The Kosher Bookworm: Shiloh and the integrity of Israel’s sovereignty

The Kosher Bookworm

by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of April 23, 2010/ 5 Iyar 5770

Aside from the popularity and fame of Jerusalem, no other biblical geographic name resonates more in the United States in terms of geographic use than the name Shiloh. According to David Rubin, author of the book under review this week, “G-d, Israel, & Shiloh: Returning to the Land” [Mazo Publishers, 2008], there are at least 65 cities, towns or villages in the United States called Shiloh. In addition, Rubin states that there are numerous places of worship, prayer books, schools, an old Neil Diamond song, two movies, and a Civil War battle site that carry the name Shiloh.

While one should not be surprised at the use of biblical names for geographic locations in the United States, the preponderant use of Shiloh seems to have most historians baffled. Americans from the very beginning of the republic took to heart the name Shiloh, thus making Shiloh as American as apple pie. Why, we do not know — but this is the reality that further endears the town of Shiloh to me and to many others.

This anomaly conveniently leads in to the subject of the integrity of Israel’s sovereignty. Shiloh, the original one, is located in the heart of Israel, at the center of the Shomron, or Samaria in English parlance.

From a historical point of view ancient Shiloh was the location of the holy Mishkan, the Tabernacle, for over 369 years before it was destroyed and ultimately replaced by the Temple in Jerusalem. It was the spiritual and political center of the Jewish people during the rule of the judges ending with Shmuel HaNavi, the prophet Samuel, who served in the Shiloh Mishkan, and received the word of G-d there.

Given its location, Shiloh had the unfortunate mazal of being at the center of numerous conflicts, both military and political. That put it at a disadvantage in terms of longevity as a viable settlement for Jews through the ages, at least until recently. This book by David Rubin serves as a corrective by highlighting the historical importance, the geographic need and the political correctness of maintaining Shiloh, and the entire Shomron and Jordan Valley, within the borders of the State of Israel. Detailed herein is the modern day saga of brave and valiant people who have brought Shiloh back into our people’s history.

With Yom Ha’atzmaut commemorations just passed, it behooves us to give both recognition and determined support to those areas of our holy land deemed expendable by lesser minds among us — who have yet to find even an acre of land beyond the so-called green line upon which they would confer Jewish political sovereignty.

The current atmosphere in Washington seeks to question and further limit Jewish sovereignty anywhere in Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, I bring to your attention both this book and the sacred cause that its author and others in Shomron, as well as in Yehudah, have upheld for many years at great personal and physical sacrifice.

Much of this sacrifice is detailed in graphic terms in this book. I will leave it to the reader to glean from its eloquent and heartfelt contents the events and travail faced by the author and by members of both his immediate and extended family in their struggle to keep Shomron and Shiloh Jewish.

Hopefully, these sacrifices will not have been in vain, and by your reading these pages your personal dedication to Israel will be aroused once more and activated to help preserve our sacred presence in the land long ago promised to us by the Almighty.

I cannot emphasis enough the dire nature of the political situation that confronts Israel from the current regime in Washington. This circumstance is further complicated by the presence among us of those political federal representatives who, by their silence and exceptionally low profile of advocacy, give aid and great comfort to our adversaries.

If those who claim to represent us in Washington would study the events the book details, and further research the issues that relate to both Shiloh, and the safety of the yishuv in Israel, they would more actively oppose those in the administration who seek to diminish the State of Israel, both physically and politically.

The sovereignty of Shiloh as part of the State of Israel is something that should not and must not be questioned or compromised by those in Washington. The battle for the continued sovereignty of the so-called West Bank begins in Shiloh, in the north, and in Chevron, in the south. We must not allow ourselves to forget this for even one moment, and we must insist that this be clearly understood by all those political personalities who seek our favor and esteem.