Jewish identity beyond Israel
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Whatever Zionism may have meant to progressive Jews in the past, one form has triumphed, expressed in and through the Israeli state – separatist, ethno-nationalist, apartheid Zionism.
As a result, the search for other forms of Jewish identity and self-expression is on among progressive Jews everywhere.
In this collection of essays “Miasma of Unity: Jews and Israel,” Abba A. Solomon looks at possibilities, historically and today, that embody ideals of dignity, fairness, freedom, and humanity.
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Sat 10 Jun 2023. Read the original here.
Jewish identity beyond Israel
Abba A. Solomon’s new book, “Miasma of Unity: Jews and Israel,” chronicles the search for a Jewish identity not inextricably tied to Israeli Apartheid.
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‘There is no Jewish Nation’, but there are Nation State Laws now part of Israel’s Constitution which it doesn’t have, so who has the right to govern the State of Israel, the Judiciary perhaps?
It amuses me when British Jewish Zionists drone on about ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’ meaning in Israel, when they live in London or Manchester and most wouldn’t dream of making aliyah in such an alien and often unsafe country. My riposte is – can you not self-determine as a Jew in London or New York? Their answer – of course, as there is nothing else they can say.
As for the ‘diaspora’ this is wrong way around – if anything Israel is part of the Jewish diaspora. When my family go on visits to see where our grandparents came from we go to… Poland and Russia.
Read this & saw so much logic & a different perspective, especially about the fact that Jews live all over the world!
Having had a grandmother & Mother who were removed from Poland & taken in cattle trucks across Russia & Siberia the stories were horrific, brutal , the stuff of nightmares! From that I had said my home is where I put my doormat & there have been many homes from one room to somewhere bigger & we are not Jewish but European Refugees who would never steal another persons home or treat them as Israelis treat Palestinians!
It wasn’t the Palestinians who idolised
Hitler & built camps, yet Israelis are herding human beings into a tiny space to STEAL & dehumanise Palestinians! That’s BARBARIC & INHUMAN!
Is Judaism a religion or a nationality? Zionism would have us believe that it is both, with nationality taking preference over religion. This is born out by the fact that the early proponents of Zionism were mostly secular. The claim by Zionists that Palestine is Jewish land, conveniently ignores the fact that thousands of years ago Judaism, in whatever form it was practised in Palestine, was not the only belief system in that area. Zionism therefore has at it’s heart a racist dogma by attempting to exclude those who descended from other communities, their rightful place in Palestine.