Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 21, 2017

As the holiday of Pesach approaches, our last few essays have dealt with the vast difference between Jewish life in the exile and Jewish life in the Land of Israel, as the Jewish People rise from the dry bones of Galut to mega-powered nationhood in the Promised Land. The ideas we have presented are indeed very deep, requiring a penetrating understanding of Torah, which the great Sages of Israel have illuminated for us throughout history, reminding us that the Torah is far broader than the four cubits of halacha which exist in the exile. True Judaism, the Torah of Eretz Yisrael, is a national Torah. At the time of Redemption, our learning demands deeper insights, and the realization that Judaism is far more than performing individual commandments like kashrut, tefillin, and Shabbat in alien, gentile lands.

In the light of the matters which we have explained, lets return and examine the history of Zionism beginning with the period of the Enlightenment. Once again, we will quote freely from Rabbi Moshe Bleichers book, Binyan Emunah.

Approximately one hundred years before the establishment of Medinat Yisrael, a great upheaval shook the world, which brought about a widespread heresy, which also crept into the ranks of the Jewish People. This new Enlightenment championed modernity and raised up a flag of intellectual freedom and liberation from the oppressive yoke of religion, which gave way to an extreme animosity toward religion and the ridiculing of everything sacred to it.

On the surface, this was a terrible crisis, a difficult and negative development in the life of the Jewish People. We would have expected that the spread of heresy would have brought forth a generation lacking idealism and morals, but that wasnt always the case. To a large decree, the opposite occurred. A spirit of innovation and new ideals was born, including grandiose social concepts, and dreams for a utopian society for which adherents were willing to sacrifice their lives.

A vibrant thirst for freedom circled the globe, along with noble, universal aspirations, and political and social movements which all promised to be a panacea for the pains and ills of mankind. The frameworks of the past were scorned for being too antiquated, myopic, and Victorian to meet the demands of this new Age of Enlightenment.

Rabbi Kook explained that all of the movements which were shaking the world and the Jewish People within it, were a manifestation of birth and global growth. The external crisis which arose in face of this new spirit was the sign of a deep, inner, developmental process, grand in scope and value, which the world had to undergo, in order to reach an even greater inner awareness that a Universal Ideal existed at the foundation of the existence, which would gradually come to expression through the appearance of a new level of life in the Nation which represented the heart of the world Am Yisrael. The crisis carried within it a yet hidden thirst for a living encounter with Divine Life in This World. And the rebirth of Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael was to be the vehicle to bring about this ultimate world revolution.

Paralleling the Enlightenment, Jews began to experience a profound transformation which revealed itself in a new national awakening to return to the Land of Israel.

The first settlers who made aliyah in order to settle and rebuild the Land were the students of the Torah giant, the Gaon of Vilna, who taught that the time had arrived to abandon the exile and to begin resettling the Promised Land. His inspiring words are recorded in the Introduction to the book, Paat HaShulchan, written by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Sklov, a close student of the Gra (another name for the Gaon of Vilna). Subsequently, Rabbi Kalisher and Rabbi Eliahu Guttmacher, students of the Torah giant, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, made aliyah with their students. Only afterwards did the secular Zionist movement begin.

Because of the prolific writers involved in the secular Zionist enterprise, along with the media attention they received, it was taken for granted that the Zionist idea began with the secular Jews who had abandoned the Torah. This misconception was furthered due to the causes wealthy philanthropists, and to the Zionist organization that was founded to promote this new agenda, but, in reality, the foundation of the national awakening, and of the yearning to return to Eretz Yisrael, began from a holy source, from the exalted holy aspirations of Gedolei Yisrael, the Torah giants who said that the time had come to rebuild the Jewish Nation in its Land.

The Gaon of Vilna, his students, and other prominent Torah scholars, verbalized the inner, recondite yearnings in the depths of the soul of the Nation, which found its most visible outward expression in the growing masses of secular Jews who immigrated to Eretz Yisrael without being aware of the deeper spiritual factors which were motivating their aliyah, inwardly compelling them to give up their previously self-centered lifestyle for the far more idealistic identification with the Clal in rebuilding the Nation of Israel in its Land.

In practical terms, to the surface view of things, Benjamin Zeev Herzl was the catalyst behind the Zionist idea, its organization and expansion. While many of his dreams and aspirations were never realized, his dedicated efforts within the Jewish community, and in meetings with world leaders, caused the Zionist movement to spread and attract more and more followers.

Amongthe leaders of Torah, there were those who didnt see value in the Zionist agenda which Herzl propounded wherever he went, since his general beliefs and lifestyle were anathema to the Torah. In their eyes, there was no connection between the establishment of a secular Jewish State and the spiritual concept they held of Geula. In contrast to this viewpoint, there were great Rabbis who saw G-ds hand in the Zionist awakening, whose roots, they maintained, were seeped in holiness, grounded in the Torahs promises of Redemption, and further substantiated by the Prophets of Israel.

One of these outstanding Torah scholars was Rabbi Yehoshua from Kutna, who wrote in his halakhic Responsa, Yeshuot Malko:

There is no doubt that the aliyah to Eretz Yisrael is a great mitzvah, for the ingathering is the beginning of the Redemption (Atchalta DGeula), and especially now that we see the great yearning, both amongthose who are distant from Torah, those in between, and amongst the devout of heart, all of this is almost a certain sign that the spirit of Redemption is shining in this matter.

The fact that a great spirit arose in the hearts of the Tzaddikim to return to Zion, and in those who harbor a natural empathy for our history and traditions, is something we can understand. After all, the importance of Eretz Yisrael is repeatedly emphasized by the Torah. Furthermore, our return to the Land is promised in the Torah and throughout the writings of our Prophets. Anyone who learns Torah and wants to practice its precepts is likely to have the thought of aliyah somewhere in his mind, if not for the immediate present, then certainly for the future.

However, when we find this spirit of national revival sparkling in the hearts of those who are far from the Torah, in Herzl, and in scores of other champions of Enlightenment this phenomenon cries out, Explain what is going on! What is driving them? What is the source of love affair with Zion? It is this widespread awakening which moves a Torah giant like Rabbi Yehoshua from Kutna to declare that almost certainly the spirit of Geula has awakened.

What is the meaning of his words? What is so significant about the fact that a passionate spirit to return to Eretz Yisrael has arisen in Jews who are far from Torah? How is a secular national spirit connected to the Redemption for which weve been waiting?

We have explained that the difference between Galut and Geula is extremely profound, and basically antithetic. When the Jewish People are in Galut, the Nations Clalli spirit disappears. When the unifying Soul of the Nation, which combines and attaches all of the details, all of the generations throughout our history, all of the different ethnic groupings, all of the religious and non-religious alike, to one Divine Source and Truth when this all-encompassing Divine Israelite Soul abandons us in our descent into exile, we are literally left like a corpse, a body without it soul.

It is not a small, peripheral matter when our Clalli life-force leaves us. In effect, the entire essence of our life is missing. We must remember that Hashem created Am Yisrael as a NATION. He gave the Torah to us as a NATION, not to scattered individuals, or even individual tribes, but to our NATIONAL format. In the exile, this national format is shattered, and we remain scattered, individual bones without our NATIONAL SOUL to bring us to life.

Rabbi Bleicher uses an example to explain. Obviously, there is a difference between a monkey who doesnt speak, and a man who doesnt speak. When an ape doesnt talk, we dont think twice about it thats something natural. But if a man doesnt speak, he loses the main aspect of the Divine Image in which he was created. He is missing an essential ingredient of his life. So too - and much more so - when the Jewish Nation loses it living soul as a Nation, we are like dead bodies in the graveyard of the gentile nations of the world. Individual Jews can thrive in their private lives in a wide assortment of spheres, but the all-important national aspect of the Jewish People, through which Hashem is sanctified in the world, doesnt exist.

Therefore, Rabbi Bleicher explains, citing the teachings of Rabbi Kook, if we see that a national spirit, filled with courage, joy, and mesirut nefesh, with a willingness to fight and die for the rebuilding of the Nation of Israel in its Land, begins to blaze through the exiled Children of Israel, shining forth in tens of thousands of Jews, accompanied by a new national psyche, and a willingness to give up ones life for the general wellbeing of the Clal, we know that this could not grow out of external and secular goals, but that the phenomenon is rooted in holiness, stemming from the national, Clalli Soul of the Jewish People which is now awakening and coming to life.

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The holy soul of Zionism - Arutz Sheva

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Posted By admin on March 21, 2017

Jon Ossoff is one of three Jewish candidates in a field of 18 vying for a congressional seat in Georgia. (Courtesy of the Ossoff campaign)

WASHINGTON (JTA) One candidate has the endorsement of a civil rights giant. Another boasts that he changes his oil in his pickup truck. A third coached soccer at the local community center.

Its politics as usual in Georgia, except that these three candidates among the 18 running in the special election on April 18 in Georgias 6th Congressional District are Jewish.

The election is a jungle, or blanket, primary, an open race in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, face off against one another in a June 20 runoff barring the unlikely event that one candidate tops 50 percent.

Race figures prominently in this election in the Atlanta suburbs, as does traditional values (another candidate is prominent in the right-to-life movement). But all politics is local attracting jobs to the district and improving mass transit are major campaign themes.

The election is atypical, however, in two ways: Democrats see it as their first opportunity to wound President Donald Trump, and the presence of the Jewish candidates, notably Jon Ossoff, a Democrat attracting national media attention as the likeliest to pull off an upset.

That one-sixth of the candidates are Jewish in the 6th is something of an anomaly, said Steve Oppenheimer, a businessman who backs Ossoff.

What are we, 2 percent nationwide? asked Oppenheimer, who has served on the national boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Hillel. If we were twice that here and that may be a stretch we [Jewish voters] are not going to be the swing vote.

Not that Ossoff, a scholarly and serious 30-year-old, is reluctant to chat about his Jewish upbringing if he is asked.

I was bar mitzvahed at The Temple, which is a Reform synagogue, he told JTA, somewhat didactically. My Jewish upbringing imbued me with certain values, a commitment to justice and peace.

Ossoff is perhaps best known as a muckraking documentary filmmakerwho once was an intern to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. and now is being endorsed by the civil rights giant. (Ossoff was later an aide on national security policy to another Georgia Democrat, Hank Johnson, who also has endorsed him.)

That biography and Trumps surprisingly poor performance in November in a district that for decades has been solidly Republican has propelled Ossoff to the front of thediverse pack of candidates. A poll commissioned by zpolitics, a website tracking politics in Georgia, had him at 41 percent on Monday, while his closest two contenders, both Republicans, are tied at 16.

Tom Price, the previous incumbent, won the district by more than 20 points in November, but Trump beat Clinton in the district by barely a percentage point. Trump tapped Price to be his health secretary, and Trumps poor performance led Democrats to smell blood. (Ossoffs slogan? Make Trump furious.)

Ossoff, youthful and personable, soon emerged as a national Democratic favorite, and a fundraising drive led by the liberal website Daily Kos, among other factors, has made him the candidate to beat, with $3 million reportedly in his campaign coffers. The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have deployed resources to his campaign.

That, in turn, has led to coverage in the national media, including front-page treatment in The New York Times and profiles in the New Yorker, Esquire and the Los Angeles Times.

Every one of those treatments includes a requisite skeptical note from impartial observers of Georgias politics: Ossoff, they say, is gobbling up Democratic support, and likely will place on April 18, but the notion that he can win in the runoff in the historically red district is far-fetched.

Typical of the pundits is Kerwin Swint of Kennesaw State University, who on Feb. 27 told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a Democrat could conceivably sneak into the runoff, but that Democrat would almost surely lose the runoff. The numbers just arent there yet.

Democrats, giddy at Ossoffs surge in the polls, believe the numbers are coming in. Ossoff says hes running to win outright on April 18, although that tends to get even his supporters eyes rolling.

Sheri Labovitz, a longtime Democratic activist, has not formally endorsed Ossoff among the five Democrats running, but she believes he has momentum.

Hes got a machinery working with him that has some very good research, hes got bodies knocking on doors every day and every weekend, she said. If you can turn your voters out, youve got a great shot.

Jon Ossoff, in red tie, is flanked by Reps. John Lewis, left, and Hank Johnson, who are both supporting his candidacy. (Courtesy of the Ossoff campaign)

And Labovitz said Jewish interest is unexpectedly strong. She expected perhaps 30 people to show up last month at a salon she organized for Jewish Democratic women that featured Ossoff and two other candidates: Ron Slotin, a former state senator who also is Jewish, and Sally Harrell, a former state representative who has since withdrawn. Instead, 200 people packed the room.

Ossoff said he was wowed by the turnout.

Jewish women are leading a lot of the political engagement in the community, he told JTA.

Still, Labovitz is reserving judgment on a final call until she sees which of the 11 Republicans in the race emerges to compete with Ossoff.

Its a gerrymandered district, she said. Can a Democrat make the runoff? I really think so. Can a Democrat win? I would like to think so.

The two Republicans who are ahead in polls would provide a sharp contrast with Ossoff.

Karen Handel earned national notoriety in 2012 when, while she was vice president at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a charity that combats breast cancer, cut off its relationship with Planned Parenthood.

In the ensuing controversy Komen, which was founded by a well-known Jewish Republican philanthropist, Nancy Brinker, who named it after her late sister, reinstated the relationship with the reproductive rights and womens health group. Handel then left the organization, becoming something of a hero for abortion opponents.

Bob Gray, a former council member in the town of Johns Creek, has an ad that opens with Trump pledging to drain the swamp. It fades to Gray, in overalls, draining a swamp literally to the twang of blues chords on an acoustic guitar.

Republican ads target Ossoff as an interloper in a conservative redoubt. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a national Republican political action committee, uncovered video from his days at Georgetown University wielding a light saber as a bare-chested Han Solo and extolling the virtues of beer.

Not ready, the ad said.

Ossoff says the attack on him by a national superPAC is a signal of how serious his bid is. His current incarnation clean cut, well turned out and soft spoken, and the CEO of a documentary film company that delves into cutting-edge issues like corruption in Africa and the mistreatment of women by Islamist terrorists deflects bids to portray him as unripe.

Ossoff is more sensitive to charges that he is a carpetbagger; he lives just outside the district boundaries. That gets him testy.

My significant other is a medical student at Emory and she needs to walk to work, he said.

Casting him as an outsider resonates with some voters in a mixed rural-suburban district. Jere Wood, the mayor of Roswell, a town in the district, told the New Yorker earlier this month that Ossoffs name alone would alienate voters.

If you just say Ossoff, some folks are gonna think, Is he Muslim? Is he Lebanese? Is he Indian? Wood said.

Ossoff likely would enjoy the jab; he wears his progressive badge with pride. He turned up at Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on the Saturday night that Trumps first executive order banning refugees and other travelers from Muslim-majority countries went into effect, and identifies with them as a matter of heritage.

American Jews all share that immigrant story, he said, and that perspective hardens my resolve to fight for an open and optimistic vision of our country where if you work hard you can get ahead, where we welcome those who come here to build the country.

Ossoff also signals familiarity with the Middle East. His campaign biography notes that when he was at Georgetown, he studied under Michael Oren, the historian and former Israeli ambassador to Washington. Oppenheimer, Ossoffs backer, says as a congressional aide the candidate helped draft Iran sanctions, but also is quick to note that Ossoff had left the job by the time Democrats were backing the Iran nuclear deal that so riled AIPAC.

He was not involved in the deal President Obama made, Oppenheimer said with emphasis.

If Ossoff and his backers are right and distaste for Trump and hard-line conservatism threatens to turn this district blue, then David Abroms would be a formidable adversary in the runoff. But this Jewish Republican is not registering in the polls, finishing next to last among the eight candidates named in the zpolitics poll with under 2 percent of the vote.

Abroms, 33, avoids mentioning Trump in his campaigning. He focuses instead on his business converting vehicles to running on natural gas and how he hopes to bring to Washington his ideas of energy independence from the Middle East.

A lot of wealth goes overseas to the Middle East to people who dont like us very much, it hampers our national security, it hampers Israels national security, he said in an interview.

Abroms, who interned for former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general, is relaxed with both his Southern and Jewish heritages.

I consider myself a paradox, he said. Im a Jewish accountant, but I drive my pickup truck and I do my oil changes, and I listen to country music.

Ron Slotin (Courtesy of the Slotin campaign)

Slotin is another moderate albeit a Democrat who likely wont make the cut. The zpolitics poll, with 625 respondents and a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, had him just ahead of Abroms at 3 percent. A state senator in the 1990s who ran unsuccessfully against Cynthia McKinney for Congress McKinney went on to become one of the bodys most strident Israel critics he is reviving his slogan from that era, Votin Slotin, and campaigning on bipartisanship and bringing jobs to the district.

Slotin, 54, is an executive headhunter who once owned the Atlantic Jewish Life magazine and coached soccer at a local JCC. He touts his role aspart of the government team that crafted tax credits that brought TV and movie production into the state.

What I bring to the district is stronger against any Republican candidate than what [Ossoff] brings to the district, he said.

The zpolitics poll suggests that might be true: A question asking for a second choice indicative of how the runoff might play out had Slotin by far the leader with 34 percent, while Ossoff got 5.6 percent.

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A Jewish candidate gives Democrats hope in Atlanta's suburbs - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on March 19, 2017

Women who identify with Zionism are free to participate in the feminist protest movement. But, rightly, it's a space in which supporters of a Jewish ethno-nationalist state should feel uncomfortable.

In a recent New York Times opedDoes Feminism have Room for Zionists?Emily Shire, who identifies as a feminist and a Zionist, argues that her belief in Israels right to exist as a Jewish state should not be at odds with her feminism. She suggests that women who sought to be included in the International Womens Strike and in the women's protests against the current U.S. administration more generally should not have to face a 'critical of Israel' litmus test. She takes issue with theStrike's platform, which specifically calls for the decolonization of Palestine, but which doesn't mention the myriad other injustices inflicted on women across the world.

But Shire herself brings up her own Zionism. She states her relationship to Israel shouldnt be a factor for the women's protest while simultaneously demanding a space for it - Zionism being a giant, pertinent caveat. Ironically, Shire is subjecting women active in the movement to her own litmus test.

The op-ed asks the wrong question. It is not whether feminism has room for Zionists but whether Zionism has room for equal rights.

Zionisms manifestation as a political system operating for almost 69 years now has thus far proven it does not have that room. The State of Israel was founded as a safe haven for Jews and is premised on privileging Jews over all others. It is not a country for all its citizens over 20 percent of whom are not Jewish at all - but for all Jewish people (and increasingly, onlycertain kinds of Jewsto boot).

Shire gives the impression that she hasnt sat down to consider how Palestinian womens rights [in Israel and the occupied territories] are systematically affected by Israels very raison detre. (The fact that they are also trampled within Palestinian society does not absolve Israel of responsibility). Instead she insists on Israels right to exist as a Jewish state. But if you don't define what that should mean for Palestinians, you are evading the core issue. So far, it has de facto meant Israel has had the right to exist as a system of supremacy of one group over another.

I also support the right of Jews to self-determination. But as a Jewish ethno-nationalist state, Israel cannot uphold equal rights. That is a fact. So the question then, is, can a Jewish state exist that doesnt systematically violate basic human rights?

Im not sure. Its a worthy and challenging question - one that American and Israeli Jews were grappling with to an extent during the period surrounding Israels establishment but it quickly vanished. What should a Jewish state look like? How can it function as a democracy?

This is an important debate about nationalism and civic democracy, but it is primarily an intra-Jewish issue and has nothing to do with the current wave of feminism in the U.S. It is not Linda Sarsours job to make Zionist women feel more comfortable about the contradictions they are facing. If anything, considering Israels track record, it is up to Zionist women to take efforts to assure non-Zionist feminists of their commitment to equal rights.

I agree that all forms of violence and oppression against women should be called out and opposed. The International Womens Strike platform could have mentioned all forms of oppression against women, not just Israel. That only Israel was mentioned is part of the zeitgeist. It cannot be seen in isolation from the context in which Israel oversees the longest-standing military occupation in history and is simultaneously the largest beneficiary of U.S. foreign aid, acting with near total impunity and with no end in sight.

As an Israeli Jew who actively opposes Israels system of rule and supports Palestinian human rights, I may not agree with every tactic employed by the Palestinian resistance movement. But who am I to tell them how to resist their own oppression? As Linda Sarsour said in her interview inThe Nationresponding to Shires piece feminism is a movement and BDS is a tactic. If you dont support BDS, you can choose to not take part in it, but proactively opposing BDS because it is an alienating tactic for a Zionist is misguided.

Shire states that she draws a "hard line" atRasmea Odeh.Her argument about Odehs illegitimacy as a convicted terrorist is highly problematic. It not only overlooks the role of Israels military courts as judge, jury and executioner of the stateless Palestinians tried in them, but also the fact that Israelis in the military and the government themselves engage in acts of terror - and have never been tried. Israel's own founders engaged in acts of Zionist terror against British and Arab targets and then went on to become prime ministers. While I dont think Odeh is the best choice as the Strike's poster woman of, calling her out without holding Israelis to the same standard is one-sided.

In the age of Trump, in which the current feminist forces are operating, many liberal American Jews are finding themselves increasingly pushed into a corner, forced to choose between their liberalism and their support for Israel; between the motto never again to Jews and never again to anyone.

Jews, of course, have the right to equality, self-determination and dignity, like all other human beings. No one in the feminist movement not Rasmeah Odeh or Linda Sarsour or anyone else has denied this. But as long as Israel, in its current construction, continues to be a fundamentally unprogressive entity that is incompatible with equality, Zionists in the feminist camp are going to continue to feel rightly uncomfortable.

Mairav Zonszein is an independent journalist and translator. She blogs at+972 Magazine. Follow her on Twitter: @MairavZ

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Should Feminism Have Room for Zionism's Inequality and Jewish Privilege? - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 19, 2017

Linda Sarsour. (Photo: Ford Foundation)

It used to be that PEP was a safe place: Progressive Except Palestine. But since Trumps election and the wave of activism to create a coalition of liberals, lefties, progressives, radicals, Zionism is having a rougher time in leftwing spaces.

This important ideological argument has been going on openly among feminists since the Womens Day Strike of March 8 issued its platform, which targeted decades of neoliberalism for the conditions that produced Trump. Among the causes the women took up was Palestine:

[M]ovements such as Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights andfor the decolonization of Palestine are for us the beating heart of this new feminist movement.

Last weekEmily Shire, the politics editor at Bustle, responded to the platform in aNew York Times op-ed titled,Does Feminism Have Room for Zionism? Shire said Yes, but the piece was remarkable for its defensiveness. Shire was getting the cold shoulder from a lot of lefties, she reported.

As a proud and outspoken feminist who champions reproductive rights, equal pay, increased female representation in all levels of government and policies to combat violence against women, I would like to feel there is a place for me in the strike.

However, as someone who is also a Zionist, I am not certain there is.

I identify as a Zionist because I support Israels right to exist as a Jewish state. Increasingly, I worry that my support for Israel will bar me from the feminist movement that, in aiming to be inclusive, has come to insist that feminism is connected to a wide variety of political causes

More and more frequently, my identity as a Zionist places me in conflict with the feminist movement of 2017.

Donna Nevel (Photo: Jews for Racial and Economic Justice)

I know about Zionism from my own relationship with it. I had some serious unlearning to do. When I was younger, I, too, identified as a Zionist (a socialist feminist Zionist) until I realized that my image of Zionism as the Jewish national liberation movement was seriously misguided. Instead, I learned that what had been done and was still being done to Palestinians in the name of Zionism was theft of land and denial of a peoples right to freedom and national liberation. It was about the privileging of those who were Jewish over Palestinians. ..

In Israel, as well as in the U.S., the Nakba is often disregarded or denied altogether. Instead, the focus is on the creation of Israel as a haven for Jews, completely ignoring the mass dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Nevel went on to challenge Shire on the incompatibility of Zionism and feminism at a time of left awakening:

Instead of asking whether Zionists have a place in the feminist movement, perhaps the question that Shire should be asking is: How can someone who considers herself a supporter of feminism, which is a movement for justice and liberation that challenges patriarchal power and all forms of oppression, also consider herself a supporter of Zionism, a movement that denies the basic values of equality and fairness.

The womens day strike was intentionally and critically rooted in an anti-colonial feminism that is liberatory and multidimensional and that has as its foundation a deep commitment to social transformation and to resisting the decades long economic inequality, racial and sexual violence, and imperial wars abroad. If Shire has an interest in being part of such an inspiring movement, rather than supporting Zionism, she might want to stand with the Palestinian-led grassroots movement for justice and with the growing number of women around the globe who are committed to equal rights for all peoples living in Palestine and Israel. What could be more feminist than that?

Yesterday, Collier Meyerson published an interview in the Nationwith a leader of the January 21 Womens March in Washington. Can You Be a Zionist Feminist? Linda Sarsour Says No. Sarsour says:

I was quite surprised and disturbed by [Shires] piece. When you talk about feminism youre talking about the rights of all women and their families to live in dignity, peace, and security. Its about giving women access to health care and other basic rights. And Israel is a country that continues to occupy territories in Palestine, has people under siege at checkpointswe have women who have babies on checkpoints because theyre not able to get to hospitals [in time]. It just doesnt make any sense for someone to say, Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement? There cant be in feminism. You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. Theres just no way around it.

Meyerson and Sarsour agreed that the discourse is rapidly changing on the issue, though Sarsour said that many Palestinian women cant put their heads up.

Meyerson: A colleague here at The Nation pointed out that many Palestinian-American women have had key roles in the Womens March, the International Womens Strike, and other post-election feminist mobilizations. You, Lamis Deek, Rasmea Odeh, among others. Do Palestinian-American women have a unique position in the fight against oppression given the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict?

Sarsour: Its been a little surprising to the [right-wing Zionists] to see [Palestinian-American] women in leadership roles in social-justice movements because [they are realizing] it means that the Palestinian Liberation Movement and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement are gaining traction among young people and people of color in the United States. And I will say this, yours seems like a short list. The fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of Palestinian women organizing, but not all of them are visible. And Ill tell you why. Youve probably seen that any visible Palestinian-American woman who is at the forefront of any social-justice movement is an immediate target of the right wing and right-wing Zionists. They will go to any extreme to criminalize us and to engage in alternative facts, to sew together a narrative that does not exist. So, fortunately, were still in a moment in our country where we have the freedom of speech and the right to organize, but we have another layer as Palestinian American women, where we have to deal with threats, slander, and libel in mainstream and right-wing media. This work that we do is not easy, but I feel hopeful we are part of a movement now. One with young people, and people of color in particular, who are really taking on the cause and really embracing us as Palestinian, American, Muslim women.

Finally, Id point toDevyn Springers piece calling out Shire on our site: There is no space for Zionism in any movement which seeks to alleviate even an iota of oppression from marginalized people.

Its unfortunate that the mainstream discussion has so far been limited to feminist circles. I dont think it can be contained there. The contradictions are too glaring. At the recent J Street conference, many people were organizing against Trump; but I noted several occasions on which speakers said that the Zionist dream was alive only so long as there is a Jewish majority in the land, and so long as Israel builds that wall (on Palestinian land). Lately I have pressed Seffi Kogen of the American Jewish Committee andJosh Marshall of TPM on the hypocrisy of decrying expressions of white nationalism in our country while supporting the ideology of Jewish nationalism in a country overseas. Both have ignored me.

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Zionism and feminism are incompatible, leftwing voices say - Mondoweiss

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Posted By simmons on March 19, 2017

byDavid Sarna Galdi

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week told a delegation led by Reform Movement head Rabbi Rick Jacobs what it wanted to hear that he was attuned to their concerns. But Netanyahus shocking silence during the recent wave of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States was far louder than his words.

Netanyahu, who just a couple of years ago declared that he represents the entire Jewish people, failed to show any support whatsoever for American Jewry during more than 190 anti-Semitic threats and attacks in six weeks.

How should U.S. Jews make sense of this non-sequitur?

Jews growing up in America in the second half of the 20th century were taught a very simple equation: Israel = Judaism. When American Jews sent their hard-earned dollars to the Jewish state, they believed that Israel was in a reciprocal way an embodiment of their values and, more importantly, their guardian.

After the Holocaust, Israel was naturally viewed as the guarantor of the common Jewish future, having absorbedhundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and legally enshrining automatic citizenship for any Jew, no questions asked. Leaders of the fledgling state like David Ben Gurion, themselves born in the diaspora, were explicit about Israels connection to the great Jewry of the United States, to whom Israel owes so much. In 1960, Moshe Dayan put it quite plainly when he argued, in Canada, that his government should not only represent the people of Israel, but the interests of all Jews.

The metaphorical umbilical cord connecting the Jewish diaspora with the Zionist State was expressed when Menachem Begin viciously protested 1951 reparation negotiations with post-war Germany. Tremendous financial benefit to Israel, he argued, did not trump the collective self-respect, not of only Israelis, but of all Jews. The ultimately successful reparations deal was unique, argues Ofer Aderet in Haaretz, because although it was signed between two countries, it also encompassed a third party the Jewish People.

However, the idea that a Jewish state could be trusted to represent the entire Jewish people has always been tenuous. After herself escaping Nazi Germany and working for Zionist causes, Hannah Arendt supported a Jewish national revival but argued that politics were destroying the integrity of the original Zionist idea. She worried that an exclusively Jewish Palestine, would eventually separate itself from a larger body of world Jewry and in its isolation, develop into an entirely new people.

The lost narrative of early Jewish opposition to political Zionism is beyond the scope of this short article; it must suffice to say that Arendts doubts echoed those of a litany of Jewish leaders and thinkers like Lucien Wolf, Claude Montefiore, Israel Abrahams, Simon Dubnow, Congressman Julius Kahn, Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem and many others who held doubts as to whether political Zionism had Judaisms best interest in mind and feared the consequences of ethnic Jewish hegemony over another people.

Will a Jewish nation save the Jews? asked Rabbi Israel Mattuck, a leader of British Jewry between the two world wars. It may save a small number of them; it may well destroy all the rest.

Fifty years since the height of diaspora euphoria after the Six Day War the idealistic, abstract Zionism of many U.S. Jews has fermented into what can be called at best, melancholy Zionism. A recent Pew Research Center Study found that only 35 percent of American Jews aged 18-50 believed that caring about Israel is an essential part of their Jewish identity. Israel isnt a brand some American Jews want to identify with, admitted Liran Avisar, the CEO of Masa Israel.

Globally plugged-in young American Jews who protest for refugee rights and attend LGBT weddings face jarring headlines about Israels idolization of a soldier convicted of the manslaughter of an incapacitated Palestinian, laws legalizing theft of Palestinian land and discriminating against Muslim prayer, large-scale demolition of Israeli Bedouin communities, and the exclusion of egalitarian prayer from Judaisms most holy communal space. Though Netanyahu wants to force Palestinians to announce, on-all-fours, that Israel is Jewish, its uncertain whether a 21st century American Jew would concede as much.

How are American Jews to understand the Israeli prime ministers actions, which breathe new life into the dry bones of historical doubts of Israels concern for Judaism at large? Is his cozying up toanti-Semitic Evangelical preachers and the most offensive U.S. president in memory at the expense of U.S. Jews a return to the Negation of the Diaspora theory? Or is it the crystallization of a new, frightening brand of Zionism so distorted from the past that it can only be called, Alt-Zionism a rabid dog wagged by its extremist, Jewish fundamentalist tail? The current governmentsAlt-Zionism demonizes the press, decapitates the Israeli Supreme Court, rids the Knesset of Arab representation, passes unjust laws that threaten to turn Israel into a pariah apartheid state, and has no need for any diaspora Jewry that doesnt fund the Judaization of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Driving a wedge between Israel and U.S. Jewry while threatening their already wilting symbiosis is corrupt on a profound, Big-History scale. A country where Jews are safe is imperative. A world without the Jewish diaspora, however, is unthinkable.

Benjamin Netanyahu fancies himself a historically significant leader, a kind of Jewish Winston Churchill; he has gone on record repeatedly about his deep admiration for the British prime minister who risked isolation and unpopularity before World War II rather than negotiate with Nazi Germany. But Netanyahu, in throwing the American Jewish community under the bus of right-wing Israeli fanaticism, has proven himself to be more of a Marshal Ptain.

David Sarna Galdi is a former editor at Haaretz newspaper. He works for a nonprofit organization in Tel Aviv. Reprinted, with permission, from +972 Magazine. Photo: Benjamin Netanyahu listens to chief IDF cantor Arye Braun courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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Netanyahu's Alt-Zionism Has No Need for American Jews - LobeLog

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Posted By admin on March 19, 2017

When Marc Levine and Richard Bloom were sworn into office on Dec. 3, 2012, they became the only Jewish members of the state Assembly. Now, two terms later, theyre part of a thriving 16-member California Legislative Jewish Caucus.

The group, which formed the nations first legislative Jewish caucus in 2014, is growing in influence as its membership expands. It currently includes all 13 Jewish lawmakers at the Capitol plus three allies.

The 16-member body has become a powerful advocate in Sacramento on matters of specific interest to Jews such as support for Israel and opposition to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and on universal issues such as supporting immigrants and the underprivileged that appeal to the Jewish sense of civil rights and tikkun olam.

This is a different era than post-World War II, when Jews were less likely to be in front of issues as Jews, said Levine, a Democrat who represents Marin and southern Sonoma counties and serves as the Jewish caucus chair. Fundamentally, I believe there is a Jewish ethic that informs me as a policymaker today. My Jewish identity and my sense of social justice inform my policymaking.

A caucus is a group of legislators or political party members who bond due to common interests or background and form a group that advances their causes. On its website, the California Jewish caucus states its mission is to be a Jewish voice for justice, equality and progress as well as promote the interests of its members and advocate on behalf of the Jewish community.

The caucus includes eight members from the Assembly and eight from the Senate. Jeff Stone, a senator representing parts of Riverside County, is the lone Republican in the group, and three of the legislators, officially designated associate members, are not Jewish.

One of the strengths of the Jewish caucus is that its very diverse, said Sen. Scott Wiener, a former San Francisco supervisor. He represents the states 11th District, which includes his hometown city and regions to its south. In terms of giving more voice to our issues, having that formal caucus really helps and it helps getting people elected. Having organized Jewish leadership brings us a certain strength.

Levine said a 2016 bill opposing BDS sponsored by Bloom, of Santa Monica, is a good example of how the caucus can be a powerful tool in guiding legislation.

The bill, which went through extensive rewriting before it passed both houses and was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, bars California from contracting with businesses that engage in discriminatory conduct due to a boycott of Israel or any other nation.

Theres strength in numbers. That bill took an arduous path, so we needed to work together as a caucus to talk about it, Levine said. Working as a caucus was very helpful because it wasnt a lonely author in the wilderness.

Campus climate is also a big issue for caucus members, who have met with UC President Janet Napolitano and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to talk about anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses around California.

Assemblymember Jose Medina, who represents parts of Riverside County, is one of the caucus three associate members. He said he worked with Rabbi Suzanne Singer of Temple Beth El in Riverside to put together a meeting with UC Riverside officials over concerns about a class with an anti-Israel slant being taught there.

I think the caucus does make a difference, Medina said. No matter what issues weve taken on whether it be anti-boycott of Israel or meeting with the prime minister of Israel or talking about campus climate I think all of us are stronger when we speak as a caucus.

The group sponsored a 2015 bill authored by former senator and caucus co-founder Marty Block that established the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month; helped secure $2 million to train teachers to build safe and respectful schools in a program implemented by the Museum of Tolerance; and led 40 legislators and community leaders in condemning a swastika display in a Sacramento neighborhood.

When President Donald Trump issued his initial executive order blocking refugees from entering the United States in late January, the caucus was quick to send out a statement condemning the move and comparing it to American rejection of many Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

The Jewish community is a social justice community, Wiener said in an interview at the Capitol. I was raised, as were many Jews, with a sense of social justice. We do not live in a silo whether its civil rights or helping refugees today, the Jewish community engages. Its the philosophy of our religion and our culture, and also its our history.

The group annually honors Holocaust survivors, children of survivors and concentration camp liberators from throughout California with a memorial program on the Assembly floor. The ceremony is set for April 24 this year.

The Jewish body also joins with other legislative ethnic caucuses, such as the 27-member California Latino Legislative Caucus, to support issues of mutual concern.

We can find common ground with our colleagues on universal issues, Levine said. We also can be there when they need support, and they can be there for us when we need support. This is heightened in the age of Trump. Our friends need us more now, and we need our friends as much as ever.

For non-legislative organizations that advocate on issues of interest to Jews, the caucus is a crucial ally. The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, which calls itself the largest single-state coalition of Jewish organizations in the nation, represents Jewish federations, Jewish community relations councils and other Jewish community groups.

In lobbying legislators and forming alliances with them, JPAC has focused on issues such as health care funding for low-income seniors, the California-Israel relationship, Holocaust-era insurance claim issues and public education.

It definitely is extremely helpful to JPAC we have a very close relationship with the Jewish caucus, said Julie Zeisler, the groups executive director. Were very fortunate that we have a group of elected officials in the Legislature looking out for the interests of the Jewish community. It is really nice to have champions in the Legislature to work with, she said.

I think it would be important [to have the caucus] under any presidential administration, but I think it is especially important now given the threats against JCCs and the rise in hate crimes against groups around the nation.

Like Medina, the other two non-Jewish members of the caucus, all Assembly members, not only were drawn to the group because of affinity with its positions, but also because they have Jewish family connections. Adrin Nazarian and Blanca Rubio, both Democrats, represent, respectively, the central San Fernando Valley and a swath of L.A. County that includes West Covina.

I am born and still am a Catholic, but my two children are Jewish and grew up in the Riverside temple, Medina said. My ex-wife and I raised them as Jews and they went to religious school and did their bat mitzvah and bar mitzvah. My daughter was very involved in Hillel at USC and did Birthright and a year of study in yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Thus, I was kind of naturally attracted to the Jewish caucus, said Medina, a 2012 electee who also is a member of the Latino caucus. I think strongly [caucuses] are more important now, because I think it is very important we stand up to the hate I see coming out of Washington, D.C.

Nazarian, a Tehran native of Armenian heritage who is the first Iranian American to serve in the California Legislature, is Orthodox Christian and didnt know until he was a senior in college that his paternal great-grandmother had been Jewish.

When I started talking to some of my Assembly colleagues about my heritage, they sort of adopted me and asked me to join [the Jewish caucus], Nazarian said. Some of my mentors in life have been Jewish friends who have not only helped me but have taught me invaluable lessons in life. An elderly Israeli woman helped us quite a bit in our transition to the United States.

Nazarian said hes also proud that groups such as the Jewish caucus can serve as a role model for teens and college students. The lesson? People working together for a common cause.

And theres always been a personal connection, he added. Armenians and Jews have vast diasporas. The struggle of maintaining your identity, the issue of ensuring the past of our heritage is passed on. And given that we are diaspora communities, the families are always focusing on education and making sure the next generation does better.

Rubio, a native of Mexico, discovered about 10 years ago during genetic testing by a cousin that she had Jewish ancestors dating back to the 1500s. Rubio, who is Catholic, said she played a dreidel-like game (tomo toda) with a six-sided top as a child in Mexico without realizing it was something of a Jewish thing.

When we did the genealogy, it all made sense, she said. So when I joined the Legislature [three months ago], I saw there was a Jewish caucus and I realized I didnt know that much about my history. I wanted to contribute my perception. Theres a whole bunch of people who dont practice, but its part of our lineage.

In addition to Levine and Wiener, there are three other Bay Area legislators, all Democrats, in the caucus: Assemblymembers Marc Berman (whose district covers the Palo Alto area and the San Mateo County coastside) and Tony Thurmond (Hercules to Berkeley to Piedmont and a small part of North Oakland), and Sen. Steve Glazer (Contra Costa and eastern Alameda counties).

Levine had his bar mitzvah at Congregation Bnai Shalom in Walnut Creek and was a member of United Synagogue Youth. He now belongs to Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon and has two kids in Hebrew school there. While doing an interview in his Capitol office, he briefly interrupted the chat to take a call from his wife asking if hed be able to drive his son to Hebrew school the following day.

The caucus, which held a retreat three months ago at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, supported four candidates for legislative spots in 2016 two in the Assembly and two in the Senate and all four won.

The growth of the caucus has been organic, Levine said. We do have a political action committee. When there are good Jewish candidates, we want to be able to support them.

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Posted By admin on March 19, 2017

On the weekend before his January 9 swearing in ceremony, Eric Greitens, soon to become governor of Missouri, called up United Hebrew Congregation, a Reform synagogue in St. Louis. He asked to attend Shabbat service, and was honored with a special role in the ceremony, and a blessing from the clergy.

Its hardly unusual for any Jewish community to show such respect to one of their own who has reached high office, but Greitens himself is unusual: Hes a Republican from a community known for its stalwart support for Democrats since President Theodore Roosevelt occupied the White House.

He would have known that very few of the congregants voted for him or for Donald Trump in the November election. Even the bat-mitzvah girls speech, according to Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg, had a liberal tone. But regardless of his politics, this was a very special moment of pride to have the first Jewish governor, Rosenberg said. One member of the community approached Greitens during the typical celebratory light meal after services and told him he never believed hed live to see a Jewish governor in the state.

And if pundits and Republican strategists are right, Greitens may provide his home states Jewish community with even more reasons for pride. Hes on every Republican future leadership watch list and has never been shy about his ultimate goal.

When we did the What I Want to Be When I Grow Up unit, Erics answer was President, his kindergarten teacher Anne Richardson told St. Louis Magazine. Years later, hed repeat this aspiration to a college professor.

Hes got the right resume. Hes been a Rhodes scholar, a decorated warrior and a civic leader. Greitens whod never run for office before his bid for the governors job and boasts about his outsider status has shown great political nimbleness as he works toward his childhood goal. He spent his time earning accolades outside politics and so carries no baggage from statehouse or city council. And when he decided to pull the trigger and run, he combined in his public profile the right amounts of conservatism, gun-loving patriotism and fiscal responsibility, alienating neither moderates nor extremists.

Indeed, the finesse with which Greitens handles his Jewishness is a prime example of his political skill. It could have been a liability. After all, Jewish faith functioned as a public embarrassment in Missouri as recently as 2015. Tom Schweich, a rival Republican candidate for governor, [committed suicide] http://forward.com/news/215584/missouri-republican-tom-schweich-commits-suicide-a/) in February of that year shortly after claiming one of his rivals has planned a whisper campaign about his Jewish heritage. Scweich, who was Christian, had a Jewish grandfather.

Yet Greitens, fully and openly Jewish, won the Republican primary with 35% of the vote, and then beat the Democratic candidate 51% to 45%. And when, early in his governorship, vandals attacked over 200 gravestones at the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in St. Louis, he skillfully acknowledged his background by emphasizing its more universal values.

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Vice President Mike Pence helping clean-up efforts at a vandalized Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.

As many of you know, I am Jewish, Greitens, told a crowd of hundreds of volunteers who gathered to clean up and restore the toppled headstones, and in Judaism we have a concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. He thanked the volunteers for doing their part. Vice President Mike Pence rolled up his sleeves alongside Greitens to join the restoration effort.

For many in the Missouri Jewish community, which is estimated at 100,000, this was their formative experience with Greitens, a governor who was virtually unknown to most a year ago and who had no involvement in the states politics.

What happened at the cemetery catapulted our relationship with him, said Maharat Rori Picker Neiss, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St Louis. I was so impressed with him and with the way he showed his involvement.

The Missouri cemetery vandalism marked a turning point in Americas response to the wave of post-election anti-Semitic threats and attacks. National media carried photos of Greitens and Pence raking the grounds of the desecrated cemetery; President Trump broke his silence on the issue and spoke out, and an outpouring of help from Muslim and Christian community members sent a strong message of unity in face of the anti-Semitic attacks. Greitens chose to stress these moments, focusing on the communitys heartwarming response, rather than on the incident itself.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Greitens came to the race for governorship with what St. Louis Magazine called a superhero resume, including the All-USA academic team in high school, Duke University, Rhodes and Truman scholarships, a PhD from Oxford, and to top it all off - decorated service as a Navy SEAL.

Hes also a widely praised author and thinker. In 2014, Fortune Magazine included Greitens on its list of the Worlds 50 Greatest Leaders citing Mission Continues, the not-for-profit organization he established to help post-9/11 veterans.

Growing up, Greitens family attended Bnai El Congregation, one of St. Louiss oldest Reform synagogues, which recently merged with another synagogue due to dwindling membership.

In his book Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life Greitens devotes a chapter to the Jewish idea of the Sabbath, preaching for the idea of taking a day off, whether religious or not. What matters most is that you find time to stop, he wrote.

Yet running for office, Greitenss Jewish faith was somehow hardly a campaign issue, for him or his rivals.

In fact, many well-informed people were surprised to find out after the elections that he is Jewish, said political scientist Terry Smith from Missouris Columbia College, noting that he didnt think Greitenss faith would have been an impediment to his election even if Greitens had discussed it more.

Greitens married Sheena Chestnut in 2009 in Spokane, Washington, after his first marriage ended in divorce. She is similarly accomplished and has similar interests: She graduated from Stanford and was a Marshall scholar, earning a masters degree in international relations from the University of Oxford in England. She went on to do a PhD in political science at Harvard. They have two children.

To be sure, it didnt make sense for Greitens to woo fellow Missouri Jews by making an issue of his Jewishness. Like the bat mitzvah girl, most of them probably dont share his politics, and there arent very many of them.

Once a Democrat, Greitens ran as a moderate Republican. In a 2015 Fox News article he explained that as he got older, he no longer believed in the liberal ideas hed grown up with. He even came to believe many famous liberals were hypocrites.

He focused his candidacy on issues relating to taxes, ethics and on his character, a chance for Greitens to showcase his stellar resume especially his military service. Navy SEALS are revered across the United States for their strength, discipline and skill, and Greitens emphasized this aspect of his background with television ads that received national attention.

One of them showcases Greitenss biceps, strong jaw and easy way with an assault rifle as he stands on a dirt road, promising viewers that hes their man, if they want an outsider conservative. Then he dons a pair of protective glasses and squeezes off a few rounds, out of the frame and presumably into the woods.

The people of Missouri found a lot to like in this handsome warrior-scholar.

The most common reaction people had in the state of Missouri when I told them that I was Jewish was that they gave me a bear hug, Greitens recalled last month, speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas.

Greitenss main strategic question throughout the campaign was the question of the exact distance he needed to keep from controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump. He found the answer by focusing on fiscal issues. Greitens ran on a platform of lowering government spending, fighting entitlements and battling state unions. One of his first actions as governor was to make Missouri a right to work state, a euphemism for legislation aimed at weakening unions by barring them from forcing members to pay dues.

But Greitens also understood the importance of staying on Donald Trumps good side. Like many other Republicans Greitens made sure to distance himself from Trumps offensive comments on women, describing them as wrong and disgusting but at the same time vowing he was still behind the Republican candidate.

Greitenss office did not respond to the Forwards requests to interview the governor for this article.

As governor, Greitens is facing his most significant political challenges yet. Now that the outsider is in the Jefferson City governors mansion, unions and Democrats are up in arms over his anti-union legislation and are seeking a reversal. Meanwhile, the local press is keeping Greitenss feet to the fire after it learned that the candidate who ran on a platform of ethics and clean government will not disclose names of his donors.

He enjoys a rare political opportunity to advance his agenda, with Republicans holding super-majorities in the state legislating bodies, but Missourians arent sure yet what this agenda is. Like the highest-profile outsider in the land, Greitens might find it easier to run as a renegade than to turn his candidacy into policy. He used to be a Democrat, now hes making conservative noises, but I think hes a bit of a maverick, said Smith.

But in Republican circles, Greitens is still enjoying his honeymoon.

Fox News Sunday recently chose him as its power player of the week noting his outsider qualities, which, as proven in Trumps race to the top, are valuable in winning the hearts and votes of Republicans.

Will Greitens Jewish faith become an issue if he decides to seek higher office? Experts say this issue has already been settled. Weve been there and done that, said Jeffrey Gurock, a professor of American Jewish history at Yeshiva University.

Its hard to speculate what things will be like five or ten years from now, but dont we have the example of Joe Lieberman? He noted that in Liebermans run for vice president in 2000 and his presidential run four years later, his faith was not an issue. Nor was it an issue for Bernie Sanders, who got close to winning the Democratic nomination last year.

Greitens also caught the attention of Jewish Republicans, vying for a fresh face with no ties to the fringe right wing. Major donors such as Sheldon Adelson and Steve Cohen contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign, increasing his out-of-state funding.

After Greitenss speech at the RJC conference last month, a major Jewish Republican donor walked over to the press area to make sure reporters listened to the governors address dedicated to the recent spate of anti-Semitism in his state.

Thats our guy, he said, youll be hearing about him.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

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Eric Greitens, Missouri's First Jewish Governor, Is Eyeing The White House - Forward

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Posted By simmons on March 19, 2017

For years, rooting for Team Israel meant cheering forthe countrys national soccer, basketball or Olympic teams. But this month, thanks to their surprising success at the World Baseball Classic (WBC), when sports fans talk about Team Israel, they mean baseball.

Played every four years since 2006, The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament modeled after the FIFA World Cup. Professional players from the major leagues around the world, including Major League Baseball (MLB), also take part.

This year wasthe first time Israel had qualified for the tournament.

SEE ALSO: The Top 10 Israeli Startups Changing The World Of Sports

Odds of Israel winning: 200 1

Before this years WBC began, American Sportsnetwork ESPN considered Team Israel, ranked 41st in the world, to be the biggest underdog in the 16 team tournament.Theyeven went so faras referring to them as the Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC.Israels odds to win the WBC were set at 200-1, before the tournament started. But, as Team Israel began to win games at the WBC, the teams scrappy performance began being described as a Cinderella story and a David vs. Goliath tale.

In the first round of the WBC, Israel stunned the baseball world by winning Pool A with a 3-0 record to advance to the last eight. Team Israel, which is built around MLB-affiliated Jewish Americans, defeated South Korea, Chinese Taipei and then the Netherlands in Seoul before surprising Cuba in its first game in the last eight in Tokyo, to improve their overall record to 4-0.

However, a 12-2 loss to the Netherlands on Monday complicated Israels situation. On Wednesday, in a must-win game for Israel, Japan and Israel were tied at 0-0 for five innings until the Japanese team scored five runs in the sixth inning, a deficit which the Israeli team was not able to come back from. The 8-3 defeat to Japan sealed Team Israelsfate and ended their hopes ofadvancing to the final round of the WBC in Los Angeles.

On the positive side,the top three from each pool automatically qualify for the 2021 WBC, so thanks to their success this year, Team Israel has already locked up a spot to compete in the next WBC in 2021.

Team Israel: Jewish players from all over the world

Under WBC rules, any player eligible to be a citizen of a country is entitled to play for that countrys baseball team, even if the player has not obtained citizenship.Israels Law of Return gives anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent, or who is married to a Jew, the right to return to Israel and to be an Israeli citizen.The WBC rules thus allow non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage to play for Team Israel.

We had to hunt far and wide and find the best guys who could potentially be eligible, Peter Kurz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball, told USA Today Sports. Many of theplayers have had some major-league experience, with virtually all being Americans of Jewish heritage.

Israels roster included 20 MLB-affiliated minor leaguers, making up 86percent of the team, more than any other team in the qualifiers, even before including recent Major Leaguers Craig Breslow (an 11-year MLB veteran), Ike Davis, Sam Fuld, Josh Satin, catcher Ryan Lavarnway, former 15-year MLB veteran All Star pitcher Jason Marquis, Cody Decker, Nate Freiman, and Josh Zeid.

The teams oldest player was pitcher Shlomo Lipetz, 37, who grew up in Israel and lives in New York.Lipetz is also the only player on the team with no MLB affiliation.Team Israels youngest player was pitcher Dean Kremer, 20, a Californian drafted by the Dodgers whose parents are Israeli expatriates.

SEE ALSO:Replay Technologies freeD To Deliver Real-Time 3D Sports Replays To Mobile Devices

A visit to Israel

Playing for Israel is the last thing I thought I would be doing, Ty Kelly, a utility player in the New York Mets farm system, said in an interview. And there is nothing I would rather be doing. It really does have a deep meaning.

Kelly was part of a group of players to visit Israel in January on a promotional tour aimed at increasing baseball awareness and boosting the number of players from its current level of around 1,000.

When we went to Israel we saw the pride they have in their country, Kelly said. To be able to give the people another outlet to express that pride, by supporting a team in a sport that Israel has never been known for, it just feels really cool.

Mascot: The Mensch on the Bench

Cody Decker brought the teams mascot with him to Asia from the United States for the WBC. The mascot is Mensch on the Bench, a five-foot-tall plush stuffed toy that looks a bit like a rabbi or Hasidic Jew with a long beard and mustache who is wearing a tallit (prayer shawl)and holding a candle.Mensch, in Yiddish, means a person of integrity or honor.

Decker said he tried getting the mascot a first-class ticket,but that didnt work, so he was put in a duffel bag and checked. The mascot proved to be a big hit, and the team takeshim everywhere they go. He has his own locker, sits on Team Israels bench in the dugout during every game, and even sat alongside Decker at a press conference in South Korea.

Hes a mascot, hes a friend, hes a teammate, hes a borderline deity to our team, Decker explained in arecent interview.He brings a lot to the table.He had his own locker, and we even gave him offerings: Manischewitz, gelt, and gefilte fish.

Team Israels Manager Jerry Weinstein added: Hes on the team. Everybody brings something to the team, and certainly The Mensch is a unifying factor for the ball club.Pitcher Gabe Cramer added: The Mensch on the Bench is a symbol we can rally around as a team. We are proud to be Jewish, but we know how to make and take a joke, something Jews have a long history of doing. The Mensch is a great way to have fun in the dugout while reminding us of why were here and who were representing.

Making a difference in Israel

Team Isreals manager Weinstein is also hopeful that the teams display will help the growth of baseball in Israel.

My hope is that by virtue of playing in the World Baseball Championship and doing well it heightens awareness worldwide, but especially in Israel, so it can get more government support, build fields, hire staff, he said.

Theres a lot of American Jews that follow baseball and maybe they will sign up to support and donate money so that we can grow the program in Israel so the next time a manager sits in front of you, hell be talking about Israeli national players playing in the WBC. Not a group of American Jewish players who are identifying or connected to Israel. But players that were born in the State of Israel and compete in this tournament.

Inspiring Jewish-Americankids to play ball

I think that there are Jewish kids in the United States that maybe wouldnt play baseball, but as a result of seeing this Jewish team, who are made up mostly of Americans, they will, he said. I think everybody has recognized what they have done and I think that will inspire all young kids, but especially young Israelis and young Jewish kids in the United States.

Photos and Video: WBC Israel

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Bringing Pride To The Tribe: How Team Israel Hit It Out Of The Ballpark At World Baseball Classic - NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News (press release)...

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Posted By admin on March 17, 2017

On March 8, women abstained from work as part of the International Women's Strike a grassroots feminist movement aimed at bringing attention "to the current social, legal, political, moral and verbal violence experienced by contemporary women at various latitudes." But these positive goals were distorted by the inclusion of anti-Israel rhetoric in the platform of the IWS.

There are many countries and movements throughout the world that treat women as second-class citizens: Israel is not among them. Yet this platform singles out for condemnation only Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. There is a word for applying a double standard to Jews. That word is anti-Semitism.

It is a tragedy that this women's movement which has done so much good in refocusing attention on important women's issues in the United States from gender violence, to reproductive rights and equal pay has now moved away from its central mission and gone out of its way to single out one foreign nation by calling for the "decolonization of Palestine." Not of Tibet. Not of Kurdistan. Not of Ukraine. Not of Cyprus. Only Palestine.

The platform, which is published on IWS' website under the headline "Antiracist and Anti-imperialist Feminism" also says: "we want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine." No mention is made of the walls that imprison gays in Iran, dissidents in China, feminists in Gaza or Kurds in Turkey. Only the walls erected by Israel.

Criticizing Israel's settlement and occupation policies is fair game. But singling out Israel for "decolonization" when it has repeatedly offered to end the occupation and to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza; and when other countries continue to colonize, can be explained in no other way than applying a double standard to Jews and their state.

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American who helped organize the Women's March on Washington in January, responded to criticism of the anti-Israel plank appearing in a feminist platform. In an interview with The Nation, Sarsour said the following:

"When you talk about feminism you're talking about the rights of all women and their families to live in dignity, peace, and security. It's about giving women access to health care and other basic rights. And Israel is a country that continues to occupy territories in Palestine, has people under siege at checkpoints we have women who have babies on checkpoints because they're not able to get to hospitals [in time]. It just doesn't make any sense for someone to say, 'Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement?' There can't be in feminism. You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There's just no way around it."

Sarsour was responding directly to an op-ed published by Emily Shire, the politics editor of the online newsite Bustle. In her piece published in the New York Times, Shire asked why, increasingly, women have to choose between their Zionism and feminism. Shire wrote:

"My prime concern is not that people hold this view of Israel. Rather, I find it troubling that embracing such a view is considered an essential part of an event that is supposed to unite feminists. I am happy to debate Middle East politics or listen to critiques of Israeli policies. But why should criticism of Israel be key to feminism in 2017?"

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Israel, like every country including our own, is far from perfect and I and other supporters of Israel have been critical of its flaws but its commitment to gender equality can be traced back to its Declaration of Independence, which states that Israel "will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex." As the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel's legal guarantee of rights has meant that women play crucial roles in all aspects of Israeli society. It elected the first woman head of government in history Golda Meir who was not related to a male political leader. There is no legitimate reason for singling Israel out for condemnation, as the platform does, based on a denial of "basic rights" to women.

Sarsour presents a catch-22. Under her own all-or-nothing criteria, she herself cannot be pro-Palestinian and a feminist because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas treat women and gays far worse than Israel does.

If Sarsour was concerned with addressing structural causes of all female oppression, she would mention the status of women in the PA-controlled West Bank where just a few months ago the names and photos of female candidates for the municipal elections were omitted, referring to the women instead as "wife of" or "sister of." Sarsour would also call out the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where the police are a law unto themselves who act as judge, jury and executioner of those who speak out against their oppression and misogyny. She would condemn the tolerance, if not acceptance, by so many Muslim countries of the "honor killings" and genital mutilation of women.

Instead the IWS platform exploits the feminist cause in order to delegitimize and demonize only one nation: that of the Jewish people.

Nor does Sarsour address the fact that one of the organizers of the strike, Rasmea Odeh, was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by an Israeli military court for her role in a 1969 terror attack, which killed two university students and injured nine others, including several women, at a supermarket in Jerusalem. Odeh was later freed in a prisoner exchange but a subsequent case against her in the United States is ongoing.

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This double standard is reflective of a broader trend in hard-left politics. Increasingly, groups such as Black Lives Matter, MoveOn, Code Pink and Occupy Wall Street have embraced intersectionality a radical academic theory, which holds that all forms of social oppression are inexorably linked as an underpinning to their anti-Israel activism. This type of selective ideological packaging has left liberal supporters of Israel in an increasingly uncomfortable position. On the one hand, they care deeply about causes such as women's rights, criminal justice reform, income inequality, environmental protection and LGBT rights. On the other, they find themselves excluded from the groups that advance those very causes unless they agree to delegitimize Israel and denounce Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish People.

Addressing the structural causes of sexism in the United States will take more than reproaching Israel it will require far-reaching legislative and grassroots action. By morphing the discussion about women's rights into a polemic against Israel, the IWS makes progress of the feminist cause even more difficult. All decent people should continue to fight for the absolute equal status of women in society. But we must not be forced to become complicit in the promotion of anti-Israel bigotry as a pre-condition for supporting the broader feminist movement.

The real choice to be made now by all those who care about the feminist cause is whether to allow Sarsour and her radical anti-Israel allies to hijack the movement in support of their own bigoted views. The alternative is to maintain feminism's focus on key issues that pertain to women and to call out countries and movements according to how seriously they violate women's rights, rather than singling out the one Jewish democracy Israel.

Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School and author of "Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law" and "Electile Dysfunction: A Guide for the Unaroused Voter." This article was previously published by the Gatestone Institute.

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Posted By simmons on March 17, 2017

Instead of firmly speaking out against the more than 190 anti-Semitic threats and attacks over the past few weeks, Netanyahu has decided to throwthe American Jewish community under the bus of right-wing Israeli fanaticism.

By David Sarna Galdi

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, March 16, 2017. (Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week told a delegation led by Reform Movement head Rabbi Rick Jacobs what it wanted to hear that he was attuned to their concerns. But Netanyahus shocking silence during the recent wave of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States was far louder than his words.

Netanyahu, who just a couple of years ago declared that he represents the entire Jewish people, failed to show any support whatsoever for American Jewry during more than 190 anti-Semitic threats and attacks in six weeks.

How should U.S. Jews make sense of this non-sequitur?

Jews growing up in America in the second half of the 20th century were taught a very simple equation: Israel = Judaism. When American Jews sent their hard-earned dollars to the Jewish state, they believed that Israel was in a reciprocal way an embodiment of their values and, more importantly, their guardian.

After the Holocaust, Israel was naturally viewed as the guarantor of the common Jewish future, having absorbedhundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and legally enshrining automatic citizenship for any Jew, no questions asked. Leaders of the fledgling state like David Ben Gurion, themselves born in the diaspora, were explicit about Israels connection to the great Jewry of the United States, to whom Israel owes so much. In 1960, Moshe Dayan put it quite plainly when he argued, in Canada, that his government should not only represent the people of Israel, but the interests of all Jews.

The metaphorical umbilical cord connecting the Jewish diaspora with the Zionist State was expressed when Menachem Begin viciously protested 1951 reparation negotiations with post-war Germany. Tremendous financial benefit to Israel, he argued, did not trump the collective self-respect, not of only Israelis, but of all Jews. The ultimately successful reparations deal was unique, argues Ofer Aderet in Haaretz, because although it was signed between two countries, it also encompassed a third party the Jewish People.

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Minister Ariel Sharon (photo: Saar Yaacov, Government Press Office / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

However, the idea that a Jewish state could be trusted to represent the entire Jewish people has always been tenuous. After herself escaping Nazi Germany and working for Zionist causes, Hannah Arendt supported a Jewish national revival but argued that politics were destroying the integrity of the original Zionist idea. She worried that an exclusively Jewish Palestine, would eventually separate itself from a larger body of world Jewry and in its isolation, develop into an entirely new people.

The lost narrative of early Jewish opposition to political Zionism is beyond the scope of this short article; it must suffice to say that Arendts doubts echoed those of a litany of Jewish leaders and thinkers like Lucien Wolf, Claude Montefiore, Israel Abrahams, Simon Dubnow, Congressman Julius Kahn, Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem and many others who held doubts as to whether political Zionism had Judaisms best interest in mind and feared the consequences of ethnic Jewish hegemony over another people.

Will a Jewish nation save the Jews? asked Rabbi Israel Mattuck, a leader of British Jewry between the two world wars. It may save a small number of them; it may well destroy all the rest.

Fifty years since the height of diaspora euphoria after the Six Day War the idealistic, abstract Zionism of many U.S. Jews has fermented into what can be called at best, melancholy Zionism. A recent Pew Research Center Study found that only 35 percent of American Jews aged 18-50 believed that caring about Israel is an essential part of their Jewish identity. Israel isnt a brand some American Jews want to identify with, admitted Liran Avisar, the CEO of Masa Israel.

Globally plugged-in young American Jews who protest for refugee rights and attend LGBT weddings face jarring headlines about Israels idolization of a soldier convicted of the manslaughter of an incapacitated Palestinian, laws legalizing theft of Palestinian land and discriminating against Muslim prayer, large-scale demolition of Israeli Bedouin communities, and the exclusion of egalitarian prayer from Judaisms most holy communal space. Though Netanyahu wants to force Palestinians to announce, on-all-fours, that Israel is Jewish, its uncertain whether a 21st century American Jew would concede as much.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., February 15, 2017. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

How are American Jews to understand the Israeli prime ministers actions, which breathe new life into the dry bones of historical doubts of Israels concern for Judaism at large? Is his cozying up toanti-Semitic Evangelical preachers and the most offensive U.S. president in memory at the expense of U.S. Jews a return to the Negation of the Diaspora theory? Or is it the crystallization of a new, frightening brand of Zionism so distorted from the past that it can only be called, Alt-Zionism a rabid dog wagged by its extremist, Jewish fundamentalist tail? The current governmentsAlt-Zionism demonizes the press, decapitates the Israeli Supreme Court, rids the Knesset of Arab representation, passes unjust laws that threaten to turn Israel into a pariah apartheid state, and has no need for any diaspora Jewry that doesnt fund the Judaization of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Driving a wedge between Israel and U.S. Jewry while threatening their already wilting symbiosis is corrupt on a profound, Big-History scale. A country where Jews are safe is imperative. A world without the Jewish diaspora, however, is unthinkable.

Benjamin Netanyahu fancies himself a historically significant leader, a kind of Jewish Winston Churchill; he has gone on record repeatedly about his deep admiration for the British prime minister who risked isolation and unpopularity before World War II rather than negotiate with Nazi Germany. But Netanyahu, in throwing the American Jewish community under the bus of right-wing Israeli fanaticism, has proven himself to be more of a Marshal Ptain.

David Sarna Galdi is a former editor at Haaretz newspaper. He works for a nonprofit organization in Tel Aviv.

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