Oh for more rabbis like this!
JVL Introduction
“If ever there was a moment for Jewish anti-Zionists to proudly stand up and be counted, this is it”, writes Rabbi Brant Rosen in his weekly newsletter to his Tzedek Chicago congregation. “And if ever there was a more terrifying demonstration of the end game of Zionism, it is Israel’s military assault on Gaza.”
He sees the current moment as an existential crisis for Jews. A choice has to be made.
While having no expectations from the Jewish establishment, he feels that liberal sections of the Jewish community are facing a reckoning as it becomes “abundantly clear that the very term ‘liberal Zionism’ is an oxymoronic contradiction in terms”, predicated as it is on Jewish demographic superiority.
And he wonders whether the stance adopted by congregations which openly try to be ecumenical, welcoming Zionists and non-Zionists alike, is now tenable, sustainable, or even ethical?
RK
This article was originally published by Shalom Rav on Fri 1 Dec 2023. Read the original here.
In the Face of Israel’s Terrifying Onslaught on Gaza, It’s Time to Double Down on Anti-Zionism
Loading article text…
This ‘open tent’ argument reminds me of the ‘broad church’ argument right wingers in the Labour Party use in their defence. As has been shown, you cannot be on the right and be a Socialist. Right wingers i.e Starmer and his ilk will ditch Socialist ideas whenever they get the chance. Likewise you cannot be Jewish and be a Zionist, the two belief systems are contradictory. Those on the right have all but destroyed the Labour Party. Let’s hope their counterparts i.e Zionists are not allowed to further corrupt more Jewish minds.
What else can I say, but to fully endorse (and recommend) the crux of this statement : political Judaism / Zionism is – and have been from the very beginning – a fascist and racist aberration (for based purely on Jew-supremacism).
One thing one simply can and has to do – although I do realize, how powerful and relentless the Eretz-Israel brigade is in engaging “self-hating Jews” – is to unreservedly distance oneself from the inherently violent Zionist project in Palestine.
Political Judaism / Zionism, which final objective is, to make Palestine, Palästinenser-Rein and replace the population – conform the Great Replacement ideology – with allochthonous Zionist Jews.
Distancing oneself publicly and vocally that is, while at the same time, doing anything to try to actively help the Palestinian victims in and outside of THEIR country, who are being threatened by Nakbah-like ethnic cleansing and genocide as we speak…
My greetings and well-wishes to all of you…!
A fine speech, of course. It would be nice if our own Archbishop of Canterbury were to make a statement of the obvious truth. Our Archbishop’s unchristian stance is essentially that the State of Israel has a right to do whatever it likes.
He makes the moral case simply and clearly. However, I think the “open tent” approach has the merit of allowing both sides of the communal divide to talk to each other, to see each other as human, and to potentially influence each other. Hopefully towards non-Zionism or better. Additionally, an anti-Zionist religious community is probably only possible in the larger communities, so the open tent allows anti-Zionist religious Jews to fulfill their religious commitments, and to maintain family and social links, which I see as positive
This article has touched me profoundly, particularly the closing line. Would that more people saw it like this rabbi.
I like the open tent idea in all sorts of areas, not just the religious. I also have some sympathy with Anglican clerics who are timid in confronting Israel, for the same reason that German politicians are fearful. Christian churches are only just coming to terms with milennia of antisemitism, and like many Germans don’t want to get into a Revisionist camp. But this isn’t to deny that the archbishop of Canterbury, German vice president (a Green, shamefully) are also motivated by Establishment allegiances, Nato, empire etc.