c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University. He can be contacted at Jamesrudin(at)aol.com.)

(UNDATED) I wrote my first Religion News Service commentary in August 1991, and to my amazement more than 670 others have followed. Although this weekly column has reached bar/bat mitzvah age, please don’t send me any gifts, not even a fountain pen. Well _ a new computer would be fine.

Some things haven’t changed in 13 years. In 1991 a George Bush was in the White House and the United States was militarily engaged in Iraq. My debut as a columnist focused on bioethical concerns, a subject I have returned to many times.

In 1991 I began receiving anti-Semitic hate mail from readers, and that depressing fact hasn’t changed. However, most letter writers have been thoughtful, often poignant when seeking advice, and sometimes complimentary. Many readers tell me they appreciate learning about Jewish holidays, beliefs and ceremonies. One reader called such columns “Everything You Wanted to Know About Judaism, but Were Afraid to Ask.”

Three topics consistently draw the most mail: the unethical behavior of clergy, modern Israel’s struggle for survival and security, and the Bible.

Since 1991 I have written frequently about the clergy’s traditional task of helping people successfully cope with their deepest losses, fears and anxieties. That’s the healing side of clergy life.

But the past 13 years have exposed another side: the dirty little secret of sexual and child abuse by some members of the clergy. Readers constantly express anger about priests, ministers and rabbis who violate their sacred trust. The horrific pain expressed by many Catholic laypeople has especially struck me. Perhaps they feel freer venting their rage to a rabbi than to a parish priest or bishop.

Not surprisingly, I have written often about Israel. Each time I do, many readers send mail expressing solidarity with Israel based on the shared religious and moral values existing between the United States and Israel. But every column about Israel also brings letters that perceive the Jewish state solely as a problem child within the international family of nations.

In my judgment that is a wrong-headed approach. Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, lives in a region filled with Islamic extremists who remain committed to its physical annihilation.

I remind readers that Israel has never known a single day of authentic peace with its neighbors since achieving independence in 1948. There have been wars, intifadas, United Nations votes aplenty, ambassadorial missions galore, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, diplomatic road maps, cease fires, suicide bombings, military occupation, Iraqi Scud missile attacks, Jewish and Arab refugees, and VIP handshakes on the White House lawn.

But for Israel’s implacable enemies, nothing matters except the destruction of the Jewish state.

Since 1991, I have emphasized the human face of Israel, the people who seek to live normal family lives behind the disturbing news headlines and TV images. Despite Israel’s always-precarious security situation, the country has achieved extraordinary things in science, agriculture, literature, dance, music, medicine, telecommunications and religious teachings.

I have written about the daunting and complex problems of melding Jews from more than 100 countries into a national core identity called “Israeli.” I have refuted Yasser Arafat’s “Big Lies.” The Palestinian leader fraudulently claims there never were Jewish Holy Temples in ancient Jerusalem and the Jewish people have no historical link to the land of the Bible.

When some American Christians in their e-mails to me repeat Arafat’s lies, I always ask them which religion’s holiday brought Jesus, the Jew, to Jerusalem, and which people’s Holy Temple was standing in that city during his lifetime.

Some readers accuse me of being “irreverent and too familiar” with Scripture and biblical personages like David, Moses, Ruth, Abraham, Deborah and Isaiah. I happily plead, “Guilty as charged!”

The Bible is my family history. Maybe it helps to read the text in the original Hebrew language because it provides me a direct link to the patriarchs and matriarchs, the prophets, and yes, the bitter fights. Think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Saul and David.

The Bible also rises to sublime heights with its 150 Psalms, its compelling ethical commandments, its all-too-human cries from the heart, its magnificent calls for peace and justice, and its keen insights into human nature.

Of course I am “too familiar” with the Bible. I was raised not only with its language, but also with its geography, its people who are my extended family, and ultimately with the God whose presence dominates Scripture.

A final word: Keep the letters and e-mail coming.

DEA/PH END RUDIN