The “Big Tent” Has Requirements For Entry

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:05]Shabbat Shalom everyone. You may be seated.

[00:00:10]At about um 8:55 this morning, I was notified by one of our security officers that sadly Jonathan Greenblatt would be unable to attend today.

[00:00:21]Uh that's the least sad part of the story.

[00:00:26]Um the reason he's unable to join us is that his mother died last night.

[00:00:30]Which is terrible news and you know you see this figure, he's the head of the Anti-Defamation League, he's on CNN, he's on Fox, ABC, NBC, and he's such an incredible ambassador for the Jewish people.

[00:00:44]And you forget that they're also husbands and fathers and sons and they go through other things in their lives just like all of us do and I know each and every one of you join me in wishing Jonathan and his extended family our deepest condolences on this loss of his mom.

[00:01:04]I never had the honor of knowing her or meeting her, but what must be obvious is that she died with incredible pride in the son that she raised and the job that he's doing for the Jewish people and we pray that her soul be bound in the bond of life eternal.

[00:01:21]Um I have some thoughts to share with you that had about 7 minutes to bake them today.

[00:01:28]Uh so bear with me.

[00:01:32]There was some really disturbing news about 10 days ago that came out of my alma mater, the Jewish Theological Seminary.

[00:01:40]Every year at its graduation, JTS honors different people in the world and community for their role in making the Jewish place a better place.

[00:01:52]And it's a whole wide list of people. I remember my second year at JTS, we gave an honorary degree at graduation to Al Gore, who was getting ready to run for president of the United States soon, and he spoke at our graduation. I remember uh Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking at graduation, and many, many others of that ilk. It's really um significant and impressive group of people. And this year is no different.

[00:02:18]This year at JTS, a handful of people are being bestowed with honorary doctorates, one of them being Deborah Messing for her advocacy for the Jewish people since October 7th, and another one is the president of the state of Israel, Isaac Herzog, which is a great get, if you will, for the Jewish Theological Seminary. And not only would he be receiving an honorary doctorate, he was asked to be the commencement speaker.

[00:02:46]Great honor and appropriate in all ways.

[00:02:50]Well, it turns out that a gaggle of students graduating this year did not like the idea that the sitting president, not prime minister, the sitting president of the state of Israel, would be the commencement speaker on behalf of JTS.

[00:03:07]So, they wrote a strongly worded letter asking JTS to not have him speak and not have this degree conferred upon him.

[00:03:19]And the letter got disseminated to many people, and then the letter got signed by students who weren't graduating, but would soon graduate, and then got signed by a whole bunch, not thousands, but a bunch. Like, think bananas. When you go I you got a bunch, a few of them, and I used that analogy advisedly.

[00:03:41]A bunch of rabbis who were already in the field who signed on to this letter saying that Isaac Herzog, the president of the state of Israel, should not be the commencement speaker at JTS.

[00:03:55]I have three major issues with this whole situation.

[00:04:01]The first is as follows.

[00:04:03]Six graduating seniors of all the five schools at JTS signed on to this letter and in total about 38 people signed.

[00:04:11]38.

[00:04:13]Meanwhile, 25 graduating seniors of all five schools at JTS were wildly in favor of this choice of Isaac Herzog as the speaker.

[00:04:25]But the news agency that broke this, which was the Jewish Forward, highlighted the students, the six seniors and the other 38 people in total that signed this letter and in essence they are mice that roar.

[00:04:41]They are a small, tiny, insignificant representation and fraction of the people who are graduating and represent JTS and meanwhile they're getting the limelight. They're getting all of the attention. They're getting all of the story even though they're an insignificant portion of it.

[00:05:02]And I have a problem with that. That's number one.

[00:05:05]I remember when in Tenafly they named a street in honor of Eitan Alexander and I went to this special event. I think it was happening in the fall.

[00:05:15]Eitan Alexander came. It was before he went back into the military in Israel.

[00:05:20]And there must have been 150 to 200 people there.

[00:05:25]It was a great celebratory moment. Our Congressman Josh Gottheimer was there and the mayor was there and the deputy lieutenant governor was there and there was one man, one man standing across the street holding up signs calling Israel baby killers. Now this is a street honoring a boy from Tenafly with dual citizenship who was held in a Hamas tunnel for God knows how many days, almost 2 years, and tortured and abused, and one man is screaming about Israel being baby killers.

[00:06:00]And of course, when you watch the news that night or you read the paper the next day, you would have thought that there was a gaggle of 2,000 of those naysayers and loud people there.

[00:06:11]One man.

[00:06:14]So, these mice that roar are given an inordinate amount of attention and amplification, and what seems to be not representative of what the true voice and temperature is.

[00:06:28]And that's the first problem I have with this choice by JTS in honoring Bougie Herzog and the response of the students.

[00:06:38]Here's the second issue I have.

[00:06:41]These students that were bothered with the choice of Bougie Herzog have been trained in Jewish advocacy.

[00:06:48]Whether they're trained to be rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators, getting their master's degree, a PhD, doesn't matter.

[00:06:54]Undergrads, they are learning about what it is to be Jewish leaders. That's why they go to the Jewish Theological Seminary. And some of them are earning a joint degree with Columbia and Barnard, and some of them are just earning a professional degree, but regardless of what it is, part of leadership reminds us that if we really want to evoke change, we do it in ways that are meaningful. And what I find really problematic about what they did in part two >> smoke than the fire. They were much more interested in making a scene out of this than they were in trying to move the tide. What others would call virtue signaling. I want the world to know and to feel exactly how I feel and everyone should know and it doesn't matter what the school does because if I really want the school to change, I'm not going to behave in a way that can cause that change. I want to behave in a way so that everyone can feel my upset.

[00:08:08]And then it starts to make you wonder.

[00:08:10]Is this really about Isaac Herzog speaking at JTS or is about these small group this bunch of students and letting them show the world what they stand for on some platform.

[00:08:27]That's what performance is.

[00:08:29]But if you're a Jewish leader, there are moments to perform and there are moments to act and when we want to act, we don't necessarily have to perform. And if that conversation needed to be had and wanted to be had, then that easily easily could have been a moment where the leadership and the students sat down together because I know this from my time going to school there and working at JTS.

[00:08:52]It's a pretty open door policy that any of the students who have an issue about anything going on can speak to the leadership and say, "This is what's bothering me. This is what has me up at night. This is what's troubling."

[00:09:04]And I'm pretty sure in that moment that there would have been a forum for conversation to happen. Just to prove my point, I went to school there back at the turn of the century. I've always wanted to say that. Thank you. Um but I really did. I went to school there in the '90s and one time at one of our gala events, Newt Gingrich, who was the speaker of the house, was speaking. We had a very liberal student body even then and it was very problematic in the '90s for Newt Gingrich to be speaking at a major gala for JTS and a bunch of students brought their issues to the leadership and said, "How could you invite him to speak?"

[00:09:40]Now, we asked him to speak for two reasons. One, the person we were honoring at the gala was a dear friend of Newt Gingrich's. The second reason was, he's the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. For those of you who haven't followed civics, that's number three in succession. It's a very important role, regardless of Republican or Democrat.

[00:09:59]And the school did something beautiful.

[00:10:01]They asked 10 students, one who was the president of the student body, and they chose 10 others to sit down and have a meeting with Speaker Gingrich before he spoke at the gala. And he made the time to do so. So, here were these 10 students walking into the Pierre Hotel, where this gala was taking place, and they had a private meeting to talk about their issues with the Speaker of the House.

[00:10:23]Now, I thought that was a brilliant and genius move by JTS, an open-minded move of Speaker Gingrich, and that's what non-performative politics, non-performative leadership, looks like.

[00:10:35]Because it gave them a forum to really discuss what was happening, and they took advantage of it. And it proved what the ultimate goal was. Now, did it move the needle? No. But, did it placate these people who expressed their upset?

[00:10:49]Absolutely.

[00:10:50]Absolutely.

[00:10:52]And I think of the three things that bother me, bother me significantly with this moment, that's number two, and I'm really embarrassed by the behavior of the students in this performative action as opposed to substantive action.

[00:11:09]Here's the third thing, and it is the big thing that bothers me the most about this moment.

[00:11:16]Isaac Herzog, the President of the State of Israel, is being asked to speak at commencement at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the conservative head of the movement, the conservative education arm. He's not being asked to speak at Michigan or Rutgers, which are public state-funded universities.

[00:11:38]He's not being asked to speak at a private school even, like let's say Syracuse or Emory.

[00:11:45]He has And by the way, I'd have zero problem with him speaking in any of those places, but that's a different conversation.

[00:11:52]He's being asked to speak at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

[00:11:56]And students are saying it's a problem because he doesn't necessarily represent our views. And here's where I have a big problem, a meta problem.

[00:12:09]And the problem is that we have created a Judaism that says, "Let's make the tent bigger, and everyone can come into the tent.

[00:12:20]You, come on in. You, you come on in.

[00:12:22]You don't believe in the state of Israel, you come on in. You believe in the state of Israel including the West Bank, you come on in. You don't know if you believe in the state of Israel, but you think you do, but you're not sure about the West Bank, you come on in.

[00:12:34]You're black, you're white, you're gay, you're straight, you're a convert to Judaism, you were BORN JEWISH, COME ON IN. EVERYONE is welcome."

[00:12:46]Now, I want to say something about this.

[00:12:49]I started off the services today saying everyone here is welcome regardless of your background, and I still believe that.

[00:12:56]But my question to all of you is do we have any defining characteristics of who should be allowed in the tent or not?

[00:13:06]If every single person's welcome in the tent, what is the tent?

[00:13:11]What's the purpose of the tent?

[00:13:13]What's the purpose of the boundaries?

[00:13:15]What's the purpose of who we are as a people?

[00:13:19]If we say everyone can come to Temple Emanuel and join the temple, that is a great advertisement. That is a great value to be representing to the world.

[00:13:30]But what if someone comes and wants to join the temple, but they're not Jewish?

[00:13:35]They're about not Jewish. They say, "I'm not Jewish." But they want to join the temple.

[00:13:39]Should we allow them?

[00:13:41]What if someone comes and they're anti-Jewish?

[00:13:45]Should we allow them?

[00:13:47]What if someone comes and they're passionately opposed to the idea of the state of Israel? Should we allow them in the tent? Should we allow them to the temple? Should we allow them to any other temple?

[00:13:57]The question I'm asking rhetorically is should there be boundaries on who can come in the tent and who can't?

[00:14:05]Because I have a major problem with the idea that we are allowing people into the Jewish Theological Seminary, especially for rabbinical and cantorial education, but I would argue for the School of Jewish Education as well, who might be anti-Zionist and saying you're still welcome.

[00:14:26]That is a problem.

[00:14:30]It is a problem and it needs to be addressed. And I think the best way to address it is to say, "May God bless you and may God keep you, but this is not the place for you."

[00:14:44]Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who's the rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue, we were classmates. He graduated a year before I did cuz he is much, much, much older than I am.

[00:14:57]He's an amazing rabbi. He's a trusted friend and a really smart guy.

[00:15:04]And I love Elliot very much.

[00:15:06]Elliot wrote a book and I wrote a book around the same time.

[00:15:10]And we're both doing this book tour about our books.

[00:15:14]And his, he writes about a fictitious character who is an amalgam.

[00:15:21]It's an amalgam of all his kids' friends put into one character that he named Maya. So, Maya doesn't really exist, but her characteristics exist in many different people who are friends with his kids' friends.

[00:15:36]Now, I happen to know his kids really well because my daughter went to school with his kids, and she's very close friends with them, also great people.

[00:15:46]And in his book, Maya, who goes to a Jewish day school, who had a bat mitzvah, who probably identifies as a conservative Jew, meaning she would pray in a synagogue much like this, Maya is against the state of Israel. Doesn't believe it should exist.

[00:16:05]She's an anti-Zionist.

[00:16:08]And Rabbi Cosgrove believes, and he doesn't just say this flippantly. He doesn't say it as just a thoughtless comment. Trust me, he doesn't say anything that he doesn't think about.

[00:16:19]Rabbi Cosgrove believes in a strategy that says, "We need to open up the tent for Maya.

[00:16:25]We need to have a conversation with Maya. We need to dialogue with Maya because we need to tell the Mayas of the world, 'Hey, we disagree with you. Here's why you [snorts] should be in favor of the state of Israel. Hi, here's why it has value.

[00:16:43]Here's why it has purpose.'

[00:16:45]He thinks Maya should be in the tent.

[00:16:48]And at a particular engagement where I was promoting my book, he was promoting his book, and they put us on a panel together, this question came up.

[00:16:58]And I said then what I believe today, which is, "Elliot, I respect you. I love you, and I couldn't be more proud that you are a rabbi promoting Jewish teachings and Jewish values to the Jewish people because you do it brilliantly, and you do it wisely.

[00:17:14]But on this topic, I passionately disagree with you, which I think is a Jewish value also, Elliot.

[00:17:20]And I disagree with you, Elliot, because I think we say to Maya, "If you don't believe the state of Israel has a right to exist, you're not welcome in the tent."

[00:17:33]That there's no purpose of a tent without a boundary.

[00:17:37]And by opening up the boundaries to all for everything, you're really not making a tent.

[00:17:43]You're making a mishmash. You're making a porridge. You're making a soup that is mixed with so many different flavors it has no base to it and no core to it.

[00:17:54]And that that is not only wrong and unethical, it's wildly problematic to who we are and what we are about.

[00:18:02]There are core defining characteristics of each tribe, of each background, of each religion. There are characteristics of Baptist Christians. There are characteristics of Islam, the characteristics of Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. And there are characteristics that are important and requirements for being Hindu and requirements for Judaism. And there are characteristics of Reform Jews and Conservative Jews and Orthodox Jews.

[00:18:29]And if we don't demand that we follow some of the rules and declare some as sacrosanct, as some as a requirement, then what do we stand for?

[00:18:41]Who are we?

[00:18:43]What are we about?

[00:18:45]And in my estimation, if we are training Conservative leaders and they can't be supportive of the state of Israel, we must say to them, even with the dearth of Jewish leaders out in the world, we have to say to them, "I'm sorry.

[00:19:02]I'm sorry. This is not the school to train you."

[00:19:05]And if you want to be a rabbi and you want to hold these views, if you want to be a cantor and you want to hold these views, you want to be a Jewish educator, and you want to hold these views, you you need to find another avenue to fulfill that dream, or you're going to need to do some serious learning and rethinking about your value set before we can allow you in.

[00:19:27]Because we must stand for something.

[00:19:30]I remember after 9/11, George W. Bush, who at the time was seen, at the time, as not the brightest president in history. It's funny how time changes some of that stuff.

[00:19:44]But after 9/11, he made this very simple comment that I thought was unsophisticated.

[00:19:51]And sometimes you realize that the simple things in life are actually the sophisticated things in life.

[00:19:57]He was standing in a pile of rubble. It was probably the 13th or 14th of September.

[00:20:02]The American people were wildly galvanized, and he he said, "We're going to find those who did this terrible act to us, and we're going to get at them.

[00:20:10]We're going to get them back." And he made this very simple statement.

[00:20:14]He said, "You're either with us, or you're against us."

[00:20:20]And I remember hearing it at the time thinking, "Boy, that That's the president of the United States. That's such a unsophisticated comment. You know, there's not much to that."

[00:20:29]And now, in my time and maturation, I realize the genius of that simple line.

[00:20:34]He was simply saying, "You're either with America and the freedoms it stands for, or you're not. And if you're not, get on the other side of that line."

[00:20:44]What he didn't say was, "You're either Republican, or you're against us. Or you're either a Tea Party person, or you're against us. Or you're You're either a progressive liberal, or you're against us." He didn't say that.

[00:20:55]He said, "You're either with us, or you're against us."

[00:21:00]And the core was saying, "You must believe in the notion that America is a free land, a free country where people can live in destiny and people can live in safety without the fear of airplanes crashing into the buildings to gain some political expediency or prove a religious point.

[00:21:19]That's what he was saying.

[00:21:22]And it was genius.

[00:21:24]And I don't think it's so hard for the leaders of the Jewish Theological Seminary to say, "Listen, you want to be a Jewish leader?

[00:21:31]That's fine. We welcome you. We need smart, strong Jewish leaders.

[00:21:37]You must believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist as the Jewish state and homeland to the Jewish people indigenous to that land.

[00:21:47]That's all you need to do.

[00:21:48]>> [snorts] >> If you want to tell me you want to have a conversation about the West Bank, totally fair. You want to tell me you want to return land to Palestinians?

[00:21:57]Fine. You want to tell me you disagree with the policies of the IDF and how they're managing their war in Gaza?

[00:22:03]Totally acceptable. You want to tell me you're opposed to the way Bibi Netanyahu has formed this corrupt government?

[00:22:09]Totally fair.

[00:22:11]That is what dialogue and democracy looks like. That's what it is to be welcoming.

[00:22:17]But the moment the moment you say no to the State of Israel or you say no to the notion of America, then what Bush was saying and what I'm saying and what I think we need to be saying from the leadership of JTS is and in the Jewish world, you're outside the tent.

[00:22:36]You don't belong in.

[00:22:37]This is where Rabbi Cosgrove and I quibble.

[00:22:40]He's not saying come into the tent because he thinks that they have a voice more than he's saying, "I want them in the tent so I can keep them close for dialogue."

[00:22:49]And what I'm saying is by putting them in the tent, you have given amplification to their voice, legitimacy to their gripes, and you have normalized that behavior.

[00:23:01]And I don't want it normalized. I don't want it legitimized. I think it's problematic.

[00:23:08]I think the idea that all speech, all freedoms are absolute is ridiculous.

[00:23:14]And I think this idea, this grand idea of these students dictating what Zionism could and should be, or shouldn't be for that matter, is a danger to the future of our people.

[00:23:28]>> [snorts] >> I'll close with this idea that I think is um worthy of pondering on.

[00:23:37]On October 6th, 2023, if you asked any Israeli, what is the existential fear for the state of Israel?

[00:23:45]99 out of 100 would tell you that we will be decimated by our internal struggles. Cuz you remember on October 6th, 2023, there were wicked debates happening internally in Israel about what would happen with all types of laws and reform.

[00:24:00]And on October 8th, if you ask those same 100, what are your existential fears? They would tell you that our enemies are surrounding us and they want to physically destroy our being and our right to live and exist here.

[00:24:13]I share that with you because if you ask 100 Jews in the diaspora today, what is your existential fear?

[00:24:21]I think we're going to have a mixed review.

[00:24:23]I think 50% of those Jews are going to say, "I'm worried about the incredible rise and anti-Semitism. It scares me. It scares me that Jews in Golders Green in London are attacked for being Jewish. It scares me that football fans in Amsterdam are tracked down for celebrating a game. I'm worried about our physical safety."

[00:24:47]And take another 50% and they're going to tell you, "You know what has me up at night?

[00:24:53]What has me up at night is that the Jewish people are going to do to themselves what their own enemies could only dream of doing.

[00:25:03]That internally our own people are looking for ways to delegitimize our right to exist in a way that denies our right to a homeland, to a state, and peace and prosperity with our neighbors around us.

[00:25:19]And in doing so, it will lead to the demise of a people caused by ourselves, not by outside forces.

[00:25:27]We are dealing every day with forces on the outside that are looking to hurt us, and forces on the inside that are doing damage that could be irreparable.

[00:25:37]This is a moment of pause, and I would argue a moment to just draw lines around the tent.

[00:25:45]You're either with us or you're against us.

[00:25:48]If you're with us, that's all you need. Come on in.

[00:25:53]The water's fine. It's special in this tent.

[00:25:56]But if you're not with us, may God bless you and keep you outside of this tent.

[00:26:02]Shabbat Shalom, everyone.