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This internal critique of Zionism challenges three notions: that the Jews are a nation; that exile is the main cause of their past suffering, and that Jewish history is made solely in Israel. Zionism is an illusion because it has failed to ‘normalize’ the Jewish condition. In particular, it has not eliminated anti-Semitism, but rather cultivates it in order to keep Jews within the fold.Once independent, the State of Israel emptied the Middle East and North Africa of their Jewish populations and prevented large numbers of Soviet Jews from settling in North America, or anywhere else but Israel. Now the target is France, but French Jews, though massively Zionist, are reluctant to emigrate. Israel, it seems, cannot thrive and prosper without draining the Diaspora of its finances, its youth – indeed its very identity.Israeli control of Jerusalem has not brought the Messianic age any closer. Rabbis used to worry that the Holocaust could mean that God abrogated His covenant with the Jews. Israel’s victory in 1967 convinced them that the covenant still holds. The Holocaust has, however, encouraged Jewish paganism, as Jews adulate power and define themselves purely as an ethnic group: Hitlerjuden. The State of Israel claims to be the culmination of Jewish history, but its leaders insist that we are still in the rut of 1938.The State of Israel is perfectly capable of defending itself and has no need of solidarity rallies in the Diaspora. Zionism allows the Jewish establishment to retain power, but reduces the Diaspora to a subordinate role. Yet Judaism was born and developed in exile. If Jews divest themselves of their siege mentality, Judaism can become a university for adults, without examinations or tuition fees, open to all.
What is the use of Zionism? To restore our pride as Jews, comes the ready answer. Now just when did we lose this precious pride? Could it be that, without the State of Israel, Zionists might be ashamed of being Jews? And how can one be proud of a country that drops white phosphorous bombs on defenseless civilians? Instead of combating anti-Semitism, Zionism cultivates it. An essential dogma of this new creed is that anti-Semitism is immutable and permanent. Zionists claim that we are still in 1938, and that a new Holocaust is in the offi ng. Every passing year becomes a year of broken glass. So we must rally around the State of Israel, which alone can save us. A fear-based religion allows Jewish leaders in the Diaspora to retain power over their flock. To free themselves from such blackmail, to break out of the vicious Auschwitz-Israel circle, Jews have only to disconnect from Zionism and take up their historic vocation: explaining Torah to the nations. But first, they will have to understand it themselves. Haim Ben-Asher is a historian.
Since the late nineteenth century and especially in times of great tension in the Middle East, observers have asked whether the longstanding Arab-Jewish conflict could have been avoided. The early Zionists did not feel that Arab nationalism would evolve as a reaction to Jewish settlement and the pursuit of Jewish statehood; to the Zionists it seeme
A PopMatters Best Book of the Year A perceptive study of how Israel’s actions, which run counter to the traditional historical values of Judaism, are putting Jewish people worldwide in an increasingly untenable position, now with a new introduction. More than a decade ago, the historian Tony Judt considered whether the behavior of Israel was becoming not only “bad for Israel itself” but also, on a wider scale, “bad for the Jews.” Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, this issue has grown ever more urgent. In The State of Israel vs. the Jews, veteran journalist Sylvain Cypel addresses it in depth, exploring Israel’s rightward shift on the international scene and with regard to the diaspora. Cypel reviews the little-known details of the military occupation of Palestinian territory, the mindset of ethnic superiority that reigns throughout an Israeli “colonial camp” that is largely in the majority, and the adoption of new laws, the most serious of which establishes two-tier citizenship between Jews and non-Jews. He shows how Israel has aligned itself with authoritarian regimes and adopted the practices of a security state, including the use of technologies such as the software that enabled the tracking and, ultimately, the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Lastly, The State of Israel vs. the Jews examines the impact of Israel’s evolution in recent years on the two main communities of the Jewish diaspora, in France and the United States, considering how and why public figures in each differ in their approaches.
The authoritative biography of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, introduces a new generation to a remarkable leader who fought for womenÕs rights and the poor. Born in Baltimore in 1860, Henrietta Szold was driven from a young age by the mission captured in the concept of tikkun olam, Òrepair of the world.Ó Herself the child of immigrants, she established a night school, open to all faiths, to teach English to Russian Jews in her hometown. She became the first woman to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was the first editor for the Jewish Publication Society. In 1912 she founded Hadassah, the international womenÕs organization dedicated to humanitarian work and community building. A passionate Zionist, Szold was troubled by the JewishÐArab conflict in Palestine, to which she sought a peaceful and equitable solution for all. Noted Israeli historian Dvora Hacohen captures the dramatic life of this remarkable woman. Long before anyone had heard of intersectionality, Szold maintained that her many political commitments were inseparable. She fought relentlessly for womenÕs place in Judaism and for health and educational networks in Mandate Palestine. As a global citizen, she championed American pacifism. Hacohen also offers a penetrating look into SzoldÕs personal world, revealing for the first time the psychogenic blindness that afflicted her as the result of a harrowing breakup with a famous Talmudic scholar. Based on letters and personal diaries, many previously unpublished, as well as thousands of archival documents scattered across three continents, To Repair a Broken World provides a wide-ranging portrait of a woman who devoted herself to helping the disadvantaged and building a future free of need.
Memoirs of a postwar Jewish leader in Poland, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Jews of Lower Silesia, who, together with some other Jewish activists, tried to found a permanent Jewish settlement in Lower Silesia (incorporated into Poland in 1945). Although the project was initially successful, it failed when a new wave of official antisemitism arose in socialist Poland. In 1953, at the peak of a new antisemitic campaign in Poland, he was arrested. In 1957 he left for Canada, where he was involved in activities for Holocaust commemoration and against the neo-Nazis.