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At
the present time, the Biden Administration has launched a campaign
against antsemitism. This is good. We all know where antisemitism can
lead. Unfortunately, there are some who would like to alter the meaning
of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel. This is a serious
mistake. No sovereign state should be above criticism and such
criticism should not be confused with religious prejudice or
discrimination.
It is
also essential that the Jewish community do its best to reject the
intolerance which exists within its own ranks. In Israel, we have the
late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was removed from the Knesset as a “racist,”
being hailed as a hero by many Israelis. Some of his long-time
followers hold Cabinet positions in the current Israeli government.
They speak of removing Palestinians and annexing the occupied
territories.
In their
important book “Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel” (1994), Norton
Mezvinsky, a Connecticut State University historian and at one time
Executive Director of the American Council for Judaism, and Israel
Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and long-time professor at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, point to a long history of bigotry within
elements of the Jewish community in Israel, the United States and
elsewhere in the world.
They
cite many examples with which most Americans of all religious faiths
are unfamiliar. Consider Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to many
as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, an Orthodox rabbi and the most recent Rebbe
of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement. He is considered one of the most
influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
Here is what Rabbi Schneerson believes about the difference between Jews and non-Jews:
“This
is what needs to be said about the body; the body of a Jewish person
is of a totally different quality from the body of members of all
nations of the world…The difference in the inner quality between Jews
and non-Jews is so great the bodies should be considered as completely
different species…An even greater difference exists with regard to the
soul. Two contrary types of soul exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from
three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness….As has
been explained, an embryo is called a human being because it has both
body and soul. Thus, the difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish
embryo can be understood. The general difference between Jews and
non-Jews: A Jew was not created as a means for some other purpose; he
himself is the purpose, since the substance of all (divine) emanations
was created only to serve the Jews.”
In
the view of Rabbi Schneerson and those who follow him, “The important
things are the Jews, for they do not exist for any other aim. They
themselves are the divine aim…The entire creation (of a non-Jew) exists
only for the sake of the Jews.”
Unfortunately,
we could fill pages with quotes of this kind, as the late Professors
Mezvinsky and Shahak have done. The intolerance found in Jewish sources
is, sadly, widespread and has not been excised as intolerant passages
have been removed from the literature of many Christian churches, often
at Jewish request.
Clearly,
the time has come to accompany calls for resistance to antisemitism
with an effort to remove intolerance from Jewish religious sources.
Beyond
this is the need for an understanding of exactly how much Zionism, and
its treatment of Palestine’s indigenous population have departed from
the Jewish moral and ethical tradition, which believes that men and
women of every race and ethnicity are created in the image of God.
In
a talk more than 60 years ago at Hillel House at the University of
Chicago, philosopher Leo Strauss pointed out that Leon Pinsker’s Zionist
manifesto “Autoemancipation,” published in 1882, quotes the ancient
Hillel statement, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”—-but
leaves out the middle of the sequence, “If I am only for myself, what am
I?” The omission of these words, Strauss said, “is the definition of
pure blooded political Zionism.”
If
ever there was a time to excise intolerance from the Jewish tradition,
this time of growing tension between religious and ethnic groups, both
in the U.S.and abroad appears to be ideal. And making the difference
between Judaism and Zionism clear to all should be a key element of such
an undertaking.
ALLAN C.BROWNFELD,
Editor of ISSUES,
the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism