Guest Post: Foreword to the book “Why Palestine Matters” by Sheldon Richman By Alllan C. Brownfeld

Foreword to the book “Why Palestine Matters” by Sheldon Richman
                  By
          Alllan C. Brownfeld
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Anyone who seeks to understand the complexities of the Middle East, the manner in which Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, has corrupted Judaism and the Jewish moral and ethical tradition, would do well to consult the thoughtful essays in this collection.  The author, Sheldon Richman, has made a notable contribution to the study of this subject and, over the years, he and I have had the opportunity to work together.

In my role as editor of ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism, I have tried to advance a view of Judaism which predates Zionism—-as a religion of universal values, not a nationality.  While Israeli leaders claim that Israel is the “homeland” of all Jews, it is our belief that Americans of the Jewish faith are American by nationality and Jews by religion, just as other Americans are Protestant, Catholic or Muslim.  The homeland of American Jews is the United States.

This has been the belief of the vast majority of American Jews all through our history. In his dedication of America’s first Reform synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina, Rabbi Gustav Poznanski declared:  “This happy country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem, this house of God our temple.  As our father’s defended with their lives that Temple, that city and that land, so will their sons defend this temple, this city and this land.”

Theodore Herzl, the late 19th century founder of modern Zionism, did not believe in God or in Judaism.  The state he sought to create would be secular, based on the idea of Jewish “national” and “ethnic” identity and incorporating those features he found most attractive in Europe, particularly Germany. This immediately brought opposition from Jews of a variety of viewpoints, including the Orthodox and those Jews who considered themselves full members of the societies in which they were born and lived.

The chief rabbi of Vienna, Moritz  Gudemann denounced the mirage of Jewish nationalism:  “Belief in One God was the unifying factor for Jews,” he declared.  and Zionism was incompatible with Judaism’s teaching.  

For Reform Jews, the idea of Zionism contradicted almost completely their belief in a universal, prophetic Judaism.  The first Reform prayer book eliminated references to Jews being in exile and to a Messiah who would miraculously restore Jews throughout the world to the historic land of Israel and who would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.  The most articulate spokesman for the Reform movement emerging in Europe, the distinguished Rabbi Abraham Geiger, argued that revelation was progressive and new truth became available to every generation.  The Jewish people were a religious community destined to carry out the mission to “serve as a light to the nation’s,” to bear witness to God  and His moral law.  The dispersion of the Jews was not a punishment for their sins, but part of God’s plan whereby they were to disseminate the universal message of ethical monotheism.

In 1885, Reform rabbis meeting in Pittsburgh  wrote a platform that declared, “We recognize in the era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of Israel’s  great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice and peace among all men.We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine nor a sacrificial worship...nor the laws ...concerning the Jewish state.”  It is this vision of America’s original Reform Jews that the American Council for Judaism has sought to preserve and advance.

In his book “What Is Modern Israel.?” Professor  Yakov Rabkin of the University of Montreal, an Orthodox Jew, shows that Zionism was conceived as a clear break with Judaism and the Jewish religious tradition .  He believes it must be seen in in the context of European ethnic nationalism, and  geopolitical interests rather than as an incarnation of Bublical prophecies or a culmination of Jewish history.  The religious idea of a Jewish return to Palestine had nothing to do with the political enterprise of Zionism.   “Jewish tradition,” writes Rabkin, “holds that the idea of return must be part of a messianic project rather than human initiative of migration to the Holy Land...There was little room for Jewish tradition in the Zionist scheme...It is not the physical geography of the Biblical land of Israel that is essential for Jews but the obligation to follow the commandments of the Torah.”

The early Zionists not only turned away from the Jewish religious tradition but but, in their disregard for the indigenous population of of Palestine, , Jewish moral and ethical values as well.  They spoke of “a land without people for a people without a land.”  In fact, Palestine was fully occupied.  In his book, “Israel: A Colonial-Settler State,” the French Jewish historian Maxime  Rodinsin writes that, “Wanting to create a purely Jewish or predominantly Jewish state in Arab Palestine in the 20th century could not help but lead to a colonial-type situation and the development of a racist state of mind and in the final analysis to a military confrontation.”

Only with rise of anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, followed by the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust did sympathy for Zionism and the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine begin to grow.  Even then, many Jewish voices warned against the rise of nationalism.  Albert Einstein , alluding to Nazism,  in 1938 warned an audience of Zionist activists against the temptation to create a state with “a narrow nationalism within our own ranks against which we have already had to fight strongly even without a Jewish state.”

Another prominent German Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, spoke out In 1942 against the “aim of the minority to conquer” territory by means of international maneuvers.”  From Jerusalem, in the midst of the hostilities that broke out after Israel unilaterally declared independence in May 1948, Buber cried with despair, “This sort of Zionism blasphemes the name of Zion...it is nothing more than one of the cruel forms of nationalism.”

After Israel’s creation, the organized Jewish community embraced it and made it “central” to Jewish identity.  Israeli flags were displayed in synagogues, lobbying groups were created to promote Israel interests, making it the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world.  The Palestinians were displaced and, in 1967, their land was occupied.  In reality, the Palestinians have become tge last victims of tge Holocaust, for which they bear no responsibility whatever.

What we have witnessed since 1948 can only be considered a form of idolatry, making the State of Israel, not God and the Jewish moral and ethical tradition, “central” to Jewish identity.  This is reminiscent of the story of the Golden Calf in the day Bible.

During all these years, the older Jewish tradition of universal values and a rejection of nationalism has been kept alive by, among others, the American Council for Judaism, as well as independent voices from many sectors of the Jewish community.  Sheldon Richman has been one such important and eloquent voice.  His contribution hasbeen vital and  those who read these essays will recognize the breadth of his vision and his understanding.

This book arrives at a hopeful time.  American Jews are increasingly disillusioned with Israel and its 51-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  They used to believe Israel’s claim that it was a Western-style democracy.  They now understand that Israel is a theocracy, with no separation of church and state.  Non-Orthodox rabbis cannot perform weddings or funerals or conduct conversions.  Jews and non-Jews who wish to marry must leave tge country to do so.  Millions of Palestinians under occupation have no political rights at all.

It is a positive sign that many Israelis recognize what is happening to their country.  Professor David Shulman of the Hebrew University If Jerusalem, notes that, “No matter how we look at it...unless our minds have been poisoned by the ideologies of the religious right, the occupation is a crime.  It is first of all based on the permanent disenfranchisement of a huge population...In the end, it is the ongoing moral failure of the country as a whole that is most consequential...the failure weighs heavily on our humanity.  We are, so we claim, the children of the prophets...once, they say, we were slaves in Egypt.  We know all that can be known about slavery, ,  prejudice, ghettos, hate, expulsion, exile.  I find it astonishing that we, of all people, have reinvented apartheid in the West Bank.”

The essays collected together here show how Zionism has altered and distorted the humane Jewish tradition and shows, as well, how Zionist political efforts have altered U.S. foreign policy and made us, in effect, participants in Israel’s occupation.  Israel has been the recipient of more U.S. foreign aid than any country in the world,  As these essays show us, the interests of the U.S. and of peace and justice in the region have been ill served by this enterprise.

Where the future will lead is impossible to predict.  One hopeful possibility is that the movement toward universalism and the rejection of nationalism which proceeded dramatically in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—-and was interrupted by the rise of Nazism, World War ll,and the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine—-will once again move forward in the future.  There is now every indication that this will be the case.  The current divisions in American Judaism certainly point in this direction.

When people look back at the time when narrow nationalism replaced Judaism’s historic religious contribution, a belief in ethical monotheism and in a God who created men and women of all races and nations in His image, those who worked to maintain that tradition will be honored.  Sheldon Richman will surely be one of these.  

Sheldon grew up in a period when, in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jews believed that Palestine was indeed a land without people,as Zionists proclaimed.  Desperate to find a placed for the survivors, they embraced a policy which displaced another people.  Some Jews understood the reality of what was happening.  Many did not.  Sheldon was lucky to have a paternal grandfather who was skeptical of Zionist claims.  I always liked Sheldon’s recollection of his grandfather presiding over the annual family Seder at Passover and proclaiming, “Next year in Philadelphia” rather than the traditional “Next year in Jerusalem.”  This must have gotten Sheldon thinking about these things, which he has done for the rest of his life.

This collection of essays is an essential contribution to understanding Judaism, Zionism and the continuing conflict in the Middle East.  If anyone wonders why Palestine matters, this important book provides an answer.
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Allan C. Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and is editor of ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism.  The author of five books, he has served on the staff of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Office of the Vice President.