Being A Free Courageous Loving Jew. Take 2

Being A Free, Courageous, Loving Jew. Take 2 ¹

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman Yom Kippur 5785/2024

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Gut Yontif.

There is a New Year’s greeting that I don’t remember hearing in the past but that I have been hearing often this year.

It dates from the 13th century.         

תכלה השנה וקללותיה. תחל שנה וברכותיה.

Tichleh hashanah v’kil’loteha. Tachel shanah u-virchoteha. 
May this past year, and its curses, end.  May this coming year and its blessings, begin.²

I’ll just say it again.  This has been a hard year to be a Jew.

For many of us the degree to which antisemitism has been expressed in places that feel close to home has beenbee especially hard. This year we faced antisemitic sentiments in progressive circles, by people we largely agree with on other issues like access to abortion or racial justice. 

This year, you have told me about your children on college campuses choosing not to share about their summer in Israel, having the word Zionist spat at them as an insult.

I have sat with you and listened to your frustrations of failed efforts in your offices to craft statements that affirm the losses of October 7th. You have told me about statements from organizations that you embrace, that failed to embrace you. Statements that both villainized the entire Jewish population of Israel and imagined a future for that land without them.

We have had the privilege of living through one of the safest eras in Jewish history. A time in which it was possible to imagine that the cyclical nature of antisemitism was coming to an end.

So it has been a particular blow to see this unnatural cycle, this firing up of Antisemitism in places where we typically feel safe and comfortable.

Antisemitic stereotypes and biases are deeply woven into Christian and Western culture. 
So deeply that they are not always recognized when expressed. What makes antisemitism cyclical is that these biases remain present even in times of relative Jewish freedom. Until they are dismantled for good, may that day come soon, they can be unearthed and used as tools by those seeking to misdirect and scapegoat.

These biases and stories have ancient roots. They are expressions of Christian insecurity directed at Jews. They are also expressions of Christian supremacy and power. This Christian Jew hatred, cast Jews as the ultimate caricature of evil, killers of Christ, using the blood of Christian children in our rituals, having horns like the devil.

After the Enlightenment, pseudo-scientific and racialized versions of Jew hatred were constructed, to fill the gaps left by the waning authority of religion.

The idea of a Semitic people didn’t really exist, and wasn’t used to describe Jews, until it was racialized to justify theories of antisemitism.

The Czar forged Protocols of Zion, deepened the conspiratorial aspect of antisemitism allowing for ever-updating imaginations of world Jewish control. Naming Jews as, both ultra-capitalists and scheming communists, Later these conspiracies imagined Jews as puppeteers behind social movements and masters of the media.

All of these tropes and precedents are present in the antisemitism of today.

It is useful to think of these historical expressions of antisemitism as engines. 
When we talk about antisemitism as an engine or a machine we can ask:
Who made this machine? Who is this engine serving? How are people who are not served by antisemitism, or who oppose it, nonetheless, saying or doing things that fuel it?

The machinery of Christian Jew hatred, fueled by accusations of Blood Libel and Christ killing served to build Christian power, and justify forced conversion. 

The antisemitism that followed, cast Jews as greedy moneylenders. It served the nobility. It was fueled by popular Jew hatred but harmed the very peasants who took up arms for pogroms misdirecting their anger over taxes and abuse.

Antisemitism has been around for so long and served so many purposes that we would do better to talk about antisemitisms - plural.

Recently there have been debates and arguments in the Jewish community, in State Houses and Congress about how to define antisemitism as it manifests today. These new definitions arose as a response to repeated spikes in European antisemitism over the last 20 years that directly correlated with escalations in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Spikes we are now seeing in the US as well.

Naming the antisemitism of a Nazi or a White supremacist is relatively easy

All of these new debated definitions are followed by lists of examples because it is not easy to explain when criticism of Israel or Zionism is legitimate and when it is antisemitic.

Just to give one example of these still debated attempts: In one document it says:

It is antisemitic to treat Israel differently solely because it is a Jewish state, using standards different than those applied to other countries.

Then later adds, however, Paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not on its face proof of antisemitism.³

Antisemitism is present in criticism of Israel. Agreeing on when, why and how, is not easy.

Let me pause to say with as much clarity as I can, it is legitimate to criticize Israel.

Jewish legacy organizations that define critiques of Israel too broadly as antisemitic have the effect of casting aspersions on Israelis arguing for their own democracy and the release of hostages. Overly broad generalizations about antisemitism in relation to Israel provide cover for those who deny all claims of antisemitism in relation to Israel.

Here at Bnai Keshet, we have a wide breadth of political opinions but I know of no one who has no critiques of Israel. This includes Israel's strongest defenders. Just as it is an act of love to intervene with a relative or friend who is abusing alcohol. It is sometimes an expression of loyalty and love for Jews to critique the policies of their fellow Jews in Israel.

But our genuine love for Israel, and concern for its safety, and hope for its future peace, expressed through caring critique is very different from the way antisemitism has been mapped onto Israel since its inception. 

The former Soviet Union used Israel to create fracture in the West. Arab and Muslim leaders have manipulated genuine support for the plight of Palestinians and stoked it with antisemitic rhetoric to misdirect anger that is a threat to their authoritarian power. In Europe, the cry of Zionism as racism, distorted the insidious history of racism born of European colonialism and constructed to justify profit from the African slave trade.

Casting Israel as the premier example of colonialism buries the sinister foundations 
of Western power and wealth. It allows Western countries to avoid accountability for the ongoing legacy of colonialism in the Global South. Further, the disproportionate focus on Israel has the effect of taking steam out of efforts that are closer to home to right our wrongs through foreign aid or reparations. Efforts that would require sacrifice and contrition for harms done and being done here.

Historical Zionism was a political movement to build a sovereign state. At the beginning of the last century, Jews around the world debated multiple theories of Jewish liberation. Those debates were transformed by the Holocaust. The majority of the proponents for creating Jewish safety in the European diaspora had been killed.

Since the founding of the state of Israel, there have been many Zionisms. 

But I will not let my Zionism be defined by those farthest on the right in Israel.⁴

I believe that people of good faith can argue about what Zionism should mean. There have been Israeli non-Zionist and Israeli anti-Zionists for decades. I believe we should respect Jews who ask hard questions about Zionism. Even if they argue it is an ideology beyond repair.

But if I am attacked as Zionist, I will defend myself as a Zionist.⁵

I will cast my lot with, Vivian Silver, the peace activist murdered on October 7, who described her own Zionism saying, her commitment to the national liberation of Jews 
required the national liberation of Palestinians as well.⁶

This might not be your definition. I am proud that we have many competing definitions in this room. But we cannot let those who use Zionist as a slur define our Zionisms.

This is an emotional topic. I feel pretty emotional right now. Take a moment to notice how you are doing.

Listening to stories of antisemitic incidents, seeing antisemitic posts online, and hearing colleagues or friends make statements that suggest antisemitic bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can give rise to intense emotions. Anger, grief, despair, fear, betrayal, disappointment, confusion, sadness, loss.

Sometimes even worse than the feelings that arise when we witness antisemitism, 
is how we feel when another Jew argues, that the very incident that we find so disturbing, is not, in their opinion, antisemitism.

It is normal for emotions related to antisemitism to ring louder for us.

There is strong evidence that we have inherited both genetic and cultural antisemitic trauma. The Holocaust is still part of our collective lived memory. I had nightmares about the Nazis growing up and I know that I am not alone.

Imagine for a moment that there had been no Holocaust. We would still carry the pain of antisemitism in our bones. But there was a Holocaust, so it really should be no surprise that we are wired to take antisemitism seriously.⁷

We should be compassionate with ourselves when anxiety about antisemitism arises. 
When it gives rise to strong emotions including the urge to flee, or to fight like hell, or a sense of numb frozenness. Our non-Jewish friends are often oblivious to this. We need to teach them about it. 

Jews have been targeted so often, in so many places, repeatedly in our history, with so many types of Jew-hatred that it is just insensitive for a non-Jew to tell us that we are overreacting.⁸

In sixth grade, I was walking home from school. I remember a couple of kids, goofing around doing Seig Heils. When I mentioned this to my dad he said without hesitation.
If that ever happens to you again, punchagain punch the first kid who does it as hard as you can.
Luckily this did not happen again.I do not embrace this advice.

But it is often the case that a strong reaction is better than no reaction. We may not always understand why a certain moment feels antisemitic. A less than coherent, confused, even an alarmed response may be the first step toward a more thoughtful examination of an antisemitic dynamic.

We need to be kind with ourselves when we have these big feelings and we also have to learn to recognize when we are being triggered by historical memory. Our feelings of discomfort, anxiety and fear are one gauge of antisemitism but not always the best gauge.

If we carry inherited trauma or have had our own traumatizing experiences of antisemitism, we should expect that sometimes we will have emotional responses that do not directly correlate with the level of threat we are facing in the moment. One thing we can do is practice, so that instead of freezing or blowing up, we can confront antisemitism with mindfulness and care.

This is especially important for us to take into account with our allies. We are a tiny people, .2% of the world. Our safety, our freedom, our right to thrive is dependent on building a world where human rights and liberties can flower.

It is not only unrealistic to imagine that we can depend only on other Jews, but it is lonely and alienating and exhausting and frighteningfrighening and thank God it isn’t required.

We have allies we can count, even if we need to rebuild trust with some of them. And we will find new allies. We will do this because we need them and because they need us.

Rabbi Meir and Bruria story⁹

A story is told in the Talmud of Rabbi Meir. Some criminals were living in R. Meir's neighborhood and were
harassing and abusing him. R. Meir used to pray that they should die. 

Bruria, his wife, challenged him, what are you doing? Do you think you can pray for them to die because it is
written, 'Sins will cease?' It doesn't say sinners, it says sins! Do you believe that if you pray for sinners to cease,
there will no longer be evildoers? Rather, pray that they should repent, and no longer be evildoers.

Rabbi Meir listened to his wise wife Bruria. He prayed for them, and they repented.

I spent more time this year than ever before in my life trying to explain antisemitism to interfaith clergy. Trying to help them understand how their statements of solidarity with Palestinian suffering,  too often bumped into expressions of antisemitism that they had not done the work to understand.¹⁰

Sometimes this work was very simple. Things like explaining that they could express compassion for the victims of October 7th, or show support for the local Jewish community mourning these losses separate from their analysis of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

This work is paying off.  Those colleagues found ways to show up. Many reached out to me this year on October 7th. And some are starting to help shoulder the load of fighting antisemitism.

With my Muslim colleagues, this work has been harder because they are also in pain, experiencing loss and fear.¹¹  Here the work has often been just keeping the door open.

But so much antisemitism is rooted in the history of Christian Jew hatred and is still expressed through Christian supremacy. Our Christian friends have a special and important role to play in dismantling this legacy.¹²

Some of you have heard that this summer, after years of planning and attempts, we secured funding for a pilot project bringing together Jews and African-American Christians  to study antisemitism and racism together. ¹³

This collaborative learning process was facilitated by an African-American Catholic and a White Jewish rabbi and was rooted in our shared self-interest in fighting White Christian Nationalism. Our shared skin in the game. Our five sessions got increasingly challenging.
 
One scenario that I found especially enlightening, required us to imagine ourselves in an interfaith group about to celebrate a victory in securing affordable housing. At the last moment, we find that our partner and honoree had long ago made numerous Facebook posts about theabout, the “nefariousness of Jewish slumlords.”

As we Jewish and Christian, white and Black participants practiced responding to this scenario all the things you might expect to be said were said. If this was an awful landlord and he was Jewish,  perhaps the posts are just describing facts. And you can be sure that others pointed out, the Jewishness of the landlord was irrelevant. The moment “Jewish” gets added as a specific modifier of “slumlord”  it has to be seen as an expression of antisemitism.

But then things got less predictable. Someone suggested that naming the landlord as Jewish might be understood, within the community as signifying an outsider.

Finally, our facilitator asked us to consider the possibility that naming the landlord as Jewish was an expression of relationship and connection. 

That despite all the ups and downs of white Jewish racism and expressions of antisemitism in the Christian African-American community there remains a strong memory in both communities of solidarity and support in the face of prejudice. That sometimes, naming a wrongdoer as Jewish might be an expression of hurt and loss of a relationship that was believed to be strong.

Before this when I thought of the sometimes disproportionate focus by white Jews on expressions of antisemitism in the Christian and Muslim African-American community, the only lens that made sense to me was that this was the result of our own racism. I still believe this is often true.

But a kinder possibility that is sometimes true is that we too feel a sense of lost relationship and hurt. That our history of fighting for justice together creates higher expectations of mutual support. Sometimes our larger reaction to antisemitism among perceived allies is an expression of how much those relationships mean to us, of how much we need each other.

Everyone who participated in the five sessions wanted more. From our friends at Bethany Baptist to our funders at the Federation. And this model is going to expand.

This last year we have been hurting, in shock, afraid. But this coming year we and groups like ours are going to roll up our sleeves and begin the work of repair. We are going to find more  partners to help us dismantle the engine of antisemitism.¹⁴

Jews, like all people, have a right to do much more than to survive, we have a right to thrive. 

I have dedicated my life to serving the Jewish community, to Jewish practice and to Jewish values because I know that this community, our values and our spiritual practice make life better for anyone who embraces it. 

If you are here I think you know this too. 

The  world is a better place because of Judaism 
and Judaism is a better religion 
because of congregations like Bnai Keshet.

Yes, we need allies to fight antisemitism, but our allies also need us.

Because Jews know what it means to survive.

Jews have placed the commandment to protect the stranger, repeated more than any other commandment in the Torah at the center of our practice.

Jews have built a religion of liberation from all Pharaohs.

Jews know that the Torah teaches again and again, to be kind to the poor, the widow, the fatherless, or in other words those with the very least power in our society.

Jews also know what it means to be loved and cared for as outsiders. Jews embrace the commandments not only to love our neighbor but to love all those who seem foreign and all those treated as peripheral.

Jews have learned to rebuild our people and reimagine our religion again and again.

Jews are experts at disagreeing.

Jews know what it means to live in diverse communities, because our communities are diverse.

Jews believe that God left the world a little broken so that we could help repair it.

Jews believe that every human being is created in the divine image. That every human has a soul that is pure and perfect.

Jews believe the world was founded in love and that it is sustained by love. 

And Jews know something about replacing last year's curses with this year's blessings.

 תכלה השנה וקללותיה. תחל שנה וברכותיה.

Tichleh hashanah v’kil’loteha. Tachel shanah u-virchoteha.
 
May this past year, and its curses, end. May this coming year and its blessings begin.