Fascinating Story That Still Echoes: A Debate That Shaped Jewish Thought Far Beyond Its Time.

I want to share with you today a story. It's a story that when I heard it the first time, it left a very deep imprint on me. It's about a debate that occurred in McGill University in before before my days and before your days in 1958 between two people, a historian of England, Professor Arnold Twinby, and the Israeli ambassador to Canada, a man named Professor Jacob Herzug. Twinbby was not Jewish, nor was he very fond of the existence of Israel. Herzog was a great scholar, a thinker, Israel's ambassador to Canada, and an advocate for Israel. They had a public debate. Toinby was worldrenown, prolific author, a well-known historian till today, Arnold Toinby. And it was a public debate. Twinb presented his case. The case he made was Judaism is similar to Christianity and Islam in the sense. It's a religion. It's not a nationality. Just as a British Christian or an Australian or Italian or an American Christian share different nationalities but the same religion. Jews are the same. You can have a Jew of Australia, a Jew of United States, a Jew of Russia, a Jew of Canada, Ottawa. They share the same religion, but they're not of the same nation. You are a Canadian. I'm an American. You are a Russian. I'm French. He's Italian. She's Australian. And therefore, THEY'RE NOT ENTITLED TO A HOMELAND. A homeland is not for a religion. A homeland is for a people, for a family, for a nation. And Jews are not a nationality. They're a religion.