Only one “Jewish Community”? Not so!
JVL Introduction
Marge Berer, some 40-plus years a member of the Labour Party, explains what being Jewish means to her.
This blog was provoked by an amendment to a motion at her CLP which seemed to her to imply a homogeneity in political views in “the Jewish community”, a homogeneity which just does not exist.
Her sense of justice as central to her Jewish identity long ago brought her into conflict with her mother and others for whom justice stops at the borders of Israel – the Jewish state within which only Jews can have full human rights.
This disagreement is the basis for what she describes as a civil war among Jews, which has raged her entire life and beyond.
She has, she says “been accused of being a self-hating Jew year in and year out for believing in justice. Yet justice, to have any meaning at all, must be available to everyone equally. A very Jewish concept.”
[The original blog has been slightly modified for publication here]
This article was originally published by The Berer Blog on Wed 23 Dec 2020. Read the original here.
There is not just one “Jewish community”: a response to misplaced efforts to shut down political debate and discussion in the Labour Party
There is not just one “Jewish community”: a response to misplaced efforts to shut down political debate and discussion in the Labour Party.
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The CLP was of course right to reject the amendment, as it is a lie that attempts to deny the real issue, which is weaponisation of fake antisemitism.
I’m not sure this article is helpful though, as identifying as Jewish but without religion is as the author says not relevant to political thinking about justice. This is why I, although from a Jewish family but not identifying as Jewish, will not join JVL but I do support it.
And this is yet again why this is not to do with antisemitism as it mostly pits people against each other who may identify as Jews but are not religious or especially so but oppose each other politically on many issues.
In short, the targeting of the left who identify as Jewish is no different from those who do not so identify or have no Jewish background.
Thank you, Marge, for your honesty and obvious plain human decency. Which is, after all, what it’s really all about in this life.
Powerful piece. There are, unfortunately, more states than those mentioned that privilege citizenship based on religion or tribe (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan are Islamic republics, Myanmar oppresses non-Buddhist minorities and so on), and even more where gross human rights abuses take place, but Israel is unique in being a settler-colonial society based on an identity that must be approved by the religious authorities. It is its colonial nature that keeps it as a focus of the UN which pledged to decolonise the world, contrary to all the other explanations that are bandied about.
Reply to Dave: I’m afraid it is not as easy to get away from “being Jewish” as you imply. The simple reason is that Israeli law decides who is and is not Jewish – and hence who is the “wrong type of Jew” as well. It is not a matter of religion or culture, but ancestry. You could come from a long line of Jewish socialists and atheists, knowing nothing about Jewish culture and still have the right to Israeli citizenship. In this sense Israel claims to speak for all Jews and it is useful for Jewish opponents of Israel to speak out against that and Israeli Apartheid in general.
And of course, Nazis had a pretty comprehensive set of definitions of who is and is not Jewish – based on ancestry and not religion or culture. Thus it was possible to be Jewish AND Catholic – and pay the price for it. I presume some contemporary far right bigots have the same view:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nuremberg-race-laws
Beautifully argued, articulate and extremely moving.
Terrific piece, except for one important point. Marge writes: “Anti-semitism, like racism, like hate speech, is a form of discrimination whose intention is to cause identifiable harm. That is the reason it is against the law. . . . Whether or not specific behaviours are anti-semitic is not just a matter of personal opinion, it is a matter of law.” This is NOT the case. Antisemitism is not a legal concept – it has no legal definition whatsoever. Hence, it is not, per se, against the law. The law forbids ‘discrimination’, ‘harassment’ and ‘victimisation’, each of which has a legal definition. Some acts which are described as ‘antisemitism’ fall within the scope of the legal prohibition, others do not. By referring to ‘antisemitism’ all the way through its report, the EHRC confused a non-legal concept with the wrongs that fall within its remit, and completely muddied the waters, creating the general – but utterly false impression that it had found the Labour Party guilty of a vast swathe of illegality. In fact, it found a handful of cases of breaches of the law (and each of these could have been reasonably challenged by the Party as wrong IN LAW), and it drew a large number of sweeping but gratuitous conclusions which it was not entitled to do in law, and whose evidential basis is a mystery, as the EHRC gave no account of the evidence with which it was presented, nor how it evaluated its quality and reliability.
A wonderful letter from Marge Beer, will Kier Starmer and David Evans take it to heart or will they continue along their destructive path?
@philipward
Of course I’m well aware of what you point out. But it is essentially a racist view held by others and not by me nor by many others who happen to have others in their families who do identify as Jewish.
I have no quarrel with those who like to identify as Jews but not religious ones – there’s a cultural aspect which many enjoy and sustain even if they never set foot in a shul.
What I do question is using this type of Jewishness to combat Zionism and the racial aspects of Israel. It has no more value than anyone else -otherwise it plays their game of what a Jew is.
I have Ashkenazi DNA that may be a problem with certain diseases and would have put paid to my parents had Hitler won WW2. But in today’s racial politics I am White British, and that’s the way it should and must be.
Thank you, Marge, for this brilliant article in which you combine the political and personal in such an enlightening way.
Second reply to Dave: I don’t look on the definition of Jews by Israel and fascists as racial. How can it be when there is no such thing as race? The racist aspect of it is not their definitions, but the privileges (or, in the case of fascists, detriments) they choose to grant to people who conform to their definition, which necessitate the exclusion of Palestinians. If you have Jewish ancestry (not “culture” and certainly not “Jewish DNA”), according to Israeli law you have those privileges and you cannot just escape them simply by declaring that you aren’t a Jew.
You might argue that using one’s ancestry to claim Jewishness is a form of “identity politics”. I do not agree. It IS a (I would argue necessary) political act, but identity politics only comes in when someone makes universalist assertions about their Jewishness as zionist Jews do, as the article above shows.
Thank you Marge, for a beautifully written and patiently explained account of Jewish non-unanimity. Unlike you, I do participate in religious activities and have synagogue membership, but I have also spent many long years in the ranks of the so-called “self-hating Jews” for my openness to critical assessments of Israel and its discriminatory actions. There are thousands of us whose voices are being silenced by organisations such as the Board of Deputies and, now, the Labour party. Yet you and the rest of us have so much to contribute to the fight for justice and against *all* forms of racism.
I agree with Marge Berer that there isn’t one Jewish community. Jews in the UK have a wide range of views and practices, as do Jews in the US. However, Berer is insisting here that the UK Jewish community and the Labour Party should follow her views on Israel: a country that she doesn’t live in. ” I do not support Israel’s claim to be a Jewish State because any State in which only one religious group has a right to citizenship is discriminatory; it is against international human rights law. ” This is not true: all citizens of Israel have equal rights whatever they are Jewish, non Jewish, religious or follow no faith at all. 20% of Israel’s population is not Jewish and have the same rights as Israeli Jews. The only difference is non Jewish citizens are not required to serve in the armed forces. Some volunteer to serve. The Palestinian Joint List Party is the third largest party in the Knesset.
England has an official religion: the Church of England. The Queen is the head of the state and the head of the Church. England is a democracy, like Israel, where all citizens have equal rights whatever their religion, background, or beliefs.
The Jewish community in the US and the UK debate many issues. I remember the US and the UK Jewish community protesting the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union and supporting the American Civil Rights Movement. The Board of Deputies does represent different groups in the Jewish community and a wide range of views on Israel, Jewish matters, and Jewish practices.