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April 2010/Nisan 5770
A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY
Jewish Loyalties
Roberta P. Seid
What ‘Supporting
Israel’ Means. . . . . . . . . 1
Hadar Susskind
Saving Israel’s Soul . . . . 2
Shaul Magid
Dogmas and Allegiances
in Contemporary
Judaism ............ 3
Amy Eilberg
Wrestling and Listening 5
Discussion Guide. . . . . . 5
Eli Lederhendler
Speaking of Dissent:
A Problem of Ethics. . . . 6
Arie M. Dubnov
Hannah Arendt,
Gershom Scholem, and
the Ethics of Collective
Responsibility . . . . . . . . 7
Steven Nadler
Heresy: Baruch Spinoza . 9
Noam Pianko
‘Peoplehood’: Mordecai
Kaplan’s Forgotten
Act of Disloyalty?. . . . . 10
Paul Mendes-Flohr
The Road Not Taken:
Martin Buber and the
Politics of Dialogue . . . 12
Shlomo Fischer
The Israel Defense
Forces: Revolutionary
Orientations vs.
Orientations of Civility. 14
Yehuda Kurtzer
On Ignorance and
Intimidation . . . . . . . . 16
Michael Kimmage
The History of Loyalty . 17
Doug Kahn
NiSh’ma . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Richard Hirsh
Holding On,
Letting Go. . . . . . . . . . 20
Rachel Kahn-Troster
Sh’maEthics . . . . . . . 24
As we head into the spring and life unfolds around us, I’m reminded that getting out into the garden is dirty. My fingernails chip and dirt remains caked under them for days even though I scrub with a special brush. Some of what’s best in life is messy.
Relationships, love, and of course politics. This month, Sh’ma touches on — and can only
touch on even in this expanded 24-page issue — the politics of listening, of trusting, of
assessing what it means to be a loyal Jew. So much communal effort and such precious
resources have been spent in recent years trying to engage young Jews, unaffiliated Jews,
Jews hesitant to enter the tent. Why explore the issue of loyalty now? With the recent move
by San Francisco’s Jewish Community Federation to adopt “red lines” for grantees on Israel
— and with others across the country considering similar moves — the question of loyalty
has perhaps never been more pressing in the Jewish community.
In this issue, you’ll rediscover the voices of prominent Jews who held questionable positions
in their day: Hannah Arendt, Mordecai Kaplan, and Martin Buber, for example. Shaul Magid
questions contemporary Jewish dogmas and Shlomo Fischer writes about Israel’s soldiers who
must weigh their commitment to Israel with loyalty to their rabbis’ understanding of religious
Zionism. Amy Eilberg and Yehuda Kurtzer write about talking and listening — about Israel and
so much more. And several people share short reflections on what they view as the acceptable
boundaries of civil discourse. Share your thoughts with us at www.shma.com. —S.B.
What ‘Supporting Israel’ Means
ROBERTA P. SEID
For 2,000 years, Jews, as a persecuted mi- nority, often survived only because far- flung Jewish communities remained
interconnected and offered aid. Today,
American Jews, the world’s second largest
Jewish community, are questioning what it
means to be supportive of the world’s largest
Jewish community, Israel, where Jews are no
longer a minority, but a sovereign nation.
The debate stems partially from disagree-
ments about how Israel
should address its grave
challenges: a stalled peace
process, persistent Arab re-
jectionism, and looming
military threats from Iran and its proxies. Even
more, the debate is fueled by an aggressive
propaganda campaign that distorts human
rights language and reality to portray Israel as
so evil that it should not exist. This toxic nar-
rative is called the “new antisemitism,” with the
“Jewish state” and “Zionist” replacing “Jew” in
a lethal variant of classical antisemitism. A
somewhat sanitized version pervades leftist and
even some liberal circles and campuses where
supporting Israel appears to conflict with up-
holding social justice values, making some
Jews uncomfortable to identify as pro-Israel. A
new organization, J Street, has tried to redefine
“pro-Israel,” but critics charge that J Street’s re-
definition includes anti-Israel elements.
American Jews should respect Israel’s democracy
and the decisions of its elected government, despite
disagreements with specific policies.
While American Jews across the political
spectrum can vigorously debate Israeli policies,
Natan Sharansky has identified three “Ds” that
distinguish constructive criticism from the
destructive criticism that has become the new
antisemitism. The three “Ds” are: delegitimiza-tion, including denial of Israel’s right to exist as
a Jewish state; double standards, so that Israel is
