TheJewishWord

Transcription

TheJewishWord

Volume II, No. 5
Adar I 5776/March 2016
TheJewishWord
Photo: Flash 90
Yo u r w i n d o w i n t o I s r a e l & t h e J e w i s h w o r l d
The State of
World Jewry
Including:
Jack Engelhard, Lisa Klug, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
Dr. Richard Landes, Rabbi Dov Fischer, Ari Soffer
Alex Maistrovoy, Steven Apfel, Michael Freund
Contents
6
Her Majesty's Jews
From the Editor...................................................................................................... 3
Jewish Life in Post-War Western Europe .................................. 4
Whither French Jewry? ................................................................................ 6
Germany: Where A New Generation
of Jewish Grandparents is Being Born ...................................... 12
A Look at America:
The Jews of Russia: A"Golden
Age" in a Volcano’s Crater
A (Sometimes) Great Divide ............................................................... 16
8
The Jews who live
"Down Under"
13
American Jewish anti-Zionism ....................................................... 17
American Jews Must Not Fail Again............................................ 19
The State of American Jewry ............................................................ 22
South Africa – Dark Clouds over a Diaspora Dream
TheJewishWord
Religious Zionists of America, Publisher
Martin Oliner, Editor
Rochel Sylvetsky, Deputy Editor
Uzi Baruch, Ari Soffer, Shulamit Melamed, Senior Editors
Rabbi Dr. Solomon Rybak, Seymour Shapiro, Liaison editors
Board of Directors:
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Dr. Sol Roth,
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Bert L. Kahn, Jack Nagel, Rabbi Simcha Krauss,
Honorary Presidents
Rabbi Yosef Blau, President
Martin Oliner, Chairman of the Board
Dr. Jonathan Halpert, Honorary Chairman of the Board
Dr. Ernest Agatstein, Isaac Blachor, Esq., Martin Cohen, Dr. Chanania
Gang, Rabbi William Kanter, Rabbi Dr. Solomon Rybak, Seymour
Shapiro, Vice Presidents
Asher Brukner, Treasurer
Mark S. Cohen, Esq., Secretary
Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, Beit Din Hakavod
Yo u r w i n d o w i n t o I s r a e l & t h e J e w i s h w o r l d
The Jewish Word brings together leading journalists,
opinion-makers and experts to provide you with a unique
window into Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world,
from a Religious-Zionist perspective.
The Jewish Word is an independent newspaper and any
opinions presented are solely those of The Jewish Word
and its editors.‫‏‬
For questions and enquiries: [email protected]
Editorial offices: 500 7th Avenue - Second Floor , New
York, NY 10018
Telephone: (212) 465-9234 , Fax: (212) 465-9246
Subscriptions:
One year
(Continental US): USD $24.95
One year
(Canada, Mexico): USD $36:95
One Year
(foreign): USD $47:95
Checks should be made out to
Religious Zionists of America
The Jewish Word is published monthly by The Jewish Word in association with the Religious Zionists of
America, 500 7th Ave, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10018. Application to mail Periodicals postage is pending
at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Jewish Word,
500 7th Ave. 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10018‫‏‬
TheJewishWord
2
Vo l u m e I I , N o. 5
14
See the new RZA website
https://rza.org/
World Jewry: Giving the Diaspora Its Due…
But what about America?
An
oft quoted Arab aphorism notes that “Your enemy’s enemy is your friend.”In the
case of America and its Jewish citizens, our enemy’s (whether our enemy has
been Germany, the Soviet Union, Arab dictators, or native anti-Semites) enemy (i.e. the
United States o f America) has always been our friend. Indeed, over the centuries, America
has embraced its Jewish population not only because of common enemies but because
of shared values, goals, and principles. It has been a symbiotic relationship resulting in
benefit to all and which has inured to the success of the majority of Americans and the
security of America’s Jewish minority.
Does there remain a raison d'etre to the diaspora, if there now exists a Jewish country?
Some Jews see diaspora support for Israel as essential, others feel less of a connection,
some are ashamed of Israel for not living up to the ideals they set for the beleaguered, tiny
country in which they don't live but which they consider theirs, and some, of course, see
residing in any land but Israel as a betrayal of the Jewish dream and ideal Jews have longed
for for thousands of years.
This issue of The Jewish Word analyzes aspects of the current, often uneasy, "state of the
Jews" in Europe, South America, Australia and the United States:
Given the current world situation however and the rise of a unique foe employing terrorism,
the internet, and a radical ideology, the question now arises as to whether our long time,
trusted friend still has the will and/or the ability to protect us from our enemies, and
whether our friend can even protect itself. The merger of anti-Americanism with antiSemitism poses a heretofore unencountered threat to both entities that will require new
and different forms of strength, ingenuity, strategy, patience and courage on the part of
both that only the future will show they are capable of.
"In the diaspora,” proclaimed The Economist in the summer of 2012, “Jewish life has never
been so free, so prosperous, so unthreatened." It is far from certain that the magazine
would write that sentence today.
Indeed, the horrors of the Holocaust had given rise to the hope that anti-Semitism, at
least in Western democracies, was a thing of the past. Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld traces the
change for the worse that occurred at the start of the 21st century.
A statement in the Talmud (Tractate Psachim 87) notes that it was an act of kindness on
G-d's part to disperse the Jewish people among the nations.
In the center of this change is France, recently shocked by the horrific terror attacks on
November 13th. An interview with a member of the Central Organization of French Jewry
explores the way Jews feel in France and their thoughts about the future.
Given the many centuries of persecution and torment, it is hard to reconcile the reality of
Jewish history with the Talmud’s observation and reference to kindness.
Life in the UK today for Her Majesty's Jews is described by Arutz Sheva's managing editor
Ari Soffer, a fairly recent oleh from London who visits England frequently.
Yet an analysis of the expulsion and dispersion of the Jewish people reveals several positive
results emerging from what was otherwise a national tragedy and for other peoples would
have been, and often was, a fatal one.
Almost immediately following the destruction of Judea by
the Romans, the Talmudic Sages took steps to preserve
Jewish unity, including changing to a fixed calendar based
on astronomy and mathematics rather than reports of
the new moon brought to the Sanhedrin. In this way they
ensured that all Jews would continue to celebrate holidays
at the same time irrespective of their location.
From the Editor
Martin Oliner
Surprisingly, Germany is a country where Jewish life is
thriving once again. German researcher Oliver Bradley tells
readers about the Jews who have permanently unpacked
their suitcases in a country other Jews refuse to even visit.
Russia, too, has less anti-Semitism and more security for
Jews than many other European countries. Writer Alex
Maistrovoy puts that in perspective with wry Russian humor.
A shadow seems to be falling over South African Jewry,
writes author Steve Apfel. Australian anti-Semitism expert
Julie Nathan and staunch Zionist David Singer tell what life is like for Jews "down under."
The dispersion also led to the establishment of new centers
of Torah learning that developed lines of communication
with far off Jewish communities and thus preserved the continuity of Jewish scholarship,
tradition and observance
Lisa Klug expresses the divided love of land of a Zionist American Jew with a beautiful
family story that spans Jerusalem and California.
Her “yiddishe mameh-mode ode” to chicken soup accompanies her story.
A millennium later, Don Isaac Abravanel, living through the 1492 Expulsion from Spain,
quoted the enigmatic saying in his Torah commentary, calling Jewish dispersion an act of
"kindness on G-d's part" because it ensures the continued survival of the Jewish people.
He explained that G-d saw to it that there would always be Jews in some corner of the globe
who would survive even if others underwent the most horrible of persecutions.
In Spain, Jews who remained hid their religion; Michael Freund tells of the Spanish cryptoJews who are trying to return to the Jewish people.
The diaspora has also had a salutary effect on the world. When given the opportunity,
Jews have always become a part of the cultures of the lands in which they have lived,
contributing to those countries' development and success in numbers much higher than
their percentage of the population. Indeed, for example, since 1901 almost one-fifth of all
Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews.
The diaspora was an act of kindness from G-d in yet another way: The fact that Jews
were dispersed but had common beliefs and practices – and were victims of common
prejudices - gave rise to a special feeling of Jewish brotherhood, an instinctive attachment
and acceptance of mutual responsibility that Jews were known to feel for one another as
distinct from their connection with the others around them.
However, centuries of unabated anti-Semitism made the Avravanel's prediction that Jews
would endure only by wandering from haven to haven eerily prescient. Until America opened
its doors, the wandering Jew was not given the chance to put down roots in any one place
for long. At the start of the twentieth century, the Jewish sociologist Yaakov Leshchinsky
wrote in his text The Jewish Dispersion:
Is that true today of liberal American Jews? Are Israel and the right of the Jewish people to
have a homeland a part of their identity or is Israel just another place with Jews - whose
actions sometime embarrass them? Professor Richard Landes takes on that issue, while
Jack Engelhard finds American Jews wanting.
"When we scan the diaspora of Jewry over the entire globe and throughout the entire
civilized world, we are surprised to see that this Nation, which is almost the most ancient
in the world, is in truth the youngest in terms of the land under its feet and the sky above
its head. As a result of the relentless persecutions and forced expulsions, most Jews are
but recent new-comers to their respective lands of residence.. [The Jewish People] are
dispersed throughout over 100 lands on all five continents."
Finally, the rich but mixed blessing that is America is explored by Rabbi Professor Dov
Fischer.
The re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel changed that perception.
In the 67 years since it achieved independence, almost half of world Jewry has come to live
there. The idea that all Jews should be living in Israel seems obvious to Zionists, at least to
Israeli ones, but is less so to many diaspora Jews.
The question to consider is whether the “kindness of G-d” in ensuring His people’s survival
will continue to manifest itself in the diaspora, or whether “G-d’s kindness” is now to be
located and reflected in a resurgent, reborn, native homeland.
TheJewishWord
We hope you enjoy this issue of The Jewish Word and that it enlightens you on the subject
of how diaspora Jews are coping in a world that is fast becoming much different from what
they were accustomed to; a world much more dangerous and unwelcoming.
3
The Highs and Lows of
Jewish Life
in
Post-War
Western Europe
Western Europe's Jews rebuilt a flourishing society in the second
half of the 20th century, only to see an abrupt change in the 21st.
The future? Anyone's guess • By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
The
Jewish communities of Western Europe
managed to re-establish themselves after
WWII. The situation has changed so drastically since
then, that it is hard to remember that it seemed as
though a golden age had begun and that anti-Semitism
has been buried once and for all. Looking back, it is
clear that the second half of of the 20th century were
the best years of postwar Western European Jewry.
French post-war Jewry had been greatly strengthened
by a major influx of North African Jews, and France
still has more Jews than all other Western European
continental countries combined. The number of Jews
in Germany increased significantly over time, due to the
arrival of Jewish immigrants, mainly from Russia and
Israel. The Jewish population of the United Kingdom
also showed an upward trend. Smaller numbers of
Jews arrived in Italy from countries such as Libya,
Lebanon and Iran. Almost all Danish Jews were saved
in WWII, largely by fleeing to Sweden.
(On the other hand, at least three-quarters of the
140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands at the time of
the German occupation in May 1940 were murdered
with Dutch cooperation while Greek Jews suffered a
similar fate.)
The increasing affluence of Western European countries
had a considerable impact on the development of
their Jewish communities, while the related increase
in leisure time created new opportunities for culture
and sports, as well as religious activities. These
newer activities often facilitated the inclusion of those
who, although of Jewish origin, were not considered
halachically Jewish.
TheJewishWord
A variety of Jews occupied prominent roles in politics,
business, the media, art, popular culture and other
sectors of society, often on opposing sides of political
and social debate. Their importance, as has often
been the case historically, was disproportionate to the
percentage of Jewish citizens in each country.
Remember the socialist Léon Blum, the only Jew to
serve as Prime Minister of France prior to the Second
World War? Postwar France had three Jewish Prime
Ministers - Blum, René Mayer, and Pierre MendèsFrance. In Gibraltar, Sir Joshua Hassan became the
first Jewish Chief Minister, serving two terms in that
position.
In Austria, the socialist Jewish self-hater, Bruno Kreisky,
became Prime Minister – that post would never go to
a Jew today - and in Belgium, Jean Gol was appointed
Deputy Prime Minister. Ministers of Jewish origin served
in governments in France, the Netherlands, Denmark,
Italy and Switzerland, Jews chaired Parliaments and
there were many Jewish parliamentarians.
European Jews received Nobel Prizes in the sciences
and literature.
European Jewish writers and artists achieved
international fame, including the French novelist
Romain Gary, the Dutch writers Harry Mulisch and
Leon de Winter, and the Italian Giorgio Bassani.
The Italian designer Emanuele Luzzati became
internationally known. René Goscinny authored and
edited the internationally treasured Asterix and Obelix
4
comics.
In some countries, Jewish thought and culture
flourished. France was in the forefront, due in part
to the size of its Jewish community. The country was
home to “The Parisian School of Jewish Thought,” a
small group of thinkers of international rank including
André Neher, Emmanuel Lévinas, Leon Ashkenasi and
Ėliane Amado Levy-Valensi. Philosopher and sociologist
Shmuel Trigano stands out as a contemporary thinker.
Many books were published on Jewish topics, initially
mainly in France but eventually throughout Western
Europe. Holocaust studies and increasing publications
of holocaust literature made a niche for themselves
on the shelves. Interest in Jewish issues also grew in
many non-Jewish environments, due to the Holocaust
and the Israel-Arab conflict.
Slowly, as European societies became more open,
Jews were more willing to show their Judaism outdoors.
Some started wearing a yarmulka in public, having
previously preferred less distinctive head coverings.
Worldwide attention was drawn to a scandal regarding
dormant bank accounts in Swiss banks belonging
to Jews murdered in the Holocaust with public
opinion generally supporting the Jewish position.
This ultimately led to restitution payments, both
in Switzerland and also in other countries such as
Norway, the Netherlands and Austria which generated
historical studies on Holocaust-related financial and
economic matters.
It seemed as if most European countries wanted
to clean up their past at that time, in a fin-de-siècle
Vo l u m e I I , N o. 5 Ad a r I 5 7 7 6 / M a rc h 2 0 1 6
Eastern Europe, surprisingly, has a
lower incident of anti-Semitism and
anti-Israelism than it had in the 20th
century, despite the rise of the right."
gesture.
extermination against the Palestinian Arabs.
2000-2015
All that was to change: Although Jews continued to do
well economically and were to be found in all fields of
endeavor, the 21st century started off badly, with antiSemitic incidents unprecedented since the Second
World War. Many of these were caused by Muslim
immigrants or their descendants. A non-selective
immigration policy had brought large numbers of
Muslims into Europe from countries where antiSemitism was widespread. Some were radicalized
and some were simply hooligans. Those who took the
Koran literally considered Jews to be pigs and monkeys
in an extreme case of unadulterated racism.
Efforts by political parties to attract Muslim votes
affect their policies. The EU's November 11 decision,
announced the day after Kristallnacht memorials took
place, to label products from areas Israel conquered
during the 1967 war, was a low point of political
double standards. In a Kafkaesque move, Jews were
not invited to the Kristallnacht memorial in Sweden,
and anti-Israel Arab MK Haneen Zouabi was invited to
speak at a ceremony held in Amsterdam.
France, the Western European country with the
highest percentage of Muslims, had the most extreme
anti-Semitic incidents. Several Jews were murdered
in racist motivated crimes over a decade. In 2014
a number of French synagogues were attacked by
Muslim gangs.
All this must also be seen against the backdrop of
the mantra of "multiculturalism", aka the failure of
Western democracies to integrate their large immigrant
populations and where most remain in enclaves where
even the police fear to tread.
Widespread European anti-Israelism finds its
expression in extreme, false negative stereotypes
of the only democratic country in the Middle East.
A recent survey revealed that over 40% of adult EU
citizens view Israel as a Nazi-like entity, believing,
for example, that the country is conducting a war of
TheJewishWord
This negative view of Israel has had an impact on
the image of all Jews in Western Europe, and “antiIsraelism” is seen by many as a 21st century cloak for
anti-Semitism.
At the same time, right wing parties opposing Islam
have become stronger. Ritual slaughter has been
attacked in certain countries, which although aimed
largely at Muslims, also affects the Jewish population.
Similarly, the prohibition of female circumcision,
exclusively practiced by Muslims, has also drawn
attention to male circumcision, leading to calls for its
prohibition.
There are many indications, including a negative birth
rate and failing economies, that both the European
Union and Europe at large are decaying societies.
Conscious Jews are increasingly asking themselves
what the future there holds, in particular, for their
children. In the meantime, more and more European
Jews hide their Jewish identity in public. One major
exception is the Chabad movement, which has
introduced public lighting of the Hanukkah candelabra
5
in central locations in many cities. These ceremonies
are often attended by local authorities.
Eastern Europe, surprisingly, has a lower incident of
anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism than it had in the 20th
century, despite the rise of the right. In fact, Vladimir
Putin often appears in the company of a Chabad rabbi.
The present reality for Jews in Western Europe is
confusing. This year's influx of hundreds of thousands
of Muslim refugees with no end in sight, particularly
in Germany and Sweden, is already posing more
challenges to local Jews and will in all probability get
worse. Murderers from the Islamic State movement
who have infiltrated the mix of today’s refugees could
target Jews specifically.
The horrendous November 13th terror massacre
in Paris was not aimed specifically at Jews, but
exacerbated the fears of that community and, since
the Islamist terrorists have already announced that
this is but the first of a series of attacks, has brought a
constant feeling of insecurity to an already frightened
community.
Had this article been written five years ago, it would
have been less negative. The question is whether
five years from now, such an article will be even more
negative.
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a prolific author and
columnist, is a board member and former chairman of
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and recipient of
the Lifetime Achievement Award (2012) of the Journal
for the Study of Anti-Semitism. His newest book is The
War of a Thousand Cuts on 21st century anti-Semitism.
Her Majesty's Jews
British leaders are overwhelmingly confident about the future,
despite the spike in anti-Semitism. A look at the thriving UK Jewish
community shows why. • By Ari Soffer
Ask
any Israeli or American Jew about Europe
and one of the first things they will invariably say is “anti-Semitism.”
This, as far as the majority of Jews in the world are
concerned, is the sum total of Jewish existence in
Europe: misery, oppression – essentially a ticking
time-bomb to the next Holocaust.
The truth, of course, is far more nuanced. In fact,
Jewish life in Europe is something of an enigma, particularly to Jews who have never lived it.
On the one hand, less than a century since the Holocaust, Europe is witnessing its worst rise in anti-Semitism since those darkest of days.
It’s as if Jew-hatred has reached a deadly critical
mass.
"When Jews are killed in Europe today because they
are Jews, for me that's a critical mass,” a veteran campaigner warned. “If you can be killed in the
streets of Europe because you're identifiably Jewish
that's as critical as it can be.”
Yet at the same time, while some Jewish communities are packing up and leaving as a result – most
notably in France, where terror is not only aimed at
Jews – others elsewhere in Europe have no intention
of going anywhere, and are flourishing both spiritually, culturally and economically, even as one nervous
eye watches the hate simmering beneath the surface.
Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than
the UK, the country where I was born and spent most
of my life – although I didn’t truly appreciate it until a
recent trip back.
It was two years since my aliya, and more than one
year since the shocking spike in anti-Semitism during
Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. That traumatic
summer saw Jews physically assaulted and Jewish
institutions vandalized with alarming regularity, and
anti-Israel protesters were pictured brazenly waving signs declaring “Hitler was right!” among other
fiercely anti-Semitic phrases and imagery.
That violent convulsion of anti-Semitism left the community feeling more vulnerable than ever, and for the
first time you could hear Jews questioning their future in Britain. It triggered demands for a more activist leadership – demands which took shape with the
election of a rather more outspoken president of the
Board of Deputies, the body which has represented
British Jews since 1760.
TheJewishWord
Jonathan Arkush, a successful lawyer and longtime
campaigner against anti-Semitism, has made good
on his promise to remain just as outspoken as ever,
if in his very British way; “not whispering, but not
shouting either,” as he puts it.
And today, he and other British leaders are overwhelmingly confident about the future, despite the
simmering anti-Semitism.
It’s not hard to see why. Visit the UK – London in particular – and you will find a Jewish community that
is thriving in every sense: highly successful Jewish
schools, a seemingly endless crop of kosher restaurants, a plethora of youth movements spanning every ideological and religious hue (although unlike in
America the majority – around 54% – associate with
Orthodoxy, with the Reform Movement coming a distant second at less than 20%), thriving synagogues,
economic affluence, an endless number of charitable organizations, and plenty of young, energized
rabbis and teachers filling ever-more dynamic batei
midrash.
What’s more, Britain’s 290,000-strong Jewish community is one of the few in the Diaspora that is not
shrinking but growing, albeit at a relatively modest
rate (again, unlike the gradually-shrinking American
Jewish community). This is in no small part due to
the high hareidi birthrate, helped along by the steady
migration of Jews fleeing rampant anti-Semitism and
economic depression on the continent, particularly
France and Belgium.
British Jews are also, largely speaking, free of the
sort of life-under-siege experience of their brethren
elsewhere in Europe, perhaps most notably in Paris. In contrast to the French capital, London – home
to the largest Jewish community in Britain (some
60,000) – is a place where Jews can travel freely on
public transport without hiding their identity and not
encounter so much as a single hostile stare.
But with all that, anti-Semitism still lurks just beneath the surface, and it’s becoming steadily more
difficult to ignore.
It hit me in the face as I strolled down to my old local
shul for shacharit on my first morning back, only to
be confronted by a fortification not dissimilar to what
you might expect to see in a prison: a massive iron
gate topped with rather forbidding-looking spikes,
followed by yet another gate – both of which required
a code to open.
To be fair, most congregants did see it as overkill, but
when a study was released a few days later showing
a 63% rise in anti-Semitism in the UK over the first
half of 2015, it all suddenly appeared a little bit less
exaggerated. A September survey showed that in the
12 months between July 2014 and 2015, anti-Semit6
ic crime in London specifically nearly doubled, with
499 incidents recorded compared with 258 the previous year.
Indeed, although other communities also face hate
crimes in Britain, no other religious or ethnic community is forced to fortify its places of worship, schools
and other institutions in such a way. The Conservative government has been taking the threat seriously, and as recently as May granted an annual
budget of £10 million (more than $15.23 million) to
provide permanent security for synagogues and Jewish schools. But the very fact it is even necessary,
speaks volumes of the precarious situation in which
British Jewry finds itself.
Things have gotten tangibly worse. The new Leader
of the Opposition is one Jeremy Corbyn, a man who
once invited Hezbollah and Hamas members to parliament and referred to them as his “friends” in a
video widely circulated online.
Corbyn won the Labor Party leadership elections by
a landslide in spite of – or perhaps because of – his
astonishingly radical politics, which also included
associating with an array of Holocaust deniers and
extreme, anti-Semitic Muslim and Christian preachers. Among those on the far-left crowing his victory
is none other than George Galloway – who just happens to be running for Mayor of London next year.
In Manchester, shockwaves were sent through the
community after a Jewish teenager was beaten unconscious in an unprovoked anti-Semitic assault,
and left with a bleed to the brain which would have
killed him, had doctors not operated quickly.
So, given such an alarming reality, why do British
Jews still, for the most part, feel secure enough to
stay, laughing off the often alarmist rhetoric emanating from Israel and the US?
“This absurd perception some people have that we
are living in Berlin of 1933, and that we should all be
packing up, just isn’t grounded in reality,” Arkush told
me – and even with all their concerns, most British
Jews share his sentiment.
Why, when French Jews are leaving by the tens of
thousands, did only 6,356 British Jews make aliyah
between 2004-2013, with the rate of aliyah dropping
by 27% in 2013? Aliyah did rise slightly in 2014, and
likely will continue to rise in 2015, but it is still no
exodus.
For a start, it’s because in 2015, anti-Semitism
has adapted. It’s more subtle than the days of the
brass-knuckled neo-Nazis my father got “acquainted” with when his family first moved to the UK from
Baghdad in the 1970s.
Today, anti-Semitism in the UK comes with a sort of
perverse “get out” clause: avoid supporting Israel,
and you’ll be spared the brunt of the hatred (until it
boils over). It doesn’t sound like too bad a deal, until
one considers the implications: surrender your right
to dignity, to support Israel and Zionism and all the
legitimate national aspirations of the Jewish nation
which they represent – and you’ll be fine. For the
most part.
Go to any demonstration or anti-Israel event, and you
will find the most brazen, foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semitism you could ever imagine – but hop back
on a bus or a train and return to Golders Green or
Hendon for maariv, and everything seems totally fine.
It’s not like living under siege – more like living in two
worlds.
But as even the most neurotic Jewish parent will admit, you can only stay sheltered for so long.
And the longer that hatred is left to foster, the bolder
it becomes.
This fact was exhibited during Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to London, when anti-Israel protesters subjected their pro-Israel opponents
to a torrent of openly anti-Semitic abuse, handily documented by camera-wielding activists.
In one incident, a pro-Palestinian activist waved –
then threw – money at Jewish activists; in another,
a man calmly explained to an interviewer why the
Holocaust was a totally reasonable thing to happen
to Jews “trying to take over” Germany; and in another incident (currently being investigated by police) a
woman goaded pro-Israel activists by first denying
the Holocaust, then proudly calling for another one.
Footage of the incidents went viral, thanks to groups
like the Zionist Federation and Israel Advocacy Movement who documented them, once again sending
shockwaves throughout the community.
That shock soon died down, and London mayor Boris Johnson has visited Israel recently to strengthen
economic ties between Israel and London. But, as
British Jews nervously wait for the next “flare up,”
they would do well to ask themselves how often such
incidents can be written off as anomalies, before becoming a dangerous trend for Her Majesty's Jews.
Ari Soffer is Managing Editor of Arutz Sheva/Israel
National News. He was born in London, UK, and prior
to his aliyah to Israel in 2013, was active in a variety
of pro-Israel and anti-extremism organizations. Today, he lives in the town of Shiloh in Samaria, Israel.
TheJewishWord
7
Whither French Jewry?
The answer seems obvious. An interview with the Secretary General of CRIF, the umbrella organization for French Jewry.
• By Tzvika Klein and The Jewish Word Editors
The
massive terror attack in Paris on November 13
and the many Jewish-aimed terror incidents
preceding it have made the question posed in the title
extremely relevant for the Jews of France, a country where
Jews have lived as loyal citizens, despite persecution and
recurrent expulsions, since the Middle Ages.
In the 1960's the nationalist upheavals in North Africa led
over 200,000 French-speaking Sephardi Jews to emigrate
to France, as a result of which the community became the
second largest Jewish population in the world, numbering
about half a million, concentrated mainly in the cities of
Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
France, however, currently also has the largest Muslim
population of Europe, and although estimates vary,
Muslims number about 10% of the population. France, says
Israeli Middle East expert Guy Bechor, is fast becoming an
Islamic country, and Jews and non-Muslims are leaving it
in droves. Over 2 million Frenchmen have emigrated from
the country in recent years.
A Jew on the Streets of Paris – Yitzchak Klein
Terror murders and anti-Semitic incidents have escalated
as the number of Muslims grows. As a reporter for Israel's
Makor Rishon newspaper, I decided to see what it feels like
to be a European Jew who does not conceal his religion and
recently walked the streets of Paris wearing my Judaism –
a kippa and fringes, tzitzit – where they could be seen.
I did not expect the video shot by a hidden camera that
showed people cursing, threatening and even spitting at
me, to go viral. Tens of millions of people all over the world
saw the film; all the major media, from the Washington Post
and CNN to Arab sites and Japan's commercial television,
reacted to it.
Observant Jews take hiding their religion in most of Europe
for granted, but the rest of the world and Europe, still in
denial, was shocked.
What is going through the minds of the Jews of France?
To find out, I met with Robert Ejnes, the Secretary General
of CRIF, Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de
France (the Representative Council of French Jewish
Institutions – serving as the French Jewish political umbrella
organization affiliate of the World Jewish Congress) to hear
about French Jewry.
This past year, violence against Jews in France reached
TheJewishWord
the highest levels since the Second World War. And the
November 13th Paris massacre made Jews feel that they
are an even more vulnerable target than before.
"About 1000 to 2000 Jews used to immigrate to Israel
every year. Now it is over 8000 Jews who left France for
Israel in 2015. This is the after effect of Toulouse.
How do you see the situation for Jews in France?
Ejnes: "We all remember the well-attended march of world
leaders in the streets of Paris [after the Charlie Hebdo
and Cacher Market massacres], but that made it more
upsetting to remember that we didn't see them march
following the 2012 terrorist shooting of four Jews, three of
them children, at Otzar Hatorah in Toulouse, or in 2006
when Ilan Halimi was kidnapped in a residential area
and tortured to death after his screams were ignored by
neighbors.
"We have to fight for Jews to be able to live safely in France.
We have been in France for over two thousand years and
our job is to see to it that Jews here can continue to live
normal lives.
"The Jewish community in France, the second largest in
the world, felt that it had been pushed outside the French
family, that it did not belong anymore. However, what
happened in January at Charlie Hebdo and the horrible
terrorist attack in November in Paris seems to have shown
the French that all French people, Christian and Jew, face
the same dangers; that our tragedies are similar, and, as
a result, it is as if we are once more part of the national
family. It's not quite the same, but we have returned to
some extent, even though we have a long way to go."
You say that the terrorist murders brought Jews back
into the consensus, but we see them leaving in droves.
Ejnes: "French Jews began discussing aliyah years ago.
The pressure they felt was reduced when Nicolas Sarkozy
became president because he was the first leader, from the
time he was Interior Minister, who fought anti-Semitism."
"Francois Hollande does the same and his prime minister,
Manuel Valls, is very adamant about it. At the memorial
ceremony a year after the Toulouse terrorist murders, he
said that a 'France without Jews would not be France.' Those
are strong words and not to be taken for granted, and he
proved that he meant what he said, following them up by
putting armed forces at the entrance to every synagogue,
school or Jewish center. Despite those measures, the Jews
of France are still talking about aliyah."
After the Charlie Hebdo massacre it was decided to put
thousands of armed soldiers in front of Jewish institutions
in urban areas, especially Paris. This sets a precedent,
turning French streets into battlefronts and has had a
negative effect on the tourist trade.
8
"After all, a long list of sages called 'Scholars of Provence'
lived in southern France in the Middle Ages and the famed
Torah luminary Rashi, was born in France in the 11th
century. The infamous 19th century Dreyfus Case is not
the whole picture of French Jewry, nor is the shameful
rounding up of Parisian Jews to the Vel D'hiv in 1942.
"However, outside the Rambam School in Boulogne there
are now eight meter high walls and soldiers stand on
guard inside and outside the premises. It is frightening for
parents to bring children to a school that stands behind
massive walls and looks like a military compound. They
find it hard to imagine their children's future in France."
This year, 8000 Jews are expected to leave the country,
but the number may be much larger after the threat of ISIS
has become real There are still about half a million Jews
in France, but those who are leaving include the central
pillars of the community.
While a fourth of those moving to Israel are post high
school youth, and another quarter are retirees, half of the
immigrants are young families with children.
I was told that in a meeting of synagogue rabbis, most
said they do not see their future in France.
Ejnes: "I don’t' know of that meeting, but many non-Jewish
Frenchmen do not see their future in France either, so that
it may not be just a Jewish matter. Most of the students
at our most elite colleges see their future outside France.
It's not just anti-Semitism that is convincing Jews to leave
France. And, by the way, not all of them go to Israel.
"Jews leave for London, which has become fifth in the
list of the world's French speaking cities, and to the USA,
Canada, China, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
"The president of the Jewish community of Shanghai is a
French friend of mine. He used to sit next to me in shul."
It is important to note that we
are fighting anti-Semitism
alongside the government, not
against it."
How are Jewish schools being hit by the exodus?
Ejnes: "When I was young, most Jewish children attended
public schools and received their Jewish education at
home or in Bnai Akiva. We had lots of non-Jewish friends
and we were a part of French society."
"In 1970 there were 7000 pupils in Jewish schools and
today there are 34,000, a full third of Jewish children in
France. Many Jewish children today have no non-Jewish
friends at all. We played soccer as members of regular
teams. Today, because of anti-Semitism, parents send
their children to Jewish soccer leagues.
Semitism, relatively speaking, of course. Many people
have been doing 'step-one aliyah' from areas in France that
they feel are lost to Jews and have moved to those where
it is more comfortable to be a Jew, such as my city. I walk
its streets with a kippa" – he jokes, alluding to that wellpublicized walk in Paris.
Several months ago, CRIF conducted an in depth research
project with selected groups from different populations,
querying them on their feelings about the Jewish
community.
"We try to fight this isolationism. Jews going back to the
ghetto is not a good thing in my opinion. The entire society
around us must make an effort to be more welcoming
and open, allowing the Jews to once again assume their
natural place as members of French society.
Ejnes: "The Muslims were jealous of our umbrella
organization that every group and stream is willing to be
represented by. They don't have anything of that nature.
They all understood the link between Jews and Israel, but
there were those who were under the impression that
every Jew has an Israeli passport.
"It is important to note that we are fighting anti-Semitism
alongside the government, not against it. Many people
talk about the poison of freedom of expression and the
President of CRIF says that ' during wartime one cannot let
everyone say whatever he wants to.'"
"We asked them to define ‘Zionism’ and soon understood
that for most of them the word is the Jewish equivalent to
Jihad, a kind of extremist Judaism; that Zionism refers to
people who are violent and imperialistic. We were in shock.
It taught us to speak differently about Israel.
PM Hollande said "we are at war." Are the Jews affected
by that war?
Ejnes: "Yes, this is a period when there is a war going on
against radical Islam. There are proofs of its going on all the
time. When the masses of pro-Palestinians surrounded the
Abarbanel Synagogue last July, there was an emergency
government meeting and I told the Interior Minister 'bring
on the army'. He answered: 'If I call in the army, that means
there is a war going on.'
"The study showed that many Frenchmen feel that the Jews
'live among themselves', and 'are not open enough to the
rest of the French community.' Others said that the Jews
have the power, and that every time something happens
to them it makes the headlines. Muslims, especially,
expressed the feeling that no one 'fights for them,' because
'the media is in the hands of the Jews.'"
"Now there are thousands of soldiers in the streets,
because this really is a war - against terror and Jihad."
CRIF, established in 1944, is the most important Jewish
organization in the French Republic and represents
the French Jewish community in the media, and before
the government and the world. Ejnes explains that the
organization has three main aims: "We constitute a proIsrael and pro- Holocaust memory lobby, and we fight antiSemitism."
Ejnes is also the president of the Jewish community of
Boulogne, one of the largest and most dynamic in France,
he says. "In Boulogne, we don't really suffer from antiTheJewishWord
In Europe there are several multi-national Jewish
organizations, as well as branches of American and
global Jewish organizations. Most of the established
European Jewish communities believe, correctly or not,
that these organizations are not necessarily supportive
of their welfare. Often, the communities feel that these
organizations' intervention damages their own ability
to represent the Jewish community and would prefer to
function without their presence. They feel that these same
organizations' influence is not felt enough at the decision
making levels in the EU.
What about the future of the French Jewish community?
Ejnes: "The members of France's Jewish community
who attend synagogue and send their children to Jewish
schools will continue to do so. Our fear is that those who do
9
not do so will distance themselves from Judaism for fear of
being hurt by the connection with their religion, that Jews
will lose their pride in being Jewish.
"After the Holocaust, there were Jews who did not tell
their children that they were Jewish. We have a troubling
intermarriage problem, as does all of Europe, and that
must be fought.
"Those who make aliyah are those who are involved,
and who send their children to our schools and attend
synagogue. Some of schools are suffering from loss of
pupils. We hope that those who leave are doing so for a
good reason."
What do you want the rest of world Jewry, and Israelis in
particular, to know about French Jewry?
Ejnes: "The Jewish community in France loves Israel and
feels close to it. Every year, some 250,000 tourists go
to Israel, not all of them Jewish. French Jews do much
hasbara and battle for the positive image of Israel.
"Our ties with the French community in Israel have gained
in importance, something new for us. I surmise that most
of the Jewish-French men of thought are now in Israel,
figures such as Rabbis Ben Yishai, Uri Cherki, Moshe
Butsako, Eliyahu Zini."
Five of Ejnes' eight children live in Israel and he admits that
this may have an effect on him as well.
"I have two grandchildren in France, but four in Israel. I
hope to follow in their footsteps and live in Israel one day,"
he says.
As you said, the affiliated Jews are leaving. So in the end
you will as well?
Ejnes: Our goal is that the others, who are not affiliated
Jews now, will become involved in the future. In another
twenty years, French Jewry will be different than it is today.
I believe it will be perhaps smaller, surely more French,
but no matter what, there has to be a framework for those
Jews who choose to remain in France.
Tzvika Klein is an intrepid and popular writer for Israel's
Makor Rishon newspaper, who became world famous
when he was filmed as he walked through Paris wearing
a kippa.
The Jews of Russia:
Ain a"Golden
Age"
Volcano’s Crater
Putin’s era is signified by the relative prosperity of Russian Jewry.
Its future, however, looks gloomy. • By Alexander Maistrovoy
Russians
cynically
call
their
homeland "a country with
an unpredictable past" due to the dramatic changes
that frequent its official history.
As "unpredictable" as the past is, however, the future
is even more unpredictable and regrettably, the
Jews will, to all accounts, be the first victims of this
"unpredictability."
At present, however, the lives and wellbeing of Russian
Jews are stable and thriving, but that will continue
only as long as the Russian political volcano’s crater
is dormant.
Equal among equals
After the mass Exodus in the 90’s, the Jewish
population of Russia decreased by two-thirds; there
TheJewishWord
are now only about 230,000 Jews in the country. They
belong to the middle class - businessmen, engineers,
lawyers, doctors, scientists, representatives of
bohemia - and are concentrated mostly in the big
cities, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg
and Novosibirsk.
The percentage of Jews is extremely high among
the Russian breed of tycoons, commonly called
"oligarchs," including Roman Abramovich, Oleg
Deripaska, Mikhail Fridman, Viktor Vekselberg,
Leonid Mikhelson and Mikhail Prokhorov.
According to the leading Russian news portal Lenta.
ru, only 89 of the country's 200 billionaire oligarchs
are ethnic Russians. Many of the "ethnically nonRussian" ones are Jews, although Jews comprise only
0.11% of the general population.
10
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim that this is
a most favorable time for Russian Jews. This is the
first time Jews feel free after suffering more than 200
years of the Tzars' Pale of Settlement, massacres and
libels, and after the discrimination and humiliation
they underwent in the Soviet Union. All doors and
career opportunities are open to them and they are
not afraid to preserve and observe a Jewish lifestyle.
In February of this year, at the Congress of Federation
of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) 2015, , Chief
Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar said that the Jewish
community has been significantly strengthened
during the past 15 years, to say the least.
The relative prosperity of Russia in Putin’s era has
moderated domestic anti-Semitism, and the Muslims
from the Caucasus and Central Asia have replaced
the Jews as the main threat in Russian collective
consciousness.
Stereotypic, unlikable Jews - greedy nouveaux
riches and unscrupulous lawyers, who dominated
the Russian cinema in the 90s - were replaced by
“respectable” Jews who are professors and doctors.
Russian Jews are in a better position than their
counterparts in Western Europe who live in fear of
rising anti-Semitism and violence. Moreover, Russian
Jews actually maintain rather friendly relations
with the Muslim community - the Tatars, Tajiks and
Caucasians. Unlike in France, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden or Norway, the Jews in Moscow,
St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg are not asked to
conceal Jewish symbols.
"This is an unprecedented Phenomenon"
"None of the former Russian or Soviet leaders ever did
as much as Vladimir Putin has done for the Jews. It is
felt in every aspect of life. This is an unprecedented
phenomenon,” Rabbi Lazar said. “Many mayors,
regional governors and ministers in modern Russia
are Jews. It is the norm."
This is not an expression of loyalty to the ruler, so
typical of Russia. It is the truth. Putin can be accused
of many things, perhaps, but not of anti-Semitism.
In his heartfelt speech to the Jewish leaders at the
FJCR, the rabbi called for a "revival of religious,
spiritual and cultural traditions of Russian Jews."
That appeal, trivial in the West, was unthinkable
until now in Russia, whose past leaders deliberately
showed their indifference and even contempt towards
the Jews. Putin’s decision to transfer his monthly
salary to the construction of the Jewish Museum
and Tolerance Center, which opened in Moscow, in
November 2012, was an example of the change in
mindset.
The Emperor and His Jews
Putin despises liberal democracy. In his spirit, he
is an adherent of enlightened absolutism, as was
Frederick the Great. Like Frederick, he believes that
only tough centralized power can restrain the decay
of the state and civil strife. He relies on national
aspirations and traditions, believes in the destiny of
Russia and desires to make history by returning and
reuniting Russian lands.
Nonetheless, like Frederick, he is a stranger to
xenophobia and irrational hatred. On the contrary,
he seeks to present himself as the patron of the
sciences, arts and minorities.
Just as the German Protestant King favored Jews,
Muslims and Catholics, demanding loyalty in return,
the new Russian Orthodox "Tsar" favors other
minorities in return for respect to him. Anti-Semitism
is damaging to his reputation as the fair ruler of an
empire.
Jews are allowed to show sympathy to Israel, just as
Muslims are allowed to sympathize with the Islamic
world, as long as all of them are obedient to him.
Russian Jews supported the Kremlin on key issues.
Only recently, Rabbi Boruch Gorin, a Chabad senior
aide to Berel Lazar, welcomed the action of the
Russian Air Force in Syria.
There is another point to be considered with regard to
Putin: Jews played an important and positive role in
his life. He was very grateful to his German teacher,
a Jewess named Mina Yuditskaya, and was always
open about it. As soon as he became president, he
purchased an apartment for her in Tel-Aviv.
His Judo coach, Anatoly Rakhlin (also Jewish), played
an important role in his life. Putin’s best friends in his
Judo club, and later his partners in business, were
Jews named Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.
Russian Jews and Israel: Zero Political Correctness
Jewish leaders in Russia, unlike Jews in the West,
don’t hide their strong support for Israel.
For Putin, who cultivates courage and honor, the
image of a Jew is not associated with fraud or
intellectualism, but with fighters, and this attitude
extends to Israel.
In October, a delegation that included 50 rabbis,
headed by Rabbi Lazar, as well as community leaders
and businessmen from Russia, visited Israel.
Putin respects Israel and its leaders for their
persistence and strength, while considering Western
countries and leaders faint-hearted, naive and
mercantile. He deliberately humiliates Western
leaders by systematically arriving late for meetings
with them (more than 4 hours with Angela Merkel, 3
hours – with John Kerry and 40 minutes – with Barak
Obama), but acts as an equal with Netanyahu, whose
military past has impressed him.
Lazar publicly condemned Arab terror without any
politically correct equivocations about the "peace
process" and "ending the occupation;" the delegation
visited Rachel's tomb and Gush Etzion.
It wasn’t the first example of open solidarity with
Israel, in contrast to the ambiguity, distancing,
confusion and timidity of Western Jewry.
In October 2015, Dr. Yuri Kanner, the president of the
Russian Jewish Congress, said that the PA provoked
the current wave of terror in Israel because of their fear
of losing European donations, explaining forthrightly
that “compassionate Europeans switched to other
miserable people [refugees], and functionaries
of Fatah decided to regain the monopoly, using
Palestinian suffering.”
The paradox is that the approach of pro-Israeli
community leaders does not fit well with the official
policy of Moscow, which has a "special relationship"
with the PA and a “flirtation” with Hamas, organizations
whose leaders are honored guests at the Kremlin.
This is a phenomenon of the Putin era; he plays a
rather enigmatic role in both arenas.
TheJewishWord
doesn’t indulge them.
The question is, what will happen “after Putin?"
Clouds on the Horizon
According to the head of the Federation of Jewish
Communities of Russia, Alexander Boroda, Putin’s
departure from the political arena would pose a
serious threat to the Jews.
Chaos or a new ruler with traditional anti-Semitic
prejudices will put an end to the "golden era" of
Russian Jewry.
Traditionally, Russia has always been rife with antiSemitism. There are many fables in its people’s
collective consciousness about "Judeo-Masonic
Conspiracies" and any serious crisis can revive old
phobias.
The Russian Internet is obsessed with anti-Semitism.
Numerous sites abound which list Jewish names
hiding under Russian pseudonyms, "fake numbers
of Jews" in the government; claims that Gorbachev,
Yeltsin and Putin are actually "undercover Jews," that
the October Revolution of 1917 was the result of a
“Khazar Khaganate” conspiracy which Stalin tried to
resist.
On these sites, the reader can discover that the Jews
have intoxicated and corrupted the Russian people,
and that the "Elders of Zion" have manipulated
the Soviet rulers through their wives. Renowned
liberal cultural figures who criticize the Kremlin are
immediately branded “Jews.”
Boruch Gorin accused the country’s Communist Party
of “vulgar and primitive anti-Semitism.” The Orthodox
Church feeds these chimeras as well.
Patriotic hysteria coupled with a deteriorating
economic situation always frightens Jews, who begin
to consider aliyah. In 2014, the wave of Jewish
immigrants from Russia doubled and it continues to
grow.
The "Golden Age" of Russian Jewry is currently intact,
thanks to Putin's leadership, but it's probably only a
matter of time.
Alex Maistrovoy is a graduate of Moscow Univ. in
Journalism who made aliyah in 1988. He works at
the Russian language newspaper Novosty Nedely
and authored Ways of God and the Russian book
Jewish Atlántida with Mark Kotliarsky .
In an interview with Russian journalists, Netanyahu
repeatedly talked about “strong chemistry” with the
Russian leader, and that there is a "hotline" between
Putin and himself (the only other one is between
Israel and the US).
After the much-publicized affair of the Russian
feminist punk protest rock group Pussy Riot in
Moscow Cathedral, Putin justified the harsh
reaction of the authorities in a very interesting
way: "Had they desecrated something in
Israel - you probably know - that the strong
guys there would make them pay!"(August
2012).
Obviously, Putin doesn’t stress out about
Israel, but at same time he isn’t biased
by ideological clichés, like Obama and
other Western leaders. Although he
is surrounded with an abundance of
anti-Semites, as an absolute ruler he
11
Germany – Where a New Generation of
Jewish Grandparents is Now Being Born
The fastest growing Jewish community in Europe is witnessing the fastest
growing Muslim community in Europe • By Oliver Bradley
Nobody
really knows how many Jews live
in Germany today. Demographers
are still arguing about the exact figures. Estimates
range anywhere between 200,000 and 350,000. These
are staggering figures which contrast sharply with the
approximately 30,000 who - demographers agree - lived
in Germany in 1990.
This surge in growth was made possible through a special
government program that eased Jewish immigration from
the former Soviet Union. With an average of 15,000 new
arrivals entering the country each year, Germany claimed
the fastest growing Jewish community in the world
between 1995 and 2005.
A change in the immigration law has since seen this
average drop to a comparative trickle. However, this
decline has been offset by an unprecedented influx of
Israelis. In Berlin alone over 5,000 Israeli passport holders
have registered. But even here, exact figures are unknown
since a majority of the estimated 15,000 to 30,000
Israelis living in Germany today have been registered with
their dual EU-citizenship
The exact numbers are less important than the
phenomenon that thousands of Jews have decided to
make Germany their home - within only two generations
of the Second World War. It is an enormous change from
the first post-Holocaust generation, when many Jews
refrained from setting foot in Germany or buying products
made in that country.
In the past 25 years alone, over 80 synagogues have been
built or re-consecrated. And while churches in the United
States, South Africa and other countries are being sold off
and transformed into mosques, Germany has seen about
a dozen of its churches converted into synagogues –
most recently the prominent Castle Church of the eastern
German city of Cottbus, in 2014.
This renaissance has, however, also brought with it a
growing friction among Germany’s institutional Jewish
congregations – with their hodgepodge of Russian, Polish,
German, Israeli, liberal and Orthodox membership.
Germany’s pre-1990 Jewish elite, made up mostly of
displaced Orthodox Jews from Poland and remnants of
German-Jewry, have not yet come to terms with their loss
of administrative power to the current Russian-speaking
majority. And although Germany was the birthplace of the
reform movement, liberal congregations are still struggling
to gain equal government recognition in order to receive
the subsidies which Orthodox communities enjoy.
What binds these wrangling congregations – and also
allows them to wrangle - is the confidence that they are
relatively safe in Germany - or were, at least, up to now.
Confidence aside, synagogues and Jewish institutions in
Germany must be guarded by the police as they are in the
rest of Europe. Violence following the Gaza war of 2014
showed that this security is a necessary inconvenience
TheJewishWord
and that anti-Semitism is far from dead – especially
among neo-Nazis and offspring of Arab migrants, whose
numbers have swelled enormously. Neo Nazi groups still
remain the biggest threat, particularly in southeastern
Germany, but Muslim violence against Jews is growing at
an alarming rate.
What alarms anti-racism activists even more, however,
is the current trend of left-wing politicians camouflaging
their anti-Semitism through their anti-Israeli stances,
bridges of understanding and reconciliation, particularly
among Muslim youth.
One of these leaders, Rabbi Daniel Alter, Anti-Semitism
Ombudsman of Berlin’s Jewish Community, was himself
a victim of anti-Semitic violence. In 2012 while he and his
children were walking home in what had been deemed
one of Berlin’s safest districts for kippa-wearing Jews, a
gang of Muslim youths beat him up – his small children
watching.
Rather than leaving him bitter, the violence led Alter to
intensify his Muslim-Jewish dialogue and reconciliation
projects – particularly among young Muslims.
often at the same demonstrations attended by far right
neo-Nazi groups.
Despite these challenges, Germany is a far cry from what
it was in 1945. Its generous immigration policies, the
continuing expansion of restitution programs, and the
hindrance of large-scale right-wing marches by counterdemonstrators are examples that attest to this.
The building of massive monuments, such as the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - a mere 160
feet from the German capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate
– underlines Germany’s commitment to reconciliation.
However, the main leap forward in Jews’ confidence in
Germany followed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech
before the Knesset in 2008 where she declared that
Israel’s safety was an integral part of Germany’s raison
d’état.
Since then, most Jews in Germany have ceased referring
to the metaphoric “packed bags” they claimed to be sitting
on before moving elsewhere – finally acknowledging
Germany as their permanent home. This has given rise to
a new generation of Jews in Germany – the generation of
the grandparent - a luxury that only a few Jewish children
born in Germany had, prior to 1990.
Their bags may be unpacked and stored in the attic,
but Jews in Germany are well aware of the threats from
extremist groups, despite the government’s commitment
to reinforcing and protecting Jewish life. Potential violence
against Jews remains high - just not at epidemic levels.
Anette Kahane, of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, has
been one of the most vocal advocates combatting racism
and anti-Semitism in Germany. She blames eastern
German xenophobia on that region’s relatively sparse
population structure – claiming that most people in
rural areas have rarely come into contact with people of
different color or background.
Multi-denominational and dedicated NGOs, such as
Kahane’s Foundation, have been working hard at building
12
Is Germany safe for kippa-wearing Jews, such as Rabbi
Alter? Over the years, several Jews were attacked because
of their outwardly Jewish appearance. A Germany-wide
kippa-test, in 2007, proved that kippa-wearing people [the
test was conducted by non-Jews] were prone to stares and
verbal attacks.
On the other hand, a kippa-test at the beginning of 2015
resulted in no action or violence. Attacks on people, such
as Rabbi Alter, it was inferred, were simply a result of
being someplace at the wrong time.
The over one million migrants who entered Germany from
Muslim countries at Angela Merkel's invitation by the end
of 2015, including refugees from war-torn Syria, will pose
a challenge to the German government which has already
been sharply criticized for failing to integrate tens of
thousands of children of Muslims who have already lived
in Germany for generations.
It may signal a huge change for Jews, and perhaps for all
Germans, as it has, tragically, done in France. Many Jewish
leaders fear that this influx of Muslim newcomers will
include ISIS members and sympathizers and will lead to
a sharp increase in Muslim-based anti-Semitism, but not
only Jews are worried. ISIS has announced that Germany
is on its hit list after the horrendous terror massacre in
Paris on November 13.
Despite these fears, Josef Schuster, Chairman of the
Central Council of Jews in Germany, Germany’s largest
federation of Jewish communities, said that Germany is
the last country in the world that should refuse entry to
migrants seeking its protection.
The shocking events of New Year's Eve 2016 in Cologne
may be a wakeup call.
Only time will tell.
Oliver Bradley is Media-Relations Representative for
the Europe Israel Press Association in the Berlin Area
and for the ghettospuren website. He owns OQB.
COMMUNICATIONS. a public relations, media and
marketing consultancy.
The Jews who Live "Down Under"
Not just "Waltzing Matilda" and kangaroos, Australia is a country that boasts a thriving Jewish community.
Anti-Semitism is carefully monitored. • By Julie Nathan and David Singer
To
many Americans, Australia conjures up pictures
of kangaroos and a melodic national anthem,
some of whose words are unintelligible to the nonAussie. "Waltzing Matilda," however, actually describes
the early days of a vast, as yet unexplored country,
traversed by free-spirited swagmen - slang for hoboes unwilling to be fenced in by rules and regulations, some
undoubtedly the ex-convicts Britain sent to its far-off
possession in order to get rid of them - a hymn to a
country just coming into its own.
Jews were part of the story even then. In fact, the Jewish
people have been part of Australian history since 1788
- when at least 8 of the 751 convicts transported on the
First Fleet from Britain were Jewish. Over a thousand
persons of Jewish descent were sent to Australia as
convicts during the next 60 years.
Today, Australia, although physically remote from most
of the Jewish world, has a thriving and proud Jewish
community of about 120,000, ninth largest in the
world. The Jewish community has the highest number
of Holocaust survivors per capita in the diaspora, and
greatly benefited from post war immigration as well as
more recently, South African and Russian immigration.
A very high proportion of Jewish school students, over
75% of primary and over 50% of secondary school
students, attend Jewish day schools.
The community is well integrated into the wider Australian
community and although only 0.5% of the population,
its members have made impressive contributions to
virtually every aspect of Australian life, distinguishing
themselves in the fields of academia, medical research,
business, arts and culture, sports and politics, including
two governors general.
Australian Jewry also has some unique stories. Is there
any other Jewish community in the world that can match
a deceased member leaving a substantial annual
bequest to his Synagogue conditioned on his seat
(including nameplate) being permanently retained and
chained off to prevent others ever sitting there?
More seriously, the vast majority of the Jewish
community identifies with and supports Israel. Over
10,000 Australians - assisted by the ZFA Aliyah
Department and by the ZFA Israel Office - have made
aliyah - giving Australia one of the highest aliyah rates
(per capita) in the Western World.
In general, Australia has been very good for Jews, and
Jews appreciate the rights and freedoms they have.
However, although most Australian Jews, as individuals,
are able to lead a life free of harassment, abuse, and
assault, some anti-Semitism exists. Its impact on the
day to day lives of Jews is minimal and, as an overall
problem, it is far less significant in Australia than in
other countries.
Nevertheless, the Jewish community is the only
community within Australia whose places of worship,
TheJewishWord
schools, communal organizations and community
centres, for security reasons, operate under protective
measures such as high fences, armed guards, metal
detectors, CCTV cameras and the like. The necessity
arises from the incidence of physical attacks against
Jews and Jewish communal buildings over the last three
decades as well as continuing threats.
As has been the pattern in previous years, Jews continue
to be targeted for harassment, abuse and threats at
synagogues and other Jewish institutions, including
schools. This occurs around synagogues on the Jewish
Sabbath on Friday evenings and on Saturday mornings
when Jews are walking to and from synagogue, and
attending religious services. These incidents are
certainly not the norm, yet they persist at a low but
steady rate.
There is often a correlation between spikes in violence
in any of the various conflicts in the Middle East (and
a concomitant increase in media coverage), whether
or not the conflict involves Israel, and an upturn in antiSemitic incidents. In addition, when issues involving
Jews or Israel receive prominent coverage in the
mainstream media this often leads to a rise in antiSemitic commentary and incidents.
Two incidents in recent years shocked the Jewish
community. In 2013, a Jewish family of five, walking
home after attending synagogue and Shabbat dinner
in Sydney were physically assaulted by a group of eight
young males. Ten months later, during the 2014 IsraelGaza war, around thirty Jewish students, aged 5-12
years old, on a school bus in Sydney, were subjected
to physical and verbal threats, by five male teenagers
who yelled anti-Semitic abuse at them, including “all
Jews must die”, “Heil Hitler”, and threatened them with
“we’re going to slit your throats”. Fortunately, such
incidents are rare, but they do serve to remind Jews
that there are people who will act out their prejudices
and hatred. There have been no such incidents since.
the mainstream of society.
The mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in Australia is most
vividly seen in the ABC, the national public broadcaster,
and other major mainstream media outlets. For
example, a documentary produced by the ABC, “Stone
Cold Justice," was aired in February 2014, which made
some uninvestigated and unsubstantiated allegations
that Jewish soldiers crucify Palestinian boys, and other
equally absurd and inflammatory claims tinged with
classical anti-Semitic tropes. In response, virulently
anti-Semitic comments were posted on ABC Facebook
pages. This ABC documentary continues to elicit antiSemitic comments to this day via its posting on Youtube.
When mainstream media outlets are prepared to
publish or host unsubstantiated claims and irrational
bias combined with outright demonizing of Jews, then
a signal is sent that anti-Semitism is acceptable and
even respectable, and Jew-haters feel emboldened to
promote their views and to act on them. This an area
which the peak Jewish representative organization,
the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, monitors
closely, and where warranted, raises objections. Most
of the anti-Semitic content on mainstream media has
ultimately been removed following representations to
those media outlets.
For a diverse society such as Australia's to be harmonious,
it is imperative that all Australians, regardless of race or
religion, be able to live without harassment and hatred,
without vilification and violence. Anti-Semitism is
pervasive and pernicious. It targets Jews but has always
had a wider fall-out, as a litmus test for the degree to
which a society tolerates racism generally. Countering
anti-Semitic and other racist expressions is therefore in
everyone's interests.
In addition to occasional physical attacks and threats,
the sense of security of Australian Jews is affected
by such factors such as occasional hostile media
coverage of Jewish and Israeli issues, political and
online commentary, as well as anti-Israel propaganda
and protests. It is words, when given free reign, which
create a poisonous atmosphere for those targeted by
racism. It is words that incite hatred and violence.
While anti-Semitism has been confined to the fringes of
society, that is, to the far Right and far Left of politics,
and to bigoted religious extremists within Christianity
or Islam, the situation for Australian Jews has been
manageable. Anti-Semitism will never disappear or be
destroyed. The best that can be achieved is that society
as a whole deems anti-Semitism, and other forms of
racism, to be socially unacceptable, not to be tolerated,
and to be actively countered. Such an atmosphere gives
Jew-haters very little breathing space from which to
launch their hate propaganda and activities. The danger
arises when anti-Semitism moves from the margins into
13
Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive
Council of Australian Jewry, and has authored the
ECAJ’s annual Anti-Semitism Report since 2013.
David Singer, an Australian lawyer and Arutz Sheva
columnist, is active in Zionist community organizations..
He founded the "Jordan is Palestine" Committee.
South Africa
Dark clouds
over a
Diaspora
Dream
Although South Africa's Jews have no political clout and anti-Zionism abounds,
the community pioneered the international Shabbat project. • by Steve Apfel
If
the Jews do one thing well, it’s to imprint their
mark on new lands. And if their imprint describes
one pattern, it would be some black punishment on
the heels of great Jewish impact; as invariably as
dark night follows day, this has been the experience
of exile. Spain before the expulsion scaled a pinnacle
of Jewish life and achievement. Germany, many felt,
was the Promised Land, Vilna the New Jerusalem. It
would be hard for third or fourth generation Jews not
to have similar feelings about the country their grandparents adopted – about South Africa, warts and all.
the hive. Jewish mayors and councillors abounded,
and the biggest city, Johannesburg, had 22 Jewish
mayors between 1886 and 1993.
If Jews were too late on the scene to shape the development of the American West, they arrived in time
to remake a primitive South Africa. “We built this
country with heart and soul,” the slogan for the 2015
annual Jewish Achiever Awards, was no trumpet
blast. Offstage from the glittering event the die had
been cast and a dark shadow was a-creeping. The
summit of Jewish pride was actually scaled 21 years
before the Achievers of 2015 bathed in the limelight.
The Apartheid era brought political activists out in
droves, but more as communists than as Jews. Lay
and rabbinic leaders, with the rare exception, kept
their heads down while non-whites suffered the indignity of third class treatment in their own land. When
majority rule came in 1994, the Jewish Board of
Deputies went to inordinate lengths to make amends
for the silence it kept during Apartheid. The transition
was better than many had been right to fear, for by
that time Jews in large numbers had left for greener
pastures: England, America, Australia and Canada
made them welcome, and some even went to Israel.
Only the timing was bad. The émigrés skipped too
early, and missed a golden age. Under South Africa’s
black President, Nelson Mandela, Jews could enjoy
their old privileged life, only now with a clear conscience.
Perhaps South African Jews were too occupied
making their mark to get involved in national government because, unlike American Jewry, they never
mixed business with politics. For all that, Jews have
clustered around local government like bees around
The Chief Rabbi was the late Cyril Harris, a bonny
Scotsman who became Mandela’s bosom buddy. He
stood on the inauguration podium next to the first
black President, and delivered ringing words from
Isaiah. Here was the moment when communal pride
TheJewishWord
14
and achievement peaked.
A decade later a threatening cloud gathers over the
community. Jewish business clout can’t seem to buy
any lobbying power. Muslim interests are all over the
government and Jews perforce have to fall back on
the path of least resistance. Two dictums have been
the Jewish Board’s rule of thumb: (1) Do and say
nothing that might close government doors. (2) Avoid
offending the nation by offending its favourite son,
Archbishop Tutu. It was soon made obvious that both
the government and Tutu felt free to treat the Jewish
community with disdain.
In quick succession the ruling party hosted and feted
a terrible trio: Leila Khalid the old matriarch of terror;
Mahmoud Abbas, inciter and diplomatic thorn in
Israel’s body; but most horrendous of all, the political
head of Hamas. With an invitation to Khaled Meshaal, South Africa became the first country outside
the Muslim world to give the Jihadist red carpet
treatment.
If the ruling party must be appeased, the nation’s
icon, Desmond Tutu, must be worshipped. The wily
cleric can tie the Jewish community in knots, winning
contests by grinning while the Jews tear into one
With an invitation to Khaled
Meshaal, South Africa became
the first country outside
the Muslim world to give the
Jihadist red carpet treatment."
another over him. In 2011 a handful of Jews campaigned to get Tutu removed as Trustee of the Holocaust Centre, which was a quirky honor to bestow on
a man given to blatant anti-Jewish sentiments. The
hue and cry against the instigators was louder within
the community than anywhere. The petition went
nowhere.
The online edition of Jewish Report ran an article
that likened the cleric to Hitler and Stalin. The writer
referred to him as “the latest self-appointed midget
of history who wants to destroy the Jewish people.”
Either the writer or Editor had touched up Tutu’s lip
with a Hitler moustache, and superimposed his head
onto the Fuehrer’s uniformed torso. The anti-Semitic
local weekly Mail & Guardian was on to it in a flash.
Everything blew together. “It largely speaks to a
Jewish audience,” bewailed the Jewish Report Editor,
waiting for the axe to fall. ”We try not to censor
viewpoints. We were asked by a member of the Jewish board to remove the picture from the site.” The
offending article was removed with it.
Then there are the openly anti-Zionist Jews. Zapiro,
the Jewish anti-Israel cartoonist, uses libelous cartoons to compare Israel to Nazis, claiming that South
African Jews have been brainwashed by Zionism.
Some of the younger generation seem to agree. Josh
Broomberg, a debating champion at a Jewish day
school in Johannesburg, donned a Palestinian scarf
at a debating contest as a gesture of solidarity with
the Palestinians. The image went viral. The South
African Jewish community, tightly knit after a 12,000
strong rally, awoke to a public scandal. Broomberg
apologized. The apology, like the keffiyeh, was a
trademark posture, borrowing the wild claims and
self-contradictions of all Jewish ‘critics of Israel’ who
say “I am a Zionist. We stand with the thousands
of civilians who have lost their lives in the conflict.
We stand with a people who do not yet have a state
to protect themselves. We stand for two states. We
stand for Palestine. We do not stand against Israel…”
Rather than pull the boy’s statement apart, many
Jews fired off vitriolic attacks, aimed at Broomberg,
his family and school.
Israel-haters were quick to capitalize. Five hundred
Jews found it in their conscience to sign a letter in
TheJewishWord
support of the boy. The ruling ANC, which votes at
the UN with Iran and other “beacons of freedom”,
lionized their “hero Jew of the day.” The ANC issued
a statement. “The actions of Josh Broomberg to symbolically support the Palestinian people by wearing a
Palestinian scarf, is an embodiment of the principles
that many South Africans and peoples of the world
died for. The African National Congress applauds
the principled stance on the injustice of the Israeli
aggression against the defenseless people of Palestine.” What could Jewish educators do that would not
fan the flames? The Board of Education issued their
statement. “This has been a learning opportunity
for the 17-year-old pupil concerned and he has both
explained his stance in a later posting and genuinely
apologized for the hurt it produced. His apology has
been accepted.”
Today it is difficult for a Jew not to feel the weight of
being a South African. Part of the problem is that
President Jacob Zuma and his cronies act like Ali
Baba and his forty thieves, so that all social and
economic indicators are heading to hell in a basket.
One development weighs above all: The Jew among
nations is a proven device for diverting anger or
catching votes and Israel is the new catchall. Zuma’s
counting and reading may be at the level of junior
school, but he keeps a finger on the angry pulse of
society. The millennial Jewish problem remains a
handy antidote for the ills that the ruling party has
created.
To prove how accommodating and moderate Zionists
can be, Jewish communal leaders keep coaxing the
ruling party to play a constructive role in the Israeli-Palestinian “Peace Process”. For its part the ruling
party keeps mouthing support for the “Two-State
solution.” No peace process to play a role in, and the
two-state solution long dead and buried, matters not
one iota: both sides feel they have to pay lip service.
Meanwhile the ruling party has put members under
a travel ban. Go to Israel and lose your party membership. So a ruling elite that lives off the fat of the
land without doing an honest day’s work, stays home,
keeps the blinkers on, and knocks away at the Jews
and Israel for their "Apartheid state."
Brazen BDS tactics are another given. If life for Jews
on campus is not dangerous, it’s not comfortable
15
either. Jewish events have been rudely disrupted
and even vandalized in Brown Shirt manner. BDS
hooligans barged into a campus recital featuring an
Israeli-born pianist, blew hooligan horns and forced
the artist to flee. To his credit, the university’s Vice
Chancellor, a Muslim, had the students disciplined
and facilitated another musical event with Israeli
artists.
The pig head placed in a supermarket’s kosher
counter (it turned out to be the Halaal counter)
marked another anti-Semitic low by BDS activists.
Jews nonetheless are kept on the right side of pessimism by three bright spots. One is that, except for
a long ago fire bomb lobbed at a shul in Cape Town,
terrorism has never struck the community. This is
all the more remarkable considering the open secret
that Al Qaeda and Hezbollah operate training camps
in the vast empty spaces of the north-eastern Cape
and that the ruling party has invited Hamas to open
a local branch. One may view South Africa’s welcome
mat to Islamists as a blessing in disguise, for messing on your own doorstep never made sense.
The second bright spot is that from out of South
Africa comes innovation in Torah observance. The
Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, launched two initiatives that have taken the Jewish world by storm. One
is Generation Sinai, a parent-and-child Torah learning program that takes place before every Jewish
festival in hundreds of schools worldwide. The other
is the Shabbos Project. What began as a local “unity
initiative” to encourage local Jews of all persuasions
to observe a full, halachic Shabbat together, became
a global grassroots movement. This year it will reach
a million Jews in 464 cities and 65 countries.
Third, South Africa has the world’s only full baal
teshuva community. It’s the one example where a
whole swathe of the community – in Johannesburg
perhaps one Jew out of every two - spontaneously
became observant. This may mark a precedent in the
annals of the stiff-necked people.
Steve Apfel is an essayist and author of novels and
non-fiction. Among his books are The Paymaster,
Hadrian’s Echo: The whys and wherefores of Israel’s
critics and the recent Enemies of Zion
A (Sometimes) Great Divide
Being an American Zionist Jew means straddling two universes, two cultures, two economies and
wrestling with the dialectic between one's physical and religious base. • By Lisa Klug (photo credit: author)
When
I was born, my grandmother gifted
my mother with a tiny emblem of
the state of Israel rendered in gold. Some years ago,
my mother passed it along to me, together with its
origin story. This tiny piece of jewelry attracts a lot
of comments, especially when Israelis discover my
American accent.
My grandmother, Yehudit Alcalay (nee Levy) was
among the early residents of Ohel Moshe in Jerusalem.
Her portrait as a young woman, together with her
parents, Leah and Yitzchak Levy, and several of their
other children, is embedded in the walls of what today
is better known as the Nachlaot neighborhood. For as
long as I can remember, I knew my mother's mother
was Israeli but I did not know much more about
her during my childhood in the reclaimed desert of
Southern California.
While a student in Israel, my grandmother, whose long
suffering from Parkinson's made travel impossible,
shared with me the remarkable story of her own
grandmother and mother. They made aliyah by donkey
in a journey that took three (!) years. DNA tests confirm
my grandmother's ancestry. My only--and closest-matches are Sephardic women of Bulgarian descent
living in Israel.
More of my grandmother revealed itself a decade
after her passing. In 2009, while traipsing around the
historic neighborhood sandwiched between Mahane
Yehuda and the heart of downtown Jerusalem, I was
shocked to discover that the family portrait I had
featured on page 175 of my book, Cool Jew, had
recently become part of Jerusalem lore. In a series
of photos that highlight early residents of the historic
neighborhoods outside the Old City, the Levys once
again inhabit Jerusalem. Just past the community
center, near Rav Aryeh Levine Street, their picture
faces the Great Synagogue of Ohel Moshe.
That I can write these words from California and
anyone reading this article can readily call to mind
this iconic Jerusalem neighborhood, is a modern-day
phenomenon. Compared to most of Jewish history,
this anecdote speaks not only to the unprecedented
ease of travel to and from the Holy Land. More
importantly, it also evokes the deep connection Jews
around the world today easily forge with, what was for
millennia, a distant, near-mythical destination for our
prayers. Today, “Hatikva” is real. It is manifest. And
yet, for those of us who remain in the Diaspora, some
aspect of this age-old longing surrounds 'our Israel.'
That was true for me in my childhood. But for decades
now, ‘my Israel,’ is more real than imagined. When I
was invited to write this piece, I explained that I have
spent more time over the past year in Israel than in
the U.S. Perhaps that is part of being an American
Jew... or at least this American Jew.
A little more than a year ago, on the 16th of Sivan,
or as I now think of it, on “6/13/14,” my beloved
father passed to the next world. Within days, I buried
him on Har Menuchot. My father was a Holocaust
survivor who had long dreamt of retiring in Israel,
joining a brother and sister who had escaped Nazi
Europe for Palestine during the 1930s, served in
the Jewish Brigade and the Palmach, respectively,
and helped found kibbutzim. Illness prevented the
realization of my father’s dream. But his burial in holy
ground, overlooking the Jerusalem forest, represents
a personal redemption: his reunification with both the
people of Israel and the land of Israel. His love of both
is etched into his epitaph.
After the shiva, I was not ready to leave Jerusalem.
Soon after that fateful transitional walk around the
block arm in arm with two dear friends, the Gaza War
erupted. I stayed and stayed and stayed. Six months
later, it was time to leave. Another five months passed
and it was already time to return for the first yahrzeit.
I remained almost two more months. And as always, it
was difficult to leave.
Long before, and ever since, the ongoing expression of
my family legacy is much more than a piece of jewelry.
For decades now, I straddle two worlds, spending
so much time in
Israel that friends
think I live there…
and so little time
in my native
California
that
upon my return,
acquaintances
ask, “What are Levy Family Portrait in Jerusalem
you doing here?”
My response, “I live here,” feels as odd to say as it
must be to hear.
For me, for now, and for who knows how long, being
an American Jew means straddling two universes,
two cultures, two economies, 'two of' so many things.
I'm far from alone. This dichotomy is well known to all
Zionist Diaspora Jews spending extended periods of
time in the womb of ‘the mothership.’
And so, my being an American Jew means wearing my
precious heirloom, a symbol of personal and national
connection, near my heart. It means pondering when,
whether and how to shift my physical base to match
my spiritual base, and how, meanwhile, to infuse a
sense of home to everywhere I am. It means wrestling
with myself, with long-held dreams, and even with
some of what is sent from the Master of the Universe.
You might say, I’m simply maintaining the tradition of
our people. Our forefather Jacob wrestled. So do I.
Identity is about fundamentals. What is inscribed upon
your soul is more significant than any seal imprinted
on your passport. I am a bat Yisrael. This is what it
means to be a daughter of the one who wrestled.
Lisa Alcalay Klug is a widely published journalist, the
author of Cool Jew and Hot Mamalah, a member of
the JFNA and JNF speakers bureaus and a direct
descendant of one of the first 'Chovevei Zion,' Rabbi
Yehuda Alcalay.
A Jewish American Love Poem by Lisa Klug
Your mama made it.
Your bubbie made it.
You make it.
Or if you haven’t yet, you will soon.
Because life without it makes no sense
(unless you’re vegan).
Because a whole bowl is filled with the soul of your
people.
A belly full.
A side of noodle.
Steaming and warm, "fluid and soft, hot, comforting
spoonfuls that send you back home, never alone, a recipe
honed over generations and generations, and large cast
iron pots and wood chopped . . . hard.
A precious match that lit the "amen that sent your
neshama from shamayim to eretz, with loads of fresh
carrots and fennel/ shumar, picked from afar, or perhaps
TheJewishWord
near, ever clear and revealing, healing.
Sending you reeling through memories of shtetlach and
shtieblach, of kishke and kreplach, of lullabies and lilach,
of sunny days and cold nights, of soothings and eased
frights, of Old World delights and Yiddishkeits.
Soaring through skies and new heights of sensuality and
pleasure you never knew could be contained in a spoon.
When the bowl is empty, the pot is not.
There is somehow always more to explore.
And revisit the hearth where the “ess my kind” doctrine
was born.
Where no one is forlorn or forgotten but adorned with
the elixir of life.
The original penicillin so many women before you also
learned to prepare.
And now, if you dare.
It’s your dinner fare.
16
Your loving care.
Your recipe for making everyone better and fed and held
in the embrace of a memory that still tastes like a better
world.
Unfurled on a table each Shabbos.
No love loss.
No conflict of Ashkenazi, Sephardi.
Just you and me, dear chicken soup.
Until my head droops into the sleep that heals and
mends the ache in my limbs and my heart so I can start
to cook a fresh pot anew.
And when you do, just use a whole chicken because that’s
the way Jewish girls make it smell so heavenly,
So healing.
So feeling.
So real.
American Jewish
anti-Zionism
Liberals want the world to see them as "good" people and Israel's hard reality does not suit that image. • By Professor Richard Landes
Recently Peter Beinart wrote a piece about the
growing split between American Jewish youth and
Israel, which he sees as the inevitable cost of Israel’s
failure to make peace with the Palestinian Arabs, on
the one hand, and the long-term effects of seeing an
Israeli Goliath bullying the Palestinian Arab underdog
on the other.
"Well, I’m the head of the J Street club on my campus
and what you don’t understand is that we see Israel
as our younger sister. We want our younger sister to
be better — we love her and care about her."
Maybe that’s what is done in some neighborhoods,
Of course, given that Israel has been providing
medical care for wounded Syrians for years, and
absorbed hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees
from Arab lands, the depth of this shame seems a bit
outlandish:
American Jewish youth, he claims, has “imbibed some
of the defining values of American Jewish culture: a
belief in open debate, skepticism about military force,
a commitment to human rights.” Studies show Jewish
youth “resist anything they see as ‘group think’…
want an ‘open and frank’ discussion of Israel and its
flaws… and desperately want peace.”
And every effort to defend Israel by criticizing the
Palestinians merely offends their sense of fairness:
blaming those they see as the victim is not a winning
strategy.
Beinart asserts that "for several decades, the Jewish
establishment has asked American Jews to check
their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their
horror, they are finding that many young Jews have
checked their Zionism instead. Morally, American
Zionism is in a downward spiral.”
Given what they perceive as a choice between
Zionism and liberalism, much of American Jewish
youth has chosen the latter.
For them, the case is pretty much open and shut.
Israeli political choices are illiberal and bad, and
its politicians act in bad faith. The split between
American Jews and Zionists, therefore, is inevitable.
There is little sympathy for the plaints from Israel
that the neighborhood there does not permit such
simplistic naïveté. Not much room in this worldview
for Palestinian Arab contributions to the endlessness
of the conflict, for Islam's poisonous hatreds, for
prevailing insane religious violence, for blaming
terrorists who stab, shoot and throw firebombs at
unarmed civilians of all ages.
Remember - don’t blame the [perceived] victim.
Israel, says a generation of Jewish critics of Israel,
should act like a liberal, or lose their affections.
To which the obvious response is, “Are you kidding
me? Do you know what they’re dealing with there?”
To which the apparent response is, “No. And I’m not
listening.”
But why? Why do so many Americans turn a deaf ear
on the Jewish state, their family, as it tries to explain
how hard it is for Israel to survive in the Middle
Eastern neighborhood? Why join groups that claim
they’re “pro-Israel, pro-peace” when they relentlessly
criticize Israel, and team up with groups that hate it?
What is going on here?
In a recently reported exchange, a J-Street organizer
explained their self-perception vis-à-vis Israel:
TheJewishWord
but most people believe that you don’t show love
and loyalty to a sister by trash talking her. On the
contrary, that will most likely get her killed because of
the peculiar power of shame and the overwhelming
desire to annihilate such feelings.
The Shame of it all: Panic in a Crooked Mirror
A significant amount of this “split” in the American
Jewish community between liberals and Israel can
be understood not as a response to real problems in
Israel – of which, like any country, there are many –
but as responses to feeling ashamed of it.
The feelings stem not because of what Israel has
done, or is accused of doing, and certainly not in
comparison with its neighbors, but because of “how
it looks” to outsiders. Shame comes from looking bad
in the eyes of people whose opinion matters to you.
It is not easy to see picture after picture, hear story
after skewed story, read analysis after mendacious
analysis, all depicting Israel as a bully Goliath beating
up relentlessly on a victim David, as the “roadblock
to peace,” as the wholesale killer of thousands of
innocent Palestinian civilians, murderer of children.
One of Oslo’s most fervent architects, the late Yossi
Sarid, said in response to Israel’s refusal to take in
refugees from Syria: “My love for Israel has been
replaced by shame.”
17
"I love you no longer, my homeland. This is no longer
my country. As far as I’m concerned, you can scream
or be silent – do whatever you want, unbeloved land.
The place of love has been taken by shame. I am
ashamed, which means I still care, it still hurts, but
less. See how you look, our little country, our petty
country."
Since the Second Intifada (aka the Oslo War), when
the doctored pictures of a 12-year-old Palestinian
boy, cowering in fear behind his father, “gunned down
in cold blood” by the IDF hit the news media, and
brought to prominence the “Israeli-Goliath” school of
journalism, Jews the world over have felt horror and
shame.
The relentless drumbeat of false accusations against
Israel for (non-existent and unproven) unspeakable
brutality – the never-happened Jenin Massacre,
Gaza open-air prison (with its luxury hotels and
markets), fabricated child-killing – has dominated the
mainstream news media (MSNM). When I gave a talk
in 2007 in Europe and called Al Dura a “blood libel”,
one of the participants objected (and thereby proved
my point): “It’s not a libel: Everyone knows that every
day the IDF kills children.” There is not a Jew alive,
who doesn’t live under the cloud of the ferociously
negative depiction of Israel in the public sphere of the
21st, the global, century.
Some of us were in our prime when it began, others
grew up in a changed world. Among the global
progressive left, Zionism became a dirty word, in some
cases a global villain, a Nazi avatar, an incarnation of
evil. As Beinart says, Jewish liberals and progressives
had to choose between what they saw as principles
and family.
What is that deep desire for approval that drives
us to conspicuous self-criticism? Why are Jews
willing to believe every fabricated lie about their own
people, rather than the reports of Israel's army and
government press office?
"Proxy“ Honor-Killings
When liberals hear about Muslim “honor-killings”
(really shame-murders), they feel horror: kill your
daughter or sister for having shamed the family?!
Who would do that?
A close look at the behavior of some prominent voices
among Jews, suggests that similar dynamics are at
play in the anti-Zionism which not only criticizes Israel
constantly (what Anthony Julius calls “scolds”), but
tolerates, even encourages the application of terms
like “racist,” “apartheid” and “Nazi.”
Liberals tell us that they model themselves on the
prophets. But they keep company no ancient prophet
would. Prophets of yore lived between the desert and
their own people’s public sphere; these post-modern
critics disparage their people in the public sphere of
their people’s enemy – not exactly an act of prophetic
love.
For these Jews, the shame of having a family member
– Israel – viewed by others as a brutal and heartless
Goliath is too much to bear. It has produced a
bumper crop of “Theobald Jews” (a Jewish convert
to Christianity who claimed that blood libels were
correct and Jews had to sacrifice a Christian child
every year) who “as-a-Jew” feel compelled to bear
witness against their own people in front of a hostile
world audience. These are Jews who are proud to be
ashamed to be a Jew, because it shows how “good”
they are.
TheJewishWord
Tuvia Tenenbom explains how such Jews, who
embrace the accusations, clean their blackened
face by remorselessly scanning for ways "to catch
a[nother] Jew" misbehaving.
Perhaps it’s a mental problem. For 2000 years Jews
have been persecuted, for 2000 years they have
been told taught they are the worst of humanity.
Some people cannot handle it and you get a kind
of Stockholm syndrome, which leads them to say: 'If
everyone in the world says I’m bad, that I am ugly, a
thief, a murderer, horrible shrewd person, a money
grubber, it must be so. What can I do to cleanse
myself of it?'
And what do they do? Catch another Jew doing wrong.
That makes them feel better – it's not them, it’s
another Jew.
See the sign held by one demonstrator during the
Gaza war of 2014: ANOTHER JEW ASHAMED OF
ISRAEL’S INSATIABLE WAR MACHINE.
What do you do to a family member that has deeply
shamed you in the eyes of the world? In the Muslim
world, you kill that member. But those Jews who feel
such horror at being shamed, do not want to actually
kill their embarrassing family member. Most Jewish
anti-Zionists, like Judith Butler and Jewish Voice for
Peace are avowed pacifists.
As a result, they have to outsource the job of murder
to a proxy. Thus, Butler in 2006 welcomed Hamas and
Hezbollah as “part of the global progressive Left.” In
doing so she embraced Jihadi forces that betrayed
every fiber of progressive values. Post-modern honorkillings are done in the name of peace, by proxy.
This deep shame is, I submit, the force driving a
wedge between American Jews who think this way
and Jewish Israelis. American Jews may be able to
have a healthy “skepticism about the use of force;”
Israelis, who must deal with neighbors bent on their
destruction, cannot. And the reason that American
Jewish liberals can’t listen is because they must,
above all, maintain their self-image as "good" people,
18
as liberals in a "good" world.
The tribal response – aka “Israel-firster” in this
context – is the normal human response to us-them
conflicts. Rally round one’s family, clan, people.
Post-Zionist self-criticism flips this to “Israel-lasters”
whose default mode is “their side right or wrong.” So
how do we navigate between this Scylla of refusal to
take any responsibility and the Charbydis of taking it
all on our shoulders?
For one thing, we who remain relatively sane, must
rebuke those driving headlong in either direction. We
should not suffer Jews, furious at the hatred directed
against them, to rage against whole peoples. Nor
should we stand by while people, in the name of the
Jewish people, spread hatred of Jews among gentiles,
especially when their most eager audience is filled
with those who actively seek for reasons to hate the
Jews and delegitimize the one Jewish homeland.
Above all, we must face the shame and ask whom are
those who feel shame trying to please, appease, gain
approval from? Are there limits to self-abasement
before one's people’s accusers?
Many of the West’s ills in this baleful century, are
related to, or mirror the Jewish tendency of dealing
with shame, even unjustified shame, by compulsive
conspicuous self-criticism. Until Jews learn how to
be fair to themselves as well as others, until they are
willing to live with the hard facts of survival in the
beleaguered Jewish state, our people cannot possibly
contribute to a true tikkun olam.
Professor Richard Landes is an American historian
and author specializing in Millenialism and currently
assoc. professor at Boston University. He coined the
term "Pallywood" for what he considers the practice
of "staged filming" of "evidence" against Israel for the
benefit of the Palestinians.
American Jews Must
Not Fail Again
American Jews did not protest enough during WWII. Are they sitting on the sidelines again? The danger
began with Israel, but as is now obvious, it will not end there. A wake up call. • By Jack Engelhard
Ben
Hecht, in his autobiography, writes about
finally gathering the most prominent Jews
in New York to do something about the Holocaust.
Time was running out. Jews were being systemically
murdered at the rate of thousands a day. Where was
Roosevelt? Okay, no Roosevelt. But where were the
Jews here in America?
The meeting began at someone’s fancy apartment. It
ended the moment someone got up and announced,
“If Cohen is in, I am out.”
That’s the way we were.
The man who carried me on his back throughout the
Pyrenees found no help when he raised the alarm from
France to America. He appealed to Canada where the
Mackenzie King Government had already announced
that “none is too many” so far as accepting Jewish
refugees from the Gestapo.
The woman who pushed my stroller – upon finally
reaching these shores she asked her New York
relatives, “Where were you? Where were you?”
So what happened to this country?
Our duty is to stop him by whatever means, and the
occasional letter to the editor won’t mean a thing.
Where is the Jewish genius and where is the American
spirit that changed the course of Western civilization?
Jews gave America Einstein and Salk. Jews pioneered
radio, television and Hollywood. Jews lit up Broadway,
built Jewish hospitals that serve and cure everyone
throughout the land -- and at this moment we permit
our kids on campus to shiver and quake before
student bullies from Arab lands whose parents and
ancestors produced nothing.
Granted, a number of us are in the fight. They’re
showing up. But the numbers are too small and the
jihad is too long.
Where is today’s Ben Hecht who had better luck
galvanizing righteous gentiles like Frank Sinatra and
John Wayne for the sake of his people?
American Jews fiddled. European Jews died…and it’s
déjà vu all over again. The numbers are different,
the place is different, but the silence is the same.
Now it’s Israel and even as I write this, Arabs are on
a fanatical but systematic killing spree, stabbing and
shooting as many Israelis as they can.
Roosevelt (they were told) was busy golfing when
Cincinnati’s legendary Rabbi Silver was part of a
legation of rabbis who marched on Washington to ask
the President to please bomb the railway tracks that
led to Auschwitz. Nothing was done to cool the ovens
and it is an open secret that some well-established
American Jews preferred the European Jews to say
where they were as too many might fail to measure
up to “Our Crowd.”
Abbas says, “Murdering Jews is a national duty.”
Where have we heard this before? Where is the
uproar against such talk?
My first impression on arriving to America, as a child,
was this: “People don’t have to whisper. Wow! What
a country!”
TheJewishWord
19
As a Jew, as an American, and as someone who
survived the Holocaust, I find too many American
Jews slacking once again and this is shameful and
embarrassing. To sit back and to quiver in our tents
as our brothers fight to survive and to win against
overwhelming odds, 1.7 billion Muslims against 6
million Israelis, this is not Jewish and it certainly is
not the American way.
King David runs through our veins. Where are we
when the shofar sounds? Our ears blocked? Our
tongues tied?
People are dying, our people, our brothers, our sisters,
our kids, and some of us have the gall to understand
both sides. This is sick.
What was Israel before the Jews cultivated the
land? It was a swamp. The Palestinians didn’t want
it because there were no Palestinians before Yasser
Arafat made them up. Four times they were offered
a share of the country and four times they turned it
down. Dead Jews, that is all they want, and it’s what
they are getting as we play dead through silence…in
other words, compliance.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks says that Judaism is a
religion of protest. From Abraham onward, we are a
people defiant against injustice, even if we perceive
it coming from above. There is a moment in our
Scriptures when Abraham defies God, as did Moses
time and again – and yet we in America, land of the
free, home of the brave, cannot find the spine to defy
Obama.
To so many American Jews, so locked into the ideology
of the Left, Obama is greater than God, greater than
America, and certainly greater than Israel.
Such worshipfulness has rendered us sickly and
feebleminded. The man said if he could run again he
would be elected again. He was right. The third time,
instead of 80 percent he would get no more than 79
percent support from Jewish voters. We never learn?
Don’t we care?
Those who do care, those who do fight, I know who
you are and you have my respect and admiration.
But generally we turn mute when Mr. Obama offers
Iran all the means to destroy both Israel AND the
United States and we whimper when he equivocates
about Arabs killing Israelis. Both sides? No, only one
side is initiating the entire killing as the other side
buries its dead and says Kaddish.
Is it fear? American Jews – are we a fearful people, a
timid people, a frightened people?
Not so when the fight comes to America. In every
war Jews fought high above their numbers relative to
the general population. Abraham Lincoln personally
awarded eight Medal of Honor citations to Jewish
Americans who fought so bravely on both sides of the
Civil War. So it has been in every war.
But the war goes on and it is time we remember our
Judeo-Christian values and realize that Israel is not
them, it’s us.
The Pilgrims and Puritans who came here in the
1600s imagined themselves to be Hebrews. King
James was their Pharaoh. The Atlantic Ocean, to their
thinking, was the Red Sea. They brought with them
the Old Testament as their guide. Their first translated
work was King David’s Book of Psalms. We share
this heritage, Jews and Christians alike, America and
Israel – inseparable.
How did Liberalism become the new Jewish faith?
From whom did we buy the concept that evil and
good are the same and that we dare not distinguish
the one from the other? Who sold us the proposition
that everything is really our fault? Who preached the
notion that even our most fanatical enemies can be
disarmed if only we can sit down and talk?
Trained soldiers from Islamic countries, who pose as
students, roam our American campuses to humiliate
our kids…kids raised too comfortable to know what’s
really going on, too innocent to know what’s really
happening, so they imagine that they can win friends
and influence people merely by hosting chats and
discussions. The enemy has nothing to discuss. They
act as we discuss.
During the High Holy Days many synagogues (I speak
of New York) passed around the plate for Israel Bonds.
Good enough.
But some rabbis only romanticized the migrant Syrian
boy who washed up dead in Turkey.
What? We don’t have enough Israelis to grieve over?
If any American rabbi needs a list of boys and girls
who have been murdered in Israel simply for being
Jewish, I can have it available in a moment. But the
accounting of these slain innocents from one Rosh
Hashanah to the next might cause the congregation
to squirm.
TheJewishWord
20
We’d rather not know the details. We’d rather have
The New York Times explain about the “settlers”
and about “The Temple Mount” in order to justify the
killing of Israeli Jews. Justified, because the Jews are
sitting on "occupied territory." Hitler said the same
thing. I know. I was there.
Hitler did it a step at a time. First he came for the
shops, then the professions, then our homes until we
had nothing but the death camps.
He knew how to condition his people. Too often
we use their language, like “occupied territory” or
“apartheid” where there is none.
It’s time to gather up our numbers and our strength
and if we lack numbers we have the strength of
wisdom, wisdom that has served us across the
centuries.
It’s time to confront our politicians, beginning at the
top, with the facts, the most important fact being that
whatever helps Israel helps America.
Whatever hurts Israel hurts America. It has already
hurt France.
Make the calls. They will listen. They need your votes.
Consider us conditioned by the Palestinian Arabs and
the news media that coddles and pets them.
It’s time to deluge the media in its entirety, including
Fox News, with the news that it’s not about ”both
sides.”
How is it that the Radical Islam we fear everywhere
around the world is suddenly washed clean when it
appears in Israel?
It was not about both sides when the Japanese
attacked us at Pearl Harbor and it was not about both
sides when Islamists attacked us on 9/11.
Why are they cannibalistic barbarians everywhere
else, but pitied victims only in Israel?
We figured this out before. Why can’t we figure this
out again?
Every step a Jew takes, every garden where a Jew
plants, every bedroom where a Jewish child finds a
pillow – this is "occupied territory."
Those who are not with us are against us. Individuals,
nations and media organizations who are not our
friends, are our enemies.
Who needs Moses when we’ve got Tom Friedman…
Tom Friedman to understand the Arab point of view
and to justify their need to kill?
Once we know and accept the facts we can begin
to take action – and action is demanded of us not a
moment too soon.
Justified because the Jews grow too numerous. Hitler
said the same thing. So did Pharaoh.
Jusified because the Jews stole property. Hitler said
the same thing.
Justified because the Jews have no rights to run a
business. Hitler said the same thing.
Justfied because the Jews have no rights as doctors,
professors, rabbis, carpenters, and plumbers. Hitler
said same thing.
Jusified because the Jews have no right to defend
themselves. Hitler said the same thing.
Justified because the Jews have no right to claim any
land as their own – even land that they fought and
died for, and even the land that was deeded to them
more than 3,000 years ago by God Almighty Himself
– and this too Hitler said even before The New York
Times.
Justified because Jews have no rights, period. Hitler
said the same thing.
But American Jews – too often we cling to The New
York Times as our prophet and we cling to Barack
Obama as our savior.
We don’t know a blessing from a curse.
One of America’s most famous writers compared
Jews to horses. “If Jews, like horses, knew their own
strength we should be afraid to ride them.”
So said Mark Twain after meeting Theodor Herzl.
Perhaps it is time to learn from this.
TheJewishWord
Start with your local newspaper or TV station. Or
go national. But raise your voice. They do change
headlines and whistle a different tune when enough
people complain. Even the BBC and even The New
York Times change their minds when enough of us
speak up.
You know it – but make them wake up and smell the
jihad, the jihad that started in Israel. Israel was the
first to taste their hatred for all things decent.
Blood is thicker than geography so it makes no
difference whether we live in America or in Israel –
we are family. Whenever we forget this, our enemies
remind us. When they came after us, as they did in
New York, they did not ask if these 3,000 souls were
Democrats or Republicans.
When they stab and shoot to kill Israelis in Jerusalem
or Tel Aviv, they do not ask who voted for Netanyahu
or the other guy.
They do not ask who is Likud or who is Labor. It’s all
the same to them.
Even the most self-righteous peace-loving treehugging Leftist needs to watch his back. It’s the same
so far as they are concerned.
For the sake of our children, it is forbidden for us to
equivocate and show weakness. Children know the
difference between right and wrong, good and bad.
We teach it to them every day around the house. We
need to teach them how it works around the world…a
world that will be theirs when we are gone.
Are we to leave them lost and helpless because we
failed to teach them that the love of your brother and
the pain of your sister come first?
21
“You shall not shirk from a cry in your camp”, urges
our Scriptures, or as our parlance would have it,
“heed the distressed.”
That’s where our kids come in.
Are we to leave them defenseless because we failed
to teach them about their heritage, a heritage second
to none?
Are we to send them out tottering because we failed to
inform them that Judaism is the mother of all faiths?
Are we to introduce them to the world before they
know that, while other civilizations prayed to plaster,
sticks and stones, Israel produced prophets, judges
and kings, and that in Jerusalem, David prepared a
palace for God, which his son Solomon built and still
exists beneath mosques?
Do they know that the enemy cannot produce a single
coin, a single king, a single judge in a land that they
say belongs to them?
Are we to ship them out stumbling because we
failed to inform them that Moses and the Ten
Commandments are featured everywhere throughout
our nation’s capitol?
This is the fullness of our task. This is the completeness
of our duty, to our kids, our grandkids.
To give them the knowledge and to give them the
strength to succeed where we keep coming up short
for America and failing for Israel.
Now and thereafter it is for them to call into account
every slander against Israel and every falsehood
against America.
We failed the past. We will be called to answer for the
present. But we still have a chance to atone. Upon
our children falls our salvation. Through them there is
still a chance to get it right.
Let them declare, as proclaimed Isaiah, “that for the
sake of Zion I will not be silent.”
For the sake of America we will sound the wake up
call.
Certainly it hurts. We want our kids to behave
perfectly in a perfect world. In our culture we raise
our kids to be learned, lawful, creative, productive,
upright and obedient. But we have no choice except
to prepare them for another culture. That other
culture manufactures suicide killers in the womb. So
we hope for the best but must prepare them for the
worst. Yes, it hurts.
They must be taught to speak up and learn never to
whisper…never to whisper in any language, in any
land.
American Jews – are we a fearful people, a timid
people, a frightened people?
Jack Engelhard is a NY based best-selling author who
writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. His novel
Indecent Proposal was translated into more than 22
languages and turned into a Paramount movie. His
latest thriller is The Bathsheba Deadline.
The State of American Jews: The best of
times, the worst of times
By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer
I. The Beginnings of American Jewry
North America’s first Jews arrived in 1654 aboard
the “St. Charles,” sailing with a desperate shipload
that brought 23 Spanish-Portuguese Jews to New
Amsterdam as they fled from the vestiges of the
European Inquisition that had come to the New World
in Spain’s and Portugal’s South American colonies.
These Jews sought refuge in New Amsterdam, the
sole Dutch colony among the original thirteen colonies
that eventually would comprise the United States.
The Dutch had been among the friendliest European
countries for Jews, as Holland itself had to ward off
the perils of Catholic intolerance amid the Catholic
Crusades, Inquisitions, and other Christian religious
wars that dominated Western Europe during those
centuries.
In time, those first “American Jews” found themselves
confronted with a most anti-Semitic force, Peter
Stuyvesant, then the governor of the North American
Dutch colony. Peg-legged and crusty, Stuyvesant
barred Jews from participating in the common
defense of the colony and instead demanded that
Jews pay a special tax levied on them alone, to pay for
not serving. One defiant holdout, Asser Levy, insisted
on serving in the military defense and refused to pay
the tax. He fought Stuyvesant and won. Today, there
is a small intersection of streets in lower Manhattan
named Asser Levy Square. No one knows whom that
space is named for. There is also a prominent New
York City public school, one of the city’s three or four
finest, named Stuyvesant High School. Through most
of the latter half of the Twentieth Century, much of that
top school’s student body was comprised of Jews. No
one knows — or cares — whom that school is named
for. And in that first Jewish encounter with Stuyvesant,
there may be seen a metaphor describing the entirety
of the American Jewish experience.
The experience of American Jews is comprised of three
main waves of immigration, followed by processes of
assimilation. First came the earliest 25,000 Jews,
the Spanish and Portuguese who survived Catholic
Crusades, Inquisitions, and Blood Lies. They were
moderately Orthodox and Old Worldly. Then came
the secular, anti-Orthodox, German Reform Jews who
arrived between 1840 and 1880, fleeing reactionary
Germany during the Age of Metternich. Those
250,000 Jewish newcomers to America outnumbered
the landed Sephardic community by ten-to-one and
redefined the very meaning of being a Jew in America.
They established American Jewry’s institutions:
charitable Jewish Federations, fraternal orders like
B’nai B’rith, and low-key defense agencies like the
American Jewish Committee and, amid the Leo Frank
lynching, the Anti-Defamation League. They worked
hard to assimilate. And then came the East Europeans.
II. The East European Immigration of 1881-1914
From 1881 (when Tsar Alexander II was assassinated
by radical revolutionaries, followed by the “May Laws” of
1882) through1914 (when America sealed its borders
to foreigners, as World War I erupted), a tsunami
TheJewishWord
of Jewish immigration numbering 3,250,000 Jews
from Eastern Europe burst onto the American scene.
Overwhelming the prior landed German Jews by more
than ten-to-one, the religious among these “Orientals”
were profoundly more Orthodox than the Reform
“Occidentals” on the scene, even as the secular among
them were more extremely radical than anything the
German Jews could imagine. Arriving in the millions
with long beards and peyot (sideburn curls that many
Orthodox do not cut), their look and practices terrified
the assimilated Reform German Jews, who feared that
these “Ostjuden” (Jews from the East) would stoke
anti-Semitism in the New World. These newcomers
wore obvious Jewish religious head coverings. The
German Reform Jews mocked those head coverings,
which they felt resembled the look of Eastern Orthodox
Christian clerics, and they disparagingly called these
newly arrived religious people “The Orthodox.” The
name stuck.
By now landed and feeling some security as they
endeavored to be indistinguishable from their Christian
neighbors in this New World, the German Reform Jews
urgently organized programs and schemes to break
up the concentrated settlements of Orthodox East
European newcomers and to scatter them across the
country. Meeting many immigrants as they arrived at
Ellis Island, these Jewish “philanthropists” would put
them immediately back on other boats and ship them
to Galveston, Texas or to other cities. They tried to
make farmers out of the newcomers, in an era where
the main anti-Semitic stereotype that was rampant in
America — and intensified at the Democrat National
Convention of 1896 after Presidential candidate
William Jennings Bryant’s “Cross of Gold” speech —
associated Jews with banking, investing, and Wall
Street finance. So the German Jewish investment
financiers donated to Jewish philanthropies shipping
newcomers to lightly populated northern New York
State in the Catskill Mountains and to Vineland, New
Jersey, to make them farmers. (The schemes failed,
and many of those families instead turned their farms
into hotel resorts.) Continually, the landed Reform
Jews established institutions aimed at the single goal
of assimilating the newcomers, to not only blend them
into America’s “melting pot” but to dissolve them.
The radicalism of German Reform Judaism was so
shocking to the newcomers that many sought a more
tempered, conservative approach to “modernizing”
Judaism, creating “Conservative Judaism.” Among the
early founders of that movement were several of the
prominent American Orthodox rabbis who expected
and intended for that movement to be Orthodox in
practice. In time, however, Conservative Judaism
would depart from Torah observance, and newer
and more carefully focused Torah-observant efforts
ensued, resulting in the founding of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations (“OU”) and the planting
of Agudath Israel onto American soil. Meanwhile, one
Friday night, at an “Oneg Shabbat” program organized
on the Lower East Side to “Americanize” East European
Jewish young adults, the prominent Reform Rabbi
Stephen Wise came to speak and teach them about
American ways and values. To pay for the program,
held at a local garment button factory, organizers
22
passed a hat around the meeting room asking people
to donate money. Many of the young adults, shocked
and appalled by the desecration of Shabbat, instead
filled the hats with buttons lying around the factory.
Days later, they gathered and founded their alternative
Americanizing program that would teach young adults
American values while simultaneously honoring
Orthodox Judaism. They called themselves “Young
Israel.” The playing field now was set for the Reform
assimilationists and the newly arrived Torah-observant
to embrace America over the next century.
III. The State of American Jewry a Century Later –
the Superficial Successes
The established American German Jews, who had
arrived half a century ahead of the East European
Jews, made their bargain with America: in return for
greater tolerance and even eventual acceptance, the
Jews would abandon much of what made them unique
as Jews. By today, outside the Orthodox population
of American Jewry, that bargain presently manifests.
Much of America’s historic genteel anti-Semitism
seems, on the surface, to have disappeared. In return,
except for the Orthodox Jews of America, much in
America of what historically has defined Jews as Jews
also has disappeared. For the non-Orthodox, with
intermarriage rates above 50 percent, it is the Liberal
Democrat agenda that today comprises their “Jewish”
religion. For example, outside the Orthodox, American
Jews proved to be Barack Obama’s most reliable
Caucasian constituency in both his Presidential
campaigns, as he garnered well more than 80 percent
of the non-Orthodox American Jewish vote even though
Obama, by any yardstick, is not identified as Israel’s
best friend. The overwhelmingly one-sided support for
the Democrat candidate, any Democrat candidate, a
phenomenon that has been repeated through virtually
every American election this past century, speaks
not so much to “political affiliation” but to social
agendas. For those Jewish voters, their focus is not on
the candidate who will best support Israel — nor, for
that matter, on the candidate who will best support
interests parochial to Jews. Rather, he is the one most
certain to pursue a liberal agenda.
Along the way, Jewish political influence in America has
dropped substantially from what existed thirty and forty
years ago. This reduction of influence was reflected
most recently in the failed effort to oppose the Iran
Nuclear Deal. Even large numbers of Jews in Congress
voted for the deal, and the few who voted against
were circumspect to oppose in a low-key manner that
assured the deal’s passage.
Jews in America also matter less numerically today.
At one point, half a century ago, there were six million
American Jews, comprising three percent of America’s
population of 200 million. Today that percentage
has decreased by fully one-third: There are some
300 million Americans today, but still only six million
Jews, and actually fewer when “patrilineal” non-Jews
are excluded from the count, reducing the Jewish
percentage of the population to less than two percent.
At the same time, by way of comparison, America’s Arab
population has grown from one million to somewhere
between two and three million people during the same
period.
Superficially, the Jewish population seems more
prominent and influential in America today than ever
before. An Orthodox Jew, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
ran as a Vice Presidential candidate in 2000 on the
ticket headed by Al Gore in their unsuccessful race
against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Barack
Obama’s closest advisors have included Jews like
David Axelrod, his chief campaign advisor, and Rahm
Emanuel, his first White House Chief of Staff. Until a
recent New York City election, the mayors of America’s
three most prominent cities all were Jewish: New York
City (Michael Bloomberg), Chicago (Rahm Emanuel,
having moved back there from Washington, D.C.), and
Los Angeles (Eric Garcetti, son of a Jewish mother).
Similarly, although comprising only two percent of
America’s population, Jews comprise nine of the 100
United States Senators (and typically count a tenth,
Diane Feinstein, although she is not actually Jewish).
Jews comprise approximately 5 percent of the House
of Representatives. The probable Democrat candidate
for president, Hillary Clinton, has a Jewish son-in-law,
married to the Clinton's only child.
favoring Israel. The second half of that equation no
longer holds true. Democrat Presidential candidates
campaigning in New York now know that the Jewish
vote is in their pockets, secure and dependable,
regardless of their stand on Israel. Thus, a Barack
Obama could generate a decade of conflict with Israel
and its leaders, clash with Israel over an Iran nuclear
deal, insist on unilateral Israeli concessions, and press
for a return to pre-June 1967 boundaries in Israel,
all without sacrificing Jewish support and financial
backing. Similarly, his aspiring Democrat successor,
Hillary Clinton, could demand Israeli “settlement
freezes” and even scream at Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu on the phone when she was U.S.
Secretary of State, demanding that Israel be barred
from building Jewish homes even in East Jerusalem,
In the Ivy League, comprising some of America’s most
highly regarded universities, where the numbers of
Jewish students and faculty once had been severely
restricted by targeted anti-Jewish quotas as late as the
1950s, virtually every Ivy League university has had
a Jewish university president in the past decade, and
Jewish student enrollments far out-distance the Jewish
percentages of the population, with Jews comprising at
least 25 percent of the Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and
University of Pennsylvania student populations, 20
percent at Cornell, and 15 percent at Brown. There
are now three Jewish United States Supreme Court
justices among the nine. (There never had been any
until Louis Brandeis ascended to the Court in 1916.)
So it would seem that American Jews, whose
doctors once could not gain admittance privileges at
prestigious hospitals, whose attorneys once could not
gain entry into any prestigious American law firms,
whose executives could not gain admittance into
American banking, and who could not gain admittance
into alumni and fraternal societies or country clubs,
never have had it better. So it would seem.
IV: The State of American Jewry a Century Later –
Beneath the Surface
However, beneath the surface of the extraordinary
attainments and the successes described above, the
deeper truth requires considering carefully the price
of this “success.” To be a son-in-law to the Clintons
means marrying a Methodist at a ceremony where
a reform rabbi co-officiates with a United Methodist
pastor, the Rev. William Shillady. Although Jews speak
glibly about the “minyan” in the United States Senate,
the reality is that, except for Lieberman, few of those
senators would know which way to hold a siddur
(prayer book) — and Lieberman no longer holds office.
Indeed, Lieberman himself, when he ran for Vice
President, found that the price to pay America for such
acceptance included changing his position on moving
America's Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He gave a radio interview during the campaign stating
that he saw nothing wrong with intermarriage between
Jews and Christians.
The price of acceptance in America has included a
dramatic change in voting priorities and concerns
for American Jews. Half a century ago, candidates
for President knew that the New York primary would
demand not only eating a knish in Brooklyn and a
bagel in Queens but also staking out strong positions
TheJewishWord
Judaism is sustaining enormous losses, as they
desperately try to increase their numbers by adopting,
on delayed bases, most innovations previously initiated
by Reform.
The only Jewish population in America that is
growing, even surging, within the American Jewish
community are the Orthodox. According to the most
definitive population survey done, the 2013 Pew
Research Center survey of American Jews, since 1990
American Orthodox adult congregants have doubled.
Orthodox youth have quadrupled: in 1990 there
were 85,000 American Orthodox Jews under age 17;
today that number is 350,000. In New York City’s
five boroughs today, Orthodox children comprise 74
Touro Synagogue in Providence, Rhode Island, built in 1763 (wikipedia)
and yet she can rely on Jews to fund her and back her
Presidential campaign, even as she could depend on
Jews to elect her to the United States Senate from New
York.
Meanwhile by contrast, strongly pro-Israel Republican
Presidential candidates like Sen. Marco Rubio
(who never uses the term “West Bank,” but instead
speaks of “Judea and Samaria”), Sen. Ted Cruz (who
famously walked out of a mass gathering of Lebanese
Americans, after they booed a pro-Israel comment he
made, and told them that “If you will not stand with
Israel, I will not stand with you”), Gov. Mike Huckabee,
and others have had only the most modest of success
in attracting Jewish support outside of limited circles.
Instead, their strongest pro-Israel supporters have
been the Christian evangelical community.
Thus, American Jews have paid a serious price for
acceptance in the United States. Along the way,
well-funded demographic surveys have found that
American Jews marry later than do others, have fewer
children than do others, and therefore are experiencing
a marked population reduction and rapid aging of the
population, even as intermarriage rates skyrocket
and affiliations with even non-Orthodox expressions
of Judaism recede. To bolster their sagging numbers,
amid the striking population decline and surging
intermarriage rates, Reform Judaism had to redefine
Jewish identity by also including as “Jews” those who
are born to non-Jewish mothers, as long as they have
a Jewish father. That urgent change to “patrilineal
descent” saved Reform temples from closing, as they
could expand the population of children and paying
families enrolled in their “bar/bat mitzvah” programs
and “Hebrew Schools,” the center-piece of reform
temple revenue streams. Meanwhile, Conservative
23
percent of all Jewish children, and they comprise 61
percent of all Jewish children in the Greater New York
region including Westchester and Long Island. The
intensity and passion of Orthodox Jews in prioritizing
Jewish concerns and religious practices is profound.
Moreover, voting patterns among Orthodox Jews are
opposite those of other American Jews, with more
voting Republican in recent years, motivated by their
heightened concerns over Israel, which they prioritize.
No Jewish community outside Israel ever has survived
the Exile, and American Jewish life will not be
permanent either. As we recite every Shabbat at Musaf:
“Because of our sins we were exiled from our land and
have been [driven] from our soil.” In America today
outside the Orthodox community, Jewish dissolution
and disappearance are already proceeding apace.
Meanwhile, Orthodox parents likewise must contend
against a brutal and coarse culture that grates against
the values of a Torah society. The cost of a Jewish
Day School education in America, the most reliable
defense against the social and cultural challenges, has
skyrocketed to unbearably costly levels. As American
Jews go forward, theirs is the epoch described in a
different context by Charles Dickens at the outset of A
Tale of Two Cities: It is the best of times; it is the worst
of times.
Rabbi Dov Fischer is author of General Sharon’s
War Against Time. His political commentaries have
appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Weekly
Standard, National Review, Los Angeles Times, and
others. He is an adjunct professor of law at two law
schools, Rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County,
California and a member of the National Executive
Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America.
An RZA Initiative:
Successful Student Mission Boosts
Continued Torah Learning in Israel
Jerusalem and its Future
As is their purpose, terror attacks create fear. After the brutal terrorist murder of Ezra Schwartz, an American studying in an Israeli yeshiva for his
“gap” year, many American parents became nervous and hesitant to send
their children to Israel.
The RZA reacted to this insidious threat with an initiative that successfully and publicly demonstrated solidarity with Israel. It offered a subsidy to
reduce the cost for students who had spent their gap year studying Torah
in Israel and chose to return, during this year's college winter break, to the
yeshiva or seminary they had attended.
Two graduate students Jacob Bernstein, studying for Semikha at RIETS,
and Sarah Robinson, attending GPATS, the graduate Talmud program at
Stern, volunteered to coordinate this special mission. Of the two hundred
applicants, seventy five students were accepted and attended a variety of
educational institutions in Israel.
As part of their stay, the participants attended a Yom Iyun at the World Mizrachi headquarters in Jerusalem. They heard talks and shiurim from Rabbi
Shlomo Riskin and Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon, and noted women educators,
Racheli Frankel and Shani Taragin. The speakers were introduced by the
founder of Shurat Hadin, Mrs. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the organization
which employs lawsuits to combat the financial backers of terrorism.
The program also introduced them to the role of World Mizrachi in promoting Torah education around the world from a Religious Zionist perspective,
with presentations by Rabbi Doron Perez, Head of World Mizrachi, and RZA
President, Rabbi Yosef Blau, as well as a panel composed of Att'y Steven
Flatow (whose daughter was killed in a terror attack), media personality
Yishai Fleisher, and Rabbis Blau and Perez who discussed being a Zionist
while living outside of Israel.
A Melava Malka is planned to reunite the Mission’s participants and further
encourage their continued involvement in Religious Zionism.
The mission was a win-win experience: The RZA initiative received kudos
from the students, thrilled to spend time and be uplifted by learning Torah
at the yeshivas and seminaries they had once attended in Eretz Yisrael and
from the various institutions who warmly welcomed the participants, grateful for their visit and the solidarity they represented.
The message is loud and clear: Terrorists will not succeed in reducing the
commitment to learn Torah in the land of Torah and the RZA will continue
to encourage more and more American students to spend at least a year
learning in Eretz Yisrael.
No matter who wins the next American election, one thing is clear. Those
who value and cherish Jerusalem must not only take steps to ensure the integrity of Israel’s eternal capital, but must also ensure that there will always
be people who value and cherish Jerusalem.
There are, unfortunately, significant challenges that we are facing in this
regard.
One challenge is the open warfare that the Palestinians are conducting
upon Jerusalem’s citizens. Stabbings, shootings and automobile terrorism
are tactics that are being combined in an attempt to take over Jerusalem.
There is, however, another challenge, an internal one. We must face a
rather harsh truth. Both of the Diaspora Jewish communities, observant
and non-observant, have undergone change in the past two decades. The
change is subtle, yet significant.
The reality is that both Israel and Jerusalem are no longer a significant part
of the everyday lives of too many American Jews. Most Jewish students in
yeshivas and day schools do not think about Jerusalem in their day-to-day
lives. This is also the case of Jewish students in the non-observant community. Their firsthand view of the Holocaust made the previous generation
push more for the security of Israel in decades past than in recent times.
Think about it: Jewish anti-Israel organizations exist and thrive, primarily
because of apathy about Jerusalem and Israel. Israel, in the eyes of many
Jews in the Diaspora is less a homeland for Jews and more a nation that
seems to be at war with its neighbors.
BDS and the “apartheid-like” characterization of Israel of the biased media
have made inroads in our world as well. The combined results of the lack
of education about Jerusalem, negative media bias, and taking things for
granted have led to the forgetting of Jerusalem – and can have a devastating impact on the future. King David said it best in words immortalized in
the 137th chapter of Psalms: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let me forget
my right hand..”
To address this pressing issue, leaders in the Jewish community have
launched the creation of a new organization to be called The Jerusalem
Forever Foundation.
The purpose of the organization is to develop educational, promotional and
curricular material for people of all affiliations, enhancing awareness and
knowledge of Jerusalem. It will also provide media sources with new and
fresh material about Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Forever Foundation is dedicated to preserving the integrity of the city, its significance and value and to
encouraging conscious pride in Jerusalem. It is dedicated to upholding the
biblical ideal in Divrei HaYamim (23:25), “..the G-d of Israel has given rest
unto His people and dwells in Jerusalem forever.”
It is up to all of us to ensure that Jerusalem will once again be a peaceful
and unified city. We call on you to join this effort by supporting the activities
of the Jerusalem Forever Foundation in spreading knowledge and love for
Jerusalem to young and old alike.
For further information,
Sarah Robinson can be contacted on her cell at 617-412-1724
The organization’s website is JerusalemForever.org.
Order your annual subscription to
TheJewishWord
at $24.95
Call Monica 212-465-9234
msokol@rza org
Return to RZA, 500 7th Ave, 2nd Fl, NY, NY 10018
TheJewishWord
24

TheJewishWord

Transcription

Similar documents

Take 6 bottles home, Today!

November 22nd

S ANC TU AR Y - reformjudaismmag.net

Tefilla Notebook 8-27-15 - beverly hills synagogue

the savvy schlepper - TMS Mamas and Papas

THE SHOSHANA S. CARDIN JEWISH LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Zagreb celebrating Jewish culture Aus: Nachrichtenagentur Hina

Memorializing the Spanish Inquisition on Tisha B`av

JHSGH_newsletter_Fall 2015 - Jewish Historical Society of Greater

The Scribe - Issue 42 (Jul 1990)