With the tragic, unimaginable events facing Israel after Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip struck Israeli cities, neighborhoods and kibbutzim from ground, sea and air, many people are thinking about their deceased parents and spouses as to what they would do in a situation like this after 50 years since the Yom Kippur war.
One family is the Halperns whose wife and children are recalling how the patriarch of their family, Rabbi Dr. David Halpern, the founding spiritual leader of the Mill Basin-based Flatbush Park Jewish Center for 64 years, would have reacted. This is the seventh yahrzeit for Rabbi Halpern who passed away at age 88 on October 29, 2016, just after Simchat Torah. The yahrzeit, 27 Tishrei, 5777, on the secular calendar this year is Thursday, October 12, almost coinciding with the same Hebrew date 22 Tishrei 5784 when the bombing began from Hamas territory in the Gaza Strip.
“My father’s entire rabbinic career was spent in support of the State of Israel including her government, the people, the yeshivot, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], as well as the immigration to Israel of Jews from the Soviet Union from behind the Iron Curtain as well as Ethiopian Jews,” Rabbi Halpern’s son, Neil, told The Jewish Press. Rabbi Halpern was a prodigious fundraiser “for Israel bonds,” Dr. Neil Halpern concluded.
Rabbi Halpern, along with Sheila, his wife, developed a true understanding of what makes Israel tick as they took trips to the Holy Land nearly every year.
“My parents traveled to Israel in January for decades, with the other leading rabbinic fundraisers from around the world. Within that context, my father met with government and military leaders as well as traveled across the country from north to south and east to west, in order to best understand the issues and represent them to his congregants to educate them, help develop their emotional attachment and physical connection to Israel. This knowledge also generated resources to help support the state,” Dr. Halpern said. “Additionally, my father met with multiple generations of Israeli chief rabbis and leaders of yeshivot. He encouraged both high school and college students from his synagogue to attend yeshivas in Israel, work on kibbutzim and several alums attributed their eventual aliyah to his encouragement.”
Dr. Halpern recalled for The Jewish Press how his father would have reacted to “the recent horrific, violent and vicious attack by Hamas terrorists into southern Israel.”
“He would certainly have been of great sadness, encouraging his congregation to pray for Israel and simultaneously raising significant funds to help support the IDF and its conquest of the barbaric terrorists,” Halpern said. “He would have been reaching out daily to his many relatives and friends in Israel expressing his support to them. This is how he handled the prior 1967, 1973, Lebanon and Gaza wars. In fact, on one trip my father traveled deep into Lebanon during the Lebanon war with the IDF in support of Israel. He encouraged United States government officials to support Israel by frequently writing letters to them if he felt their support was wavering or not appropriate. He also sent letters complimenting the elected officials if their support was positive and strong.”
On separate occasions, 38 years apart [1965 and 2003], Rabbi Halpern delivered a prayer to open the Congressional session before the legislative body began its proceedings.
On Thursday, May 13, 1965, Rabbi Halpern and a delegation from the synagogue that filled three busloads, made a one-day round trip from Brooklyn to Washington, DC and back.
The words used for the prayer that day could very easily resonate today. Rabbi Halpern offered the following prayer:
“Avinu Malkenu – Our Father – Sovereign of the world. Assembled before thee are the freely elected Representatives of all the American people. These men and women, dedicated and strong, have accepted the awesome burden of promulgating the laws by which our free society lives – and shall live. They have assumed the mantle of leadership in the most perilous times our world has known.
The threat to human security wears many faces including tyranny, armed conflict, religious oppression, racial tension, disease, hunger, and despair.
We seek the solution to these problems. We search for the road that leads to peace, for the path leading to harmonious living, for the means to achieve human dignity.
Guide us all, O L-rd, in this quest. Give us Thy inspiration and Thy wisdom. Let us always remember that to safeguard our own freedom, we must speak out against oppression wherever it reveals itself – in the free world or behind the Iron Curtain; to enjoy the blessings of our own wealth, we must also provide for the underprivileged and the needy; to be truly strong requires more than strength of arms; it requires strength of spirit.
During this 20th anniversary period marking the end of World War II with its heinous Nazi death camps, the camps that snuffed out 6 million Jewish lives, we pray that man may never again experience such evil. We pray that the destruction, the extermination of man by his fellow, because of religious beliefs or racial origins, will be known no more.
We ask Thy blessing upon these Members of our Congress, the spiritual heirs of those who were so instrumental in bestowing upon the seed of Israel the restoration of their homeland. May that sister democracy, together with all the world, know the blessing of peace.
We pray in the words of Isaiah: May the spirit of the L-rd rest upon us, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the L-rd. Amen.”
Afterwards, Rabbi Halpern wrote in the synagogue bulletin, The Voice, that his son Neil sat in the front row of the House gallery, while his wife, Sheila, “sat elsewhere in the gallery together with the entire entourage. They derived an emotional feeling only an observer can receive. It was awe-inspiring.”
Rabbi Halpern also found time in his long, distinguished career to grace the podium of the New York State Assembly when Stanley Fink, who represented Mill Basin, was the Assembly Speaker. Rabbi Halpern opened the legislative session on Wednesday, May 16, 1979 with a prayer, a practice still in existence today. In his remarks, 44 years ago, the erudite rabbi offered these thoughts that can still be relevant today. The trip occurred between Pesach and Shavuot.
“These days on the Jewish calendar, the days following the holiday of Passover and continuing through Shavuot, Pentecost, are days of counting.
But we are engaged in more than mere counting, mere numbering of days. We count toward a very important goal. We strive to reach the spiritual and moral heights of Sinai, the giving of the Ten Commandments, represented in the approaching holiday of Shavuot at the end of the counting. It is counting with a purpose. In brief then, it is not a matter of counting days, as much as it is making days count.
It goes without saying that these days spent in legislative sessions are more than counting, numbering of days. You, distinguished men and women, elected to serve and lead the Empire State, bring to bear your best efforts of mind and body to seek the solutions so desperately needed. The solutions to the vexing problems of government and people. You grapple with questions of economics, energy, education as well as the environment. How do we keep our great state great? How do we maintain our leadership role and concern for individual well-being and human values; in our search for excellence?
Alm-ghty G-d, we return to you for wisdom and insight, courage and strength; the wisdom and insight to select the proper path; the courage and strength to follow that path and reach our goals, truly, to make all our days count. May this be thy will, O L-rd. Amen,” Rabbi Halpern concluded.
On Tuesday, June 17, 2003, Rabbi Halpern returned to the House of Representatives to deliver the opening prayer. This time he was accompanied by his son, his wife, her daughter Risa and husband Dennis Weinstein as well as their other daughter, Beth, with her husband Jimmy Sitt. Dr. Halpern’s daughter Lauren and other members of the congregation joined the rabbi on the trip.
“I do remember the feeling that it was an honor for my dad to be called on by Washington to offer an invocation before Congress. I also recall the face of my father on that Yom Kippur day 50 years ago when he was notified of the war,” Beth Halpern Sitt told The Jewish Press. “Although I was only eight years old, I recall his somber face as he discussed the events with our shul congregants. His pained look and his deep concern for Israel will always stay with me. This past Shabbat as we heard the devastating news out of Israel, my first thoughts were of my father’s reactions 50 years ago. He was always determined to raise money and help our brethren in Israel. Furthermore, what always stays within my soul was my dad’s true respect for every Jew he met. He was a true role model and a true Eved Hashem [Servant of G-d].”
Rabbi Halpern stood with presidents, met many members of Congress, state legislative leaders and members of the state Senate. Democrats represented the south Brooklyn area that included the congregation at that time and to this day but Rabbi Halpern did not care about political labels. He was there for Israel and working for peace between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East. It is a quest that still escapes all religions and political ideologies in the region.
