Oh for more rabbis like this!
JVL Introduction
“If ever there was a moment for Jewish anti-Zionists to proudly stand up and be counted, this is it”, writes Rabbi Brant Rosen in his weekly newsletter to his Tzedek Chicago congregation. “And if ever there was a more terrifying demonstration of the end game of Zionism, it is Israel’s military assault on Gaza.”
He sees the current moment as an existential crisis for Jews. A choice has to be made.
While having no expectations from the Jewish establishment, he feels that liberal sections of the Jewish community are facing a reckoning as it becomes “abundantly clear that the very term ‘liberal Zionism’ is an oxymoronic contradiction in terms”, predicated as it is on Jewish demographic superiority.
And he wonders whether the stance adopted by congregations which openly try to be ecumenical, welcoming Zionists and non-Zionists alike, is now tenable, sustainable, or even ethical?
RK
This article was originally published by Shalom Rav on Fri 1 Dec 2023. Read the original here.
In the Face of Israel’s Terrifying Onslaught on Gaza, It’s Time to Double Down on Anti-Zionism
As we well know, there have been, in recent years, increasingly vociferous calls from the Israeli government, Israel advocates and Jewish institutions to label anti-Zionism as antisemitism. While it’s a troubling phenomenon, it’s not too difficult to understand why this is happening. To put it simply: our numbers are growing. The patently oppressive nature of the Zionist project is becoming all too clear to growing numbers of people – particularly in the younger generation. Indeed, there’s a detect a distinct tone of desperation in the equation of anti-Zionism = antisemitism, and the attempt to literally “excommunicate” those who refuse to attach our Judaism to an entho-nationalist Jewish state.
Not surprisingly, since October 7, Israel and Israel’s supporters have doubled down on this equation – and on the centrality of Zionism in general. Even Joe Biden, during his visit to Israel in October, stated pointedly, “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.” And now, the US House of Representatives have weighed in as well. This past Tuesday, the House, by an overwhelming majority, passed a bill asserting that “the Jewish people are native to the land of Israel” and that “denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of antisemitism.”
The insistence on Israel’s “right to exist” has long been a red herring in debates over Israel/Palestine. It is essentially a euphemism for the Zionist justification of a Jewish majority state in historic Palestine, which by definition views Palestinians as a demographic threat to the “existence” of the Jewish state. Not surprisingly, the resolution makes no mention of the Palestinian people, who themselves have a fairly compelling claim to being “native to the land.”
If ever there was a moment for Jewish anti-Zionists to proudly stand up and be counted, this is it. And if ever there was a more terrifying demonstration of the end game of Zionism, it is Israel’s military assault on Gaza. From the outset, the raison d’etre of Zionism was the creation of a Jewish state by acquiring the greatest amount of land with the least amount of Palestinians. Over the past few weeks, Israeli politicians have been terrifyingly open about their intentions in this regard, making it clear that their ultimate end goal is to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its residents, thereby eliminating up to 2.2 million Palestinians from the demographic equation. In the meantime, the Israeli military is systemically reducing that equation through its genocidal onslaught on Gaza’s population. As a recent New York Times article chillingly pointed out, “experts say that even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.”
With the internal logic of Zionism becoming so clear for all to see, it isn’t surprising to witness increasing numbers of Jews proudly and openly identifying as anti-Zionist. If we needed any evidence, the regular public protests of Jews calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – and who are willing to take arrest in the thousands – are a powerful testimony to this phenomenon. And I am proud to say that Tzedek Chicago is on the vanguard of this phenomenon as well: over the past two months, we have acquired close to 30 new member households, almost all of them attesting that they are actively seeking out an anti-Zionist Jewish congregation in this critical moment.
It’s not an overstatement to say that the Jewish community is currently facing a critical “which side are you on?” moment. While much of the Jewish establishment is doubling down on Zionism and Israel’s genocidal war effort, the so-called liberal quarters of the Jewish community are facing a reckoning as well. It’s now abundantly clear that the very term “liberal Zionism” is an oxymoronic contradiction in terms. There is simply nothing liberal about a nation state predicated exclusively on the demographic majority of one particular group of people.
Lately, we’ve been hearing news of Jewish congregations that promote an “open tent” approach when it comes to Zionism – i.e., congregations that openly make room for the views of non and anti-Zionists along with liberal Zionists in their communities. Though this might seem to be a welcome development, I have to ask myself, is this so-called open-tent ultimately tenable? Is it sustainable? Is it even ethical: to build congregational communities in which members have such fundamentally different moral approaches to being Jewish? In which some congregational members cherish and celebrate an ethno-nationalist Jewish project, while others rightly call it out as an apartheid, settler colonial state? However well meaning, I cannot view this as anything other than an untenable, unbridgeable divide.
In a recent episode of the Truthout podcast, “Movement Memos,” I commented sadly on this divide:
From my vantage point as a Jewish American, I can attest that our community has now been deeply, profoundly broken, perhaps irrevocably. … I am staggered by the voices in the Jewish community that support Israel’s atrocities without reservation. Otherwise so-called progressive leaders who cannot get themselves to endorse a simple ceasefire. When the dust settles — and please may it settle soon — I don’t know if the brokenness of my community will ever, ever truly heal from this.
While I still grieve over the moral brokennness of the Jewish community, I am proud to be part of a congregation that openly places itself on the side of the divide that celebrates a Jewish tradition of solidarity and liberation for all. For all who live between the river and the sea – and for all who dwell on earth.
This ‘open tent’ argument reminds me of the ‘broad church’ argument right wingers in the Labour Party use in their defence. As has been shown, you cannot be on the right and be a Socialist. Right wingers i.e Starmer and his ilk will ditch Socialist ideas whenever they get the chance. Likewise you cannot be Jewish and be a Zionist, the two belief systems are contradictory. Those on the right have all but destroyed the Labour Party. Let’s hope their counterparts i.e Zionists are not allowed to further corrupt more Jewish minds.
What else can I say, but to fully endorse (and recommend) the crux of this statement : political Judaism / Zionism is – and have been from the very beginning – a fascist and racist aberration (for based purely on Jew-supremacism).
One thing one simply can and has to do – although I do realize, how powerful and relentless the Eretz-Israel brigade is in engaging “self-hating Jews” – is to unreservedly distance oneself from the inherently violent Zionist project in Palestine.
Political Judaism / Zionism, which final objective is, to make Palestine, Palästinenser-Rein and replace the population – conform the Great Replacement ideology – with allochthonous Zionist Jews.
Distancing oneself publicly and vocally that is, while at the same time, doing anything to try to actively help the Palestinian victims in and outside of THEIR country, who are being threatened by Nakbah-like ethnic cleansing and genocide as we speak…
My greetings and well-wishes to all of you…!
A fine speech, of course. It would be nice if our own Archbishop of Canterbury were to make a statement of the obvious truth. Our Archbishop’s unchristian stance is essentially that the State of Israel has a right to do whatever it likes.
He makes the moral case simply and clearly. However, I think the “open tent” approach has the merit of allowing both sides of the communal divide to talk to each other, to see each other as human, and to potentially influence each other. Hopefully towards non-Zionism or better. Additionally, an anti-Zionist religious community is probably only possible in the larger communities, so the open tent allows anti-Zionist religious Jews to fulfill their religious commitments, and to maintain family and social links, which I see as positive
This article has touched me profoundly, particularly the closing line. Would that more people saw it like this rabbi.
I like the open tent idea in all sorts of areas, not just the religious. I also have some sympathy with Anglican clerics who are timid in confronting Israel, for the same reason that German politicians are fearful. Christian churches are only just coming to terms with milennia of antisemitism, and like many Germans don’t want to get into a Revisionist camp. But this isn’t to deny that the archbishop of Canterbury, German vice president (a Green, shamefully) are also motivated by Establishment allegiances, Nato, empire etc.