Hanukkah for Palestinians
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Stirring words from Robert A. H. Cohen.
He writes: “Just as the Exodus story became a universal paradigm of freedom, Hanukkah should help us to hear the pleas of others and recognise ourselves in their struggle.”
Otherwise, who are we?
This article was originally published by Patheos on Sun 13 Dec 2020. Read the original here.
Hanukkah for Palestinians
As I write this blog post, we’re halfway through Hanukkah and the darkness remains.
Loading article text…
Thank you for this beautifully written reminder that being Jewish should entail some commitment to making the world a better place. This article ought to be in the JC and should be quoted by every rabbi in their sermon this shabbat. But somehow I suspect that may not happen.
I’d like, as a religious Christian, to respond to Robert Cohen’s excellent article. He describes the Exodus story as “a universal paradigm of freedom.” I assume that means that its message has been adopted by Jews and Gentiles alike as a foundation for the belief that human beings are meant to live in dignity and in freedom from oppression of any kind. In Exodus, God is revealed as one who is unlike any other ‘god’: He does not turn a blind eye to misery and suffering but sets about liberating people from it. The process starts with a particular group: enslaved workers trapped in the exploitative system of the most powerful dynasty of the day, the Egyptian empire. But, as the God of Israel promises later through the prophets, the blessings of Israel will be extended to all people, which will include a freedom from oppression in all its forms. Then, when the newly-liberated community of Israel is given the laws and principles by which it must live from thenceforth, it is told, again and again, that the dignity, justice and respect which must be accorded to each and every person – even to the stranger or foreigner in their midst – will be based on the remembrance that they themselves were once an oppressed people.
I have often wondered how some Jews, who know all this, can fail to see the contradiction between these ideals and the reality on the ground for Palestinians; even if those Jews are themselves not particularly ‘religious’ but believe that somehow the land of Israel belongs to them by ‘divine’ right, and even if they see Palestinians merely as “strangers in the land”.
Of course, it’s not for me as a Gentile to tell Jews what they ought to believe, which is why I am so heartened to see a Jewish writer spell out so clearly and simply the full implications of Hanukkah for today.
….or as Bob Dylan wrote “with God on our side”. It would seem that we are not all God’s children?
Isaiah for our time.