A Response to Daniel Gordis
My response to Daniel Gordis’s Jerusalem Post column, ‘Those who destroy you will come from amongst you‘ is up on the Huffington Post:
In his latest column for the Jerusalem Post, Daniel Gordis — a rightly admired Jewish thinker of the conservative ilk — wades into the war of words between the left-leaning New Israel Fund and the right-leaning campus organization Im Tirzu. He takes as his jumping off point the inflammatory translation of Isaiah 49:17 (promising the Israelites that “your destroyers and despoilers shall leave you”) rendering it as “Those who destroy and despoil you will come from amongst you.” It’s a mistranslation, Gordis, observes, but he also notes that it rings true.
His argument is best summed up when he states emphatically, “The Jewish People is at war” and that in war, people must sacrifice certain liberties, like free speech, for survival.
He writes:
The issue is what a people at war for its very survival can allow itself. The issue is whether as the world’s noose tightens around the very notion of Israel’s legitimacy, Jews can allow themselves the liberties we might otherwise permit ourselves were we not fighting for our very existence. As the fate of Isaiah’s prophecy reminds us, it takes only a few words to move from a vision of a secure future to one in which those who could destroy us come from our very own midst.
I have some serious objections to his argument.
In my experience around the world, the Jewish people are not at war. There are Bosnian Jews building institutions in cooperation with their Muslim and Christian neighbors; there are Ugandan Jews who are at war with Malaria, HIV, and poverty, but not with some eternal anti-Jewish enemy. There are Iranian Jews struggling alongside Sunni, Shiite, Christian, and Baha’i for the very “liberties” their government denies all Iranians. There are Israeli Jews who are trying to build democratic institutions, multi-ethnic schools, and interfaith understanding, all of whom should take serious umbrage at his characterization of the Jews as a people at war. We have challenges, both internal and external. How do we mainstream the concerns and perspectives of non-European Jews? How do we engage a new generation in Jewish life or get younger Jews to care about what happens in Israel? How do we calm the ferocious anger between the Jewish left and the Jewish right? How do we secure ourselves in the face of violent extremism? How do we promote Israel as a legitimate state?
Read the Rest and Comment HERE.
