What Jewish Group Am I In?
In an April 18th editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz * Peter Beinart wrote that with regard to Israel American Jewish Millennials fall into four groups:
- The assimilated who have little if any interest in Israel because they have little if any interest in Judaism;
- The Jewishly Orthodox and politically Republican who, as long as Israel is run by the religious and political right take an “Israel right or wrong (and Israel is never wrong)” stance that ignores the plight of the Palestinians;
- The “stand with the oppressed” Jews who are anti–Zionist and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement; and
- The pro–Israel/pro–Palestine Jews who are committed to Judaism and Israel while at the same time opposing the Israeli occupation and the right-wing nationalism that dominates the country’s politics.
I couldn’t help asking myself which camp I would fall into if I were an American Jewish Millennial.
- While I am a largely assimilated Jew whose Judaism is strongly influenced by American liberal democratic ideals, I interest in and commitment to Judaism is unwavering; so group one is out.
- I am far from Orthodox in my Judaism, way too liberal in my politics to be a Republican, and appalled by the plight of the Palestinians, so group two is out.
- While I am opposed to the occupation of Palestinian land, I do not as yet support BDS. This is both cowardly and hypocritical of me: I applaud Bruce Springsteen for cancelling concerts in support of transgender rights; and I supported BDS with regard to apartheid South Africa, and yet at least for now, group three is out.
- The pro–Israel and pro–Palestinian position is also troublesome for me in that the Israel and Palestine I support are liberal, secular, and democratic fantasies that neither country is soon to become. So group four is also out.
So where do I stand? I need a group five: Jews who believe in Perennial Wisdom rather than parochial piety; who find the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights a far better template for ethics than tribalism; who support bioregionalism over nationalism, whose pride in being Jews rests on the universalism of (some of) our Prophets and the creativity of (some of) our rabbis rather than the jingoism of (many of) our politicians and conventionalism (many of) our clergy; who value argument and doubt over tradition and continuity; who reject the theology of Holocaust and Redemption in favor of an atheology of an Ultimate Reality beyond religion; who are more drawn to Chochmah/Wisdom than to Halachah/Law, to Job and Ecclesiastes than to Deuteronomy, to Buber and Fromm than to Bobover and the frum, to Spinoza and Einstein than to Chief Rabbis, and whose love for Israel is contingent on Israel’s love of justice and compassion.
Whether or not there is such a group, I don’t know. But I am hopeful.
* http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.715096