Everyone who associates themselves with a religious
faith surely takes pride in its “values.”
In fact, we tend to identify our faith above all else with the values preached
and exemplified by our greatest role models. At least that’s the case with Judaism.
My people have plenty of catch phrases to remind ourselves
of what “Jewish values” mean. We speak of
Rabbi Akiva and how he taught that the Torah’s fundamental principle was “Love
your neighbor as yourself.” And we often cite Rabbi Hillel, who when asked
to summarize the entire Torah while standing on one foot, replied “What is hateful
to you, do not do to your neighbor. All the rest is commentary. Now go study.” In both cases, these rabbis place central
importance on how human beings should treat one another. More than our observance of religious ritual
or even our devotion to God, that’s what defines our commitment to the Jewish
faith.
Whenever values are discussed, of course, there is
room for ambiguity. In the above
examples, a debate could center on the word “neighbor.” In theory, if a person lives in a Jewish
community, their “neighbors” will tend to be fellow Jews. So, taken literally, as long as we care for
our fellow Jews, we can disregard or even disdain gentiles and not run afoul of
the directives to be good to our neighbors.
But that’s not the way I’ve been taught.
From parents and Jewish-school teachers alike, I’ve heard that the Jew
is obligated to take care of ALL people, and especially the most vulnerable,
regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds. Such universalism is indeed mainstream
American-Jewish doctrine and has been for generations. That’s
why so many of our parents and grandparents were attracted to socialism and
other left-leaning ideologies.
When I grew up in the 60s, America had the largest
Jewish community in the world. Our community
was also known for its overarching political liberalism. In 1928, only 28 percent of Jews voted for Hoover
– and that was the election he won. In
1932, Hoover’s total among Jews was 18%, and for the next four elections, the
Republican candidate did even worse.
Even in 1972, when Nixon won 49 states, McGovern had a +30% margin among
Jews. Next year, in fact, will be the
100th anniversary of the last time that a Republican Presidential candidate
won 40% of the Jewish vote. Over the
past 100 years, our community has become far more affluent, but no less
politically liberal. Some might say that
we’ve been willing to vote against our own pecuniary interest in order to be
true to the “values” that defined our sense of identity.
As children who cleaved to our sense of Jewish values,
my friends and I spoke about the nation of Israel in glowing and even heroic
terms. Back then, Israel symbolized both
Jewish progressivism and an antidote to Jewish victimization. This little country was started primarily by
secular socialists and other leftists. They
gathered together in economic collectives known as Kibbutzim and for decades, their
progressive party (Labor) dominated every election. While most American Jews weren’t exactly historians,
one fact we did know was that when Israel became a state, its citizens
supported partitioning the land into two-states-for-two-peoples, but it was the
Palestinians who fought against such an outcome. Decades after the creation of Israel, there
was still no “Occupation.” And even
after the Settlements began being built, we all assumed that Israel’s leaders would
support the existence of a Palestinian state as soon as they had a legitimate
partner for peace on the Palestinian side.
The problem, we assumed, was that enough Palestinians seemed hell bent on
crushing Israel and taking back the land for themselves that Israeli had no
choice but to watch their backs and build walls. In one war after another, Arab States ganged
up on precious little Israel, and it practically took miracles for Israel to
survive, let alone to win these wars. When
the Israeli army seized such strategic land as the Golan Heights, no American Jew
in their right mind would have begrudged Israel’s right to keep it. But we remained passionately committed to
Israel giving up the land necessary to create a viable two-state solution – one
state for our own people and another for our Palestinian “neighbors” who were also
victims in the arena of geopolitics and who for the most part are as innocent
as the Israelis. That two-state commitment
became an integral manifestation of “Jewish values,” one that I and millions of
other American Jewish Zionists continue to hold dear and always will.
American-Jewish values, you see, aren’t changing so
dramatically. But Israel is. Now its leaders have enacted the “Jewish Nation
State Law,” which stands for the principle that Israel is a nation state ONLY
for the Jewish people, rather than being a nation state for both the Jewish
people and for any gentiles (i.e., Palestinians) who happen to be citizens of
the nation. More significantly, its
Prime Minister now stands for the principle that all the Jewish Settlements in
the West Bank can legitimately be annexed by Israel – meaning that what would
remain of “Palestine” would be a small chunk of swiss cheese, one that couldn’t
possibly give rise to a “state” worthy of the term. Honestly, though, what’s notable about Israel
these days isn’t just that it is led by people who appear to have given up on
the notion of Palestinian autonomy. It’s
that the citizens of Israel continue to vote for such leaders. Frankly, just as the center-right movement in
America seems incapable of getting a majority of Jewish support, the
center-left movement in Israel seems equally incapable of winning
elections. Yes, they do just fine in and
around Tel Aviv. But in the hinterland and in Jerusalem? The majorities there would rather vote in for
a fifth term a Prime Minister who has completely abandoned a two-state solution
and who is close to being indicted for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Better that guy than anyone who stands for the
same principles that the vast majority of American Jews would select. Houston,
we have a problem.
Speaking personally, I feel no modicum of alienation
from the Israeli people right now. I
have never had problems knowing, respecting and loving right-wing Jews. But what I’ve not had to wrap my arms around,
until recently, is that the world’s largest Jewish population (Israel overtook
the U.S. in that regard during my adult life) is becoming one of the most
right-wing democracies in the world. I
cannot possibly relate to what plan the Netanyahu voters have in mind for the
Palestinians. Are they expecting the
Palestinians simply to pack up and head for Jordan – sort of a Middle Eastern
Trail of Tears? Or are these “majority”
voters reconciled to the Palestinians remaining in Israeli-controlled areas as
a stateless, impoverished underclass?
Honestly, what is the vision and how do we get there? And how is this
possibly consistent with Jewish values?
Actually, I can guess the answer to that last
question. I’ve read the Book of Joshua. I’ve seen the single-mindedness of God’s
alleged directive to the Hebrew people to seize the Promised Land by, among
other things, killing its inhabitants. Compared to Joshua and his troops, Bibi
Netanyahu is positively Gandhi-like in his treatment of the Palestinians. What’s
more, I have heard many Jews over the years argue that the disputed land is
ours because we have the prior claim to it and thus the superior legal right to
it. After all, we gave the Palestinians
the chance to divide it up and they chose instead to terrorize us and to fight
wars over the land; they lost, we won, and to the victor goes the spoils. Some of the Jews I know who adopt that
attitude are otherwise progressive people who care deeply about the poor or infirm. So I guess an argument can be made that this
view is consistent with “universalist” values.
But that argument would not be made by more than a small minority of
non-Jews throughout the world. And it
would not be made by the vast majority of American Jews either. So why, then, are most Israelis going to
polls and supporting political parties who trade in that sort of reasoning? What has happened to Jewish values?
These are questions that young American Jews are
surely going to ask in schools and summer camps throughout this nation. They were asking them before this recent
election cycle, and now that the Jewish Nation State Law has been passed, the
Prime Minister has stated his willingness to annex all the Settlements, and his
alleged corruption has been exposed, young Jewish Americans will be raising
these questions at a fever pitch. You’ll
forgive these young people if they wonder if their progressive teachers have
been feeding them a load of crap in suggesting that Jews are any more
altruistic or compassionate than anyone else.
You’ll forgive them if they wonder if the term “Jewish values” has any meaning
at all. And you’ll forgive them if they
wonder whether they have far more in common with American Episcopalians or Unitarian-Universalists
– or, for that matter, the so-called “Nones” – than they have with Israeli
Jews.
Such wondering is surely going to present an incredible
challenge to those of us who wish to see Judaism continue to flourish in America. It’s a challenge that my Jewish friends and I
didn’t have to face back in the 60s, and yet many of our cohort still gave up
our Jewish identities and assimilated. I
can only imagine what’s going to happen to my grandson’s generation.
Fortunately, though, I don’t have to worry about my
grandson himself – his mother is a rabbi and his parents will raise him
right. They will explain that in truth,
the values of a religion are the values that the religion inspires in the minds
of all of its inhabitants. So Jewish
values are my values, they’re Netanyahu’s values, and they’re the values of
everyone who identifies with the faith and is inspired by it.
It is incumbent on each of us to continue to study the
great works associated with our faith, to develop our values based on that
study, and to exemplify those values in our conduct. If in doing so we seem out of step with the majority
of our people, so be it. There is enough wisdom in Judaism – and, for
that matter, in all the world’s great religions – to inspire free-thinking
individuals to find a set of values by which they can live their lives. If you’re truly religious, you should have
the courage to stick to those values even when it appears you’re merely a voice
in the wilderness.
So to those people in and around Tel Aviv who continue
to lose one national election after another, please hold your heads high and keep
on fighting. Someday, you might find
yourselves in the majority again. And who knows? Maybe that’s when your country will dismantle
some of these imperialist settlements and make the kind of peace that honors
the Palestinians, your values, and mine.
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