The Wicked Child Has A Seat At The Table: on Anti-Zionist Jews

Like many Jews around the world, my favorite holiday is Passover. I take meaning not just in the story, but also the discussion, the debate, the interweaving, and analyzing with the people I love. 

From this perspective, I have a different take on anti-Zionist Jews and their associated seders at campuses, groan-inducing as they might be for some.

To be frank––and perhaps over-generous–– I thought they were good.

I know that for many, the idea of an anti-Zionist Passover is absurd, even a contradiction in terms. The core tenet of the Passover story is our journey from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to to the Promised Land. We pray that next year we will be in Jerusalem––not Brooklyn, Berlin, or Buenos Aires.

Even so: I believe that every Seder is a good Seder, and that every Jewish person coming together with their chosen community to celebrate the precepts of their faith is not just commendable but commanded.

To be Jewish, even in direct opposition to other Jews? Believe it or not: Jewish.

Don’t believe me? Check your Haggadah.

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In The Haggadah, we are taught of four children, corresponding with four ways we are to tell the story of Passover.

Best known among them is The Wicked Child, the uncontested star who shines with brilliance and malice. When presented with the Passover service, we are taught the Wicked Child’s answer:

“The Wicked Child asks “What is this service to you?” “To you,” he says, not to him. When he sets himself apart from the community, he denies the very core of our beliefs.

That’s the English translation of the ancient text, but it speaks as loudly today as it must have back then. Replace the word “service” with “country,” and you have the crux of the issue. Today, many Jewish people see the anti-Zionist rejection of Israel as a complete rejection of the Jewish community and our core beliefs.

It’s provocative, this rejection. It’s an accusation, a mockery of everything we stand for.

But the provocation itself is Jewish.

For generations, Judaism has been analyzed and challenged from within, all to our betterment. In Phillip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, we see a boldly Jewish misanthrope as memorable as anyone online today.

“Religion is the opiate of the people! And if believing that makes me a fourteen year-old Communist, then that’s what I am, and I’m proud of it! I would rather be a Communist in Russia than a Jew in a synagogue any day–so I tell my father right to his face, too. Another grenade to the gut is what it turns out to be (I suspected as much), but I’m sorry, I happen to believe in the rights of man, rights such as are extended in the Soviet Union to all people, regardless of race, religion, or color.

To reject Judaism in favor of the Soviet Union––a repressive, oppressive anti-Jewish society––all delivered with smug surety that his theoretical beliefs matched the practical realities: does such a thing sound vaguely familiar to you today?

It is his sister who responds. 

“But you are a Jew, my sister says. You are a Jewish boy, more than you know, and all you’re doing is making yourself miserable.

Despite his best efforts, Alexander Portnoy is Jewish. We know that denying your Judaism does not make it so––not to our enemies and not to ourselves. All the more so, then, if a rebellious Jew chooses to affirm his Judaism, it is not our place to deny him.

Not only is it the case that people can’t step out of their Judaism, they certainly can’t be kicked out of it. Who would we be to revoke the irrevocable? To continue citing masterworks, let me quote from David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

“But he says he’ll clue them in on a truly great thing about AA: they can’t kick you out. You’re In if you say you’re In. Nobody can get kicked out, not for any reason. Which means you can say anything in here.

Is modern literature too modern for you? Want to return to the good old days?

How about the oldest of days: our genesis in Genesis? We know that Abraham challenged God over the fate of Sodom, from Genesis 18:22 to Genesis 18:33. He was not merely questioning God: he was arguing. This was not considered to be a lapse of faith but an affirmation of his humanity.

One may feel anti-Zionist Jews are unworthy of comparison to Abraham, but is Netanyahu ––or the Israeli state–– a more worthy stand-in for God?

The very name “Israel” means “to wrestle with God.” I believe that to wrestle with the concept and reality of the state itself is certainly a valid application.

I know that this year, like last year, tensions run deep across the Jewish community. Many people feel hurt and betrayed in ways they feel can never fully forgive. And yet: you can only be betrayed by the people you love. 

As long as The Wicked Child comes to the table, as long as he argues, fights, questions and challenges our Judaism from within his Judaism, he is one of us. And as hard as we may find him to listen to, I believe the alternative – his silence – is far worse.

I am not asking you to celebrate the anti-Zionist Jew; I am not even asking you to accept him. All I ask is you not to refuse him. Because to cut off any part of our religion and culture leaves us less than whole.

This year, we are all divided. Next year, may we be at the Passover table.