Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1997, Pages 106, 114

Personality

Rabbi Daniel Isaak

By Elaine Kelley

The new president of the Oregon chapter of the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East is Rabbi Daniel Isaak, the son of Jewish refugees from Germany. He has devoted many years of effort toward the development of dialog and understanding between Palestinians and Israelis.

In addition to his service with the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, an organization of American Jews, Christians and Muslims focused on finding common ground within their respective faith traditions to achieve a peaceful solution in Israel/Palestine, he also has worked with the American Friends of Peace Now.

Rabbi Isaak, who succeeds Nofal Kasrawi of Syria as president of the Oregon chapter, has a reputation for being a voice of reason in the midst of emotional contention over issues related to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He was elected at the June 1 board meeting of the Committee, held at Congregation Neveh Shalom in Southwest Portland where he has served as rabbi for four years.

In a July 2 interview with the Washington Report, the rabbi shared his hopes and fears for the future of peace in the Middle East, his theological understanding of the Hebrew scriptures as they apply to biblical promises to the Jews, and his views on the current government in Israel.

Daniel Isaak's father left Germany at age 17 and went to Palestine in 1937, where he stayed for 10 years before immigrating to the United States. His mother fled Germany for England as a teenager and became a nursemaid, caring for a sickly child whose family took the child to Switzerland.

She eventually took a train from Switzerland through Spain and Portugal, and then a boat to the U.S. where she met and married Daniel Isaak's father.

Their son was born in San Francisco in 1949. He went to the University of California at Berkeley and was there during the crazy times of People's Park, the start of Black Studies and anti-Vietnam war demonstrations.

"I was in Israel during Kent State, in the university's Education Abroad Program," he said. " I've been to Israel two separate times for a year, first as an undergraduate in 1969-70 and again for rabbinical school in 1974-75."

He explained that the moods in Israel were diametrically opposite during his two year-long visits. After the euphoria of the 1967 war, Israelis thought of themselves as invincible and "The territories were quiet at that time. But in 1974-75 following the 1973 war, the country seemed to be in deep depression."

Four years ago Rabbi Isaak replaced retiring Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, who had been the rabbi at Congregation Neveh Shalom for 40 years. Isaak said that although the two did not know each other at the time, they attended the same peace conference in Washington, DC in the late 1980s. "It was the first time that I ever experienced Israelis and Palestinians talking directly to each other," Isaak said. The conference was such an overwhelming experience. Rabbi Stampfer returned to Portland "transformed."

As a result of that peace conference, Rabbi Stampfer created an alliance with Frank Afranji, a Palestinian Muslim from Ramallah, and Rev. Rodney Page, who was then director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. This was the founding of the Oregon chapter of the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East. When Isaak arrived in Oregon, the Interreligious Committee welcomed him. "I found their agenda consistent with my own," he said.

As rabbi of an active congregation of faithful Jews, Daniel Isaak is often called upon to interpret scripture and apply it to the real world, and also to answer difficult questions. As the new leader of the Interreligious Committee, he is trusted to be circumspect, for in the formidable matters of war and peace a rabbi's words are expected to radiate wisdom and provide guidance. For example, in reference to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg of New Jersey has been quoted as saying, "The greatest contribution religion can make to the conflict is to get out of it." In Daniel Isaak's view, "It is the mandate of all sacred texts, those of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, for people of faith to be agents of peace."

In his reflections on the dynamics of religion and politics, particularly with regard to Israel, Rabbi Isaak distinguishes between those who are "political leaders" and those who are "religious." "The fact is," Isaak said, "that Arafat is not a religious man, nor is Netanyahu, nor is Shimon Peres."

Isaak believes that historically those leaders who claim to speak for religious faith are, unfortunately, the zealots, and therefore they don't make positive contributions. "The experience is that religion complicates this problem rather than alleviating it, because the nature of religion is to be absolutist, not to compromise."

Isaak defines a religious person as "someone who lives by the ideals of the faith and incorporates the rituals and tenets into his/her life so that they inform his/her daily decisions." He says the failure of religion in peacemaking is because "Religion is most comfortable when it deals in absolutes, in good and evil, right and wrong.

"The affairs of state of necessity require compromise and cannot function effectively in absolutes. Therefore religious leaders most often make poor statesmen."

Even on the grassroots level, Jews, Christians and Muslims often quote passages from their respective scriptures to justify some of the same kinds of persecution. "I don't think that there is any justification for these attitudes," Isaak believes. "There's a rabbinic tradition that a scoundrel can always quote scripture and teach lessons from it that were never intended, so that the issue isn't how the scripture can be misused but how the text can be understood to bring healing to the world."

He said this is similar to what scripture says concerning the false prophet. "In Deuteronomy we find that false prophets will arise who can even perform miracles. We are warned that we must not follow them on that basis, but must listen carefully to whether the message is properly leading us toward God or away from God."

Isaak consistently refers to scripture when forming responses to difficult questions. This discipline, called "exegesis," or the critical analysis of scripture to draw out its true meaning, without forcing one's own values or experience into the text, is demanding both intellectually and spiritually. So Isaak takes exception to Israelis who use scripture to validate nationalist ambition.

He says what exactly the Promised Land is, is open to debate, and that the Bible contains several lists of borders and none of them is consistent with the others. "In the meantime," he says, "we live in this world and must come to terms with its parameters. It is our responsibility to create the kind of world that respects all human beings and that minimizes the conditions of suffering and pain."

Isaak's position is to support security for Israel and a permanent peace solution for the Palestinians, with the hope that the two can be consistent. He says that Netanyahu has not been a successful negotiator and that on the Palestinian front much trust has been lost.

He wants American Jews, Christians and Muslims to cooperate in putting continued pressure on U.S. government leaders. "We must urge our American government to do all it can to urge the leaders back to the table and to make the necessary concessions that bring a total peace to this very troubled corner of the world that is so dear to each of us," Rabbi Isaac said.