Two Taps and Friends
Two Taps and Friends is a long-form conversation hosted by Defense and Litigation Attorney/Father/Husband Daniel Rosenberg with friends and guests from all walks of life. Everyday people talking everyday issues.
Two Taps and Friends
Rabbi Uriel Romano | Why Antisemitism Mutates Like A Virus: An Ominous Warning #74
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In this thoughtful conversation, Danny Rosenberg sits down with Rabbi Uriel Romano of Broward Central Synagogue. Rabbi Romano shares his path from a traditional Jewish family in Buenos Aires to rabbinical leadership in South Florida, offering nuanced perspectives on Jewish identity, the evolution of Jewish denominations, the enduring challenge of antisemitism, and the complexities of Israel and Jewish unity.
With warmth and clarity, they explore how tradition adapts while remaining rooted, the importance of community amid division, and a hopeful vision for the future grounded in love, commitment, and honest dialogue. A meaningful episode for anyone seeking deeper understanding of Jewish life, identity, and resilience in turbulent times.
⏰ Timestamps ⏰
00:00:00 👋 Intro
1:57 🌍 From Buenos Aires to South Florida – How does a young Jewish leader from Argentina find his calling?
3:07 📖 Becoming a Rabbi – What draws someone from a traditional but non-observant home into full Jewish leadership?
4:27 🕊️ Beyond Denominations – Why does Rabbi Romano see past the labels of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox?
6:13 🔄 Understanding Jewish Movements – What are the core historical differences between Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism?
11:44 🌎 Jews in Latin America – What shaped the vibrant yet changing Jewish communities across Latin America?
15:27 ⚠️ The Rise of Antisemitism – How has antisemitism evolved since October 7th, and how do we respond with clarity?
22:18 ❤️🩹 Jewish Voices Criticizing Israel – How do we reconcile internal criticism with love for the Jewish people and Israel?
29:47 👥 Collective Responsibility – Why does one person’s actions often get attributed to the entire Jewish community?
37:07 🕊️ Paths to Peace – What realistic steps toward security and coexistence might a Palestinian state require?
43:28 ✈️ Evacuation from Israel – What happened when war broke out during a congregational Birthright trip?
47:57 🌟 Closing Message – What does it mean to be anchored in community and tradition in today’s world?
In a time of rising division, what practical steps can each of us take to strengthen the communities we belong to?
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And for me, anti-Semitism is a virus. The virus of anti-Semitism will continue to mutate. First is because we kill God, okay? Because we kill Jesus. Then because we kill the prophet, as the Muslim says, then because we were all capitalists, then because we were all communists.
SPEAKER_01I couldn't wrap my head around how a whole country of otherwise intelligent people, the German culture had a rich history, were intelligent people, how they were, I would say, duped into this thought process and this hate and to get to the point of doing what they did. And now the last year or so, two years, I'm really looking around, like, oh my God, this could happen at any time.
SPEAKER_00We are living in beautiful but also problematic times of a lot of idea of depression, uh, being loneliness and all the social media, internet connections. But you need to be part of something bigger than yourself and your family. It is not enough. Yourself, you're not enough, your family is not enough, and the world is too big. What's that in between? The community that you feel part of.
SPEAKER_01Rabbi Uriel Romano on. Rabbi Romano is the head rabbi at the formerly Cola Me, and now it's called the Broward Central Synagogue. Welcome to Two Taps and Friends. Grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let's dive into another episode of Two Taps and Friends. Welcome back to Two Taps and Friends. I'm the host of the show, Danny Rosenberg, and today I have a very, very special guest, a guy that I really, really like, and I'm glad I got him on. I have Rabbi Uriel Romano on. Rabbi Romano is the head rabbi at the formerly Coleman, and now it's called the Broward Central Synagogue. Um the rabbi. Uh very loved man. Rabbi, thank you for coming on.
SPEAKER_00Hi, Danny. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm good to speak with you and to chat with a loving and caring congregant.
SPEAKER_01Uh, thank you so much for coming on, Rabbi. So I I'd like to uh thank you for coming on and your your your aura, your personality, you know, you you're you're a real hit with the congregation, and I'm sure everybody that comes in contact with you. Can you start by telling the viewers a little bit about your background, where you come from, how you became a rabbi, how you came here? Give us a little bit of background.
SPEAKER_00Okay, as you hear from my accent, I'm not from here. I'm uh deep south, all the way from Argentina, uh, the southest uh country in the in the world. Uh, I'm from Buenos Aires, raised and born there. I was born in 1989 from a traditional Jewish family, not very, let's say, Jewish observant, but very Jewish uh proud. I went to a Jewish day school, I went to Kabbalah Shabbat, Friday night services with my parents, then Shabbat dinners uh with my grandparents, uh a very Jewish life, but not in the sense of observance of praying every day or eating kosher or studying Torah or celebrating to the details of the Jewish colleagues, but very Jewishly and Zionist-oriented family from Argentina. Uh I did my bar mitzvah over there, and uh we did our bar mitzvah. My parents decided to come and live to the US, and we were living here in Western near from where I am now uh for a few years, and then we came back to Argentina, and when I came back, I started to get a little bit more involved in my synagogue. They needed somewhat to work with the youth in our youth group, in our Tnuat Noir, as it's called a youth group. I was a Jewish uh young leader over there for a couple of years, and I really started to feel more in love with uh the full Jewish life of every aspect. Uh, the living, uh, the learning, uh, the doing, uh the being part. Uh so when I finished high school, uh I decided to do a GAP year in Israel. I did a program over there, then I came back to Argentina. I decided to enroll in the rabbinical school over there. Uh, we have the seminario rabbinico-latinoamericano that ordains conservative rabbis, but a lot of also reformed rabbis come from there because it's the only non-orthodox seminary in Argentina. But parallel to that, I study in Orthodox Yeshibot. I never believed so much in this difference between conservative, Reform, Orthodox. I believe in Judaism, I believe in the Torah and believe in the mitzvot, in our people, in the land of Israel. And I think I was able to take the best of the different Jewish denominations, but I don't believe in them. Uh so I studied there, I studied also political sciences because my rabbinical school gave us the order also to have a title from college, a degree from over there. Then I was uh working in different Jewish communities in Argentina. Uh, then my first pulpit after I finished my ordination in Israel in the year 2016 uh was in New York, in the suburbs of New York, in Queens. Then I went back uh to the suburbs of Buenos Aires, to Nordelta, and I served as a rabbi a couple of years over there, and then I received a phone call when I was driving my car uh in the middle of COVID of uh this congregation that were looking to change a little bit the things and to bring a young uh rabbi a little bit more traditional but open-minded uh because of the change of the demographic of our congregation. And little by little at the beginning I said no, then it says maybe, and then finally uh one year later I came here. Um, this has been uh in February, it's going to be four years.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's uh how many years? Four four years. It's flown by because you're so liked, and uh and and um just so you know, like I've been a member of the congregation for a while, on and off, you know. Um, you know, I come from uh a Chabad background, you know, but I on and off I try to have my family in here, but and and the you know, there's other rabbis I like them as well, but you there's a special, there's a special place in my heart for you, just in my interactions with you. I could feel the aura, and I'm I'm so glad. We're very lucky to have you. But let me ask you a question. So you mentioned, I wanted to talk about this a little bit. You talked about you don't believe in the differences in the in the conservative and the orthodox and the reform. And I think that most non-Jews have no idea about it, and most Jews kind of know about it. I I I learned about it, you know, through like trial and error. I came up in a very orthodox, you know, Israeli home where you know we were you know different. It's just different. And then I had to learn about the reform congregation, the conservative. Can you talk to me what your experiences, what your thoughts are in in what are the differences? If you could just maybe try to define it the best way. I know you don't believe in them, but what are your thoughts on it? What do you think the biggest differences are? And uh if you could talk a little bit about to that.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so talking a little bit is complicated for everyone, especially for rabbis that we like to uh talk a lot. But let me try to do it very briefly, okay? Uh, Judaism has evolved a lot in the last 3,000 years. Our foundation is the Torah that we uh believe that is some kind of God's revelation to his people, Moses, when we get out of Egypt. And from that, we develop into a tiny nation, but a very big family. Okay, and as a very big family, we spread around the world, and we spread around the world having the core ideas that we all share. Let's say Shabbat is a day of rest. Or that we need to study the Torah, our laws, our traditions, that we need to uh celebrate Pesach and remember the Exodus from Egypt, that we need to pray three times a day. Different things like that evolved during the last 2,000 years of being in exile and not having our sovereignty, our Jewish homeland in our control, uh, since the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70. So let's say for around 1700 years, most Jewish communities were traditional Jewish communities. Everybody believed in God, like in generally in the world, everybody believed in God. Uh, but each community uh created their own traditions, uh, some melodies, some prayers, some practices, but the hardcore was shared by uh everyone. That's how you have Ashkenazic Jews from Europe, Sephardic Jews uh from uh Spain, Portugal, and the north part of Africa, and so on. But in the 1800s, late 1800s, everything started to change very fast. Today, the idea world moves very fast, and every change is every couple of years. During the medieval times, change was but every 100 years, 200 years, there was a little change. At the today, every year, every month, every two years, there's a big change in everything that we do. Uh, it's exponential. So something like that started to happen at the late 1800s where a lot of people started not to believe in God or trying to be more connected to the secular institutions uh in Western Europe and that, and the Jews also tried to uh find themselves into modernity, and that's how the first uh denomination of modern Judaism came to being from that traditional Jewish 2,000 years of history in the exile, that is the reform Judaism uh in Germany, that they believe that Judaism should be changed, that we need to have the core of Judaism, but not the details and the inventions and the creations of the rabbis. Uh, for example, they thought that we need to move Shabbat to Sunday, because that was the day of rest of all our non-Jewish neighbors. Right. Right? Uh then they came back from that, but they believe okay, the prayer shouldn't be in Hebrew, should be in German or should be in English, a language that everybody can understand. And then a couple of changes, one took the other one. Then when they proposed that, a group of Jews, especially from Hungary and other places, reacted and says, no, no, we cannot change anything of Judaism. Everything needs to be frozen exactly as it is, because any change will destroy our basis that became Orthodox. Okay? So they still wear the same garments that they used to wear 200 years ago, even though that Moses never dressed like that. And they believed that there could be no changes whatsoever. Even though that may be the times and technology and sociology demands them. And something in between in the late and 1900s came to being as the conservative movement, the masority movement, that tried to say yes, change, but slower, and only through an alaric, a legal Jewish process like lawyers do into the system and not just breaking the system as the reform movement said. So just saying very briefly, the Orthodox movement believes that the system organically cannot be changed. The system as it is, it's frozen. The reform movement broke the system and everything that we believe could be done. The conservative movement tried to say there's ways in the system to make changes. And then 200 years of history, changes, uh, tradition became what we do today in Israel, in the US, in Argentina, and everywhere. Right.
SPEAKER_01I I think, as a personal opinion, I think it's important to evolve with times, with generations, you know, to be able to keep the community together. I think it's it's important. And I think it's been it's been refreshing to watch it and to learn it as someone that came up in a very, very strict, like orthodox home to see where you know where the modernity is gonna come or where the where it happens and how how it's handled and and and and the understanding that you have for people that maybe are reluctant to do it. And and I'm sure that's part of the being of the challenge of being a rabbi. Now, as far as Judy, you mentioned you're from Argentina. So a lot of people, you know, they don't realize that we have Jews all over the country all over the world, right? There's communities of Jews all over the world. So speak to me a little bit about the Jews in Latin America. My wife is Latin, as you know, you know, and and I and I go to El Salvador and Costa Rica, and there's in Salvador, there's a very small community. Um, in in Costa Rica, there's a little bit bigger of a Jewish community, but Argentina, there's a pretty big community down there, am I right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. We cannot say it too loud because the anti-Semites will say that we run the world and that's that's why we are there. Uh, but that's not the reason. The reason is that uh our Jewish people came from Judea, from the land of Israel. Uh we were a tribe, we were a family, then we became a tribe, then we became a nation, and then we were expelled by the Babylonians first 2500 years ago, uh, later on by the Romans 2,000 years ago. And from that moment on, uh, just always try to find places with two main ingredients: religious freedom and economic freedom. A place that we can practice our Judaism without being persecuted, and a place that we can grow financially, that we can do good business and we are not restricted. So we always move from place to place. When there were opportunities, we moved. And in the same way that a lot of Jews moved in the late 19th century in the late 19th century from Europe to the US because it was the land of opportunities, right? Many countries were the land of opportunities. And at one moment, maybe we forget, historically, Argentina could have been the second US or even the first US, but in the south part of the continent. It was a very successful and growing country at the late uh 19th uh century. So a lot of immigrants came from Spain, from Italy, non-Jews, but a lot of Jews also. Uh, they were invited and they were encouraged to go uh to colonize. Uh, today we do not like to talk about the world, right? Colonize, but it is what it is. Right. The JCA Jewish Colonization Association, because the countries needed, it was like the US and Argentina were huge, and there was almost no population in many places. So the countries demanded, today there's a lot of restrictions for immigration. There was a moment in history that we needed good immigration into our countries. So that's how a lot of Jews came to Argentina in the peak of our history. Uh in the 1960s, there were around 450,000 Jews in Argentina. Uh, today there's around 200,000 Jews. Uh, is by far the biggest Jewish population in Latin America. Then it comes Brazil with around 100,000, and then Mexico with 40,000, and then all the other communities with much less numbers, anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 uh in Panama, in Costa Rica, in Uruguay, in Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, and so on. And uh that's a little bit, and we are we are Jews, but integrated into the in the same way that you have Jewish actors and Jewish writers and journalists and podcasters in the US integrated to the Journal Society. The same is true uh in Argentina.
SPEAKER_01Right. And you touched on the anti-Semites, and I I have to, you know, I'm I'm almost going to use this as a rabbi session with myself, you know, because I can confide in you. I'm on this show and we we we're trying to put out facts about Israel, debunk a lot of libel claims, and we do that. I have different guests and come on here, and and the hate I get in the comments, rabbi, are just um mind-boggling. And the last since 2000, uh, you know, since uh October 7th, what I'm seeing from like people that are, you know, non-Jews that have been friends of mine forever parroting these anti-Semitic or going down these anti-Semitic conspiracy roads. And speak to speak about your what what your thoughts are and what this explosion of anti-Semitism that we're seeing the last few years, being a rabbi of a very respected and large congregation and having to deal with the traumas like our people are already traumatized. Remember, the Jews come from a lot of trauma, especially the European Jews, but not just the European Jews, Ms. Raqi Jews, Sephardic Jews, they all had their own traumas to watch what we had to watch on October 7th and then to watch the world turn. And I remember when I was younger, my my my father's side were Holocaust survivors, you know, and I always couldn't wrap my head around how a whole country of otherwise intelligent people, the German culture had a rich history, were intelligent people, how they were, I would say, duped into this thought process and this hate and to get to the point of doing what they did. And now the last year or so, two years, I'm really looking around, like, oh my God, this could happen at any time. And uh, you talk about in your in your sermons, like how we, you know, we have to be together and they're always gonna, there's especially times where we're all getting attacked. Speak to me about this rise of anti-Semitism and your thoughts on it, and you know, how you've been able to deal with running the congregation and and talking to people about it.
SPEAKER_00First of all, I would say that Danny, you and me, we are lucky. That we are living at this time in history. Okay? Yes, there's anti-Semitism. And for me, anti-Semitism is a virus. Okay, and I said it in one sermon. The only virus that humanity was able to exterminate was smallpox. All the other viruses, COVID, flu, and everything in between, we need to learn how to deal with it. There will be moments that that virus will be more virulent, that will kill more people. There will be moments that that virus will only be, I don't know, a little bit of fever. We can control it, but we cannot exterminate the virus. The same is true about anti-Semitism. I think there was a generation, one or two ago, of our parents or grandparents that some thought that anti-Semitism was something on the past. It is not. But there's a big difference, and I want to say to you, and I believe it to myself and for your audience, it's not the same the anti-Semitism that our forefathers, two, three, four generations ago in Europe, in Iraq, in Yemen, even in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century could have experienced that the anti-Semitism that is today. Number one, is because throughout the world and in the US especially, we are protected by the law. Okay, yes, we are a minority, but it's not the same to beat a Jew to death, to burn a synagogue, than to put a swastika or to put a hated, hating commentary on the podcast. Yes, we do not like both, but you not, you know, insult me how much as you want over there. But uh today, the amount of Jews that die because of anti-Semitism, that's something that I want to say to everybody, is much lower the rate than 100 years ago, 200 years ago. Right? We are protected, the police lost. Yes, there could be an anti-Semitic attack like in uh uh Great Britain during Yom Kippur, one Jew died. Yes, you will find a terrorist attack in Argentina, you suffer it too, but not at the same level. It was like COVID at the beginning, a lot of people died. Now, very few, and that's what we need to do about this. Not to fool ourselves thinking that it's not going to exist any longer, saying that any virus, the anti-the virus of anti-Semitism will continue to mutate. First is because we kill God, okay? Because we kill Jesus, then because we kill the prophet, as the Muslim says, then because we were all capitalists, then because we were all communists, now because we have the state of Israel that is a genocidal state, an apartheid state. Whatever it is, we know that Jews have been in the last 2,000 years because we have always been a minority, and not because I think we are the best, just because for different reasons, we have been pretty successful of being who we are and maintaining our identity and growing businesses, and when a door was open for us in a field, a lot of our people succeed in it because we are the underdog. And if you are the underdog, you need to work better to be the best in that field. We know that we are going to be in the spotlight. And one of the first things that I say is not too good to be in the spotlight, neither for the good or the bad. Okay, I would rather not be in the spotlight. We are 15 million people in the world. 0.2 percentage, and that percentage is coming down every year. We should not be even mentioned in the news. Not Israel, not a Jewish community, not anything. 15 million, 0.2, we need to be like just an anecdote. And we should continue our life. But that's not the reality. And even though we try not to do it, somebody will be there to remind us. So I will say we are very lucky that we are living in these times. Yes, there's anti-Semitism, but not the same kind of cruelty or with the consequence of 2,000 years ago, a thousand years ago, or even a hundred years ago. We live in the US, we live in Florida, we live in South Florida, right? And we have a lot of people that also love us, not only hate us. Okay? Haters are going to hate for everything, especially today. There's a platform, it's very easy to do a hate speech. I will say just gather yourself with people that you love, with people that love you, with people that support you, with people that you support, and don't give space to. Those people.
SPEAKER_01Right. I agree. I agree 100%. I put myself out here, right? So I put myself out here. So I open myself up to all of it. Um, but now, so that you mentioned obviously the virus is something that's it mutated over time, right? It went from the the religious aspect to the economic aspect of hating the Jews, and and now it's the state of Israel. One of the things that bothers me, I think more than anything, I it just hurts me is when you see the Jews that are attacking Israel or the Jews that are attacking the Jews. How do you reconcile? And I understand our people are intelligent people, and and and part of our success is that we question everything and we question everybody. And we that's part of the Jewish culture, right? But how do you reconcile that? How do you go about what is your opinion on that? Like, and how do you how do you feel about that when you see a big uh Jewish name that's just saying all the nastiest things about Israel, apartheid and all these fake things? How do you handle it? What is your opinion on it? Because I know it it's it cuts me deeper than than most, you know. What are your thoughts? Because the virus is clearly susceptible to everybody, like anyone could get this virus, apparently, even its own, even the Jews. Yeah, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Nobody's immune. Nobody's immune. So we need to build a good immune system so it doesn't hurt us too much. Okay, and it doesn't kill us physically and metaphorically. So I will say that I think it's time in history to make a distinction between Jews and people of Jewish ascendance. Okay? And we do that about many other nations. You have Italians, and people, I don't know, there are third, fourth generations of Italians in the US, that the only thing Italian that they do is they eat pizza. And maybe they have an Italian last name. With the Jews, we do not do that. For alagic reasons, for legal Jewish reasons, and many things. But I think at the time, and I'm a rabbi that tried to promote this idea. We could have two categories Jews, people that they are in any format that they want, in any level of observation, of knowledge, of practice, they are proud, practicing Jews, reformed, conservative, orthodox in the diaspora in Israel, but that the Judaism is their main identity. And people that have a Jewish father or a Jewish mother or a Jewish grandfather or a Jewish last name, and the only Jewish thing that they have is eating matzabots soup. And Judaism is not the main identity or their lives. So from those Jews that attack Israel, I will divide them into two categories. A lot of them are just descendants of Jews. Right. And they talk as Jews, and the only thing Jewish that they do is attacking Israel. They don't have any other strong Jewish experience in the day-to-day, whatever it is. And I'm not criticizing and I'm not putting value who is more Jewish than the other one. It's saying if the only Jewish thing that you have is because your political or ideological ideas from right or left is attacking Israel, and you think you have reasons to do it because you have a Jewish last name. No, you're not. You can criticize as any other human being, but not as a Jew. Then you have the other category that I think we do not need to ignore that are learned Jews, observant Jews, riff and conservative orthodox in Israel, Ilan Pape, and many others, and in the diaspora, that for whatever reason, they fell in a mistake that a lot of people do. You can criticize something, but when that criticism is the only thing of your life, and you cannot see the good in anything, that's not honest criticism any longer, it's just a deep hate. So a lot of these people is because maybe a trauma that they had, or maybe just because they want to be accepted by the brother, uh university colleagues, or their non-Jewish friends, or because it's trendy. Okay, and Danny, maybe we agree or disagree. I think there's many things from the beginning of the creation of the state of Israel, and even before, and even to today, that I don't agree. There's policies about the state of Israel that I do not agree. There's people that are serving especially today as ministers in different fields in Israel. There's prime ministers that I do not agree in the history. There's there's many things that I do not agree. There's actions in the history of the IDF, in the world of 1948, or in the Gaza war, that maybe I don't agree, but two things. First of all, I try to be a little bit more humble. I'm not there, right? I didn't know how to take the decision. But even in the things that I, for moral reasons, for ideological reasons, I disagree. I can say it. Maybe publicly, maybe more in private. But loving and defending a country, a land, is not because it's perfect. The whole idea of the Zionist movement is we need to build a country. And to build a country for the Jewish people, you need everything. For sure, building a country will bring corruption. For sure, bring having an army, sometimes there will be excesses of army. Things that maybe they could have done in a different way. Maybe it is, but it's a time of war. It could be many things. I do not justify. If there's somebody in the IDF that is guilty of doing something that according to the Israel law and international law is wrong, okay, that person should be put to jail or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00If there is some Israel like any country, but the same way I love the US, I love Argentina, but I don't endorse everything that my country did in the last 200 years that the US did in the last 250 years. But one thing is okay, I can be critic to a specific policy, a person in the government, an idea that somehow share, a mission of the idea, I can be critic. And I think as Jews, we should. But criticism should be saved from a place of love, power, and commitment and humility. Everything else is BS.
SPEAKER_01Agreed. Agreed. I think that the toughest thing for that I've noticed, I think the Jewish community is unique in that we'll get whitewashed with everything. So, like you said, you disagree. There's bad actors that are Jewish or of Jewish descent, right? There's criminals that are Jewish or of Jewish descent. But we're the only group that seemed to be like, you know, we just did a whole thing about like Epstein. It's just a name that's convenient to use. And the guy, you know, obviously he was a bad guy. He seems like he was a bad guy. All this stuff is out, but they whitewashed the whole Jewish community. Like we get attributed to the whole to them. And it's it's so hard to deal with. I have panels on here where we talk about, you know, the Israel-Palestinian thing, and you know, we'll talk about the the the uh Islamic world and and anti-Semitism, and they bring up one settler that attacked someone in in the settlements, and they use that. And I and I always stand there like, listen, this is one person, okay, you know, and Israel punishes those people. Like I think that the challenge for us is that we get grouped together. Um, we get grouped together for for everyone. So that that voice that's speaking out against us, the Jewish or Jewish descent, is extra vocal too. It's like, look, the division is we get grouped together too. Everything gets grouped together. And I think I mean, what do you think about that? It just you you just stretch that up to just pure anti-Semitism, or us, our community being so small.
SPEAKER_00I I would say that we are something that we just need to try to do is not to say that we are the only ones that experience that thing in that way, okay? Usually every minority uh or a minority that is usually discriminate, you take one of a hundred, one of one thousand, and the actions of that represent the action of the majority, even though it's one. Right.
SPEAKER_01It happened also scale, on this scale is what I meant more. But you're right. Go ahead, sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, but but it happened. I don't know. When somebody of uh an African American does, all African Americans, and then people who hate African Americans will say, Look, we told you that all the African Americans are that. Or in Argentina, I don't know, there's a prejudice against people from Bolivia or Peru. Some one Bolivian steals something. Oh, we told you that you cannot trust Bolivians. So it will happen to every minority if people have prejudice in their heads, the action of one will represent the actions of everybody. And we have the Purim every year, the Jewish tradition. Around March, we celebrate Purim and we tell the story of Haman and Mordechai. Because Mordechai, one Jew, did not bow in front of Haman, he was the only one. All the other Jews bow in front of him. But he took that experience of one Jew that did not respect it what he wanted as honor. So now all the Jews are guilty for not being loyal to the king. So there's many things that I I say to myself, to my congregants, some things are more easy to do, more difficult. First one is yes, the Jewish people have a unique history, but we are not so unique. So we need to see also the suffering and this discrimination and this, like maybe Danny, you and me, we live it more into our skin because when we hear Epstein, okay, also, I don't know how you feel, but in my stomach, when I hear the last name Goldman or Cohen or Epstein or Madoff, something that is very clearly Jewish, something in my stomach, even though I'm not guilty of anything, I don't know this person, I never met him, they are not part of my community. I could not have done anything. I believe that they are part of my family in some way or another. And that's why it creates this thing in our stomach, and that's why uh it's very hard to deal with these people that are part of your family that you will always be associated with them because you have the last name. The last name I'm not saying literally, the last name means they are part of because I think what the Jewish in experience is unique is that we are so small as a nation, but we are a very big family. So if somebody of a specific family with a specific last name, let's say Hitler i Maximo, may the memory of Adolf Hitler be erased, but anybody else with the last name Hitler will be associated with that. So everybody that has Levi, Cohen, Madoff, Epstein, Goldman, Goldstein, for everybody, yes, is Jewish. Okay? And they associate that with us. Uh and we need to learn how to live with this and how to fight each anti-Semite. We cannot fight all the anti-Semites in the same way. Some you need to ignore, some are just ignorant and you can talk. We cannot say, and I don't believe this, everybody hates us. We are by ourselves. I just don't believe in that because this is not true. There's a lot of people that show us support more publicly and more just one-to-one. And also we need to know, Danny, I remind this to everyone in our congregation. We shouldn't have, as we hate people without knowledge of the deep conflict between Israel and the Arabs, the Palestinians, and all the complexity of that. We don't want ignorant people to have an opinion. The same should be true about us. When we see the news about Ukraine and Russia, or other wars of Taiwan and China, or what happened in Azerbaijan. We can be doing exactly the same. When we make an opinion, a strong opinion, right? So at the beginning of the war, whatever between Ukraine and Russia, most of the people immediately went and says, we are all Ukraine. And they asked me, Rahai, why don't you put a flag off Ukraine? Says, I don't know, maybe they are in the right part of history. But I do not know as much. I'm not an expert of Russia, Ukraine, I don't know the dynamics. So I would hate to be doing the same that I hate that others do about Israel-Palestine. So I would rather say, unless that time I really know about something, I'd rather say, I don't have a strong opinion. I just want people to live in peace. That's it. Right.
SPEAKER_01I think that's the difficult thing also with the Israeli-Palestinian thing. If you're around it and you and you understand the history of the anti-Semitism in the culture, and obviously I'm not whitewashing the Muslim world. There's plenty of beautiful Muslim people, but I'm saying in the culture itself of the anti-Semitism, the Islamism, the Iran, and where it's coming from, I think you have a better understanding of it. And when you watch people that have no knowledge of it give their strong opinions, it strikes harder because you you you kind of have to assume they're coming from this place of a hate. Somewhere they're looking for this to be an answer. They're looking for it to be a geographical dispute, or they're looking for this, oh, you colonize them, or whatever new thing you come up with. I think that's what makes it harder for me to stay level. I try to stay level-headed to be able to debate, but you almost have to impute the knowledge. And then to impute the knowledge of anti-Semitism, you're getting, we're getting now saying, oh, you got to say everybody's anti-Semite. So I agree. That damages us when we sit here and say everybody and everything is anti-Semitic. I think uh to explain it, we have to do a little bit a more specific, better job. But, you know, what do you what is your thought process on that? I know we we only have we don't have that long, and we could do a whole podcast on the Israel-Palestinian thing. Do you find that to be obviously I when I debate with someone, I I try to like have them start from a point of agreement. We have to acknowledge, I'm willing to acknowledge mistakes that Israel's made as a government. I'm in the growth of a of a country, it's not always pretty, whatever, right? But I think that, especially in like in Gaza, like you have to acknowledge the schooling, the teaching, the mindset. If we can start from a place where these kids are brainwashed a certain way, I can have a conversation with you about how to solve this. You know, what is your thought on that briefly? Um, do you have that same diagnosis of the Israel-Palestinian thing? You think it's uh it's it comes from an ancient hate or geographical?
SPEAKER_00I don't think it's ancient. I I think the ancient anti-Semitism is added, okay, in this little lethal con cocktail. But it's not the origin. The origin is much more modern, right? And there's a lot of in scholarship what is the year zero of this conflict. It was 1920 or 1936 or 1947. I don't know. There's a there's a lot of theories when this uh hate and this impossible solution. First of all, I'm a rabbi and I believe in God, and I believe in the messiah, and I am an optimistic person by itself because believing in the messiah for me is believing that things could be better in the future. Not right now, not immediately, but they could be. Okay? And I always say to people the hate that you feel in the streets of Palestine or Syria or Lebanon and Iran against Israel or the Jewish people, whatever, it wasn't always like that. And there's no reason why it needs to be forever. And for me, Germany is the biggest example. Eight years ago, they killed one-third of our people, six million. And today, overall, it's a society that regrets, apologizes, pays, and supports Israel. More than many nations in Europe. Nobody could have believed that, Danny, your father, you could not have believed that with so the same could be and changes in the Middle East could be very, very fast. Uh I I believe, for example, and I will talk to myself, when I hear uh Bibin Netanyahu or others saying there will be never a Palestinian state, and that uh I just think it's rock. Okay. Uh I think uh even the claim of many Zionists there's a Palestinian state, it's Jordan, or they have 22 Arab nations, they don't need uh another one. Uh I think we are fooling ourselves and we are trying to uh not see the sun or cover the sun with our hand. And uh I think there's need to be a Palestinian state. Uh we either we want it or we do not want it. Either for the Palestinians, and if you do not care about the Palestinians, at least for the safety of Israelis and the Jewish people around the world, okay? Then we can I I always say then let's discuss the limits. What is the percentage if there needs to be a swap of territory and that? I think uh the common sense today, whatever it is, says we cannot gift the Palestinians a state after October 7th. I can agree with that, but then you could have said the same about 48 or 67 and 73 or the intifada, and still most Zionists in Israel in the diaspora, most prime ministers try to find a way to create this Palestinian state just to put a closure to that. Yes, then Jews are going to be accused of something else. Sure. Yes, for sure. I don't fool myself saying the Palestinian day is the end of it. But at least if there's look at the difference, Danny. When Israel fought against Iran was a war of 12 days. It's not the same to fight a war. Even if in the future there will be a war between the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, it's much more easy to come to a resolution in the international forum when you are debating with a state. If you have a terrorist group, what if Hamas or the other name that will be in 10-20 years, it's going to be a war of two years. If it's a guerrilla warfare in these territories, even in Lebanon, even though Hezbollah was working because they work with a country, the war was much shorter. So I always say, for the sake Lebanah Haibe Rei, for the sake of my brothers and sisters in Israel and the Jews around the world that suffer the good and the bad that Israel does or is perceiving the world, we need to be a Palestinian state. Then we discuss the limits. Exactly. I'm not an expert, I'm humble, I'm not there, I'm not going to say. But I I don't see any other solution by acknowledging there's two people over there. There's seven million Jews over there that are not going anywhere. Right? There's five million Palestinians Arabs that they're not going anywhere. Yes, there's 22 other Palestinian Arab states, yes. But they want to be there in that village or whatever. You know what? That's it. That's it. Let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. Yeah, there need to be walls, very high walls for 20 years. Whatever it is, they need to be like the wall of Berlin for 20, 30, 40 years. Yes. But then I believe there could be peace. But it's going to take a full generation of Israelis that were not born and lived through terrorist attacks on October 7th. And it will take a whole generation of Palestinians not to be surrounded by the idea of soldiers or by wars every once in a while and living in tents and not in their apartments for finally to be peace. Right.
SPEAKER_01I agree 100% with you on that. And that's why when I started the conversation, the diagnosis on one side has to be about the hate. And we not just hate, just we have to talk about real conditions, I think. You know, you have to talk about real conditions. What you just did when you when you say, listen, there's five million Palestinians that are that are there, they're not going anywhere. The reality of shipping them somewhere and people being content with that is not a real reality, right? So I think for the Jewish people for the state, we need a solution. But the solutions have to be something secure for us, right? That's what we all agree on. It has to be secure for us, it has to make sense. Speaking of Iran, though, you were over there, you had an we have for a couple minutes. Can you talk to the viewers? You had a very unique experience. You literally went up there, you went on, you took for uh you for uh for birthright, you went up there with a group right when Iran started everything, and you guys got stuck over there. Can you tell us a brief synopsis of what you went through? Because it made the papers over here. I was hearing about it because I knew people that were on the trip. I was getting like real time information, but you handled that eloquently and very uh I'd want to hire you. My law firm for the problem solving skills that you displayed on that day, you know? So talk to me briefly about that if you don't mind. I know we don't have much time, but you know.
SPEAKER_00So since the beginning of the war on October 7, uh we are a very Zionist, proud Zionist congregation, and we try to help our brothers and sisters in Israel not by only sending donations, but just by being there. Okay. I don't know how much work we can do, but just by being there, I know that we can have the feeling that there's people around the world supporting you, loving you. So uh we took a group in uh February uh 2024, uh, and then we took another group of 45 volunteers from our congregation uh uh in the middle of June. And we landed there, I think, uh Tuesday morning and then uh Thursday night going to Friday. The war uh started, and you just need to you need to be more humble. Uh you get to have a little bit of the feeling that Israelis suffer for decades, and it's a very difficult situation because on one hand you are never wanting to leave Israel like uh find a way to get out of Israel, right? We always like to go to Israel and enjoy Israel and so much, but uh so it was uh a very heartbreaking situation between uh making sure that our group was physically safe, and I think that overall we were, we were following the instructions of the IDF, so we got uh near the bankers when it was needed, uh, but trying to lift the spirit, but also people had their families. Yes, we love Israel, uh, but our families were in the US. Our uh we had vacations, we have programs, we have work, so finding a way uh out that is secure. So we analyzed many, many options. One was uh to cross uh by Jordan and in Jordan to get into uh planes, or the other one was little yachts, boats to cross all the way to the Mediterranean for like 36 hours uh of uh boats between six and eight people and divide ourselves, and first we take out the kids and then the women and then the men. So it was all of that. Uh uh, but finally, uh, this is another reason that uh God gave me maybe in life to sometimes trust. Okay, we were taking good care not only by God but by uh the government of the Israel, the government of the United States and birthright. And they secured for us the first uh evacuation from Israel uh six or seven days later, after uh the war started, was us. Uh they hire Israel, like here. You have a lot of uh cruise ships, okay? Uh carnival and all that. Don't imagine that Israel does not have that. I wish there would be a good Jewish philanthropist that will donate a good uh cruise ship to Israel to coast the Mediterranean. There's only one in Israel that holds 1,500 people, very old, not so good, but it is what it was, and we cannot complain. So one day they took us to the port of Ashdod, and uh we we sailed for uh 18 hours to Cyprus and from Cyprus uh to Abu Dhabi and from Abu Dhabi to Germany and to Germany to New York and to New York to Miami, and we landed after three days, but uh safe and uh being thankful that we had that possibility and also handled that. A lot of people just needed to stay there because that was their home and those were their apartments, and they didn't know how to evacuate. So it was a very uh it generated a lot of diverse and conflicted feelings, I would say, Danny.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, I mean it was incredible to hear and track, and I knew I remember saying to Sylvia, she was telling me everything that's going on, and I was like, wait, who's there with them? And you were the name that came up. I'm like, he's gonna figure it out. You know, I'm very quick to like, you know, I can spot problem solvers very quick. I'm a high-level professional problem solver, is what I do is what I tell people, and I knew they were gonna be good hands, and I knew you'd figure it out. And uh I was right, so I got proven right. Um, but listen, we're we're running out of time here. I wanted to give you a last word. If you could say something to the Jewish communities as a whole, any listener, viewer, it could be anywhere, you know, we have people to watch all over. Uh, it type people that are, you know, the Jews that are struggling with this right now. What is your final message to the Jewish people? Or or to non-Jewish people, to people at whole, whoever you want to leave a message to as a parting thought?
SPEAKER_00I think that uh we are living in beautiful but also problematic times of a lot of idea of depression, uh being loneliness, and all the social media, internet connections. And I will say to the Jewish people and to every person in the world is that you cannot only be a human being, a citizen of the global world. Uh, you need to be anchored by a community, by a tradition, by a religion, by a culture, whatever it is. To the Jewish people to be Jewish, to the Christian to be Christian, to the Muslim to be Muslims, uh, to the Russians to be Russian, to be, but you need to be part of something bigger than yourself and your family. It is not enough. Yourself, you're not enough, your family is not enough, and the world is too big. What's that in between? The community that you feel part of. It could be a linguistic community, a ritual community, a religious community, a spiritual community, an intellectual community, but be proud of that and be involved in that and commit to that. And don't just stand at the side. Be an active part of the future of the community that you feel part, and you don't have to love and agree with everything that Israel does, that the Jewish tradition or the Talmud or the Torah stands for. You need to be part of the conversation. And you can only criticize when you are part, and we do it with love and for loving reasons, for the betterment. I always say to my congregants, come to me as your rabbi. If you do not like a sermon that I do, a class that I do, a program that I do, an idea that I have, uh a decision that I have for my synagogue, please come with love, come and tell me why you disagree and what could be a better solution. But do it and criticize always from a place of love. Yes, as Jews we like to criticize, but we need to do it as the prophets. The prophets of ancient Israel in the Jewish Bible, they criticize a lot. The kings, the monarchs, the people, the priests, but from a place of love, saying I feel part of this. It's not just a performance as a Jew. I feel part of this, I do it in Hebrew, I do it with knowledge, I do it in the ground, and I do it because I want you to be better. If you will criticize Israel, if you will criticize a decision of your Jewish leader, your Jewish community, do it with love, respect, in the right way, and with commitment of you for you doing your part. That's what I would say.
SPEAKER_01Rabbi, thank you so much. Thank you for coming on. I know you're a busy, busy person with a big congregation. Thank you, my friend. I look forward, I consider you my friend, and I look forward to seeing you soon. I think I'm coming to an event. I'll see you tomorrow night. Um uh so I'm looking forward to that. And I'm looking forward to have you back, and maybe we thought we dive into some topics more specific. Um, but I appreciate you coming on and I appreciate everything you do for the community and my family, and thank you, my friend. Thank you, Danny, for the invitation. And uh, Shaba Shalom. Shabbat shalom, my friend. I'll see you soon, Rabbi. Take care. It's all my listeners and viewers. Thank you for watching. Two taps and friends. Please like, subscribe to the channel. Like we said, when you like, subscribe to the channel, it gives us outreach, it lets us bring more amazing guests like Rabbi Uriel on. Um, you can follow us. We're on Spotify, we're on YouTube, we're everywhere, iHeartRadio, we're all over. The marketing team does a fantastic job. Thank you all for watching, listening. Love you all. See you guys soon. Goodbye. Cut. Thank you, my friend.