Great Neck
I got this photo from a friend. It is of a private Jewish day school in Great Neck, N.Y. He wrote to me: What kind of message does this send to the kids, and outsiders for that matter?
As an answer, let me quote Douglas Rushkoff, writing of his youth going to Larchmont Temple in NY, in “Rally Round the Flag” (an essay in this great book edited by Alisa Solomon and Tony Kushner):
“The flag on the left was American, and the one on the right was Israeli. Which one was I suppose to be looking at when I worshiped? Which one deserved our allegiance? Why were they even in the temple, to begin with?… I figured the one we Jews really believed in was the Israeli flag. The one with the Jewish star… But then why did we have an American flag up there, too? This, I concluded, was a precaution in case a gentile walked in during the middle of services and wanted to know why we were all worshipping a Jewish flag. Weren’t we Americans?”
Pursuing the question into his adult life, and a critical stance toward Israel, Rushkoff concluded on a very hopeful note:
“If I had to pick a flag that best represented the spirit and law of my Torah, it’d be the one on the left.”
The flag set up outside the synagogue in my hometown was US on top, Israeli just below it. I never had a problem understanding the message.
Well the American flag is higher and bigger so i guess there is your answer.
OlegR — Isn’t the conjoining of Americanism with Zionism — of expansive and inclusive modern Western democratic values with narrow ethno-religious nationalism — an oxymoron?
“Which one was I suppose to be looking at when I worshiped? Which one deserved our allegiance?”
I’m no Torah scholar, but if that quaint business about not making an idol for yourself, bowing down to it, or worshiping it means anything at all, I’m pretty sure the correct answer is “none of the above.”
This modern crop of Jews (and Catholics, and Protestants) makes one nostalgic for the Hebrews of 66, who launched the Great Revolt after Caligula demanded they profane their Temple with an idol of the state.
Now their spiritual heirs don’t even wait to be asked. Pretty lame if you ask me.
Is that so different from those Zionists who have pledged their allegiance to Israel yet take an oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States?