Exile and the Prophetic

ellis
Marc H. Ellis

We are incredibly excited to introduce “Exile and the Prophetic,” a Mondoweiss feature from noted theologian Marc H. Ellis. Ellis has been a leading thinker on Israel/Palestine and his work challenging the Jewish community and Constantinian Judaism has never been as vital as it is today.

Exile and the Prophetic coincides with Ellis’s departure from Baylor University and documents a moment of reflection and transition. From Ellis’s introduction to the series:

It may be a coincidence that my new exile arrives during the twenty-fifth anniversary year of the publication of my Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation. In that book I outlined what I still hold to be true – that the central facing us as Jews is justice for and reconciliation with the Palestinian people. Without both we as Jews are nowhere, at least ethically speaking. Of course, on the empire front we are everywhere, a vision I have seen come true in my own lifetime. But where does empire lead us? That is the question I asked twenty-five years ago. I am still asking it today. But the situation is much graver. As Jews, darkness surrounds us. We have entered an abyss.

There is also hope. I have witnessed that too in struggles I have participated in and the struggles that Jews of the new generation are waging. Years ago a Palestinian told me that the Jewish prophetic would never die. He was – is – right. The prophetic is our indigenous. It is exploding right before our eyes.

The prophetic is also in exile. As old as our scriptures. Yet it is important to think through what both the prophetic and exile mean for Jews today. That is for Jews of Conscience who seek to practice Jewish in an age where Empire Judaism seems triumphant.

Exile and the Prophetic is a daily diary that began July 4, 2012. All entries will be posted here.

Introducing ‘Exile and the Prophetic’: a new feature from Marc Ellis (7/4/12)

  1. The beach mezuzah (7/5/12)
  2. Tighter than tight (7/6/12)
  3. South Africa in the mirror (7/7/12)
  4. Chosen/Kairos (7/8/12)
  5. Traveling Jewish (7/9/12)
  6. The Jewish wheel of fortune (7/10/12)
  7. Jewish (Empire) Geography (7/11/12)
  8. How deep is (y)our – colonial mentality? (7/12/12)
  9. Squandered. Beginning again (7/13/12)
  10. The Jewish pandora’s box (7/14/12)
  11. Tell me, have you ever been fed by ravens? (7/15/12)
  12. Birthright prophetic (7/16/12)
  13. Overcoming partial practice (7/17/12)
  14. Helicopter gunships in the ark of the covenant (7/18/12)
  15. Prying eyes (7/19/12)
  16. The heartbeat of the prophetic (7/20/12)
  17. Mezuzah (God) watch (7/21/12)
  18. They left me with nothing (7/22/12)
  19. The (un)niversalist (Jewish prophet) Edward Said I knew (7/23/12)
  20. Gathering Light (7/24/2012)
  21. Revered to radioactive: peace gardens of the world beware! (7/25/2012)
  22. Chief Last Night (7/26/2012)
  23. Prophet Gray (7/27/2012)
  24. Rejected! Jewish ‘common sense’ religion (7/28/2012)
  25. Reading the Torah out loud (no rabbis allowed!) (7/28/2012)
  26. No prophet spoken here (7/29/2012)
  27. Genocide – donate now! (7/30/2012)
  28. After genocide, no justice (7/31/2012)
  29. Exporting the Holocaust (8/1/2012)
  30. Jewish (Holocaust) missionaries (8/2/2012)
  31. Plan B (8/3/12)
  32. I’m leaving on a (Nazi/German) jet plane, don’t know…. (8/4/2012)
  33. Henry’s letter (8/6/2012)
  34. Decolonizing the Holocaust (8/7/2012)
  35. On both sides of the Congo Line, Jetlag JewTu (8/8/2012)
  36. The ever-expanding world of the bereaved (8/9/2012)
  37. Have you been conquered by the bible? (8/10/2012)
  38. Uprooted Jew, coming to a Palestinian town near you (8/11/2012)
  39. Imagine there’s no prophetic, I wonder if you can (8/12/2012)
  40. Collecting (Palestinian) books (8/13/2012)
  41. Israel’s ‘Never-again’ drones in German uniforms (8/14/2012)
  42. Normalizing the Hitler Youth (8/15/2012)
  43. BGS/BDS — It’s never easy on the Jewish front (8/17/2012)
  44. Jewish (Re)education (8/18/2012)
  45. Romero rising (8/19/2012)
  46. Where will Jews rise? (8/20/2012)
  47. (Jewish) birth certificate in the new diaspora (8/21/2012)
  48. Dancing with wolves (8/22/2012)
  49.  A (Jewish) pedagogy for/of the oppressor (8/23/2012)
  50. Romney’s Romero blood money (8/24/2012)
  51. When the Jewish student is ready (8/25)
  52. Archipelago Palestine (8/26/2012)
  53. On empty suits and olive trees (8/27/2012)
  54. Rachel Corrie rising (8/28/2012)
  55. Rachel Corrie, righteous gentile (8/29/12)
  56. Shoah business (8/30/12)
  57. Rachel Corrie – On the field of battle (8/31/12)
  58. War crimes (9/1/2012)
  59. What about an encyclopedia prophetica? (9/2)
  60. Zen and the art of special book collections (9/3)
  61. Now Isaiah knows (9/4)
  62. Zen and the star of David helicopter gunship maintenance (9/5)
  63. Preparing our defense for the coming days of awe (9/6)
  64. Einstein on (my) beach (9/7)
  65. Plus Suffering (9/8)
  66. Rabbis for Jewish Rights (9/9)
  67. Sounding the Prophetic Gong (9/10)
  68. A Cross on the Beach (9/11)
  69. Missing Muna (9/12)
  70. Our Jewish Anechoic Chamber (9/13)
  71. Mahatma Condi (9/14)
  72. Living in the Oprasphere (9/15)
  73. James Baldwin’s coalition is ours (9/16)
  74. If Rosh Hashanah Returns (9/17)
  75. The Prophetic under the Banyan Tree (Thought poem on the Jewish New Year) (9/18)
  76. When David Gregory Came to My Seder (9/19)
  77. The Next Four Years (9/20)
  78. Researching the Jewish future in the Israel State Archives (9/21)
  79. The Americanization of Israeli power (9/22)
  80. The Jewish civil war interviews (9/23)
  81. My (un)invited exchange with John Mearsheimer (9/24)
  82. B’Tselem and the end of Jewish history (9/25)
  83. The day without a future (9/26)
  84. My encounter with Alan Dershowitz — sort of (9/27)
  85. The circled wagons (9/28)
  86. Hashtag #BibiBombCaption (9/29)
  87. Live From New York! (10/1)
  88. Without the prophetic (10/2)
  89. Kitsch Israel (10/3)
  90. ‘israel’ (10/4)
  91. Presidential debate hangover (10/5)
  92. Adelson’s triumph signals Israel’s end as a battlefield for Jewish identity (10/8)
  93. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (10/9)
  94. When the Russell Tribunal leaves town the machinations of the powerful remain (10/10)
  95. The ‘Free Gaza’ tweets and the challenge for those seeking justice for Israel/Palestine (10/12)
  96. Listening to Sara Roy (10/13)
  97. Who speaks for ‘palestine’? (10/14)
  98. Reporting the end of Jewish history, so that a new beginning is possible (10/15)
  99. ‘Body Worlds’ and the prophetic (10/16)
  100. ‘Body Worlds’ after life (10/17)
  101. Interfaith IMAX (10/18)
  102. Distinguishing between Jews and The Jews (10/20)
  103. Chomsky in Gaza (10/21)
  104. Remembering George McGovern (10/22)
  105. Chomsky’s presidential debate appearance (10/23)
  106. Chomsky’s absent ‘Jewish’ (10/24)
  107. Chomsky and the epic battle between Jewish empire and the Jewish prophetic (10/25)
  108. Red lines (10/26)
  109. VIPs (10/27)
  110. Do Jews and Palestinians ‘share’ the Holocaust and the Nakba? (10/29)
  111. How much justice will there be in a ‘just’ resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? (10/30)
  112. Palestine in pieces (10/31)
  113. When the Holy Land 5 attorneys reached out to me (11/1)
  114. The Holy Land 5 were railroaded (11/2)
  115. Brazil’s barbarians at Israel’s gate: South American Israel lobby tries to shut down World Social Forum on Palestine (11/3)
  116. Getting past triumphalism (in our traditions and our selves) (11/4)
  117. Election eve (Jewish) blues (11/5)
  118. Chomsky’s ‘Letter from a Gaza Jail’ (11/6)
  119. Two more years (11/7)
  120. The Clinton Presidency(s) (11/8)
  121. Obama’s (and our) Jewish politics (11/9)
  122. Forget the ‘fiscal cliff’ — could Israel fall off the American political cliff? (11/10)
  123. People have been predicting a ‘game change’ in Israel/Palestine since the early 80s. Why hasn’t it happened? (11/11)
  124. The interfaith ecumenical deal is dead (11/12)
  125. The 15 most wanted (Church leader) list (11/13)
  126. The face of war (11/14)
  127. The Jewish community’s entire life is bound up with war (11/15)
  128. Jewish warrior culture and Israel’s unraveling (11/16)
  129. Is Israel going Gaza rogue? (11/17)
  130. The last gasp of the ‘purity of arms’ — robocalls over Gaza (11/18)
  131. Few are guilty – all are responsible (11/19)
  132. A state of moral emergency (11/20)
  133. Gaza’s referendum on Jewish leadership (11/21)
  134. Gaza and the ethics of Jewish power (11/22)
  135. Square one (11/24)
  136. Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-constructed hologram (11/25)
  137. Gaza is world’s largest live military test site (11/26)
  138. Gaza City is right around the corner from the Warsaw Ghetto (11/27)
  139. What kind of future does empire and isolation hold for Jews in Israel and beyond? (11/28)
  140. Empire detoxification (11/29)
  141. Taking the U.N. cure (11/30)
  142. Avoiding the Hague (12/1)
  143. Amos Oz leaves out Edward Said and Sara Roy (12/2)
  144. The recycled air of the Jewish establishment (12/3)
  145. Israel’s original sin (12/4)
  146. An acknowledged future (12/5)
  147. Rabbi Gordis’s ‘innermost circle’ of caring (12/6)
  148. Question for B’nai Jeshurun – What red line needs to be crossed for you to speak out without reservation? (12/7)
  149. The rabbis before them (12/8)
  150. Hope against hope (12/9)
  151. Clinton’s dinner with Elie Wiesel (12/10)
  152. Elie Wiesel and the history of the court Jew (12/11)
  153. Is Israel too big to fail? (12/14)
  154. Israel’s failure and the Jewish civil war (12/15)
  155. Stuck inside of Israel with the Diaspora blues again (12/16)
  156. An Israeli plots her escape from Israel (12/17)
  157. Michael Walzer, repeat intimidator (12/19)
  158. Branding the Holocaust (12/20)
  159. The Holocaust and Jewish power (12/21)
  160. The day I spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (12/22)
  161. The United States Nakba Memorial Museum (12/23)
  162. Narrating Palestine (12/24)
  163. A Christmas tree at Auschwitz (12/25)
  164. Redeeming the Christmas season? (12/26)
  165. The Western Wall is as political as the Apartheid Wall (12/27)
  166. Gender equality is worth struggling for. Gender equality within Constantinian Judaism isn’t. (12/28)

2013

  1. Throwing stones (4/12/13)
  2. Women of the Wall-washing (4/13)
  3. Shulamith Firestone (4/14)
  4. Jew in the Box (4/15)
  5. Judith Butler marks the end (and beginning) of the Jewish ethical tradition (4/16)
  6. Judith Butler’s Israel (4/17)
  7. Boston and the drone wars (4/18)
  8. Is BDS an act of resistance – and remembrance? (4/19)
  9. Boston’s interfaith memorial deflection (4/20)
  10. An open appeal to Cardinal Sean (4/21)
  11. Performing the Nakba (4/22)
  12. Exporting our expertise (4/23)
  13. Disaster payout czar Kenneth Feinberg, Gaza and One Fund Boston (4/24)
  14. Farewell to Salam Fayyad and American innocence (4/25)
  15. Obama’s library-in-waiting (4/26)
  16. Our rogues gallery (4/27)
  17. Phantom pain and the cycle of atrocity (4/28)
  18. Psychologist Shpancer leaves out Palestinian trauma (4/29)
  19. Hiding in plain sight (4/30)
  20. Introduction to Jews and Empire 101 (5/1)
  21. Land swaps in Israel/Palestine (and a bridge for sale in Brooklyn) (5/2)
  22. State swap (5/3)
  23. Google Palestine (5/4)
  24. The Church of Scotland weighs in (5/5)
  25. Vultures over Syria (5/6)
  26. Getting Israel ‘right’ (5/7)
  27. Triaging Palestine (5/8)
  28. Leaving Palestine behind represents the victory of Empire Jewishness (5/9)
  29. Henry Siegman — Elder Jewish (prophetic) statesman (5/10)
  30. The Jewish code of silence (5/11)
  31. Encountering Otto Maduro (5/12)
  32. Peter Beinart’s ‘I love Israel’ (5/13)
  33. Jump-starting the prophetic (5/14)
  34. The Nakba marches on (5/15)
  35. While the Church of Scotland dallies, the United Church of Canada forges ahead (5/16)
  36. Joseph Massad strikes again (5/17)
  37. No dissenter is an island (5/18)
  38. The Jewish Identity Network (5/19)
  39. Disappearing Massad, disappearing Palestine (5/20)
  40. My Father’s death (5/21)
  41. My name is the Church of Scotland and I am a recovering….. (5/22)
  42. Does John Kerry have the keys to Kafka’s (middle east) castle? (5/23)
  43. Notes from a ‘marginal Jew’ (5/24)
  44. Freeing the president (5/25)
  45. Kerry offers Palestinians a photo-op (5/27)
  46. If the US wants a two-state solution, it will have to impose it by force (5/28)
  47. Swords into ploughshares (5/29)
  48. Talking points for Secretary Kerry Re: New Jerusalem (5/30)
  49. Fifty years apart, Arendt and Butler represent the flowering of the Jewish prophetic in our time (5/31)
  50. Hannah Arendt’s Jewish politics (6/1)
  51. Hannah Arendt’s Israel moment (6/2)
  52. (Accurately) reporting Alice Walker’s truth (6/3)
  53. Barghouti’s warning – the alternative to two states is ‘persistent conflict’ without any middle ground (6/4)
  54. A word from the (Jewish) Secretary of Pandering (6/5)
  55. Crossing the – Israel – and Palestine – Rubicon (6/6)
  56. Samantha Power’s quest (6/7)
  57. Film Review: ‘Hannah Arendt’ is a love letter, eulogy and elegy to the prophetic voice (6/10)
  58. What Samantha Power didn’t learn from Hannah Arendt (6/11)
  59. Arendt vs. Wiesel at the crossroads of Jewish empire consciousness (6/12)
  60. ‘Hannah Arendt’ and the future of conscious pariahs (6/13)
  61. (Jewish) gatekeepers (6/14)
  62. Atoning for the sins of empire (6/15)
  63. Father’s Day– don’t despair (6/16)
  64. Bought and sold (6/17)
  65. Latest DC mantra: The two-state solution is dead, long live the two-state solution! (6/18)
  66. Tough love from Clinton at a ‘left-leaning’ celeb party beats having anything to do with Palestinians (6/19)
  67. ‘We turned a refusing land into an inspiring oasis’ –the narcissism of Shimon Peres (6/20)
  68. Sharon Stone and the anti-occupation Jesus (6/21)
  69. The new Jewish flirtation with Jesus (6/22)
  70. Naming it Palestine, and being censored for doing so (6/23)
  71. Edward Snowden, on the run (6/24)
  72. Israel’s (global) enablers (6/25)
  73. The Secretary of Pandering arrives in Israel, again (6/27)
  74. Kerry’s couples therapy is a setup for failure (6/28)
  75. Obama’s reverence for Mandela has failed on every count (6/29)
  76. Obama’s Robben Island (6/30)
  77. Our confession at Nelson Mandela’s funeral (7/1)
  78. The bench under the tree outside Nyerere’s house (7/2)
  79. Searching for a legacy in Africa (7/3)
  80. Celebrating Morsi’s ouster is easy, naive and shortsighted (7/4)
  81. Egypt’s martial law (7/5)
  82. Jews of conscience takeaway on Egypt (7/6)
  83. US had final say in Egyptian coup (7/7)
  84. Q: Will Arab Spring benefit the Palestinian cause? A: No (7/8)
  85. The Mubarak (re)turn (7/9)
  86. Egypt’s magnanimous donors (7/10)
  87. Egyptian coup reveals the ‘deep state’ in all our lives (7/11)
  88. Mohamed Morsi’s rendition to Guantanamo (7/12)
  89. Progressives and the military — bound together, in the US and Egypt (7/13)
  90. Whither Morsi? (7/14)
  91. American vigilantism and Egypt’s too (7/15)
  92. Egypt’s ‘revolution’ will be televised (7/16)
  93. Is EU’s stand on settlements a carrot or a stick? (7/17)
  94. Power and Kerry work to deliver the Security Council and Jerusalem to Israel (7/18)
  95. Investigating Egypt’s massacre (7/19)
  96. Talking — about talking (7/20)
  97. Are Kerry’s caveats the terms of Palestinian surrender? (7/21)
  98. Oslo returns (7/22)
  99. Speaking stridently, without apology (7/23)
  100. Is Benjamin Netanyahu the George Zimmerman of the Middle East? (7/24)
  101. Egypt on the brink (7/25)
  102. Coupless in Cairo (7/26)
  103. Is the Egyptian revolution regime change? (7/27)
  104. Egypt’s failed state actors legitimate themselves (7/28)
  105. Israeli negotiator demanded that Palestinians delete the word ‘Nakba’ upon getting a state (7/29)
  106. Negotiating away memories (7/30)
  107. Is the peace process a dangerous addiction? (7/31)
  108. The interfaith ecumenical deal asylum seekers (8/1)
  109. John Kerry’s democratic coup in Egypt (8/2)
  110. Drone hypocrisy (8/3)
  111. What are Jews to do with our newfound imperial/colonial identity? (8/4)
  112. On collective traumas (8/5)
  113. Ground control to former President Morsi (8/6)
  114. John McCain’s odyssey into international law (8/7)
  115. Fukushima’s Ice Wall meets the Israeli-Palestinian Apartheid Wall (8/8)
  116. Egypt over the brink (8/16)
  117. In Egypt, fascist incitement (8/18)
  118. Mubarak is released while the Obama administration second guesses its second guess (8/19)
  119. President Obama’s secret plan for Egypt (8/20)
  120. The Cairo morgue (8/22)
  121. Egypt’s revolution was an exercise in magical realism (8/23)
  122. Are we all Islamists now? (8/25)
  123. Will we survive the revival of religiosity? (8/26)
  124. Striking Syria (8/28)
  125. 50th anniversary nostalgia of the March on Washington helps disguise our lack of progress (8/29)
  126. Obama’s double standard on Syria, Egypt and Israel (9/1)
  127. No one knows what Obama stands for (9/2)
  128. By caving on Syria, Obama opens yet another Pandora’s Box of American adventurism (9/3)
  129. Rosh Hashanah and the Primal Prophetic (9/4)
  130. Breaking through the Empire’s glass ceiling (9/7)
  131. President Obama’s Yom Kippur moment (9/9)
  132. Obama missile strikes on Syria trumped by rejection of his interventionist logic (9/10)
  133. Obama punts on Syria (9/11)
  134. Putin’s exceptionalism and our own (9/12)
  135. Should Jews break bread on Yom Kippur? (9/13)
  136. Yom Kippur’s ancient extremity (9/14)
  137. Our indigenous preoccupation (9/15)
  138. Lustick sounds the alarm on the two state solution, but offers little alternative (9/16)
  139. Ilan Pappe weighs in on One State (9/17)
  140. ‘Most Wanted’ poster of imperial Jewish life hypes attack on Syria (9/18)
  141. Israel and its Middle East allies have embraced the three state solution (9/23)
  142. Is Rwanda the Israel of Africa? (9/24)
  143. The idea of exceptionalism moves in different ways – toward community or toward empire (9/25)
  144. The Holocaust cannot be used to justify Israel’s abuse of Palestinians (9/26)
  145. What Jewish leader is willing to take up the opportunity Rouhani has provided? (9/27)
  146. Netanyahu is the wolf in wolf’s clothing (9/28)
  147. Hotel Rwanda at Cooper Union (9/29)
  148. Obama and Netanyahu discuss the colonial question of questions on Iran (9/30)
  149. How long can Netanyahu’s deception last? (10/1)
  150. Israel’s painful concessions are like Iran’s nuclear weapon — a fantasy (10/2)
  151. Israel’s apartheid isn’t just political, it’s ideology wrapped in history and religion (10/3)
  152. When myths about Jews collide with Jewish reality (10/7)
  153. Till American Empire do us part (10/8)
  154. Our rabbis are afraid of their Israel shadow (10/9)
  155. Netanyahu’s cycle of violence (10/12)
  156. The ‘Trickle-Down Security State’ (10/13)
  157. Isaiah’s complaint (10/14)
  158. The unasked question in the PEW poll on American Judaism (10/15)
  159. Is the Jewish Theological Seminary dreaming of a world where Palestine and Palestinians don’t exist? (10/17)
  160. I have eyes, I have eyes (for a people being cleansed and ghettoized) (10/18)
  161. Jews turn away from Judaism, Jewishly (10/19)
  162. Interfaith solidarity from the perspective of a Jewish theology of liberation (10/26)
  163. Interfaith ecumenical dialogue should give way to interfaith solidarity for Palestine (11/16)
  164. Aberrational Judaism (11/18)
  165. Winning the world and losing our (particular) soul (11/19)
  166. ‘Never again’ has changed (11/21)
  167. Signing away the Jewish future (11/22)
  168. The current round of talks leads inevitably to… the Jordanian option (11/26)
  169. Palestinians increasingly concerned Jordan may be given control of West Bank in future deal (11/27)
  170. Haunting throwaways (12/18)
  171. This is the most dangerous peace process of all (12/19)
  172. Beinart’s (colonial) Jewish (imperial) democratic state (12/20)
  173. Zionists saw themselves as part of a Jewish liberation struggle (12/21)
  174. A Jewish Christmas message to the unsaved world (12/22)
  175. On Christmas let us begin begin to reverse the process of fragmentation (12/24)
  176. Snowden’s Christmas address (12/25)
  177. One London church goes on the record with ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ (12/26)
  178. A Palestinian messenger (12/27)
  179. Unintended consequences (12/28)
  180. What Would Jesus Do (on his birthday in Jerusalem)? (12/29)
  181. Infiltrating the New Year (12/31)

2014

  1. Is the time right for a palace revolution? (1/9)
  2. Disillusioned with a Jewish State (1/10)
  3. Thug (1/12)
  4. Sharon’s debris (1/13)
  5. Provocateur (1/14)
  6. After Sharon (1/15)
  7. The (Jewish) N-Word (1/16)
  8. Israel’s castle (1/19)
  9. Kerry’s Saudi recipe for Palestinian homelessness (1/20)
  10. Kerry’s Syrian illusion (1/21)
  11. Are we all Egyptians? (1/26)
  12. The US charade in Egypt, Syria and Palestine (1/28)
  13. (Their) State of the Union (1/29)
  14. Celebrity justice (1/30)
  15. The demand for a demilitarized state is telling Palestinians to give away the right to be free (2/3)
  16. Will there be an empowered Palestinian collective? (2/4)
  17. The Two-State SodaStream Solution (2/6)