Letter to a Left-Wing Jew

I recently had a discussion with a fellow Jewish college student regarding antisemitism on college campuses. When we spoke, he had mentioned to me his discomfort in how he has been forced to defend Israel as a nation in a way he would not have pre-October 7th. While in our brief discussion, although he never outright said it, if I had to guess he was on the left. In the American context he likely identified as a progressive, in the Israeli context likely would be a Yesh Atid, or more likely a Labor voter. To him and many other Jews torn between their political and Jewish identities I write this:

We were taught for many years that criticism of the Israeli government and criticism of the existence of Israel and the Jewish people are not the same. This is of course true, it was not anti-American to march against the Iraq War nor was it anti-Israel to march against the Judicial Reform. However, in recent years this has been slowly and methodically co-opted. The progressive movement’s greatest invention is that of “Anti-Zionism.” They have normalized the view that a Jewish state should not exist. By being “anti-zionist” they also seed the idea that the existence of Jewish self determination is equally valid as to be against it. They will now make their boldest play yet, they will attempt to make you choose: are you one of them or are you a Jew?

What was once merely denouncing a policy or politician is not enough. Jews are held to a double standard that they must oppose their state and people’s existence. To be a good Jew you must betray your identity and deny the core tenants of who and what we are. For they have no interest in the preservation of our culture, our history and our faith. They only seek our destruction and will achieve it by any means necessary. They are also far more crafty than the antisemites of old. They do not require violence to achieve their means, though they certainly welcome it. Their means of destruction lie in that of manipulation, gaslighting and fear.

How can you be a Jew?” they ask “for to be a Jew then you must support Israel?” Of course you aren’t, you do not support the Israeli government and all its actions, if you lived in Israel you would never vote for Likud and Bibi. “But the very existence of Israel is that of a Jewish state, Zionism is oppression alone” they say. You affirm to them that you are not a Zionist, you do think any ethno-religious group should have a state. “And yet you claim to be a Jew, does Judaism and the Jewish identity not center on this land? That alone denies those it op http://gty.im/1927400729 presses.” they inquire. Then you speak the words they so desperately wish for you to say, “If this is what it means to be a Jew then I am not one.

I warn those who may not be Jewish that they will be next. The so-called Anti-Zionist Progressive Movement are assimilators, they seek a global universal identity and ideology. They will twist your identity into that of evil then ask you to denounce it as such. They decide and determine who and what we are. They tell you that to be a Jew is to be problematic. Our continued existence and connection to our ancestors run contrary to their goals. Judea was and continues to be the proven home of the Jewish people. The only way they may free the “oppressed Palestinians” is to sever all connections the Jews may have. For if there are no Jewish people, there is no Zionism and in turn there is no Israel. They will make us enemies of each other and in doing so cause our downfall. For if the Jewish people become truly and finally divided then for what purpose would we exist? In the Torah, one the greatest threats G-d himself uses is to divide and scatter us till even the memory of the Jewish identity is forgotten. Community and shared identity are fundamental to our continued survival.

Jewish history is full of factionalism and the fighting it yields. When the Maccabees revolted against Selucid oppression the Jewish priestly clan, the Oniads, fought to preserve hellenization. When the Hasmonean King Alexander Yannai found favor with the Sadducees, the Pharisees revolted. When the Jews revolted against the Romans in 66 CE, the extremist Zealot faction sieged Jerusalem and slaughtered the moderate rebel leadership. Leaderless, the Jewish military collapased and Rome massacred all inside the walls of Jerusalem. Every time our enemies stood by and watched as the infighting weakened us and then our enemies pounced. The Greeks backed the Oniads, the Romans destroyed the Temple and razed Jerusalem. It is perhaps most tragic that the Jews are more often than not the greatest tool of our own destruction.

Yet, history has also shown that we can overcome this and in doing so find victory. In 1948, the newly minted IDF sunk the Altalena, an Irgun ship, a fellow Jewish militant group. Irgun was outraged, 16 of their men had died and their weapons shipment destroyed, by fellow Jews who were supposedly their ally. Their leader at the time was Menachem Begin and he recognized the cycle about to befall the Jews of Israel. Should he choose revenge and factionalism: a civil war would befall the Jews of the newborn Israel and the Arab armies would decimate them all. So instead he chose forgiveness and unity, he disbanded the Irgun and fully integrated it into the IDF. In that moment the Jews of Israel had united and together would find victory and Israel would be truly born.

The lesson in this is that the Jews are the only people that we have. When we are pitted against each other it only results in our destruction. We all will face our Altalena moment, where we will be forced to pick our individual goals and that of the greater Jewish whole. It is not that we must always support the actions of Israel or each other. There is an infamous story in the Talmud titled “The Oven of Akhnai.” While it is mostly remembered for its shocking interaction between G-d and the Rabbis, it holds a more important lesson. Rabbi Eliezer would be exiled not for his opinion, debate is a key tenet of Judaism after all, but for his inability to accept the greater decision. The exile of Rabbi Eliezer was to teach the Jewish world that the pride of oneself should not be placed before the cohesion of the Jewish one. The minority has a place alongside the majority, but for the Jewish people’s very survival, neither must come before the whole.