Needed: Rabbis Who Stand Up For Jews

At a time when Jews and the Jewish state are under attack from so many directions, one would hope that we could at least expect support from our rabbis. But instead, many engage in virtue signaling, or what in football terms is referred to as “piling on.”

It is not necessary to delineate the very real physical assaults on Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish-owned or Jewish or Israeli-themed restaurants around the world. Jewish college students are intimidated and barred admission to certain organizations if they identify as Zionists. Local school boards and the Democratic party platform of North Carolina have expressed positions anathema to the Jewish state. The NEA, National Educators Association has just decided to include the “Naqba” in curriculums and to make reference to the Holocaust generic, omitting that the Nazis sought to exterminate the Jewish people, an act that gave birth to the term genocide, an accusation popular in certain quarters these days, even as it is misunderstood and misapplied. France is leading the rush to embarrass and further isolate Israel by recognizing a Palestinian state, while other countries join the hatefest levelling accusations against the Jewish state.

The attacks against the Jewish state are fueled by the almost daily barrage of articles and columns in the New York Times and other once respectable outlets harshly critical with negative portrayals of Israel, which are often inaccurate, and are often written by Jewish commentators.

Can you imagine in the wake of the George Floyd murder the outrage among blacks if instead of Black Lives Matter, people would emphasize that “all lives matter.” Or an even better analogy: Can you imagine the reaction if any black leaders who instead of saying that black lives matter, would insist that all lives matter?!

There was a time when we knew the trigger words at the beginning of a sentence, “As a Jew”… meant an attack on the Jewish state would follow. Now we need to be cautious when a statement begins, “As a rabbi”…

First, a column by a handful of rabbis expresses support for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York. Rather than call out and condemn his blatant antisemitism and undisguised hostility to the Jewish state, or at least demand that he make some concessions to work for their support, a few rabbis disregard the harm of having as mayor of New York one who harbors animosity towards Israel. Instead, they gave him a pass and endorsed him — as if that makes him kosher. Then there were rabbis who joined protests when Prime Minister Netanyahu came to meet with President Trump.

The CCAR, the organization representing Reform rabbis, issues a statement deploring settler violence which uncritically and unquestioningly accepts the accusations against Israeli settlers without mentioning the daily attacks on Jews in these same areas. Perhaps worst of all, it refers to the West Bank, the Biblical area known as Judea and Samaria, as occupied.

And now, a letter is being circulated in which rabbis are joining the frenzy of anti-Israel rhetoric of those who malign and libel the Jewish state. The letter could be worse. It at least gives lip service and acknowledges the inhumane conditions in which Hamas holds hostages and calls for their release and supports Israel’s right to defend itself against those who seek its demise. But it accuses Israel of mass killings of civilians and of using starvation as a weapon of war.

What is needed at a time such as this is not the accepting and parroting of slanderous libels of Israel’s detractors by our spiritual leaders, but a clear moral voice expressing the extraordinary measures Israel takes to reduce casualties among civilians, resulting in the lowest ratio in history of non-combatant casualties. What is needed is a reminder that every day the hostages are not released is a war crime. What is needed is condemnation of the silence and indifference of the world to the plight of the hostages. What is needed is rabbis who will stand up for their fellow Jews.

Rabbis, of all people, should know that Israel must be constantly vigilant and on guard against the very real and constant threats to its existence. With all the external pressures on Israel, now is a time for rabbis to garner support for Israel and help to explain its plight and the justness of its cause.

Rabbis, of all people, should know the true nature of Israeli society. It is a people who knows sorrow, tragedy and loss, but who mourn without calls for revenge. Emerging with an even stronger determination to pursue peace, they vigorously debate how best to achieve that elusive goal. It is a people who knows how to enjoy and celebrate life and whose songs and culture express their longing for peace and do not indoctrinate or express hatred.

And it is a country that sometimes is forced to ignore naïve and not helpful, but well-intentioned advice and do things that may be unpleasant to protect its people from those who seek its destruction.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt,
Chairman, Zionist Rabbinic Coalition – The Voice of Zionist Rabbis

This article originally appeared in The Times of Israel.