search
Steven Bayar

The State of Jewish Unity

Fifteen months ago, we as a people suffered the greatest massacre of Jewish lives since the Holocaust. As I write, about 100 souls are still bound in life-threatening conditions, Israel and its citizens are enduring and processing emotional and physical damage from the war, and manifestations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism are on the rise.

Yet, we’ve also seen great victories over Amalek-like enemies, resulting in a realigned power structure in the Middle East.

But external threats may not be the greatest danger we face. Our unity is fractured and internal dissension poses an existential threat from which we may not recover.

Historically, external threats have united us. But unity is not our natural status as a community, much less a religion.

It is naïve to think that the UJA slogan — “We are one” — was ever accurate. We are not “one.” We aren’t even two, three or seven. As a people, we remain separate from each other, subject to the suspicions and misunderstandings common with a people with values as varied as ours. I have more in common with my Episcopal neighbor than my Haredi “cousins.”

But (at least) most of us do subscribe to the rabbinic dictum that “All of Israel are responsible for each other.” Yes, it’s true that even when I traveled to the former Soviet Union to give support for the refuseniks, and the Chabad community would not give me any information or let me meet with them, it did not stop me from bringing them tallit and tefillin (and giving it to a third party for distribution). But it was a blatant reminder that my support was neither needed nor wanted in a time of persecution.

As Jews who live in the secular world, we subscribe to a sense of “the people Israel,” which encompasses all — not just those whose observance resembles ours. Thus, we were able to work for the freedom of the Jewish communities in the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and the rest of the world.

Yet, now we seem to be searching (and finding) reasons to remain divided. In this there are no innocents. But there is a difference between division and rejection. In the current dynamic, the definition of “support” for Israel is the nexus.

As the war continues, as do attempts to free the hostages, criticism of Israeli policy grows. But we seem to have reached a tipping point as both sides excoriate the other to the extent of intimating that disloyalty disqualifies them from being Jewish.

There is a reason that our identity was tied to biology (matrilineal or patrilineal) and not belief. One could accuse another of being unfaithful, but could never proclaim they were no longer part of our people.

There is ample historical precedent warning about internal division. We may not agree, but rejecting each other poses an existential threat to all. Ironically, I have more faith in the State of Israel defeating Hamas, Iran and the Houthis than I have in our people remaining loyal to each other.

A quote by Thomas Jefferson holds great truth. “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. The hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin us.”

No, that we do to ourselves.

 

About the Author
Rabbi Steven Bayar serves as Interim Rabbi at Congregation B'nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. Ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, he is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, where he served the pulpit for 30 years, and formerly served as Interim Rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly and Rabbis Without Borders, and has trained as a hospice chaplain, a Wise Aging facilitator, and a trainer for safe and respectful Jewish work spaces. He’s the co-author of “Teens & Trust: Building Bridges in Jewish Education,” “Rachel & Misha,” and “You Shall Teach Them Diligently to Your Children: Transmitting Jewish Values from Generation to Generation.”
Related Topics
Related Posts