(RNS) — Let me expose you about my colleague, Rabbi Ari Jun. He serves as a rabbi in Cincinnati — which simply happens to be the birthplace of every institution in American Reform Judaism. There used to be to be a rally in opposition to neo-Nazism and white supremacy. He wished to keep up a correspondence.
What’s going to be extra pure — a Jewish non secular leader talking at a rally that used to be condemning the ideology that despatched 6 million Jews to their deaths, as neatly as leaving mighty of Europe in ruins, and the notify where The US’s most attention-grabbing generation sacrificed their lives?
No. Not allowed. The reason?
Rabbi Ari Jun is a Zionist. As JTA reported:
“Some of your values build no longer in level of fact align with the values this inform is attempting to suggest,” Laini Smith, an organizer of the rally being held Sunday in town’s Washington Park, advised him by textual snort message.
Billie Pittman, one other organizer with Queen City United, a innovative community, spelling things out mighty extra clearly: “Rabbi Ari Jun is a renowned Zionist, and whereas this match is supposed to oppose Nazis and white supremacy, allowing Zionists to rob half undermines the usual procedure of the demonstration.”
In the times main as a lot as Purim, a rabbi channeled Queen Esther and Mordecai. He wished to stand up for his people — but beyond that, he wished to stand up for all people struggling hatred and oppression.
Please accumulate your minds around this: A Jew is no longer any longer allowed to keep up a correspondence out in opposition to Nazism, because he is a Zionist.
Please accumulate your minds around this: The overwhelming majority of American rabbis, as neatly as of American Jews, would elaborate themselves as Zionists (supporters of Israel) in some system.
So, the prohibition in opposition to Zionists can handiest mean: no rabbis and no Jews.
Which brings me to a French Jew, Edmond Fleg. In 1909, he wrote a renowned litany: “I’m a Jew.”
In section:
I’m a Jew because my faith calls for of me no abdication of the mind.
I’m a Jew because my faith requires of me the total devotion of my coronary heart.
I’m a Jew because in every notify where struggling weeps, I cry …
Edmond Fleg in 1910. (Photo by Henri Manuel/Wikimedia/Inventive Commons)
I dedicate this up so far version of Fleg’s litany to Rabbi Ari Jun.
I dedicate it to young Jews, who face his quiz in their excessive faculties and on their faculty campuses and even, I even have heard, on dates.
I dedicate it to all Jews who’ve well-known to expose themselves, their commitments, and their passions — in programs that might per chance well per chance never be required of any varied community.
I’m a Zionist because the Jewish people begins with Abraham and Sarah’s connection to the land of Israel. That connection is reaffirmed all the device by the generations of the patriarchs and matriarchs; continues with the conquest of the land below Joshua; continues in the duration of the tribal chieftains; the dominion of Israel below Saul, David and Solomon; the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and except the time of the Babylonian exile, and in a while, with the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty below the Hasmonean kings, the heirs of the Maccabees.
I’m a Zionist because even and especially in the time of exile — below the Babylonians after which later below the Romans — Jews never stopped anticipating the Land.
I’m a Zionist because Jewish liturgy continuously expresses that anticipating the Land. You might per chance per chance no longer saunter three pages in the prayer book without encountering Zion and Jerusalem. You might per chance per chance no longer pray after a meal without encountering Zion and Jerusalem. You might per chance per chance no longer back Jewish existence cycle celebrations without encountering Zion and Jerusalem: at a Jewish wedding, where the enjoyment of the return to Zion mirrors the enjoyment of the wedding couple, and on the funeral, where the ineffective is buried with a get of soil from Jerusalem in the grave, and where the mourners are comforted among all those “who mourn in Zion and Jerusalem.” To amputate those references is to construct an act of horrible surgical procedure.
I’m a Zionist because the Jewish people well-known its return to the Land. To position it bluntly: It used to be about safety and survival. This used to be like minded for Jews in Europe, as Jewish emancipation failed. It used to be mighty extra like minded in the Arab nations, where Jewish emancipation used to be never in level of fact tried.
I’m a Zionist because, particularly in the wake of the Holocaust, Jewish sovereignty turned a extremely effective response to Jewish weak point.
I’m a Zionist because the notify of Israel is an experiment: Can Jews construct a society rooted in Jewish tips and beliefs, whereas simultaneously creating a notify for all its voters, as promised in its Declaration of Independence? That experiment has every its successes and failures. The notify’s screw ups and frustrations don’t appear to be any worse than those of any varied notify. Unexcited, it reaches for an very very most attention-grabbing.
I’m a Zionist because the notify of Israel represents the resurrection of Jewish custom, literature and language. I will be capable to stroll down the avenue in Tel Aviv and listen to phrases that the Prophet Isaiah would have recognized, as neatly as phrases that he might per chance well per chance no longer have imagined. The Hebrew language is unusual-light, like Judaism itself.
I’m a Zionist because I keep in mind in self-chance for the Palestinian people. I want Palestinians to trip sovereignty, as I want Israel to trip safety. We would prefer extra voices that might per chance verify all aspects of that equation.
I’m a Zionist because I will no longer let the Jew-haters accumulate. When critique of Israel’s insurance policies slides into hatred for the very most attention-grabbing Jewish notify on this planet, and when that slides into hatred of the Jewish people, you camouflage yourselves for who you are. If you are making stronger a terrorist community that is accountable for the worst day in Jewish history since 1945, you camouflage yourselves for who you are. Paradoxically, you camouflage why Israel used to be even well-known in the important thing notify — to protect ourselves in opposition to people like you, especially when they’ve weapons.
If you ask Jews, “Are you a Zionist?” you are curating our Jewish identity. If you chant: “We don’t want no Zionists right here!” you are asserting that Jews are acceptable handiest if they direct their connection to the Jewish notify. Since the overwhelming majority of Jews on this planet make stronger Israel, you are asserting that you honest build no longer like Jews.
At the least have the decency and honesty to admit that you’re a bigot.
You don’t appear to be any better than those that throw pennies at Jewish children.
You don’t appear to be any better than those that known as Jews Christ-killers.
You don’t appear to be any better than those polite Jew-haters who wouldn’t enable our young people into universities or jobs or clubs.
I’m a Zionist because as a Jew, I is per chance no longer shy.
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