Rabbi Denise Eger returns from the Middle East

By Joseph S. Amster

When West Hollywood Congregation Kol Ami Rabbi Denise Eger left for Israel at the beginning of the summer for her first sabbatical in 10 years, she didn’t quite get the three months of study, reflection and travel she envisioned. “Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan, one of the countries that Israel has peaceful and wonderful relationships with, were experiencing one of the biggest economic tourist booms in six years in the area. Israel was packed with tourists—Jews and Christians—like I hadn’t seen in five years,” Eger tells IN Los Angeles magazine. “Streets were thriving with families, kids, church groups, pilgrims and synagogue groups. It was the same in Jordan, where they were experiencing tremendous economic growth under King Abdallah. They were experiencing a huge tourist boom as well—people came to see the holy sites both in Jordan and Israel. Beirut is the playground of the Middle East, for the Arab world, what they can’t do in their own countries they come to Beirut to do. There are clubs, nightclubs, beaches, and casinos, and it was experiencing its biggest tourist summer.” Suddenly, overnight, everything changed. “There was already a kidnapping by Hamas in the Palestinian area where they kidnapped an Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit. Everyone was very up in arms and upset because here on Israel’s borders is a government of elected terrorists who refuse to recognize the state of Israel, its neighbor, and engaging in terrorist activity on its border. Then to have Hezbollah on the northern border cross the border, corner and kill two jeeps full of Israeli soldiers on the Israeli side of the border, and kill eight, and kidnapped the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Elad Regev—people were just shocked.”

Although there was extensive coverage in the media of the damage in Lebanon, Rabbi Eger believes the devastation caused by rocket attacks against Israel was underplayed in reports. “Israeli television broadcast it live—you were seeing rockets and hearing sirens all over the television as it was happening,” she says. “The forests of northern Israel are burned—it’s going to take 60 years to rebuild them—it’s blackened. The Galilee [region] is Israel’s breadbasket in terms of being a place of farming, orchards and vineyards, and much of that is burned to a crisp from the hundreds and hundreds of rockets that came—it’s billions of dollars of loss.”

One of the victims of the summer war was World Pride, which was scheduled for Aug. 6-12 in Jerusalem. Originally scheduled for 2005, it was canceled last year because of Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip, making this year’s cancellation even more of a disappointment. “The war broke out on July 12, and already by a couple of days after that, people started to cancel right and left for World Pride who had been invited to speak,” Rabbi Eger says. “The organizers hoped that the hostilities would cease and that people would come as a statement for peace—I think they hoped they could still pull it off. Part of the negotiations were not just that people were canceling their reservations to come, because there were thousands of people that were coming from all over the world, but also with the city of Jerusalem around safety and security issues were very tough. The mayor of Jerusalem is an Orthodox man, and has opposed at every opportunity the Jerusalem Open House, which is Jerusalem’s gay and lesbian center. The organizers were very upset. They’d worked so hard and diligently to [attract] all kinds of groups—gay groups worldwide—and it was very demoralizing for them to have worked so hard. People focused on the Pride Parade part of World Pride, but World Pride was so much more than that. World Pride was also seminars, lectures and cultural events, as well as the social gatherings. I think there would have been some amazing things to come out of the seminars and discussions, and the ability for gay people from around the world to talk to one another that are lost opportunities.”

Rabbi Eger reports that despite obstacles, gay and lesbian life in the Middle East is making progress, not just in Israel, but also in Lebanon. “I’ve been in touch with the gay and lesbian center in Lebanon, which Kol Ami has a very strong relationship with. It’s the only gay and lesbian community center in the Arab world, and we’ve hosted their head, George Azi, at Kol Ami—we’ve brought him to the United States and helped build his religious library on GLBT issues and religion, along with MCC L.A. George and I have been in contact through this very difficult time—he’s fine and the gay and lesbian center functioned in some places as a place for some of the war refugees that were there,” she says. “To see the GLBT life in Israel in particular, comes as a wonderful and inspiring opportunity for GLBT people here in America, because the GLBT community in Israel is one of the few places in Middle Eastern society where Arabs and Jews really do mix, socialize, and have a sense of community together. In the past, in their territories [being gay] was a capital offense—people are imprisoned and often punished by death. So, when you go into Jerusalem Open House and there’s a Palestinian group meeting, it’s a safe haven, a safe space, alongside an Orthodox Jewish group that’s meeting, or you go to Tel Aviv and you go to The Aguda, which is the original GLBT center for all of Israel, and the municipality happily co-sponsors Gay Pride and puts up rainbow banners all over town—you have a different sense that there is hopefulness and there is, even in the midst of a war this summer, and tragedy and death, there are kernels of hope. We as a GLBT community ought to be able to help support that and visit with our GLBT brothers and sisters in Israel, Jordon, and hopefully soon, in Lebanon. That’s why we’ve tried to forge this relationship with the gay and lesbian center in Beirut—Helem, which means dream—and continue the Jewish gay and lesbian synagogue supporting the gay and lesbian Arab Lebanese Center. There are hopes for peace, and within our GLBT community, we can help foster that.”

Rabbi Eger believes that although the situation in the Middle East is confusing and volatile, people need to see for themselves what’s going on there and make up their own minds instead of relying on media reports. “A lot of people look at Israel and its relationship to the Palestinians, and while many of us think that the Palestinians ought to have their own homeland—I believe that—it is, however, very complex and complicated,” she says. “It’s not as easy as the Monday morning quarterbacking that we do here in America. The best way for us to understand that is for us to go and see what’s going on—the good and the not good. Beside the history of the cities and towns, as well as the vibrancy of the life that’s going on there is amazing to see.”