“The question before us is the same one that splintered the Reform movement a century ago and almost broke us. Are we truly committed to Jewish peoplehood? If so, what are our obligations flowing from that commitment? Are we truly committed to the Zionist idea and the State of Israel?”
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, in his passionate keynote address at the second Re-Charging Reform Judaism Conference at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on NYC’s Upper West Side May 29-30.
“We thought that we had resolved these tensions by the mid-20th century, in the aftermath of the Holocaust and upon Israel’s founding. We didn’t. Oct. 7 revealed to us that our central values, principles we have stated and restated for decades, are under intense pressure from without and within.”
Rabbi Hirsch was followed by equally passionate speeches by Sinai Temple’s Rabbi Emeritus David Wolpe, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, and Eden Yadegar, a rising senior at Columbia University in a joint program with the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The rest of the two-day conference did not share the same Zionist passion and moral clarity. We saw why some Jewish students were part of the Zionism-free encampments, part of the fervid desire to “globalize the Intifada.” Perhaps saddest of all, many didn’t want to understand, let alone address, the underlying issues that led to this.
Zionism, Judaism, + Liberalism
Perhaps most disconcerting was a fundamental misunderstanding of both Zionism and classical liberalism. The fact that Zionism, the self-determination of the Jewish people, is a subset of both Judaism and liberalism seemed alarming to many, even after Hirsch and others well explained the intricacies.
The fact that Zionism, the self-determination of the Jewish people, is a subset of both Judaism and liberalism seemed alarming to many, even after Hirsch and others well explained the intricacies.
“Some of us have been warning for years that the abandonment of Western liberal values is always bad for Jews,” said Hirsch. “When we forsake Martin Luther King’s understanding of liberalism, to judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character; when we elevate feelings over facts, bias over evidence, group entitlement over individual merit, cancelation over debate: When we dismiss liberal values as rooted in white privilege, oppression, colonialism, and racism, we have betrayed liberalism, and undermined the very foundations that made the West dominant and Western Jews secure.
“The passions unleashed by an illiberal state of mind threaten both the West and Western Jews.”
Hirsch then addressed one of the core questions of the conference: Whether the Reform movement’s “big tent” should include ordaining anti-Zionist rabbis. “Principles require parameters; beliefs require boundaries. Otherwise, we believe nothing.”
He then addressed one of the core questions of the conference: Whether the Reform movement’s “big tent” should include ordaining anti-Zionist rabbis.
“Principles require parameters; beliefs require boundaries. Otherwise, we believe nothing. If we are a Zionist movement, especially at a time when Zionism is under such pressure from without and within, is it conceivable that we would be ordaining anti-Zionists to lead our congregations in the future?
“Let us stand for the principles we have stated and restated since the mid-20th century: We are a Zionist movement. We are committed to the centrality of Jewish peoplehood. We are theologically, philosophically, and practically devoted to the Jewish state — not uncritically — but unconditionally.”
That view was not acceptable to Dr. Andrew Rehfeld, president of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. He called it a “political litmus test,” which goes against “the principles of liberal Zionism.” Asked whether ordaining a Jew for Jesus would also be viewed as such, he seemed less certain.
“When people say Israel has the right to exist, it’s a complicated philosophical question,” Rehfeld said. Earlier, Greenblatt had scoffed at using that term. “Philosophically speaking, those are words I never get to use. Because in the world in which I live, the outcome is the same. Liberated zones. Liberated of Jews on their own terms.
“Anti-Zionism is antisemitism because Zionism is a Jewish value,” Greenblatt stated unequivocally. “Zionism is as fundamental to our tradition, to our faith, to our peoplehood as every other Jewish value that we speak of.”
But Rehfeld dug in deeper. “What gives the right of the Jewish people to control state power? Are there limits to that right?”
He had hit one of Natan Sharansky’s three d’s of antisemitism — delegitimization, demonization, double standard — without even realizing it. As Wolpe put it: “The only state in the world in which people call for its elimination is Israel. Now, if it were not for the fact that Israel also happens to be the only state that is occupied by a people who have a millennial history of prejudice against them, then you might say it’s coincidence.”
Rehfeld was far from alone. Teaching kids to love Israel unconditionally was called “indoctrination” and “deception” by multiple educators.
Thankfully, voices of reason periodically intercepted the introduction of anti-Zionist notions. “The longing to return to Zion is integral, inextricable to Judaism,” said Amanda Berman, founder and executive director of Zioness. “Zionism is not about politics.”
Religion is not political
Throughout the conference, there was a general assumption that everyone there was a Democrat who believed the current Israeli government is “extreme” and “militaristic.” Living in NYC I’ve gotten used to this, but that doesn’t make it right.
Judaism, whatever the denomination, is about values not politics. It was the ugly infusion of politics into my conservative synagogue here that forced me to leave after my son’s Bar Mitzvah. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence: When you replace values with politics you produce confused congregants willing to engage in morally reprehensible behavior, like unwittingly supporting the harming of Jews.
“The insistence on universality should not erase what those students were really missing, which is Ahavat Yisrael: Love of Israel, to love your own family,” Wolpe said.
“The insistence on universality should not erase what those students were really missing, which is Ahavat Yisrael: Love of Israel, to love your own family,” Wolpe said. “The recognition that the people who are closest to you should be closest to you. And there’s nothing wrong with that. That is not a violation of human nature. That is the way of human nature.”
The other problem of allowing religion to be politicized is that we won’t be the only ones doing it. Greenblatt talked about how anti-Zionist activists, both in Congress and on campus, are using religion to subvert democracy. “These activists are using the largesse of the institutions, using the liberties provided by them, exploiting the weakness of so many of these college presidents whose codes of conduct were never equipped for anything like what they’re seeing. And look at members of Congress or elected officials who are using the tools of our own democracy against us.”
Universalism + particularism
“The more particular you are the more universalistic you can be,” Wolpe said. “When the United Nations … wants to express itself universally, what does it do? It takes a quote from Isaiah: ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.’ They turn to Jewish particularism when they want to express universalism.”
Indeed, Jewish universalism is grounded in Jewish particularism: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The second half of “Justice, justice you shall pursue” is “so that you may live and inherit the land that God has given you.”
The Religious Action Center, founded in 1961 to advance the values of justice, inclusivity, tolerance, respect, human dignity, unity, and peace, “insisted that Judaism’s universal aspirations emerged from, and are a result of, Jewish particularism, a function of Jewish peoplehood, not its negation,” Hirsch said. “For us Jews,” wrote Abraham Joshua Heschel, “there can be no fellowship with God without the fellowship with the people, Israel. Abandoning Israel, we desert God.”
“Did we intend for our young people to lead anti-Zionist Passover seders at university encampments in so-called ‘liberated zones’ — liberated from Zionists?” Hirsch asked. “Had we known, would we have focused more on Ahavat Yisrael — love, commitment, and responsibility for the Jewish people — the place where everything Jewish starts, without which nothing Jewish can be fully understood?
“Had even the most fervent American peace activist found themselves in one of those border communities on that awful day, they, too, would have been slaughtered in their beds, brutalized and sexually assaulted in the fields, or viciously taken hostage,” Hirsch said. “No one would have asked their views.”
Wolpe mentioned Sharansky’s description of two kinds of Jews in the Soviet Union. “There were the Universalists. They became the Communists. They helped enslave the Soviet Union. And then there were the Jews. They were the Refuseniks. They were the Particularists. And they helped liberate the Soviet Union.”
“Jews get to define Judaism,” Hirsch said. “Others get to decide whether they accept us as we see ourselves.”
In the numerous workshops and panel discussions, these views were overshadowed by some rabbis and educators who took no responsibility for the current climate but seemed obsessed with parsing “Israel education” to satisfy not Judaism, but a kind of anti-Judaism.
At the very end, Rabbi Meir Azari, executive director of Beit Daniel, a congregation in Tel Aviv affiliated with the Israel Movement of Progressive Judaism, seemed visibly pained by everything he just heard. After describing the ongoing suffering, trauma and mourning of Israelis today, he looked out into the sanctuary and said: “We can do better. You can do better.”
Hatikvah
The conference was punctuated by the campus experience. Hillel International’s Director of Israel Education, Rabbi Melissa Simon, talked about how “In the face of isolation, indifference, and disinformation,” it’s been a record-setting year for Hillel in terms of number of students participating in their programs.
And we had the opportunity to hear Eden Yadegar, the president of Students Supporting Israel at Columbia, speak: “University leadership has proved to us day after day that they couldn’t care less about us, their Jewish students, and that they cannot and will not protect us. At Columbia, Jewish students have been spit on for speaking Hebrew, shoved and hit with sticks, rocks, and fists, singled out in classes by professors, forced out of social clubs, blocked by peers and professors from entering certain parts of campus, and told to go back to Poland.
“The existential fight for Jewish survival on campus was and is all consuming. I have been yelled at on campus multiple times. told by my peers that I am a disgusting colonizer and that I should be ashamed of myself. It is undeniable how normalized and ubiquitous antisemitism has become at Columbia. We refuse to allow anyone to hate us for being Jewish more than we love it. We refuse to allow others to define our Judaism for us.”
Then she read from the letter, titled “In Our Name,” that she co-authored and was signed by 700 Jewish students: “To the Columbia community, over the last six months, many have spoken in our name … Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent real Jewish values and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism.
“Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities. We proudly believe in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity.
“Contrary to what many have tried to sell you, no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief. Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem. The land of Israel is filled with archaeological remnants of a Jewish presence spanning centuries.
“The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy.
“Protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of white colonizer. We have been told that we are ‘the oppressors of all brown people,’ and that, ‘the Holocaust wasn’t special.’ Students at Columbia have chanted ‘we don’t want no Zionists here,’ alongside ‘death to the Zionist state’ and to ‘go back to Poland.’
“In every generation, the Jewish people are blamed and scapegoated as responsible for the societal evil of the time. We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those that misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew. Synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shape-shifting. We are proud of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is home to millions of Raki Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, and Ethiopian Jews, as well as millions of Arab Israelis, over a million Muslims and hundreds of thousands of Christians and Jews.
“Israel is nothing short of a miracle for the Jewish people and for the Middle East more broadly. Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It is quite the opposite. For many of us, our deep love and commitment to Israel pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic.
“Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity.
“If the last six months … have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism and consequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish people.
“Yet our concerns have been brushed off and invalidated.
“We recoiled when people screamed resist by any means necessary. Telling us that we are quote all ‘inbred’ and that we ‘have no culture.’ We ultimately were not surprised when a leader of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest encampment said publicly and proudly that, ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live,’ and that we’re lucky they are, ‘not just going out and murdering Zionists.’
“We felt helpless when we watched students and faculty physically block Jewish students from entering parts of campus that we share, or even when they turn their faces away in silence. The silence is familiar. We will never forget.
“You never know how strong a tea bag is until it is in hot water. The Jewish community at Columbia remains resilient, proud, and united in the face of bigotry, bullying, and harassment espoused by our peers and professors and tolerated by our university leaders.”
She ended with words from Sharansky: “Dear Jewish students of America, today you are on the front line. The future of American Jewry and maybe even America itself stands in your hands. Be brave.”
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine.
