Rabbi Robert Orkand

In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which Israel came close to losing, a traumatized Israeli public demanded to know how Israel’s Mossad failed to detect that war was imminent, given a massive buildup of Egyptian forces along the Suez Canal and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights.

In Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016), Northeastern University’s Professor Dov Waxman argues that Israeli politics and policies are a growing source of tension and division within the American Jewish community to the point that he questions whether there is still an identifiable Jewish voice on Israeli affairs.

While serving as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Rockford, IL, in the late 1970s, I introduced the legendary Israeli statesman Abba Eban at a community event sponsored by a local college. After enlightening us with his Churcillian eloquence on Israel and the international situation, a frightening mishap ensued. As Eban sat down heavily in the large armchair provided for him, it rolled backward, tipped over, and deposited the diplomat behind the Rockford College banner. To everyone’s great relief, he reemerged unscathed.

The Bible continues to be the best-selling book in history, perhaps because each reader can identify with some aspect of its ancient text. It is this notion that informs the essays of the 24 novelists, poets, scholars, and journalists who answered Andrew Blauner’s call to write an essay centered on a Biblical book or passage with personal meaning to them.