{"id":17467,"date":"2024-07-07T19:08:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T16:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=17467"},"modified":"2024-07-07T19:12:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T16:12:04","slug":"the-anti-zionism-of-some-rabbinical-students-is-a-poisonous-self-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/the-anti-zionism-of-some-rabbinical-students-is-a-poisonous-self-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"The anti-Zionism of some rabbinical students is a poisonous self-deception"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s all-or-nothing world, fools treat politics like it\u2019s theology, a forever-clash of good and evil, while too many infect the rich, complex Jewish religion with Arab street politics.<\/h3>\n

Last week confirmed it: the world\u2019s greatest fools are those who fool themselves. Democrats shocked by Joe Biden\u2019s doddering should examine their news sources \u2013 his decline has been obvious. Similarly, Donald Trump\u2019s negativity and vulgarity should make Republicans cringe. If they can\u2019t see their party\u2019s decline since Ronald Reagan\u2019s days, or that Trump lacks the integrity of an Australian bush rat, let alone either president Bush, they need new glasses.<\/p>\n

The hypocrisy is exhausting. Democrats spent four years deeming Donald Trump\u2019s 30,573 lies toxic to democracy. But rather than leading honestly in response, they\u2019ve spent the Biden presidency lying to themselves \u2013 without convincing most Americans \u2013 or an increasingly unsettled world.<\/p>\n

Still, even as this demeaning debate left everyone wondering \u201ccan\u2019t America do better?\u201d it highlighted America\u2019s pro-Israel consensus.<\/p>\n

As usual, both of America\u2019s leading presidential candidates competed to be the most pro-Israel one. By contrast, French voters faced anti-Zionist left-wingers and antisemitic right-wingers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the biggest producer of support for Israel than anyone in the world,\u201d Biden proclaimed. Endorsing most Israelis\u2019 and Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s war aims, the president said Hamas has been \u201cgreatly weakened\u201d and \u201cshould be eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, characteristically, was gruffer and cruder. While urging Biden to \u201clet\u201d the Israelis \u201cfinish the job,\u201d he mocked Biden\u2019s pro-Israel but anti-incursion dither. \u201cHe\u2019s become like a Palestinian,\u201d Trump sneered. \u201cBut they don\u2019t like him, because he\u2019s a very bad Palestinian. He\u2019s a weak one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using \u201cPalestinian\u201d insultingly is not presidential. But it reflected an insight this intuitive, primal politician understands \u2013 and the media misses. Most Americans abhor Palestinian behavior \u2013 from their delight in the October 7 perversions to their hooliganism on campus and in the streets. Trump won\u2019t make Biden\u2019s mistake of trying to placate totalitarians who despise America, burn its flag, and detest both candidates.<\/p>\n

ALTHOUGH THE media downplayed it, outside CNN\u2019s Atlanta studios, pro-Palestinian demonstrators once again fused anti-Zionism with anti-Americanism. \u201cWe say f*** the police, we will burn it down and take what is ours in the streets,\u201d one speaker told the Palestine Action US rally. Promising \u201cresistance\u201d not \u201cpeaceful\u201d protest, she cried: \u201cIt\u2019s time we follow the lead of militants of oppressed nations.\u201d The Party for Socialism and Liberation protest dismissed \u201cGenocide Joe\u2026 arch-racist Donald Trump\u201d and America, shrieking: \u201cWe must build a mass movement that will tear down this unjust system!\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, speaking of self-delusion, New York\u2019s Jewish papers covered the anguished debates in the liberal seminaries about many rabbinical students\u2019 venomous anti-Zionism. It\u2019s so widespread that two left-leaning, pro-Palestinian but Zionist students recently left the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, because it\u2019s \u201ca training ground for anti-Zionist rabbis.\u201d At graduation, some of the new rabbis wore keffiyehs and sported watermelons, evoking the Palestinian flag\u2019s red, green, and black.<\/p>\n

After October 7, this sick ploy is like sporting swastikas or wearing KKK robes at a rabbinic ordination. Did these o-so-sensitive souls imagine how Israelis with murdered children or kidnapped loved ones might react to their juvenile virtue-signal? Are values like solidarity, peoplehood, and loyalty on their rabbinic curriculum? Did anyone share these two students\u2019 courage \u2013 walking out during the ceremony, quitting teaching at this breeding ground for dishonor \u2013 or, probably most effective, cutting off funding?<\/p>\n

Do these people think this deformation of Judaism is sustainable? Ignore how they betray our soldiers. What kind of robust religion, what kind of self-respecting community, can emerge from leaders who proudly wear the symbols of those who raped, maimed, kidnapped, and killed their co-religionists with a sadistic glee echoing throughout the ages? And what kind of American-based religion celebrates graduates who embrace America\u2019s enemies? What Reconstructionism founder Mordecai Kaplan, a proud Zionist, championed was \u201ca sense of mutual responsibility from the Jews of Israel and of the Diaspora\u201d \u2013 not this abomination.<\/p>\n

NEVERTHELESS, the movement\u2019s leaders won\u2019t impose \u201clitmus tests\u201d on their students. The leader of the Reform Movement\u2019s Hebrew Union College warns, \u201cIf we\u2019re going to introduce enforcements, then let\u2019s not stop at Zionism\u2026 Let\u2019s decide what version of God they have to believe in. Let\u2019s have them sign onto certain political commitments. Where do we stop?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbinical seminaries are not universities. As theological training schools, by definition they constantly use litmus tests to shape rabbis reflecting their movement\u2019s beliefs \u2013 but apparently only on issues they deem important. They suddenly call it imposing \u201clitmus tests\u201d or \u201cenforcements\u201d when they fear confronting their anti-American anti-Zionists. I call it standing for your principles.<\/p>\n

Clearly, as in the Ivy League, these schools only discover tolerance when tolerating anti-Zionism. I\u2019m guessing these free speech lovers instinctively litmus test away pro-Trumpers, racists, homophobes. And their many \u201cenforcements\u201d probably ban liberals who believe abortion is murder or traditional Jews who prefer separate seating in Reform or Reconstructionist congregations, God forbid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>
Scenes of the reinstated “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University on its fourth day. Photo: Wikimedia<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAbove all, don\u2019t lie to yourself,\u201d the Jew-hating novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky warned. \u201cThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s all-or-nothing world, fools treat politics like it\u2019s theology, a forever-clash of good and evil, while too many infect the rich, complex Jewish religion with Arab street politics and Woke posturing.<\/p>\n

Self-deception is poisonous, Left and Right, for politicians and voters, for rabbis-in-training and, even worse, their teachers, who should know better. Their predecessors, from the Reconstructionist Zionist Mordecai Kaplan to Reform Zionists like Richard Hirsch and David Ellenson, certainly did.<\/p>\n

Published by Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s all-or-nothing world, fools treat politics like it\u2019s theology, a forever-clash of good and evil, while too many infect the rich, complex Jewish religion with Arab street politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topics-antisemitism-and-de-legitimization","library-op-ed","library-publications"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17470,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17467\/revisions\/17470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}