By Steve Guggenheim
Sergeant Benjamin Anthony of the Israel Defense Forces made a strong defense of his country in an address at Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor recently. Mr. Anthony, who was born and educated in England, emigrated to Israel shortly after graduation from college., Mr. Anthony says Israel is involved in a never-ending battle, and was adamant when he said the most dangerous tendency is for people who don’t live in Israel to tell the country what to do. He asked where people’s ancestral homes were and members of the audience shouted out a number of countries, including Poland and Russia. He says Jews ran away when they were embattled, but in Israel they don’t run away because it is not another community, it is the home of the Jewish people and needs to be defended., The sergeant has participated as a front-line soldier in a number of skirmishes Israel has been involved in, including service in Hebron and in fighting beyond the country’s borders. In the second Lebanon war he saw the cost of war in soldiers who lost limbs, solders who lost their eyesight and solders who lost their lives., He is founder and director of Our Soldiers Speak, which brings Israeli military members to the United States to talk to audiences around the country about the military situation in Israel., Rabbi Gerald Zelizer is Beth El’s Scholar in Residence on the weekend of Jan. 27-28. He will discuss why religion is so violent and what we can do about it., The rabbi says he was always interested in the topic but 9/11 brought such sadness in him that it triggered his studying, thinking and reading about the subject. He says the question of violence keeps him up at night., Mr. Zelizer says monotheism, the belief in one god, has an upside and downside. The good is there is one humanity and a connection to god. The downside is that a certain passion for one god can put blinders on believers that they can not see outside their frame of reference, which motivates them toward violence., But he says religion is not a main cause of war. Mr. Zelizer says while it is too high a number, only 10 percent of the worlds wars have been caused by religion. He cites the violence of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and others who fought not over religion but over territory and other factors., Religion, in fact, stimulates a lot of good and he points to the work of Catholic charities in helping people around the world. In his talks the rabbi will compare the texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to show the good religion does in the world. And he will use videos to help make his points., Rabbi Zelizer’s writings have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, the LA Times and many other publications. He has served as president of the International Rabbinical Assembly.
