A week ago tonight, nineteen evil men went to sleep with the hope that they would inflict the hell they so cherished in their twisted brains on us. Our world will never be the same again.

All week, among other things, people have been asking me where G0d was during the tragedy. I will speak about this on Yom Kippur evening. Until then, I encourage you to email me (rabbi@etzchayim.org) with your answers to this question, and I will incorporate your words into my talk.

Tonight I will speak from a different perspective, from the perspective of what things may look like a year from now. No, I am not a prophet, but the Intifada started a year ago, and we are now able to look back and see what a year's worth of fighting suicide bombers and terror groups looks like from Israel's perspective. Maybe we can learn from this what to anticipate and gear up for here.

A couple of my friends in Israel are fairly unpopular. They co-direct the organization called Rabbis for Human Rights. I mention them now because I will begin and end this talk with the prayer that no matter how the future turns out, no matter how our lives change as a result of last week's atrocities and the war our country will wage on terror, along with the rest of the world in the coming months and years, no matter what happens, we must not let down our commitment to the values that make this nation great. Those values are freedom, justice, democracy, and fairness. And the practice we must, at all costs avoid, is racism and blaming all the members of some groups for the heinous sins of some of their members.

Let me read to you a paragraph from the newsletter of the Rabbis for Human Rights, to show you how difficult it may become to bear the standard of justice and equal treatment under the law during a national security crisis:

"A year into the current Intifada there is not a one of us who is not angry and traumatized in the face of ongoing Palestinian violence.

"This Rosh haShanah we will mark the first anniversary of the current Intifada. Not only has the situation its toll of human life, led to gross violations of human rights and sent the peace process into deep freeze, we have also see its effects on the internal Israeli economic justice issues we are active on. The resulting slowdown in the Israeli economy combined with heightened defense expenditures have led to skyrocketing unemployment and deep proposed cuts in the social welfare budget. If [the Talmud's] Tractate Rosh haShanah teaches us to look at life as a set of balanced scales, the forces of destruction and despair seem to be weighing heavier and heavier. The question before us as the High Holy Days approach is, 'What will we do to tip the scales in the other direction?'

Let us be honest. In recent months we have succeeded in drawing attention to the most egregious attacks on the unemployed and the clearest human rights violations in the Territories…When we explain to average Israelis the current realities in the Territories not covered in the media, they resonated with Judaism's message that even in times of conflict we must not cross the red line of harming innocent civilians…At the same time, we must admit we are not going to reverse the unemployment figures or stop Israeli and Palestinian violence overnight. We must be in this for the long run, adding weight after weight to the scales…

While not excusing Palestinian terror, Yom Kippur is a time to rise above the unchallenged assumptions and justifications which prevent us from looking honestly at ourselves. It is all too easy for us to be trapped in our own real and justified pain. However, life is not a zero sum game in which admitting our shortcomings weakens us or negates the shortcomings of others. Finding a way out of crisis requires us to add the conclusions of our own painful heshbon hanefesh (soul searching) to those truths which are more readily clear to us."

That ends my quote of the Rabbis for Human Rights.

You can see why my friends may not be too popular among certain Israelis. In American terms, they would have been out there chaining themselves to the fences of Japanese-American detention centers during World War II.

The Palo Alto Daily News, on the morning after the attacks, reported two instances of harassment against Arab-Americans at Palo Alto and Los Altos High Schools. By the end of the day, all the major news outlets were reporting anti-Arab graffiti, hate mail, vandalism, and personal harassment all over our nation. Police cars across the nation have been stationed in front of mosques and other Islamic installations.

The following day our educator, Judy Podolsky, met to discuss security concerns with Palo Alto School District officials, from whom we rent space in Jordan Middle School, along with police and the principal of the Muslim Sunday School which also rents space there. The Muslims are as wary of security concerns as we Jews are. The meeting was cordial, and we think we forged a common understanding for the time being.

Will US Support of Israel Be Blamed For The Attacks?

I say for the time being, because I anticipate at least two developments over the long haul of this war. Already you can see one: a questioning whether all of this misfortune and bloodshed has befallen us because of America's "one-sided" and "misguided" support for those "damned" Israelis. Let me give you an example of this from the San Jose Mercury News, in an article on how "American values are threatening to many people:" While some people hate the United States over specific actions and policies, such as its support of Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, there is broader resentment over what many see as an annoying national superiority complex, said foreign-policy experts."

Additionally, when Secretary of State Colin Powell, the day after the tragedy, was asked about his conversations with Middle Eastern leaders, the reporters made sure to ask whether these leaders had brought up the US relationship with Israel. Secretary Powell said that it had not even come up, nor would it have been appropriate for it to have come up. No, the Middle Eastern leaders did not bring it up with Colin Powell, but our journalists did bring it up, and they will not be the last ones to do so.

There will be continual questioning of our relationship with Israel, as if it were the be-all and end-all of the troubled relationship the US has with the Middle East. However, according to the "official" and the "academic" explanations of the hatred that Osama bin Laden, may he own a house with a thousand rooms and be found dead a different way in every one of them, of his hatred for America. It seems to stem from the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, which bin Laden, yimach sh'mo, may his name be blotted out, considers to be holy ground. His war is with us as American infidels treading on the soil of the holy heart of Islam. I am sure he is not pleased about Israel, but that issue could go away and he would still be at war with us. What he does seem to want is an all-out war between the West and the world of Islam.This war we must deny him. We must reach out to all our Arab and Muslim friends at this time to let them know we stand with them during this most difficult time. Patronize their businesses, call them to let them know you care. Be physically present in their homes and businesses if they are threatened.

As the Intifada progresses, and as this war on terrorism is launched, we will only hear more of this anti-Israel and anti-Arab and Muslim line of thinking. Steel yourselves.

Let me say this in as starkly a way as I can say it: I do not now nor have I ever been a rah-rah about official Israeli policy towards Arabs, nor about official Israeli policy towards a lot of things, including Liberal Judaism. Were I an Israeli citizen, I would be a vocal social critic. I already contribute to organizations such as Rabbis For Human Rights, because of the good work they do, as well as many many other similar organizations, which, if you want their names, I can give you later.

But make no mistake, I will never, in any way, contribute to the downfall of Israel as a sovereign country, for I fear a bloodbath of such proportions would follow that would make the horror we saw last Tuesday pale by comparison. I know a few people in our congregation who have family who are lost and feared dead in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Our hearts are with them. Buy I know hundreds of Israelis. I stand firm with them at this time, as I do at every time.

There are many who believe that now that America has been attacked by Muslim Arab suicide bombers rank and file middle Americans will have a better understanding of and emotional connection to what the Israelis are going through. I sincerely hope so. Israel also has much to teach us about airline security, and other security measures.

So I hope that the western world's newly declared intensive war against terrorism will help put an end to suicide bombers, that scourge of Israeli life, limb, and liberties.

How Will A Long Drawn-Out War Affect Us?

I mentioned that I anticipated at least two developments over the long haul of this war. The first was an increase of blaming Israel for all our terror woes. The second is an increase of assaults on our civil liberties as we attempt to root out and destroy those who implacably wish to destroy just that, our liberties, and our sense of fair and equal justice.

We will all put up with more severe restrictions on our ability to breeze through an airport on our way to a plane. That is neither a G0d-given nor US Constitutional right. And we will all no doubt put up with a host of other restrictions designed to make us all safer. But we should not put up with anything that makes this country anything less than what we believe it should be—a beacon of freedom, justice and democracy in the world. Fortunately there seem to be many in Congress who share this concern, and it is important to share our concerns with them. I only hope, as time goes on and the war becomes more intense, that they continue to stand firm on this issue.

The terrorists struck at what they hate about America, the symbols of our wealth and military power. But were you to ask any of us Americans to name their most important American symbols, many of us might have chosen one so very near to the World Trade Center, yet with such a different meaning. We would have chosen the Statue of Liberty.

And there is another symbol of America so near and dear to all our hearts, and so near to both the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center, and that is Ellis Island. This summer I and my wife accompanied our daughter, Ilana, and her team, to West Point, New York for a national AYSO soccer tournament. On the tour New York City day, where do you think we all went? To the World Trade Center? No. Jew and non-Jew alike all wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Liberty welcoming the immigrants. All of us wanted to go there. Why? Because we are the land of freedom, the land of opportunity, the land of immigrants.

Let me quote from the current issue of National Geographic: "According to the 2000 census, 10 percent of America's 281 million residents were born in other countries, the highest percentage since 1930, and the largest number in U.S. history. Before 1965 more than three-quarters of all immigrants to the U.S. came from Europe, owing largely to quotas that favored northern Europeans. In 1965 Congress removed those quotas, and since then more than 60 percent of immigrants have come from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Latin America. Says Kenneth Prewitt, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, 'We're on our way to becoming the first country in history that is literally made up of every part of the world.'" A High School principal in Virginia is quoted as saying, "It's as if you took the whole human race and threw it up in the air—and everyone ended up here!"

They are all here because of what America stands for—opportunity, freedom, democracy, and a new chapter in the history of the world. The U.S. is a microcosm of the entire world. And so was the World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center was full of loved ones, Americans and people who staffed the offices of corporations representing over 100 other countries. We worry about those still trapped a week after the collapse, and pray for the most amazing of happy surprises, for it would not be impossible. People have been found alive after this length of time before.

But none of us feel as if our national symbol has been attacked. Others may see it as so, but we know where our hearts are.

In a similar vein, when I first visited Washington, D.C., I did not head out to see the Pentagon. No, all of us Bnai Brith Youth Organization Staff Members ran out to the Mall (and not the shopping mall!) to see the monuments to our democracy. Our first stop was the Jefferson Memorial. We wanted to pay our respects to the architect of the Declaration of Independence, the man whose soaring prose placed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the heart of what it meant to be an American.

Those are the values we must cherish as we go to war against those who would slaughter the innocent in their mad hatred of everything that is free, democratic, and good about the American Experiment in self-rule, as imperfect as it is. And if you have seen my bumper-sticker, you know I think it is imperfect. But it beats the alternatives out there, especially the ones our enemies are murdering us to try and impose upon us.

So get ready for the long haul. We American want our wars over in a sit-com hour, or at least by the end of the sit-com season. This won’t go that fast. We will be at this for years to come, and the pressures on us, as Americans who care about Israel, and as Americans who care about civil liberties will be enormous.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on the morning after the attacks, stood up in Congress and said, "We must be certain that as we mourn those who have died—and we extend our sympathies to their families—we must insist that our civil liberties are not a casualty of the attack on our country." The only way they will not be bulldozed by a frightened public is if we stand up to those who would give up their freedoms to a rapidly growing security apparatus, at the same time as we support that apparatus as it begins to do its deadly work.

We must insist that the same Anti-Defamation spirit that we bring to bear against anti-Jewish actions, and anti-black, anti-gay, and anti-minority hate crimes be brought against anti-Arab hate crimes. Let none of us countenance such remarks in our presence. And let us be vocal, and physically present, if our Arab-American neighbors are in any way threatened.

This may not be popular. During wartime lines are drawn between friends and families over these types of intolerable intolerances. But when we win this war—and we must win this war, and we will win it—let us make sure that the country we are fighting for will still be there when the war is over.

Let me close with this quote of Psalm 106:3 that appears at the bottom of the Rabbis for Human Rights stationery:

Ashrey shomrey mishpat, oseh tzedakah b'chol eit.

I will translate it a bit more literally than appears on their stationery:"Happy are those who guard justice, who do tzedakah, the right thing, at every opportunity." Let us be among the guardians of justice.

Amen.