Rabbi Michael Holzman said he tries to make people uncomfortable through difficult conversations prompted by his annual summer book studies. Three times this summer, about 35 congregants gathered at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation to discuss their thoughts on Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.”
Holzman facilitates the discussions with community members both of Jewish faith and non-Jews, who bring a wide range of beliefs and perspectives. During meetings, he said he shares book passages that get people to think and understand the author’s “complex emotional state.”
The group met on July 25 and Aug. 13 and will have a final meeting on Sept. 12, according to the NVHC website.
“Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” first published in 2018, is a non-fiction book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict written by an American-born Israeli author and journalist. The book is 10 letters addressed to an imagined Palestinian recipient, explaining the conflict through an Israeli’s eyes.
Halevi combines history — the history of modern Zionism and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — with his personal experience as an American Jewish man who moved to Israel.
“I try to pick books that relate to what I feel is the spiritual need in the community,” Holzman said, adding that he pays attention to themes of what’s happening nationally. “I think that’s the job of a rabbi, to raise the Jewish priorities as I understand them from our tradition and then bring them into conversation with the events that we’re experiencing.”
Holzman said he chose “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor” due to its ability to generate dialogue across historical and political divides, after noticing that people aren’t talking openly about Israel and Palestine.
“Here in America, witnessing the total breakdown of dialogue and [seeing] people being canceled by their friends because they have different beliefs about the conflict … watching what’s unfolding on college campuses and the way this is being politicized, the rise of real hatred and intolerance against Jews and against Muslims, all of those things that are happening here challenged me to find ways to try and be creative, to get people thinking about dialogue again,” Holzman said. “So, this book is a perfect opportunity to get those thoughts started.”
Most of the participants are adults aged 50 and up, a demographic that typically tends to favor Israel. The Pew Research Center found that older Americans are more likely than young adults to sympathize with Israel. Holzman said he noticed the trend within the reading group.
“[Generation] Z and millennials are far more critical of Israel than that,” Holzman said. “I wish we had those voices in the room who are very, very concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people. A majority of the people are very, very concerned with the survival of Israel and the Jewish people.”
There are also participants, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who are concerned about Palestinians.
“What they want out of the synagogue right now is to make sure that we’re being fair, to make sure that we’re including Palestinian voices,” Holzman said. “It’s not that people who are concerned or advocating for Palestine expect a synagogue to advocate for Palestine … They know we’re a synagogue. I have a big Israeli flag in my lobby. They’re not expecting me to advocate for the Palestinians. However, they are expecting me to be fair to the Palestinian narrative, and that’s been interesting for me to realize that my duty is to protect a fair and honest telling of the story.”
At the second meeting, the group discussed a passage in which Halevi reflects on Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
“Halevi recounts the moment that he realizes that that the occupation was degrading to his soul and that the occupation needed to end because it was hurting Israel and undermining and corrupting Israel’s moral integrity,” Holzman said of the book. “The way that he explains that to his imagined Palestinian neighbor was quite good.”
Holzman said some members struggle when he takes a “strong position” on either side in discussions, but the most important aspect of the book study is to appreciate the “diversity of opinion within the congregation.”
He added that learning in a synagogue differs so much from learning in school because academic learning is about an accurate understanding of the text, whereas synagogue learning is about an honest sharing of how individuals understand the text. Holzman encourages participants to approach topics with an open mind.
“Our obligation as a congregation is to listen to each other,” Holzman said. “We’re not the U.N.; we’re not the United States Senate. We don’t have to ratify a treaty … Our purpose in the congregation is to protect the covenant between each other and with God. We do that by listening to each other, by understanding each other. We don’t have to agree with each other.”
