the Jews and Israel fit into all of this?  They both play an essential role in the unfolding of this theological history.

As if in preparation for the coming of the Antichrist, God will defeat Israel’s enemies and raise her to the position of a major power in the world.  Only then will the Antichrist come.  The Antichrist will rise to power and unite the world into one world government - of course a tyrannical dictatorship.  The actual seven year period of the Tribulation will be initiated by the signing of a seven year treaty of protection between the Antichrist and Israel.  Israel and consummate evil, hand-in-hand.  During the Tribulation, there will be those Christians who oppose the Antichrist.  They will be called Tribulation Saints.  But most honored among those Tribulation Saints will be - you guessed it - the Jews who have found Jesus.  For there is nothing more valuable than a Jew brought to Jesus.  According to their beliefs, there will be 144,000 such messianic Jews, and they will be central to the bringing of so many others to Jesus as well.  As for the Jews who do not find Jesus, well the Antichrist permits them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem and all Israel becomes like one big red light district, overrun by every perversion and sin imaginable.  For you see, the only good Jews are Jews who come to Jesus.  As for the rest of us, we are the moral dregs of society.  And so we will be destroyed.

So you see, my friends, the friendship that the evangelicals are extending to Israel is at its heart self-serving and will be, if they have their wish, short lived.  For them, Israel and the Jews are but a means to a theological end.  Their salvation goes hand-in-hand with our conversion or our destruction.

Now there are those Jews who say, "Who cares what these people believe, as long as they support Israel?"  Such thinking is foolish and dangerous.  It should not be a point of Jewish pride that so many of us don’t take faith seriously.  It should be a point of embarrassment.  Historically, those who have treated faith lightly, refusing to recognize the power of faith, have often had to pay the price.  For faith is a source of great power, and these people are strong in their faith.  They truly believe that faith can move mountains, and they will do their best to move them.  Only thing is, when those mountains get moved, we Jews may find ourselves buried beneath them!

So what do we do?  Abraham Foxman, head of the ADL, in his book NEVER AGAIN, says, "I believe for Jews to reject the support of Israel by the religious right would make no sense, especially at a time like today when Israel is so isolated on the world scene.  When you are in danger and someone offers you help, you don’t question the purity of their motives, you just accept the help... We must manage our relationship with the Christian right with care and vigilance, criticizing the movement forthrightly when our interests and values clash and accepting its support when they over lap.  Perhaps the sage Woody Allen put it best: ‘The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won’t get much sleep.’" Perhaps he is right, but there is something still nagging at me.  His argument sounds very much like that of the German industrialists who thought they could control Hitler.  How can we Jews put our trust into the hands of those who would ultimately wish us harm?

But believe it or not, in the Christian world, it is not the evangelicals who disturb me the most.  They are people of faith.  They say and stand by what they believe.  I may disagree with them - disagree with them strongly - but at least I can trust them to be consistent and, in their own way, honest in what they say and do.

What has been most disappointing for me over the past year is that I have come to learn that I cannot say that about many of those Christian denominations who for so long have been our friends and allies on so many social issues.  We have stood together shoulder-to-shoulder on so many occasions, in our common pursuit of justice.  Yet of late, when it comes to the positions they have taken concerning Israel and the Palestinians, I have seen them abandon any sense of true justice and substitute in its place some sort of politically correct partisanship.

This past year, we American Jews have witnessed friend after friend, ally after ally, turn against us as they have turned against Israel.  The Presbyterian Church USA, the World Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, have all within this past year passed in their national assemblies anti-Israeli resolutions.  Some have called for divestment - the withdrawal of funds from companies which do business with Israel.  Some have laid all responsibility for the anguish of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the feet of Israel.  All have condemned the Security Fence, which they prefer to call the Wall of Separation.  All have taken their actions, using the most self righteous language.  They puff themselves up and parade themselves as sincere advocates of peace.  But true advocates of peace do not behave as they have behaved.  True advocates of peace do not attack one side over the other.  True advocates of peace condemn the wrongs perpetrated by both sides - both sides, not just one side. - but even as they do so, they focus their energies on seeking common ground between the two contending parties; they make every effort to bring both sides to the table by convincing them that, as advocates of peace, their interest is in peace, not partisanship.  True advocates of peace ardently support any action which brings peace closer and they soundly condemn any action which unravels the hope of peace.  True advocates of peace never condone or turn a blind eye to acts of violence.  By these standards, our friends from these various Christian denominations are far from being anything near true advocates of peace.

The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, once wrote, "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile.  But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest."  I agree with him.  To blankly label all criticism of Israel as antisemitic is vile.  Israel, like any other nation, at times makes mistakes and should be called to account for them.  However, to single Israel out - to only criticize Israel - or to criticize Israel out of all proportion to one’s criticism of other nations and peoples who are also guilty of errors and misdeeds, is indeed antisemitic.  And that, I fear, is what is happening with our Christian friends who have been so quick this year to criticize Israel.  They have criticized Israel far out of proportion to their criticism, and in many cases lack of criticism, of other nations in which human rights violations are occurring which are far more dramatic and far more devastating than any of the human suffering which has been inflicted upon the Palestinians as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They have chosen to severely criticize Israel and single out Israel for punitive sanction while they have given mere lip service to their condemnation of Palestinian terrorism conducted against Israeli civilians, and have taken no punitive actions against the Palestinians, and in particular the Palestinian Authority, for their support of terrorist activities.  While they have, of late, raised up the banner of the Road Map to Peace, they have remained astoundingly silent over the Palestinian violations and failures in regard to that road map.  They have said absolutely nothing about the failure of the Palestinians to abide by the conditions of that road map which require them to remove from their public school text books and curriculums all references which are either antisemitic or provoke hatred of Israelis.  Do these Christians really see nothing wrong in teaching children to hate?  They have said absolutely nothing about the failure of the Palestinians to abide by the conditions of that road map which require them to no longer run summer camps which train children to be suicide bombers and terrorist guerrilla fighters.  Do these Christians really see nothing wrong with training children to kill?  They have said absolutely nothing about the failure of the Palestinians to abide by the conditions of that road map which require them to cease and desist from using their public radio and television stations from broadcasting programs which promote a culture of hatred of Jews and a culture which glorifies suicide bombers and declares them "martyrs".  Do these Christians really see nothing wrong in using the state run media to blatantly promote murder?  And most telling of all is that even though they refer to the Road Map to Peace, these Christian denominations have somehow forgotten the fact that one of the very first conditions of that road map is, and I quote, an "unconditional cease-fire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere."  Do these Christians really see nothing wrong when people are butchered in cold blood on buses and in restaurants?

Nor is my distress with my friends - the people with whom I have worked so closely; the people with whom I gather every month for our meeting of the Progressive Clergy - limited to what their denominations have said, as vile and as antisemitic as it is.  I am also distressed by what they don’t say.  They claim to be advocates for peace, but never do they acknowledge Israel’s efforts to bring peace to fruition.  Long before the Palestinians begrudgingly accepted the possibility of a two-state solution, Israel said that it would support the establishment of a Palestinian state.  All they asked was that there be an end to terrorism.  But how have these Christian denominations responded?   Have they applauded or commended Israel for its willingness to make peace?  No, They act as though Israel never said it.  Five years ago, under Ehud Barak, the Israeli government offered the Palestinians peace and statehood, with up to 95-97% of the territory they were seeking, but the Palestinians turned it down.  Have these Christian denominations expressed their appreciation and support for that offer?  No.  They act as though it never happened.  Just within the past weeks, as we all were watching those painful scenes of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, did the Christian denominations say, "Bravo!  Good job, Israel!  What a wonderful step toward peace?"  Did they consider altering their official positions of condemnation for Israel?  No.  In fact, while this disengagement was going on, the Presbyterians moved their divestment plan to the next level, identifying targeted companies, while the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America all went ahead a passed their anti-Israel resolutions.  They all did these things as if Israel had done nothing to further the cause of peace.

How can such actions be considered anything other than antisemitism?  For it matters little what Israel does.  What matters is taking the opportunity to strike out at Israel; to strike out at the Jews of this Jewish state.

And nowhere is this antisemitism more obvious than in the condemnations of the Security Fence offered by these denominations.  First of all, for faiths that profess truth, they seem to have no qualms when it comes to promoting falsehood when it comes to this fence.  Every picture they display of this fence is a picture of a concrete permanent wall, when in fact the concrete wall makes up but a small portion of the fence.  Most of it is chain link and moveable.  Indeed, they like to present the fence as Israel’s attempt to establish a border without the consent of the Palestinians, when in point of fact Israel has always claimed that this fence represents no permanent border.  Such borders will only be determined at the negotiating table.  But most horrendous of all is that they present this fence as Israel’s effort to persecute the Palestinian people, when in point of fact Israel created this fence for one purpose and one purpose only - to prevent Palestinian terrorists from entering Israel proper and killing Israelis; to protect the very lives of their people.  Does not Israel, as a nation, have the right - indeed the responsibility - to protect its own citizens?  According to these Christian resolution, I guess they would say "No".  Indeed, they pay no attention whatsoever to the fact that the Fence has been successful.  It has significantly reduced the number of terrorist attacks in Israel proper.  Yet our Christian friends self-righteously declare it a gross violation of international law.  It is funny how they are fixated on how this fence, which saves Jewish lives, is a gross violation of international law, yet they never seem to talk about violations of international law when Palestinian terrorists ambush cars and gun down Jewish mothers and their babies.  The fence separates a farmer from his land.  That is obviously more important to our Christian friends than separating a Jew from his life.  It would seem that Jewish blood is cheap in the eyes of our friends when they endorse the murder of our relatives.

I know that Shira does not like me to talk about her in sermons, but the day after Yom Kippur she returns to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for her graduate studies.  It goes without saying that the Cantor and I are deeply concerned for her safety.  God forbid she should suffer injury or worse at the hands of a terrorist!  God forbid!  How could I ever look into the faces of my friends at Progressive Clergy again and not see them as accomplices to that crime?  For that is what they would be.  Whether or not they attended their denomination’s national assembly and voted for such resolutions, as long as they passively accepted them; as long as they did not raise their voice in protest, that is what they would be, as surely as if they pulled the trigger or strapped the bomb to the bomber’s back.

So what can we do?  We need to call our neighbors to account.  We need to confront them and say, "Hey!  You’re a Presbyterian?  You’re a Congregationalist?  You’re a Methodist?  You’re an Episcopalian.  You’re a Disciples.  You’re a Lutheran.  How can you let your church do this to my people?  Where is the justice?  Where is the peace?   Why don’t you speak out?  Why don’t you speak to your minister?  Why don’t you speak to your synod?  Why don’t you write letters of protest to your national offices?  Why don’t you let them know that you are one who does not endorse the murder of Jews and you think your church shouldn’t endorse it either.

I know what I ask is difficult.  As we all know, the two taboo subjects are religion and politics.  But we really need to do this.  Most of our neighbors are good people and would never do us harm.  We need to help them find their voice.  We need to help them stand beside us in the pursuit of true peace and safety.  For unless we convince them to speak out and rectify these wrongs, then this Jew - then all Jews - ultimately stand alone.

AMEN