Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote:”non-Jews respect Jews who respect
Judaism. They are embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed by Judaism.
Never be ambivalent about who and what you are.”
I have spent years trying to understand why Jews join forces with those who call for our death; who found common ground with organizations that try to delegitimize Israel.
Remember the story of the Exodus? The Jewish people having been enslaved for 400 years are finally freed and make their way out of Egypt and into the desert. There, in the desert, weak from their treatment, some of the Jews fall behind. And are beset upon by the Amalekites; such brave warriors, going after the weakest.
We are faced with weak Jews here in the 21st century in countries blessed with freedom. Jews, like everyone else, free to be whatever and whomever. No fears of pogroms or ghettos or concentration camps. Following the Holocaust, we had been blessed with peace. The world woke up to the horror of Jew hatred-hate for people for just being Jewish. We could move on.
And it was good, even very, very good for several generations. Including mine and the generation of my children.
But something has happened. Jews choose to work with BDS. Choose to believe that Israel
is a pariah country filled with people who prey on innocent children at the border. Why? Why do they choose this narrative?I think it is because these Jews are weak, like the trailing Jews in the desert and easily picked off by the new Amalekites, preaching the new religion of the progressives, hiding in clothing of social justice seekers,anti-oppressors, and anti-colonizers.
I used to think of these Progressive Jews, especially older generations as Kapos. The Jews in the concentration camps who put Jewish bodies in the crematoria. No, these modern day Jews are far worse. The kapos had no real choice. They wanted to live. Choose life says our Torah. You cannot honour God from the grave. They lived in the moral grey zone.
Then I thought:they are Uncle Tom Jews.
Now I think these Jews are the product of the new moral system of feelings. They want to be liked or loved or included. It’s hard to be included, today, if you stand with Israel.
I agree with American Muslim scholar Daniel Haqiqatjou from Houston,Texas, who has written a scholarly article about the dangers of liberalism. He attended Harvard University where he majored in Physics and minored in Philosophy.
The Jewish people are suffering from the same illness. It’s called Progressivism.
Here is more.
Haqiqatjou says:
Liberalism is a dangerous religion, ‘distinct from Islam.’He also shared his thoughts on liberalism, trying to educate the Muslim community on liberalism, and really the dangers of liberalism and how to critique it. In the Quran it says: Allah says that he hasn’t made any man with two hearts within him, meaning that you can’t be faithful to two separate faiths, two religions [دين [at the same time.
He considers “liberalism as a ‘deen‘ [دين ,[as a complete religion and faith even though it’s not considered to be such but we can we can understand it in that way.
Thinks about this idea of “deen;” Progressivism as a complete religion and faith separate and distinct from Judaism. If we do, then we can better understand the Jews, today, who call themselves Progressives, who join left wing parties like the Labour Party in Britain and the Democratic Party in America.
The question left for us to answer is “Now what do we do?”
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
