There’s been a lot in the news about the “new” anti-Semitism, about Jewish self-hatred, about Zionism as
Judaism. About the intersection of these issues, and how they relate to progressive Jews. And I myself have a very complicated relationship with this discussion…
But (whatever you may think of him) Rabbi Michael Lerner is able to speak in a clear and singleminded way about this topic, so it’s worth taking time to go and read what he’s written for The San Jose Mercury (reprinted in Tikkun).
In particular, this paragraph interests me:
The impact of the silencing of debate about Israeli policy on Jewish life has been devastating. We at Tikkun are constantly encountering young Jews who say that they can no longer identify with their Jewishness, because they have been told that their own intuitive revulsion at watching the Israeli settlers with IDF support violate the human rights of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank or their own questioning of Israel’s right to occupy the West Bank are proof that they are “self-hating Jews.” The Jewish world is driving away its own young.
Now, whatever you think of Middle-east coverage and the American media. Whatever solidarity you feel with Israel… I have to tell you that this paragraph is true. That I saw a lot of this on campus, working for Hillel. Young Jews we were trying to “engage” responded by telling us they weren’t the “kind of Jews” we wanted at Hillel. That said that they “didn’t belong” because of their politics. They weren’t rude or mean or abusive… they just felt the way you feel when a Jehova’s Witness comes knocking. It wasn’t their thing. It wasn’t their Judaism.
And maybe you want to be in a club with “people like that” and maybe you don’t. But there really is a lot of this going on, and I think it’s sad.
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