Flyer announcing new venue for event (click to enlarge)
An event is taking place in New York City on April 4th [flyer at right] to discuss the following questions: Is Israel—or can it be—a democracy? Is there—or can there be—equality in Israel? Can a Jewish state be democratic? The current realities in Palestine/Israel, and deep concerns about justice and equality, make this conversation urgent. Two high-profile rabbis in New York City played key, and starkly contrasting, roles as the planning for this event unfolded.
One rabbi did not want the conversation to happen at all—at least not in any space over which he had control. The very mention of BDS in the flyer announcing the event—that this panel had grown out of questions asked at an earlier panel on BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions]—made the conversation, in his words, “beyond the pale;” it was not going to take place in his “home.” And so he had his assistant cancel the contract the synagogue had signed to rent out its space for the event. (Only when we held him to account with his contractual liability did he grudgingly back down, telling us he wished we would go elsewhere and demanding that we not use the name of the synagogue even as part of the address in our promotional materials lest the synagogue suffer “reputational harm” for which we would be held responsible.)
But there is another rabbi in this story—the one who opened her arms and her synagogue and said: “I am disturbed by the trend in the Jewish community to censor discussions about Israel and Palestine. I feel like it’s my moral responsibility to make sure this burning issue that’s facing us as a Jewish people gets a complete debate and discussion.”
What is the message we want to convey to our children during this Passover season, a holiday that embodies a commitment to asking questions and pursuing freedom and justice? Do we want them to learn that being Jewish means shutting down conversations that might challenge us to act more ethically? That some questions about what we do and how we treat others are “beyond the pale” and so we must not address them together as a community? Or do we want them to experience being Jewish as encouraging honest and genuine and open discussion about hard issues that might help us discover how we can support what is just and what is right? Which rabbi’s words would we like to resonate with our children?
As the Israeli occupation becomes more and more entrenched, as basic civil liberties and human rights are increasingly being eroded, and as the Israeli government continues its expansionist policies in the name of the Jewish people, aren’t questions like the ones above screaming for our attention? As the Palestinian people continue to struggle for liberation, we can and should demand no less from our rabbis and from our institutions than a full commitment to asking these tough and urgent questions and challenging ourselves about the ways we can most meaningfully participate in pursuing justice. And what better time to insist upon this than during Passover?
This piece first appeared at Muzzlewatch yesterday. Nevel is one of 15 cosponsors of the April 4 program, at 7 PM at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City.
“Oh, democracy, what a dreadful invention, wherever did it come from?” (Attributed by Peres to Arafat, in more or less these words, but, really, a rather wide-spread thought, isn’t it?)
So, can a synagogue be democratic? (Yes, and some are. Kudos to Kleinbaum.) But some do not at all aspire to be. Ditto Hillel. Ditto AIPAC. Ditto Israel w.r.t. Arab Israelis, especially those who were displaced in 1948 and made permanent exiles of the state.
So, that being the case, why is the question of democracy in Israel an urgent question HERE? Answer: it is urgent to those who prize democracy, and it is anathema (negatively urgent) to those who prize top-down tyranny, the tyranny of money or other concentrated power. (Democracy is about distributed power, and anathema to those who possess or wish to possess contentrated power.)
What bothers me is that Dick and Jane don’t know there’s an issue here, and neither do their tax dollars.
A “Jewish” State can’t be democratic can it?….the whole point to the “Jewish State” was and is a State *for ,*of and *by Jews based on victimhood and the Bible deed for a ‘unique’ people.
That’s why their discussions about Jewish State and democracy are so ridiculous……because what they’re really trying to figure out with all this agonizing is how they can remain the ‘Jewish unique ‘ in a democracy when a actual democracy means equal not unique.
Well I am sure they will solve it eventually by ‘inventing’ a new definition of democracy…they’ve invented their own definitions of everything else.
Is what it means to be Jewish the root, now, of the discussion of support for Israel within the Jewish community? Is it finally that fundamental? This seems so end-game, sadly but inevitably so (as so many people here have pointed out).
I know the IRoW part of the Jewish community has always made its case in this way, to which those critical of Israel seemed to defer. Is this a new, durable, reciprocal, potentially-fracturing pushback tack, or passive suggestion?
How many rabbis are attending this event? Shouldn’t it be rabbis spearheading such discussions? Are they not the spiritual and moral leaders in the community? What greater threat to Judaism can there be than Zionism that deprives other human beings of freedom, justice and dignity, is bereft of compassion and breaches the Commandments and faith? Why have rabbis been so silent on the moral vortex and contradiction that is Zionism, or is everyone taking their cue from Rabbi Ovadia?
Zionism is in breach of which commandments?:
do not kill/murder; check!
do not bear false witness against your neighbor; check!
do not covet anything belonging to your neighbor, and do not STEAL; check and check!
But there’s an even higher law that deals with compassion: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Zionism denies rights to millions of people and breaks their spirit with unrelenting oppression!
It is the duty of the righteous to LEAD EVERYONE OUT AND AWAY FROM ZIONISM that is without a doubt JUDAISM’S DETRIMENT. Zionism is the antithesis of faith and moral conduct, it’s AN UNHOLY MESS representing staggering injustice that nothing on earth or in heaven can excuse. Correct me if I’m wrong: Were footnotes outlining excuses and exceptions to the rule included on Moses’ tablets???