Hatred

Hatred

On Yom Kippur, Kol HaNeshama, a beloved Reform shul in Jerusalem, was vandalized in an act of hatred.  This was the fourth such act of hatred directed at the synagogue, which is a place of love and welcome for many of us who visit the Holy City.   When I was last there, I was even called up to the bimah for an aliyah.  Three young people have been arrested. But none of the other egregious attacks on Kol HaNeshama or other Reform, synagogues have been the subject of any government response in Israel.  Nor has the Netanyahu government vowed any form of protection.

This hatred is directed at me, a North American Reform Jew, and my faith. The World Union for Progressive Judaism, on whose board I sit,  the Union for Reform Judaism with which I work on social justice, and other progressive Jewish organizations have all protested this act and its predecessors. We are in this together throughout the world.  

Most disturbing, for us and all of Israel, is the kinship of these acts with other acts of hatred. Over a year ago, a stone-throwing, right-wing mob attacked another Reform synagogue in Ra’anana for holding a reconciliation ceremony seeking brotherhood with Arab Israelis. Orly Erez Likhovski, head of the Israel Religious Action Center, was injured by one of the stones. There has never been a prosecution. Daily streams of invective from supposedly religious Jews in Israel encourage this hatred of Reform Jews, who, after all, constitute the largest movement in Judaism worldwide.  The attacks on Reform centers in Israel comtinue! The Israeli government seems not to care.

It is written that the Second Temple was destroyed by baseless hatred. These haters wrap themselves in the mantle of Judaism, but they betray it. Hitler never asked what kind of Jew you were. Neither do antisemites today. Yet these radicals make common cause with the antisemites by trashing their fellow Jews and their synagogues. They betray us all.

Were this just an isolated case, it could be ignored. But it is not. This is the fourth such act directed at Kol HaNeshama. None of the others have been prosecuted. Nor has the government taken any action against the mob that attacked the worshippers in Ra’anana. Other Reform synagogues in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel Israel have been shocked by assaults, and the government has been indifferent, likely out of a desire not to offend its radical coalition partners.

Reform Jews in Israel and throughout the world support the Jewish state. Zionism is part of the Reform movement. We deserve support from the Jewish state and an end to baseless hatred directed at us by powerful members of the current government. We serve in the army, contribute to Israel, and vocally support it against those who would destroy it. Yet our haters in Israel mistakenly think only they are true to our faith.

The recently arrested youths call to mind the rogues in the West Bank who, similarly motivated by hatred, attack fellow residents who happen to be Arab. Hatred knows no bounds. The hatred shown by these rogues is destructive of everything for which Israel stands as a light unto the nations. It knows no boundaries and divides Jew from Jew as well as Jew from Arab. This hatred has no place in Israel and must be stopped. Israel is better than this. Zionism is better than this.  Am Yisrael chai.