Thursday was Yom Ha’aztma’ut (Israel Independence Day). There were festivities and commemorations across North America, Europe and in Israel. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) held a Night to honor Israel at a regional gathering in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Pastor John Hagee, founder of CUFI was there and according to those in attendance was eloquent as ever in defense of Israel and the Jewish people. Having attended a CUFI event in Washington, I know that the love and enthusiasm is genuinely palpable This occasion and others like it across America put to shame naysayers like Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the United Reform Movement,the J-Street crowd and many mainstream Jewish leaders.

One exception is my friend, Conservative Rabbi Jon Hausman of the Conservative Ahavath Torah Congregation of Stoughton, Massachusetts. Hausman is a unique rabbi. He is a lifelong Republican, son and grandson of Jewish Republicans from Bridgeport, Connecticut. His mother, whom I knew as a fellow congregant at a synagogue in Fairfield, Connecticut, and all of his uncles served during WWII. On his mother’s side, he is a Medved and has a famous cousin, the nationally syndicated conservative talk show host, Michael Medved out in Washington. He is a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a member of CUFI. Hausman also believes that he has pulled off a real hat trick. He has educated his originally left liberal suburban congregation about the realities in Israel and domestic issues and at least perceives his ‘education’ he believes has moved the views of many congregants to the ‘center or ‘center right’. Hausman is “one of us” and clearly understands the Islamist threat to Israel’s existence, the necessity of replacing the corrupt incompetent Olmert Kadima government in the Knesset and is unafraid to publicly speak about it. He also knows who are Israel’s real friends among Christian Zionists here in the US.

Because of Hausman’s associations, he was invited to give an invocation at the CUFI gathering of more than 1,000 Thursday night in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Among the other speakers there at the Seekonk CUFI gathering was a friend, Dr. Charles Jacobs. Jacobs spoke glowingly about the interstices between the David project’s premier work in training Israel advocates on American campuses-its metier- and CUFI. Jacobs talked about a designated Evangelical Christian who had graduated from the David project leadership and Israel advocacy program and joined the professional staff of CUFI. Jacobs is among the few Jewish leaders who has been unstinting in forging an importance alliance with Christian evangelicals. Because, unfortunately, as Hausman and I commiserated, liberal Protestant denominations have opted for the ‘dark side” by buying in and supporting Palestinian victimhood imagery and meta-narratives, along with Israel divestment and academic boycott initiatives. Some of this verges of being downright anti-Semitic. The worst example being liberal Protestant churches support for the infamous Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology gatherings in North America

Hausman is an avid biker. He has participated in a major Israel annual event: the 400 mile Annual Galgalei Ahavah/Wheels of Love Charity Bike Ride that benefits the Alyn Hospital. As Hausman explained it to me:

Alyn is Israel’s only comprehensive pediatric and adolescent orthopaedic medical and rehabilitation center. Alyn treats children, regardless of race, religion, creed or country of origin for all kinds of congenital and acquired medical issues impinging upon Orthopedics, neuromuscular diseases, and subsequent treatment and rehabilitation.

His part of the Hausman/Madwed nee Medved family has supported Alyn Hospital for over 35 years.

Rabbi Hausman then spoke of what happened at the Seekonk event:

Hausman then addressed the gathering and asked them all to stand and then sit for Israel. He then noted that is more than the patients at the Alyn Hospital can do.

The result was a ‘love offering’ that raised over $30,000 that night for the Alyn Hospital. Hausman’s comments were:

The announcement at the evening’s end was simply astounding and overwhelming. FCC and CUFI presented a check in the amount of $30,000 to underwrite one of Alyn’s programs…Guardian Angel. This program helps us bridge the treatment cost gap per patient, which hovers around $29,000 per patient. What an absolute expression of love and faith in what Israel does for the world. I was speechless.

After the Seekonk CUFI event he exchanged email with his cousin Michael Medved who wrote him back that this was ‘kiddush ha shem’.

I agree with Medved, Hausman and my friend Charles Jacobs that the CUFI bond with Israel and Jews puts to shame the caterwauling and hand wringing of American Jewish leadership and many members of the rabbinate, not the least being Rabbi Eric Yoffie head of the Union for Reform Judaism.

So, Kol Hakavod to Rabbi Hausman, Dr. Jacobs, Pastor Hagee and the 1,000 CUFI members who came to Honor Israel on its 60th birthday in Seekonk and made a love offering to bind the covenant.

Here is Rabbi Hausman’s invocation

RABBI JONATHAN HAUSMAN, AHAVATH TORAH CONGREGATION, STOUGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS
INVOCATION INTRODUCTION CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAEL-MASSACHUSETTS (CUFI-MA), SEEKONK , MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 8, 2008

Pastor Dave Marquard, Pastor Ray Zimberlin, Pastor John Hagee, all of the Pastors and gentle people that I met over the last hour, I am honored to be here this evening.

Now, I was asked to deliver an invocation this evening. To be quite honest, I am a Rabbi. I really don’t know what an invocation is. So why don’t I just talked about what Israel means to me.

In Pastor Dave’s office a few moments ago, so many people approached me and thanked me for being here this evening. I think that you have things backwards. As a Rabbi, as a Jew and as an unapologetic supporter of Israel, I need to thank you.
Why? Because today a vibrant democracy marks its 60th anniversary.

In describing Israel’s birth, Winston Churchill said:

“The coming into being of a Jewish State in Palestine is an event in world history to be viewed in the perspective, not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective .of three thousand years.”

Churchill was referring to the unique link among a land, people and faith from time immemorial.

Israel is not a religious utopia. Rather, she is the territorial project of a people that needed to gather its history together, to reconstitute ourselves as Jews for the first time in 2000 years in a culturally and politically autonomous entity.

CUFI celebrates and blesses that enterprise, this miracle this evening. I, for one, am grateful for your commitment to my ancient homeland. To Jews and non-Jews around the world, Israel is a land of freedom. It is this “miracle”- in the very words of Arthur Koestler “which concretizes the eternal return of freedom.”

I was raised in a home that celebrated Israel, cherished Israel and studied Israel. It was a right of passage for me and my brothers to spend significant time in Israel and it was not a choice. I have family there. a lot of family in Haifa, Nahariya, Kabri, Tel Aviv, Holon, Beit Shemesh, throughout Jerusalem and her suburbs, Tiberias, Tzfat, Kiryat Shemona, Beer Shevaa family that lost significant numbers due to the Holocaust flourishes today because there is an Israel.

Israel literally represents a people who rose from the ashes, an independent democratic nation, and an oasis in a region dominated by tyrannies, thugs and despots.

But, with G-d’s grace, we have allies such as CUFI, who understand that the unrelenting war of ideas is the critical element in the struggle to safeguard Israel’s existence and CUFI does so with undiluted passion, convinced beyond doubt that justice is on “Israel’s side” with no delusion as to the “rightness†of her cause and the courage to speak historical and moral objective truths, not moral relativisms.

Israel contains in her history bold figures that defend noble ideals such as freedom, strength, purpose and humanity.

Why do I support Israel? Because Israel lives in me, as it should live in all Jews, as it should live in all people of good faith such as the members and supporters of CUFI who have come in such overwhelming numbers this evening. It is who we are and those of us lucky enough to recognize this truth and embrace it in all its fullness and depth are the luckiest allies of Israel in the world.