Oh, I absolutely remember you! I was so thrilled to see a brother-in-matzoh turn up at that thing–tho it was, just for the record, *good* Pesadik wine, not Manashevitz. Thanks for your good words, and yeah, I agree with you strongly about the secular democracy bit–though I, at least for the moment, am concerned that that alone isn’t going to be enough in this particular situation. I am, you can tell if you read through the archives of this thing, really in a “listening place” with a lot of this–so not going to say much more than that. Yay for you for coming to Jtown, tho–I hope you wind up having a wonderful, challenging, meaningful year (how could you not?)

You know, we actually met once, last year on pesach. You were doing a reading (about the moon and spirituality, I think) in a club in San Francisco, and you saw my kippah and offered me some of the manishevitz you brought to the bar. I’m sure you don’t remember, but did appreciate that.

Anyway, I wanted to respond to your post. While I don’t have a political answer (other than tours like the one you went on to expose more folks to the horrors of the occupation). I would like to suggest that a secular democracy with a strong protection for minority rights would be the moral answer. I’m going to be living in Jerusalem next year, studying at a yeshivah and doing anti-occupation work, so we’ll see how my ideas change. But I don’t think we will be able to avoid the demands of universal justice for much longer.

Love the blog. Good to see the proto-rabbis are getting into Palestine a bit.