Rabbi Ron Herstik

09/26/2015

A healthy and wonderful new year. It's been a long time since I posted anything, mostly because I was writing a weekly newsletter as the Interim Rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation of Saint Thomas, which kept me pretty busy among other responsibilities. (I am going to post many of those short articles on my website: www.rabbironherstik.com.)

Now Silvia and I are on the west coast in San Diego! This is where we lived up till 19 years ago. Here I continue my career as an independent rabbi for the unaffiliated community. San Diego, Orange and Riverside Counties and Los Angeles--this is my new territory. Here is a little piece about coming back and how it feels:
http://rabbironherstik.com/san-diego-home-again-unaffiliated-lifecycle

01/27/2015

Today, January 27, 2015, commemorates the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Officially it's the International Holocaust Memorial Day. Ceremonies have been taking place throughout the world, and from what I have read, some very moving speeches have been delivered by heads of state.

My brother, Mike, and I were raised by two wonderful parents who survived Auschwitz. Much of my mother's family, including her father and step-mother, perished there. My parents were extraordinary: they were able overcome fear, hatred directed at them, and they possessed the strength to hope and remake their lives anew.

Their memory is a blessing to all of us. May we liv by their example.

01/20/2015

Here is a bit of history of why we Jews got involved in the Civil Rights Movement (the article below). And for those of you who don't yet comprehend it, there is racism in this country and it's killing all of us. So when you hear racist remarks made by a friend or associate, don't just smile nervously, challenge it! After all, we Jews know better than most what can happen when racism is not confronted: in the extreme it becomes genocide!

Believe it or not Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrate this weekend, was the Moses of the twentieth century, and not just for African Americans but for us all. So please read the article for which I have provided a link.

Rabbi Ron Herstik


http://tabletmag.com/scroll/188364/why-jews-were-drawn-to-the-civil-rights-battle?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=fdd85a5029-Monday_January_19_20151_16_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-fdd85a5029-207139097

One afternoon in the 1960s, when I was a very young boy growing up in Atlanta, I wandered out the front door into the “field.” The “field” was the lawn of our North Druid Hills home—about a third of an acre in size—and when I was four years old, the grass was taller than me. Outside w...

01/02/2015

2015! A new year, hopefully filled for all of us with love and friendship, prosperity and good health. May our world experience a lessening of violence, especially for Israel and the Middle East.

A reflection on the new year, please follow my link:
rabbironherstik.com/2015-beginnings-newyear

As I write these words at the end of 2014, I am filled with a sense that the year has whizzed-by and I have hardly had time to catch my breath. And as I anticipate the new year of 2015,…Read more ›

12/16/2014

Happy and joyous Hanukkah, tomorrow evening!
Well, this is the second in my series of blogs on my stay on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. I am here for a year as the interim rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas. I arrived in St. Thomas at the end of last August, so its been over three months on the island and I am continually processing living on a very small piece of territory that's about 15 miles long and perhaps 5-6 miles wide. If you didn't know, there are no book stores here--oh boy!
Well, here are some of my thoughts about the people who inhabit my little bit of temporary territory:
rabbironherstik.com/photographer-Rockstein-Leslie-island

The People on St. Thomas December 2014 If not for some special people, I might not have taken the interim position as the rabbi of The Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas. So who are they, the people to whom I…Read more ›

12/16/2014

Hello everybody!
It's the night before Hanukkah and it's time to begin getting the oil into the frying pans. By the way--this is very important--the best Latkes are not made in blenders, and as much as you are tempted to get the job done in a hurry--don't do it! You have to grate the potatoes by hand and then you go from there with the spices and the other good stuff that goes into that ancient delicacy. You know, it goes back--I can't even begin to tell you--how many years. Actually, Mrs. Maccabeaus never fried latkes, I am sorry to disabuse you of what you believed to be "tradition"! Well, here it goes: Latkes are European, probably Eastern European. Look, those poor Jews in the Shtetle, all they had to eat if they were luck were potatoes. Or perhaps it all came about in Germany, where potato pancakes also made an appearance. But where ever they came from, definitely not from Mrs. Maccabeaus. To further confuse but also to enlighten you, I have provided a link to my blog on Hanukkah that I think you might find interesting:
rabbironherstik.com/Hanukkah-Maccabees-oil

The Festival of Lights, Some Two Thousand Years later Over two thousand years have elapsed from the time the Maccabees entered the Jerusalem Temple to purify it from the profanation of the Syrian-Greeks, who erected a statue of the…Read more ›

11/12/2014

Dear friends,
It really has been a long time since my last posting. Some of you already know that I am in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. For other who didn't know where I was and who sent me emails that I might not have responded to, my sincere apologies.

So what am I doing in St. Thomas? I am the interim rabbi for the second oldest Jewish congregation in the Caribbean, The Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas. I'll be here until of August 2015, helping the congregation make a transition to their new rabbi. I am posting blogs on my webpage to keep you informed about what I am doing. I hope that you will read and enjoy my blogs, which I hope to post weekly. So here is a link to my first introduction to St. Thomas:

rabbironatlanta.com/island-surrounded-water

Enjoy!

It happened very fast, unexpectedly so. About eight months ago, I managed to take a seminar for rabbis who were interested in serving in interim positions in congregations, usually for a year. The training, after all, was an additional career…Read more ›

07/23/2014

Although I haven't written anything for about a week, I have been assiduously reading anything I can get my hands on about Israel's war with Hamas. I have to admit that it galls me to no end when I read that Israel is using disproportionate force with the result of inflicting large casualties on the Palestinian civilians. For those who make this argument and in the process misinterpret (in my opinion) international law regarding war, let me ask you: How many air-raid shelters has Hamas built for it's population? Has Hamas created an early of warning system for its citizens so they can take refuge in shelters? Why does Hamas encourage its population to act as human shields?

As for the first question: Hamas has not built air-raid shelters in Gaza. Rather, it has built an elaborate underground tunnel system to hide missiles, ammunition and its terrorists. Many of the Hamas tunnels, reinforced with concrete that could have been used to shelter its population, are meant to be used to infiltrate Israel for the purpose of kidnapping and causing mass casualties among its population. It goes without saying that there is no Hamas early warning system! Israel provides the early warning by calling, dropping leaflets and by dropping non-lethal ordinance on roofs to warn the inhabitants that an attack is imminent. As for those who refuse to understand the true tragedy of the war, it lies in the willingness of Hamas to sacrifice the lives of children, women and men for a cynical political purpose: to demonstrate to the world that Israel willfully makes war on civilians and is thus responsible for war crimes. All this in the name of liberating Palestine from the Zionists.

For anyone complaining about Israel's actions in Gaza, they should ask themselves the questions I have proposed. And they should also read carefully an insightful article by Alan M .Dershowitz about the true nature of Hamas:
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4470/selective-body-counts

How selective body counts incite more violence
www.gatestoneinstitute.org
How selective body counts incite more violence

How selective body counts incite more violence

07/07/2014

The use of children in perpetuating terrorism against Israel is a reality. How it unfolds is well explained by Anne Hertzerg in her article "The Palestinian War on Children." July 4, 2014.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4537609,00.html

The Palestinian war on children
www.ynetnews.com
Opinion: Op-ed: Depraved exploitation and abuse of children as targets and weapons will not end so long as UN, members of international community and NGOs continue to enable these atrocities.

Opinion: Op-ed: Depraved exploitation and abuse of children as targets and weapons will not end so long as UN, members of international community and NGOs continue to enable these atrocities.

07/07/2014

An interesting article about the Jewish youths who murdered Muhammad by Liel Leibovitz, "Soccer Thugs Burned a Palestinian Boy Alive in Jerusalem."

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/178232/soccer-thugs-in-jerusalem?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=0b73c256b1-Monday_July_7_20147_7_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-0b73c256b1-207139097

If you’ve been tuned in to global reporting out of Israel recently, you know that a Palestinian youth was burned alive after three young Israeli yeshiva students were murdered, as the demons of nationalism and violence have plunged the bearded zealots on both sides into a grim whirl of death and b..…

07/07/2014

Muhammad Abu Khdeir is on my mind.

I had started writing this post when I heard that Muhammad's burnt body was found, likely murdered by Jews in revenge for the murder of the three Israeli youths. I wasn't able to complete my post and although late, I don't want you to think that this was in any way a token of my approval of revenge and murder. Allow me to give you my perspective on this tragedy.

As a Jew, I have been shamed by the murder of Muhammad by Jews. I am ashamed that our tradition of every human being created in God's image has been violated so disgracefully by an act of vengeance in the name of my Jewish people. An "eye for and eye" is not and has not been part of our tradition for over two thousand years and more. Those who have perpetrated this murder are murders and nothing less; they are terrorists in reality, joined by the ultra-nationalistic, jingoistic Jews who are driven by messianic fanaticism encouraged by some far-right rabbis and politicians. Even if I believed in the coming of the Jewish Messiah taught by tradition, I don't think and I cannot believe that murder would hasten his coming, and besides I don't believe the messiah would countenance murder.

We are an ancient people who have through the millennia cultivated the art of living ethically, morally, having as our outmost standard the Law. And while many of us may not practice many aspects of that Law, certainly we have come to lift above all else its teaching of "loving our neighbor as ourselves" and "loving the stranger as ourselves." If nothing else I think most of us can agree on the implications of these commandments as they are found in the Torah in the Book of Leviticus: our lives should reflect holiness regardless of the god theology we believe. Holiness ultimately is imitating God's actions in this world. Put in non-theological terms: taking care of each other as human beings, uplifting those who are disadvantaged, doing good in this world are supreme acts of holiness that are part of Tikkun Olam--healing the world. Murder is not part of Tikkun; it is a desecration of it.

And speaking of Tikkun, healing, what can I say to Muhammad's parents, but that my heart is broken with the murder of their son. That I hope that they accept my profound condolences and that I , a Jew, hope and pray for moments of healing and moments of good memories for them, even as I shed my tears.

Ha-Makom Ye-nachem Et-chem Be-toch Shar Aveley Ha-olam: "May the Eternal, the Source of All Compassion, comfort you among the other mourners of our world."

07/01/2014

This is a moment of great sadness. The three Israeli youths kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists have been found dead. Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel fell victims to the continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians, where it seems such bloodletting is greeted with enthusiasm by not only Palestinian Hamas leaders but also the general Palestinian population.
In a culture where terrorists who murder entire families--men women and children--are welcomed as heroes not only by Hamas but also the Palestinian authority, as was the case with the Palestinians who were exchanged for Gilad Shallit, we can only wonder whether there can ever be peace for Israel and the Palestinians. If it is to happen,peace will be possible only if a significant transformative event will take place where life will come to be valued as the ultimate good over death as a path to paradise.
I bring you a link to the eulogy made by Benjamin Netanyahu for the boys, Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4536670,00.html
To their families I offer my heartfelt prayer: Ha Makom Ye-nachem et chem be-toch shar ava-ley Tzion ve-Rusalaim." May the Eternal comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

News: Remains of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel laid to rest together in Modi'in cemetery amidst eulogies from Peres, Netanyahu.