This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Do Jews rise in exile? Among other exiles in the New Diaspora? Because that’s where we are, among others, as we have always been, now in a more intentional way, living together in our ordinary lives and, for our consideration, among others who exercise their conscience and pay-up for it.
You can’t rise outside history. You can’t rise within a history that is empire only. Every empire-only history has those who rise within it. They offer a way out of empire through empire. Yet we all know that empire will change only by running its course.
Ecological calamity has always been part of empire running its course. For the most part, though, in previous eras empires didn’t know that ecology had a say. Our experts at the Holocaust museum seem to know it well. Mass death comes off their tongue like the reception delicacy that was brought to make me feel comfortable in the Holocaust museum, firmly entrenched in American power.
Jews rising. Uncomfortable for Jews who are used to Christians using resurrection as a battering ram. Acknowledged. Let’s just say that Christians and resurrection are like Jews with chosenness, however translated – they can’t help themselves. We can add Muslims and Mohammed or Americans singing the praises of America.
The fact that some Christians are idiots about resurrection doesn’t mean that Jews don’t have a question about how they will be remembered in a history that is so thoroughly saturated with an equal amount of nonsense that the Jewish wayward path is celebrated almost as if it is salvific. Hasn’t Israel been seen as our resurrection, at least in our rhetoric if not in our hearts and minds?
Auschwitz/Jerusalem. Death and resurrection. Israel soldiers the Holy Spirit. Palestinians and Arabs as the devil incarnate. Elie Wiesel as our suffering saint. Baptizing our martyrs. Who’s kidding who, the Jewish sensibility has been thoroughly Christianized which is why I usually refer to the Jewish establishment as an example of Constantinian Judaism.
In this scenario, Progressive Jews are akin to Catholic Vatican II types in retreat. Both opened vistas only to fear the consequences and step back. Jews of Conscience are like liberation theologians without theology. This means that Jews of Conscience are, more or less, the only Jews left, embracing the indigenous prophetic in the modern context.
Yes, Romero is still resonating in my heart. Admittedly, I assume a Jewish observer status. The peasants he finally moves among can’t be Jews even in my wildest imagination. Nor can Romero the priest be Jewish. Looking in as a Jew, I see Romero’s world and its darkness. I also witness the glimmer of Romero, the prophet, gathering light.
As a Jew, I add commentary, see Romero’s world in its different dimensions, witness the coming and going of justice-seekers. Is that the role of Jews rather than as history empire-state builders? Jews manning the prophetic commentary post?
In the afternoon yesterday, reading my Practicing Exile, my small group entered once again the territory of exiled Jews, now moving in the New Diaspora, and asked if this finally means that Jews will transcend their “us versus them” singled out status. My own writing goes back and forth on the subject of assimilation in the New Diaspora. Which might mean an embrace of the prophetic as practiced in exile without retaining any form of Jewish particularity. As generations go by. If the parents who come into exile with others from around the world bequeath their children only this broader exilic community why won’t they simply embrace all that is placed before them as their identity? Jewishness might be discarded or simply fade away.
New Diaspora identity – made up of the fragments of culture, religion, nationality and geography, an evolving gathering of non-Jewish identities with no particular destination or destiny in mind. Since their isn’t a particular origin of the community except exile itself, now seen as a community, why not accept the New Diaspora citizenship offered Jews?
New Diaspora citizenship is offered irrespective of ethnic, national or religious backgrounds. The only qualification for New Diaspora citizenship is exile, a consciousness of the prophetic and the willingness to contribute the fragments of one’s traumatized journey to the larger community without seeking to make those fragments dominant. So the New Diaspora birth certificate is quite different than the one’s filed with the state.
The New Diaspora birth certificate. What it would look like. Can “Jewish” appear anywhere? Religion isn’t even a category for the second generation and beyond. People of origin?
It’s a problematic or a liberation – at least my small group here in the mountains thinks this is the dilemma. Even the rain didn’t dampen their energy on this New Diaspora subject. But, then, I raised the question if Jews can transcend Jewishness in their own lives with the equally important question if Jewisness could be transcended in the non-Jewish mind in the New Diaspora and in the larger world.
Since the New Diaspora won’t have its own island to live separate from the global population, I assume that the Jewish question will remain. This means that Jews in exile are still liable for the Jewish conspiracy theories and beyond, the singled-out status that occasionally or often rears its head. As in, so relevant for my group, would Jews be able to live in great numbers in Austria or Germany or Poland or the Czech Republic or more or less anywhere outside the United States without being held libel for everything under heaven when the going gets tough and sometimes when the going is easy.
The disconnection between Jews in the New Diaspora and Jews of all stripes, including the millions of Jews who are simply moving through life with family and friends, can never be complete, I assume, since history beckons at Jewish doors internally and otherwise. I simply can’t imagine a Jew in another history – only. It wouldn’t make sense – really.
But, then, if Jews in exile seek the historic cessation of the Jewish prison, will the Jewish prophetic which appears because of this prison continue to appear without Jewishness? This is another way of asking if the world would be better off if the Jewishness of the prophetic, the indigenous root of the prophetic world-wide, disappears.
Should the Jewishness of the prophetic disappear in the New Diaspora? Can even Jews in the New Diaspora exist without some kind of protection from the anti-Jewishness that rears its ugly head in large and small ways? Just because you’re in exile and have applied for New Diaspora citizenship doesn’t mean that you don’t have Jews on your brain somewhere. Back to the BDS examples but I have met others in exile too who cannot resist the temptation to think Jewishness is a problem to overcome.
Full assimilation into the prophetic New Diaspora? Unknown if this can happen over time. What is clear is that I can’t go there – only. Yes, I still think Jews want and need their own particularity. And that Jews need some special protection in the New Diaspora and in society at large. Is this my hidden Zionist, the retro Two-State(r), the singled-out Jew in Marc, the (un)read author?
My Palestinian student raised the question if by protection I mean the state of Israel. When I responded, not necessarily, she asked if protection meant the Israel Lobby in the United States. I responded no. She then asked about American support for Israel as the protection Jews needed. Once again, I said no. Growing frustrated, if it wasn’t the state of Israel, the Israel Lobby or the American/Israel alliance, what protection of Jews was I advocating? Wasn’t it enough for Jews to be citizens wherever Jews live?. As in, like everyone else?
I have never lived without special protection as a Jew. The great majority of Jews in the world today have lived with special protections – only. Of course, other groups have special protections now, women, gays and lesbians and other minorities in Europe and America, for example. Every group who has suffered discrimination needs special protection. Is this different than what Jews have and need?
Yes and no. Since there seems to be a time limit on the needs of the unempowered making it in society. These are mostly confined to legal spaces – guaranteeing rights of women and others. The idea is that once equality is achieved the guarantees will be understood as the essence of society. No special categories, rights or space. Assimilation of all to the one goal of citizenship – equality, shared responsibility. Check your particularity ID at the citizenship door.
Enlightenment sensibility. Which doesn’t mean that Enlightenment is enlightened – only.
On Jews and the Jewish future. No, it is not the same – only. And yes Jews will – also – need some special protection. Or better some empowerment that can link with other empowerment, ideally forming a network of interdependent empowerment where Jews and others cannot be singled out for abuse.
Retro-sensibilities. Sure. My experience is that Jews and non-Jews carry too much Jew-baggage to say that the Jewish being singled out history is over. Though I’m not sure I want it to be over – only. For without the Jewish prison the Jewish prophetic would lose its distinctive voice and contribution. Would the world be better off?
Perhaps it’s the Austrian Alps outside my window. Closing in on me. But I’ve been around. “Jew” is hyped. Through history. Now. Is it the fault of the Jews? The fault of the others?
Jew entangled – in the world. Entangled Jews – in the world.
Jews entrapped – by others. Entrapped Jews – our own fault?
Jews interwoven – with everyone else. Interwoven Jews – is that possible?
Jews – tangled/intertwined. Jews are a bundle.
Still.
Prof. Ellis,
I am confused what you mean when you say: Jews… are used to Christians using resurrection as a battering ram. A battering ram is a weapon by one army to break into the fortress of another army. Do you mean that the resurrection is a tool by an outside religion, Christianity, to break into the “fortress” of Judaism as a religious philosophy? Or do you mean you heard about and met some missionaries who are upfront and focus on the resurrection in their preaching as a central belief of Christianity.
I am highly doubtful of the former. Rather than an outside religion, Christianity was in essence begun as a belief within Judaism by Jews and rabbis like Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea. In fact, the opposite “battle lines” could be drawn by them. Just as King David was once rejected by much of his people, the one whom he is sometimes used to symbolize in ancient poetry would also be rejected. Or to put it another way, if John the Baptist and Jesus were prophets in the line of those who created Judaism, then they could also be seen as part of the fortress. If, on the other hand, the multitudes outside the fortress were pagans intruding and thus “entering” into knowledge of God, then this could actually be a good thing.
Regarding missionaries, sometimes I do feel they are very upfront. But generally my experience is that they aren’t personally nasty. Hey, there are lots of times when in my daily life I don’t talk to people outside my own circle or “business” acquaintances, and it can be nice to have someone smile, say “hi”, and try to talk. If someone isn’t interested, they can say so, or something like “Have a nice day.” Now admittedly I can see how groups of “hell-fire preaching” New England Puritans or CZs can seem too controntational- but such sects can seem oppressive even to traditional Christians, and typical ideas about the resurrection seem to me one of their more positive aspects.
Regards.
“held libel for everything under heaven”
Is that a conflation of ‘held liable’ and ‘blood libel’?
“This post is part of…”
Yup, they lost count. Toldja. Doesn’t surprise me.
> “Yes, I still think Jews want and need their own particularity. And that Jews need some special protection in the New Diaspora and in society at large.”
and who will protect us from Jews who have special protection?
“If the parents who come into exile with others from around the world bequeath their children only this broader exilic community why won’t they simply embrace all that is placed before them as their identity? Jewishness might be discarded or simply fade away.”
Jews, of all people, seem the least likely to “simply fade away.” How many untold thousands of small or weak nations, with their own languages, cultures, religions, have been conquered and subsumed by larger, more powerful nations and have disappeared. Jews have stubbornly stuck around through millenia.
Nietzche offered a provocative critique as to how this resilience was made possible. He identifies in Judaism a theology of “resentiment” in which the small, chosen nation of Jews, who may now suffer under the boot heel of their oppressors, will in the end be saved by their vengeful God who will destroy their oppressors. He makes the same point about Christianity, originally a Jewish sect, which takes resentment and revenge to a higher level – our enemies (our oppressors and those who are unsaved and not like us) not only stand to be punished here on earth, but they will most certainly be punished for all eternity in hell! These theological paradigms, found in both Judaism and Christianity, warped the psychology of their respective practitioners, not least because it was a psychology that didn’t permit Jews or Christians to recognize defeat when it happened to them. As part of the larger civilizations in which they lived, they refused to assimilate and let go of their exclusive language, culture and religion. They kept their beliefs including the expectation of being rewarded by their God while seeing their oppressors (Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia, etc..) destroyed. Rabbi Yosef’s views, as expressed on the other thread, seems to support some of Nietzche’s theology of “resentiment” critique, as do some of the comments we’ve heard from loving Christians such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.