Shalom, I am Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of the Ezra-Habonim Niles Township Jewish Congregation. I have entitled this video Israel is the greatest country. It has kind of sense of humor because of the movie Borat where Borat sings about his great country Kazakhstan and how it is the greatest country in the world because it produces the best potassium in Central Asia.
Israel really is the greatest country in the world per capita. United States clearly is the most wonderful country ever in the history of human kind. It has done more to bring about peace and serenity and security for the world and even though it has got its problems genuinely has really set a standard for what a modern country could be even though it has much to do to improve.
But Israel on the other hand is unbelievably a miracle. It is now in its 59th birthday celebration in just a short time and as it begins to celebrate it is time to reflect on the power and significance of this moment and all of the amazing things it did have accomplished.
In the area of medicine it has just produce so many modern marvels, including the first digestible movie camera that doctors can use to help find disease and many, many modern huge advances. And also it treats all people that come in to its medical centers and even the enemies of Israel, in humane and wonderful way.
Chance of high tech, you know that of all the countries in the world behind the United States, it is the number two country in terms of high tech start ups. And per capita it is the highest.
Many of the parts of your home computer including the parts of the operating system were developed in Israel. If you used IN instant messaging, that was developed in Israel. Much of your cellphone was developed in Israel and in many, many, many, many innovations that are being used today.
In science, it is the number one country in the world preparing scientific papers per capita. In terms of culture, an example, it has got more symphonies per capita than the other country, more museums per capita than the other country. It is the number two publisher of new books every year per capita and the number one publisher in poetry books.
In terms of the environment, in the last century it was the only country in the world to have a net surplus of trees after the beginning of the century. It is also making huge advancements in the effort to de-saltinize ocean water so that people will have fresh water to drink. It has got the first fully-powered electrical generating plant done purely by solar power.
Its economy, a hundred billion dollars is bigger than all of its immediate neighbors combined. It has got by far the highest living standard of any nation in the Middle East per capita and it equals that of Europe. Despite one of the problems from Day 1, it has been attacked, in 1948 when the UN declared it a nation and it accepted the bifurcation of the small area into a Palestinian Jewish state, the Arabs tried an attempt.
And then again in 1967, they said they are going to kill every Jew in Israel and they attacked. In 1973 on our holiest day, the Arab neighbors attacked and again and again and again and now we have the president of Iran saying they are going to destroy Israel with some nuclear weapons.
Israel, despite having to develop, all of that energy to simply surviving, it has done amazing things. It is the number one country in the world in absorbing immigrants per capita and not just the 85,000 black Jews from Ethiopia. First time in history that black people airlifted off the continent of Africa to be free and not to be slaves. What an amazing miracles that Israel has done in absorbing them and the Vietnamese vote people who were not Jewish. Israel took more per capita than any other country in the world, amazing.
You know just in the paper, just today, the only place here and abroad where lesbian Muslim women were able to feel comfortable to have a meeting was in Haifa, Israel, nowhere in a Muslim country, just an example of the beautiful liberal democracy that Israel is.
And so as we think about this amazing success story and besides the beauty of the country and one day you can go from forest, to desert, to the lowest part on earth in the Dead Sea, to the most amazing Roman archaeological sites. Where else can you walk the footsteps of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through Christian of Jesus and the Muslims considered it the holier of the too. It is the most amazing physical place in the world—clearly holy to God. And that is why God gave the land to the Jewish people in the Bible to cherish it.
Every religion has got total free access and it is unimaginable to me that people view Israel as such a threat and a danger and a horrible place. It is obviously the greatest country in the world per capita if you think about it empirically and logically.
So, let us get behind Israel and help us lift its neighbors. All it wants to do is live in peace with its neighbors, lift them up and help them become modern beautiful nations to help people live in freedom and justice.
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