Combatting Zionism Today
"But the Holocaust" part 2
Read “But the Holocaust” Part 1!
I stood at the bimah, nervously reading Hebrew from the Torah in front of all of my friends and family. My Hebrew wasn’t exactly the sharpest, so I was eager to wrap up my b’mitzvah parashah (torah portion). I switched gears to English and shared my interpretation of the text:
“In Parashat Behar, Moses teaches us about the cyclical nature of tending land and practicing regenerative farming. Resting every seventh year allows future generations to–” Before I could finish, the fateful moment came. My rabbi, who had been standing behind me looking outraged, couldn’t take it any longer. She cut me off mid-sentence, interjecting her Zionist interpretation of Parashat Behar. She insisted that “the land” referred specifically to the current state of Israel, and that ‘actually this parashah shows why we must go to Israel and tend that land’. In Jewish tradition we “wrestle” with our sacred texts, meaning there is no one meaning and certainly no literal interpretation. However, when it comes to conceptualizing a Judaism that is separate from or against Zionism, Jewish institutions, such as my former synagogue, often pull the mat from under you.
I was not a particularly politicized 13 year old and did not immediately understand the gravity of my rabbi’s interjection. That is, until I saw the look on my mom’s face. My mom was furious because this particular synagogue was my parents’ best attempt at finding the least overtly Zionist Jewish education possible, and yet...
After my bar mitzvah, I didn’t return to a synagogue for ten years, and the more I learned about Israel, the more alienated I felt from Judaism.
I recently spoke to my mom about her experiences growing up in a non-religious Jewish household where she struggled to find connection with Jewish life. She shared:
“Growing up, it seemed like Judaism was almost entirely predicated on persecution. When I had children, it was important to give them something else.”
When I asked her if Zionism had something to do with this, she responded:
“I always felt that Zionism was wrong. This came from a sense of anti-nationalism: and the idea that I would pledge national allegiance to a country that had suppressed the rights of others seemed so ass-backwards.”
My mom grew up searching for a Jewish community that was liberation-centric, focused on justice, anti-racism and feminism. During the South African anti-apartheid movement in the 80s, she thought she might find just that. Instead, a lot of her Jewish progressive friends involved in anti-apartheid activism also identified as Zionists. Being against one apartheid but for another seemed hypocritical and made her feel alienated.
“I felt disconnected from any formal Jewish identification because I was ‘not Israel identified’ and didn’t have a solid notion of god. There was no one institution or group of Jews who seemed to share my beliefs, which were based on a sense of justice, including not taking Palestinian land.”
My mom, just like me, has only recently found Jewish community through our shared belief in anti-Zionism. We cried together on the phone, talking about the feeling of being simultaneously torn apart by the atrocities committed in the name of “Jewish safety” and moved by the bold action organized by Jews in the name of Palestinian liberation.
Our experiences of Zionism alienating us from Jewish community is not unique. In fact, it is quite usual for Hebrew Schools’ “history” curriculum to focus primarily on the Holocaust and the creation of Israel as the natural next step in our people’s history. The “Second Holocaust” narrative is also typical, as Israel is always presented as the David in a world of barbarous Goliaths (read today as Arabs) out to get the Jews. It's not just religious and educational institutions: even most Jewish summer camps are overtly Zionist. My brother was sent to a “socialist” Jewish summer camp when he was ten. To his surprise, they started and ended each day by singing the Israeli national anthem.
Why?
One answer is that the legacy of the Holocaust continues to be manipulated by political elites, both American and Israeli. They distract from and justify ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by distorting people’s generational trauma and crafting a nationalist narrative. This tactic remains an integral part of recruiting soldiers and providing political cover for Israel’s actions. Each year, thousands of American Jews, the next generation of IDF soldiers, wrap up their Hebrew school miseducation and flock to Israel. Over in Israel, their new Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declares “there are 2 million nazis in the West Bank”and Prime Minister Netanyahu compares American pro-Palestinian protestors, many of whom are Jews like myself, to nazis. And it’s not just Israeli politicians: Joe Biden has made similar conflations, including in his recent Holocaust Remembrance Speech. Calling Palestinians and their allies nazis in order to misdirect from the fascist policies of Israel is not new. It dates back to the very founding of the state. Check out “But the Holocaust” part 1 for a detailed discussion of this!
Co-opting the Holocaust to justify war crimes and manipulating Jews into becoming nationalist soldiers disrespects the memory of my ancestors and diminishes the very real threat of anti-semitism. While it is absolutely reasonable to fear anti-semitic violence, we must understand its origins. Anti-semitism has historically been a canary in the coal mine, an indicator of empire rising, whether the Roman Empire in 70 CE, the nazi empire in 1933 or American imperialism today.
The biggest threat to Jewish safety today comes from far-right states and ideologies, embodied by Christian Zionism, an ideology quite literally founded on the belief of the impending Jewish rapture. Jewish Zionists seem to have no problem with the fact that powerful political allies preach the death of all Jews, even inviting them to speak at their rallies. Israel also repeatedly supports far-right fascist regimes with military support, including nazi sympathizers like Pinochet’s Chile. Zionism invites anti-semitism into its movement and then calls its opponents nazis. With such blatant contradiction at the macro level, it’s worth zooming in on a couple common distinct Jewish Zionist mentalities.
There are many Jews who are so deeply entrenched in Zionist rhetoric that they unabashedly believe “murdering all Arabs” is a reasonable assertion. The Israeli interviewees in this video speak for themselves. With the rise of the far-right Likud party, this mentality has become mainstream and is reflected by Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. While I am disgusted by this rhetoric, I do think it can be understood as the culmination of successful brainwashing. Reasoning with this pervasive mentality may prove impossible, however exposing and dismantling the foundation of lies that enable such dehumanization is a step towards justice. We must build a world where it is untenable to hold such beliefs.
To another Jewish Zionist mindset, I have more analysis to offer. One common retort to critiques of Israel is that the only place to go after the Holocaust was Palestine, necessitating its creation. The tragedies proceeding and following 1948 are a shame, but there was simply no alternative.
It is indeed true that many nations closed their borders to Jewish refugees, including those who enabled nazi Germany in committing the Holocaust, such as Poland. Meanwhile, the British government, who controlled Palestine at the end of the Holocaust, shut its borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees during and after World War II. Britain was partly motivated by its disdain for Jews in its decision to support partition of Palestine and creation of a Jewish state. In doing so, they could divert Holocaust survivors seeking refuge in Britain from utilizing their resources and instead settle them in Palestine. These nations did not send Holocaust survivors to Palestine because they cared deeply about “Jewish safety,” rather they hoped to dodge accountability for enabling the anti-semitism that allowed for the Holocaust to happen in the first place. The result was settling Jews on land where an Indigenous population exists.
For those who believe that Jewish nationalism was the only way to ensure the safety of Holocaust survivors, I ask: Was it worth it? Are Jews safe today? Did Israel’s founding root out anti-semitism? Does one wrong justify another? Was there an alternative, and most importantly, is there an alternative today?
To this final question, I hear our Yiddish ancestors say: “Yes, there was (and is) an alternative to Zionism. It is called Doikayt, Yiddish for hereness.”
Stay tuned next week for part 3: Doikayt: the alternative to Zionism. “But the Holocaust,” is a weekly exploration of why Jewish conceptions of Zionism are shaped by the Holocaust.
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Terrific. Thank you Joseph.