32 - Colin Eimer, ‘The Falklands Crisis’, 14 May 1982, Enfield, London

Summary

LIKE the Spanish–American War at the end of the previous century, the Falkland Islands War was of short duration: seventy-four days, from the Argentine invasion beginning on 31 March 1982 until the surrender of the Argentine garrison in Stanley on 13 June. The number of casualties was relatively small: 255 British and 655 Argentine military personnel were killed. From a military perspective, the outcome could not have been very much in doubt. Yet the conflict aroused strong feelings in both countries, especially following dramatic attacks, leading to the destruction first of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano and then, two days later, of the British destroyer Sheffield. Colin Eimer, born in 1945 and ordained at London's Leo Baeck College in 1971, was serving in his fifth year as rabbi of a middle-sized Reform congregation in a northern suburb of London. Like many of his colleagues, Eimer felt the need to address issues arising from the war in one of his sabbath sermons.

Several themes emerge from the text, all of which we have encountered in previous sermons. The first is the challenge for the rabbi to find something appropriate to say about the war from the pulpit. Here the sticking point is not so much the anguish and confusion we have noted in sermons inspired by the two world wars, but rather the plenitude of commentary by political and mili - tary experts that the modern media have made accessible to the listeners. Should the worship service in the synagogue perhaps be a source of respite from the barrage of news, information, and opinion to which congregants are inevitably exposed in periods of crisis? Apparently, many Jews have come to expect their religious leaders to articulate a response to important events. What can the Jewish preacher add that will not merely recapitulate what others have said, and that will be an authentic ‘Jewish’ message?

A second theme, which appears in the very first sermon of this anthology and became especially pronounced during the First World War, is the problem of prayer in wartime. What does it mean to invoke God when armies are clashing, knowing that religious leaders of the enemy are also praying for God's help, believing that their cause is right and deserving of divine support?