Israel-Palestinian Conflict Comments - May 18, 2017

I have to say they just called votes, so I'm going to of course throw away my notes, but I need no notes for this group because obviously the lifelong Jewish person, involved in Jewish philanthropy, the immediate past president of my synagogue which is the greatest blessing and gifts of my life, I can tell you that I stand strong with Israel. It is in my heart, it is in the heart of the my grandparents, and those who came before them from Poland and Russia and Austria, and it is in the hearts of my daughter, so in 30 seconds I can sum up how I feel about Israel.

My daughter is an alumni of our great camp in Santa Rosa, Camp Newman, and they sing songs every weekend, and of course, as you know they have their share of nights and they do that…There’s a Jewish songwriter that they all listen to. She's 21, his name’s Rick Recht and he wrote a song called ‘The Hope’ and it goes like this: “This is the hope that holds us together/ Hatikva, the hope that will last forever."

My daughter, her friends, everyone I know who goes to Jewish camp, from … to reform and all across the board, they sing that Rick Brecht song with joy in their hearts and joy in their eyes. And I'm going to be sure that that fire that near to me my congregation near to me, stay the beacon and we keep that beacon in Israel. Thank you for having me.