Views » April 1, 2008

Secular Jews and the ‘Jewish State’

By Ralph Seliger

American Jews remain, along with African Americans, the most left-leaning ethnic community in the country. While many support the State of Israel uncritically, some Jews express their concern for Israel’s welfare by joining organizations and activities that challenge certain policies and promote social change.

Last November, “The Other Israel Film Festival: Images of Arab Citizens of Israel” was inaugurated in a partnership with Manhattan’s Jewish Community Center and several other institutions.

In January 2008, Meretz USA, a progressive Zionist group that I work with, along with the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace (Brit Tzedek v’Shalom), focused their annual “Israel Symposium” on Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Israel’s population.

Another example of this trend of Jewish interest in Israel’s Arabs is the New Israel Fund (NIF), an American nonprofit that funds community organizing efforts and legal court challenges in areas such as environmental activism and the advancement of civil rights for Arab citizens of Israel, the physically disabled, women, gays and immigrant groups.

In the fall of 2007, the NIF brought Israeli speakers to a series of forums around the United States to examine Israel’s ethnic, cultural and economic diversity. This was discussed in the context of a “Jewish state” and how this concept resonates, if at all, with American Jews. Eliezer Yaari, the NIF’s executive director in Israel, stated a preference for describing Israel as a “state of Jews” rather than the more ideological construct of the “Jewish state.”

For their part, Israeli Arabs increasingly identify themselves as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Even as prominent an individual as Michael Mousa Karayanni, a professor of law and vice dean at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, speaking at the same NIF forum, indicated his sense of alienation as an Arab Israeli. Karayanni is one of the authors of a 2006 statement that demands Arab cultural autonomy, the elimination of the explicitly Jewish character of the national anthem and flag, and changing immigration policy to eliminate preferential treatment for Jews.

This last point on immigration strikes at the heart of how and why most Jews feel invested in a Jewish state. Israel’s Law of Return, granting the right of entry and immediate citizenship to most people with at least a single Jewish grandparent (offering sanctuary to precisely those whom the Nazis prosecuted as Jews), is a direct response to Jewish vulnerability during the centuries of degradation and oppression that culminated in the Holocaust.

Most American Jews are uncomfortable with a theocratic state in the way that Iran and Saudi Arabia are Islamic, or that the Christian right envisions this country. The fact that the words “Jew” and “Jewish” refer both to a religious group and a historic people 3,000 years old causes confusion.

Although half of American Jews have no religious affiliation, they are usually defined as followers of a faith rather than as a nationality or ethnicity (as they were regarded in the former Soviet Union). But Israel was founded in 1948 as a home for the Jews as a people, as well as “all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex”—as stated in its declaration of independence.

Still, under Israel’s dysfunctional electoral system of proportional representation, which requires multi-party coalitions to obtain a parliamentary majority, religious parties exercise outsized power in such matters as marriage, divorce and conducting business on the Sabbath. (Under current rules, any minority interest that commands more than 2 percent of the vote may enter parliament with two seats.)

Progressive Israelis strive for a society that is “Jewish” as a reflection of its majority cultural influences rather than by law. Even now, Israel has some bi-national and bi-cultural characteristics. Israel runs to the rhythms of both the Jewish and Muslim calendars. For example, its weekends are Fridays and Saturdays, the Muslim and Jewish Sabbaths. And although Hebrew is the preeminent tongue, Arabic is the second of Israel’s two official languages, and there is some Arabic programming on public television and radio.

But Israel has a ways to go before all of its citizens feel equally at home. A significant number of progressive American Jews are open to learning more about this reality. Yet it is incumbent upon Israelis—Jews and Arabs alike—to negotiate a modus vivendi that satisfies all.

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• Reader Comments

  One wonders what would happen if Israel allowed Arabs to freely immigrate into it at the rate they might desire. No, actually we know what would happen. Never mind.

  Posted by wolf on Apr 1, 2008 at 3:59 PM

  Let’s be clear: What progressive Jews oppose are not “certain policies” of the State of Israel, as if it were about Israel’s poorly-runh health care system or its tax structure. What they oppose is the forced expulsion of Palestinians, the demolition of their villages, the destruction of their culture, and the open-air prison of Israel’s brutal occupation. While they are concerned with discrimination against Israeli Arabs, their real outrage is directed towards the apartheid road system now criss-crossing the West Bank, the humiliating checkpoints that make it impossible for Palestinians to go about their daily life, the house demolitions with five minutes warning, the tacitly supported settler violence, the closure of universities, the curfews, the roadblocks, and the continued construction of settler colonies throughout the West Bank. They oppose the F-16 strikes in the Gaza Strip and the intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure, such as Gaza’s only power plant. Only once Israel acknowledges the grave injustice that was committed in 1948 and that has been continued every since, only when they unconditionally affirm the Palestinian right to self-determination, and only when they dismantle the cruel tools of occupation, will Israel regain the trust of progressive Jews.

  Posted by Steven on Apr 2, 2008 at 6:29 AM

  Or the trust of secular humanists, Steven. Your critique, comment and conclusion leave little to say, save well done and ditto.

  Posted by Bud Wizer on Apr 2, 2008 at 5:40 PM

  I agree with the first two postings in regard to this article, particlularly that of Steven, today.  Moreover, I have a serious problem as a USA citizen/taxpayer with any foreign country that maintains a well-funded, powerful lobbyist group in Washington that can affect the votes of our federal legislators—such organizations as AIPAC, for example.
  We have all witnessed the present Bush administration’s last seven years of disinterest and “benign neglect” in bringing any useful, diplomatic reasoning to the plight of all Israelis and Palestinians. 
  Now, we are seeing last minute, Condi Rice and Dick Cheney visits—all too late and now relatively useless as well. (Fortunately, within another six months, they will no longer be representing us on the international stage….)
  Let’s stop this ridiculous charade.  The mainstream media fails to tell us of Israeli/Palestinian peace groups (which exist!), and I can sympathize with such groups, who for years have tried to bring some humanist values to their friendships and peaceful co-existence there.  There has also been an exodus of Israelis out of Israel, not generally mentioned;  this is why Israel has been fostering visits and hopefully, immigration of “barely jewish” folks from the USA and elsewhere to Israel.  This too seems a simplistic attempt to change things—like the “Berlin walls” that were constructed in recent years….
  Sorry to sound too negative about all of this—but really, the Israeli government and their many mistakes of the past decade have been hard to overlook and accept as reasonable.  There needs to be serious change…both in Israel and the USA.

  Posted by Douglas Scott Treado on Apr 2, 2008 at 5:54 PM

  I have read in many places that Jews in the US should do more to help Palestinians. I agree, but why it should be up to the Jews only? Where are those Americans of Italian, Irish, or African descent who should also be marching on the streets for Palestinian rights? Why are not more Koreans, Hispanics, or Anglos marching? For goodness sake, where are the Americans of Arab descent?

  I held those Jews not doing anything responsible, but at the same level that I held any non Jew who is more interested in the latest news about Paris Hilton than he is about what is being done in the world with the money of US taxpayers.

  The people most critical of Israel are, generally, ethnic Jews. The people most un-critically supporting Israel are, generally, Christian fundamentalists. Extreme zionists and nazis share the believe that Jews do NOT belong with the rest of humanity, and they should should have a place for themselves, far away from the rest of the world.

  There is a problem with confusing religion and ethnicity. Myself, I was raised as a Roman Catholic, but I left the church more than 30 years ago, did not marry by church, my children are not baptized, and do not celebrate any religious festivity, not even Christmas. Therefore, I would be very surprised if someone refer to me as a Catholic. But, if I had been raised as a Jew, even my grand children would be considered Jews. That is a different treatment right there.

  Posted by ar656 on Apr 4, 2008 at 1:10 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 11 posts.

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