[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 71 (Wednesday, April 22, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E355-E356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAEL AT 78
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HON. JENNIFER A. KIGGANS
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record
remarks submitted at the request of a Virginia Beach constituent, Rabbi
Dr. Israel Zoberman of Temple Lev Tikvah, and are a reflection of his
views:
Israel At 78
The world's only Jewish state celebrates its 78th
anniversary in the shadow of existential war with Iran and
its proxies, fighting along its great American partner with
shared values and interests. Professor David Passig's work is
of particular value. He was born in Meknes, Morocco in 1957
and moved to Israel in 1968 with his parents and four
siblings. Passig teaches at Israel's Bar-Ilan University in
the Graduate School of Education, heading the Graduate
Program in information and Communication Technologies (ICT),
along with the Virtual Reality Laboratory. His doctorate in
Future Studies is from the University of Minnesota. In his
latest book, The Fifth Fiasco (How to Escape the Traps of
Jewish History in the Twenty-First Century), he suggests
alternative scenarios to past periods with the goal of
avoiding repetitions of fateful and costly mistakes and
consequently guaranteeing a secure Jewish future in a
sovereign and democratic Israeli state. Passig's underlying
supposition is quite chilling, ``Therefore, I want to note at
the beginning that those among the readers who accept the
Biblical account as a given fact, may find it difficult to
understand the ``exercise'' of an alternative formulation
contradicting the known facts. To those I want to emphasize
that the entire purpose is to examine in a refreshed prose an
alternative Biblical text that could have prevented the great
catastrophe of the destruction of the two Temples. The
occupation of providing alternative scenarios for that
calamity is critical when fear for destruction returns to
echo in the collective Jewish consciousness of the State of
Israel in the 21st century.''
The concerned readers the author refers to are Orthodox
Jews and the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew affiliated with
the Orthodox Jewish Bar-Ilan University, well reflects on the
academic open integrity of that institution as well as
Passig's. The widespread Israeli phenomenon in recent years
of Israelis holding also foreign passports might support the
professor's assertion of, if not concrete fear, a certain
Israeli unease concerning the future; not for the state's
very survival, rather I believe, a lingering disaffection
with the deepening divisions and gaps in Israeli society
coupled with a frustrating impasse on Israeli-Palestinian
reconciliation and explosive old-new tensions
[[Page E356]]
with Israeli Arabs. All that in face of a successful young
start-up nation with an incredible record of progress,
including the recent Abraham Accords. These contradictions
highlight the complex Jewish condition with some million
Israelis living abroad, mainly in North America, begging
soul-searching inquiry. Israel's small size and more
opportunities abroad are saliant factors along with the
historical Jewish wandering gene.
The author perceptively points out that the long Jewish
tradition to ponder the past on a weekly basis with the
discussed study of various interpretations of the Torah,
maintained the bond with the people's past, but lacked the
necessary alternative scenarios, and particularly arousing
ones for the future's sake, and thus former mistakes were
repeated with fatal consequences. Passig regards a certain
sickness of self-destruction to be responsible for the
misfortunes that befell the Jewish people throughout its
history, though surely other weighty factors are at play such
as Israel's geo-political strategic location which lures
empires and superpowers as well as a nation's willingness to
risk much for the sake of its ethos and ideals beyond the
drive for mere survival, and even finding divine
justification for its predicaments whether through punishment
or reward. The Talmudic teaching (Pesachim 87b) that exile
fulfills God's purpose which is beneficial for both Israel
and the world at-large is a case in point. It can be argued
also that in the nuclear age it is too dangerous to have all
Jews concentrated in one place. The current model is of a
sovereign Jewish state with a viable Diaspora, mainly
American, along its historical antecedents, supports and
nourishes each other for the entire Jewish people's sake and
survival.
Faithful to his conclusion for the need to present a
shocking future scenario serving to wake up to the
possibility that Israel's future as an independent Jewish
state is not guaranteed, Passig describes a wild scenario--
one of the offered options by Future Studies scholars--
beginning with an Israeli civil war in the 40's of the 21st
century, over unbridgeable disagreements between the
political left and right on basic issues such as the Law of
Return, the Jewish Nation State Law, the annexation of parts
of Judea and Samaria and rioting between Jews and Arabs
around the Western Wall and Temple Mount. The violent
escalation of internal conflicts accompanied by a costly
Israeli military incursion toward Syria's Damascus,
ultimately resulting at the 22nd century's end in only 20
percent fearful Jews among some 30 million mostly hostile
Arabs. Once a flourishing Israeli Jewish state faces the
tragic fate of its previous two Jewish Commonwealths.
While he praises the Reform rabbis for turning away from
their anti-Zionist stance in 1937, he shares his
disappointment with those ultra-Orthodox rabbis who remained
opposed to the Jewish state with Rabbi Shach even blaming the
Shoah (Holocaust) as divine punishment for accumulated Jewish
sins. The traditional approach holding God in charge of human
affairs, does not solve pressing dilemmas that require human
responsibility which the Zionist movement's revolution
exemplified. Passig is also critical of those rabbis who
refused to follow protective measures during the Corona
crisis in Israel and generally reject the authority of the
sovereign Jewish state. He views American Jewish disunity for
the failure to bomb the railroads leading to Auschwitz during
World War II, The long exile promoted text replacing
territory though territory was preserved in the text, while
Islam favored territory first.
The author advocates for Israel's urgent need to formulate
a briefly declared covenantal mission statement to unify the
Jewish majority along with its minorities around a common
theme, while serving to highlight its uniqueness in the
community of nations. Passig is concerned that Israel is not
yet fully accepted as a separate nation. Whereas the United
States' motto is ``Personal Freedom'' and the European
Union's, ``Unity in Diversity,'' he suggests that Israel
should be defined by, ``The Public's Freedom'' in a binding
and intricate system of its individuals' interconnectedness.
However, Passig may be overstating the impact of a shortly
stated national goal as the most critical force behind a
nation's success or collapse in history's long-run. Finding a
common theme for Jews and Arabs in Israel, indeed a desired
aspiration, faces enormous challenge given the complex
Jewish-Arab equation.
Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is founder of Temple Lev Tikvah in Virginia
Beach. He is a member of the Holocaust's surviving remnant of European
Jewry.
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