I will stand with and by you, O Israel, even as I know we have both changed

I was part of the lucky generation, the baby boomers born in the decades after the war, which was meant to end all wars, those who were born into an era of hope for the future and an end to the hatred of Jews. These were halcyon days of the newly minted State of Israel, admired by the world and bewitched by its success in the Six Day War.

A few weeks ago, I came across a July 10, 1967, copy of Life magazine. On its cover is a photo of an Israeli soldier cooling off in the Suez Canal, with the headline:  The astounding war and its aftermath. The soldier is rising from the water like a Greek God, a dazzling young David, his rifle held high, his face beaming with pride.

This was the Israel of my childhood. My heart leaps as I remember carrying the blue and white flag as a kid on Simchat Torah. I grew up with Israel assured by the security it gave my Shoah-wounded father, emboldened by the pride it gave me in its assertion of Jewish dignity and independence after centuries of fear and oppression.

Even as I have aged and engaged with the moral complexities of Jewish statehood and the terrible price Israel pays for its occupation of places beloved by my Torah but claimed by others, I have still held on to my dreams of this dazzling land - its incredible achievements, its astonishing energy and its undaunted spirit.

I have worried about the deep divisions in the country, the rise of right-wing religious extremism, the ugly politicisation of Haredi parties, the stridency of secular voices, the strains on the democratic process, the inadequacies in the integration of Arab Israeli citizens.