Ethical
nationalism is a term which is not readily seen in the world today, yet it
remains part and parcel of our dream as the Jewish people under the term
usually called Zionism. Zionism is a
term which many, even we Jews, do not even fully understand. Zionism started thousands of years ago. It is a part of the idea that we as a people
have a purpose in life which is to be a light unto the nations while living in
our own land. Part of the concept of
Judaism’s sense of nationhood is that in order for me to relate to you, I have
to be me! While the idea of unity denies
unique parts, the idea of unification rests upon the parts. There are differing views about what Zionism
is. For those with a secular outlook,
the Land of Israel is a tool for a national government of the Jews. For those with a religious outlook, Israel is
a spiritual, personal experience, a way of accessing G-d in a way that can’t
happen anywhere else. For Zionism to
work at its best, the life in Israel has to exist with dichotomies that express
compatibility with one another, the secular and the religious living together.
I’m going to
guess that most of us know about Theodore Herzl (1860-1904) as a Zionist who changed the
course of history. I’m not sure that
most of us realize that he didn’t portray himself religiously as a Jew in his
home. He saw himself as an aetheist, but
even so, he ran into anti-Semitism in Austria.
He realized that Jews were one people who had lived for centuries in
places where they were still treated like strangers. He saw emancipation, which
was designed to give Jews in European society social acceptance, as a failure. We
Jews might have gained legal rights, but we still remained a distinct social
group. His first thought about how to solve anti-Semitism was to challenge all
Jew haters to a duel, but that was not practical considering the number of
anti-Semites in Europe. He even briefly considered solving the “Jewish problem”
by having mass conversions of Jews to Christianity with the help of the Pope,
but he was dissuaded from that plan by Moritz Benedikt who argued that we Jews
had retained our religion for hundreds of generations and there should be no
attempt to terminate that. The solution
that Herzl came up with as an answer to anti-Semitism was Zionism; rebuilding a
Jewish nation in Israel. When the British secretary of state for the colonies,
Joseph Chamberlain, suggested that Britain would be willing to provide an area
of Egypt for the Jews, Herzl replied, “Egypt?
My people would surely not hear of it.
We have already been there.”
Another
Zionist, Asher Tzvi Ginsberg, commonly known as Ahad HaAm (1856-1927) didn’t worry about anti-Semitism affecting
us, he worried about assimilation. He was an aristocrat born in Russia of a
Chasidic family. He had not only had
Torah learning but also secular learning.
For him, Zionism was cultural. He
felt that the biggest problem for Jews was not anti-Semitism, instead, it was
their spiritual assimilation into the cultures around them. He felt that we could only survive with a
vibrant modern Hebrew culture, a culture that would promote universities in the
language of our ancient texts, and would free and sustain diaspora Jewry. For Ahad HaAm, Zionism included a Jewish
state that observed the Jewish holidays and where everybody would know
Tanach.
You will
notice that Zionism today includes a combination of Herzl’s dream and Ahad
HaAm’s vision. They saw the problems
facing us differently and never expected the Zionist dream to have only one
voice.
So, when
members of the world stage today decry Zionism, I wonder if they decrying the
fact that anti-Semitism has drawn many of us to the land of our ancestors when we’ve
been faced with hatred and dangers in the lands in which we’ve been residing or
to the fact that Jews are now living in a land that is culturally Jewish? When actors on the political stage speak out
against Israel are they speaking out because they don’t like the idea of a
place where every Jew and his non-Jewish family has the right to enter Israel
according to the Law of Return established in 1950?
Israel’s
Declaration of Independence states, “In the Land of Israel the Jewish people
rose. Here its spiritual, religious and
political character was forged, here it lived a life of national independence,
here it created its national and universal cultural treasures and bequeathed to
the entire world the eternal Book of Books.”
It’s true that there are many democratic nations in the world, but there
is only one democratic Jewish nation. It
is also true that there are many political situations facing Israeli society with
which we can and should be concerned . However, it is also true that Israelis
are free to speak out and protest any governmental policies that they find
untenable. Israel is not without
problems and imperfections, but it has managed in its 71 years to contribute
much to the world. We must remind
ourselves that it is possible to be an American Jew who will never make Aliyah
and still be a Zionist. It is possible
to be conservative or liberal in one’s outlook and still be a Zionist. And It
is certainly possible to not endorse every action of the current Israeli
government and still be a Zionist.
Zionism is an outlook that desires to provide a safe haven for Jews in a
world that often persecutes us. Zionism
is an outlook that says having a Jewish homeland is legitimate and will allow
us to fulfill our vision of being a light unto the nations. And here’s my
personal opinion, with which you might disagree: I believe the slogan Zionism
is racism is just one more anti-Semitic trope and a dangerous one at that.
Judaism is a
religion that does not require that all people must be like us, and Israel is
not a place where all individuals must fit a singular mold. Judaism ‘s stance
is that it is incumbent on all people to leave the world better than they found
it. That is also the ultimate dream of
Zionism as well; to bridge divides
between people and maintain an ethical presence that one day will bring about unity
not unification. I hope that in our day, we will see Zionism not be depicted as
evil, rather as a good that has the potential to speak about perfecting the
world. And I hope that those living in Israel will use this ancient ideology
and belief system to shape a nation that indeed reflects its lofty goals which have
been part and parcel of the Jewish people for centuries.
Shanah
Tovah.
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