What Stake Should American Jews Have in Israeli Affairs?

From The Conspiracy in newvoices.com

Israel has always been always at least somewhat present in my life. Though I have only visited once, as a Jew who was raised in a Jewish educational system, Zionism came part-and-parcel with my religious education. In school, I learned Modern Hebrew as a second language and was exposed to Israeli culture and food. Israel was the Jewish homeland, and I, in religion, in peoplehood, and in Israeli law, was guaranteed a home (or, at the very least, citizenship) there.

As I grew older, I was taught that as an American Jew, I had a duty to defend and support Israel; therefore, I began to engage in a wide range of pro-Israel activities. I attended AIPAC’s 2012 Policy Conference, and began writing and thinking critically about what it means to be pro-Israel in the context of a world that is increasingly hostile toward perceived colonialism (and many do perceive Israel and Zionism as a colonial project, even if we supporters of Israel do not).

One of the claims made in the documentary The J Street Challenge (which — yes — I did, finally, watch) is that J Street specifically (and, perhaps, other left-wing Zionist organizations as well) are imperialist in their desire to circumvent the Israeli political system by advocating for a two-state solution that the Israeli government does not support at present. However, could this question not be posed more broadly? Couldn’t any intervention into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Americans, either from the political left or the political right, be considered imperialist? Are we not imperialist in our desire to end a conflict in a region not our own, in a country that does not directly threaten our own borders and our own country?

If we Jews truly believe Israel to be our homeland, we have a vested interest in our protection, be we politically on the left or on the right — in essence, we have no choice but to be imperialists. Alternately, if we truly belong in Israel, then we, too, have a say in how our Jewish homeland should function.

Or, perhaps, we should not.

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Searching for Myself at Jerusalem’s Hippie Yeshiva

I didn’t fit in among the scruffy rock musicians and young women in shawls and drapey skirts, but my Shavuot visit changed me

By Ruchama King Feuerman for Tablet Magazine

I was finishing up my first year of college at Bar-Ilan University when an old classmate invited me to spend Shavuot with her at the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion.

What’s she doing there, of all places? I wondered, surprised to learn that she’d become a full-time student at the yeshiva.

Lots of my friends from high school had signed on for a year of rigorous Torah study at one of the Jerusalem seminaries that were starting to become de rigueur for frum girls after graduation. I was all set to go myself, especially as my little detour at Bar-Ilan was winding down; it was the end of the semester, and my yeshiva beckoned. But my intended yeshiva was what I considered “normal”: It attracted girls of the same age with a fairly strong background in Jewish studies—girls from middle-class, religious homes. We were coming to enrich and to build upon the Judaism we had already encountered in our earlier years. We weren’t looking to be transformed.

This Diaspora Yeshiva, known to outsiders as the hippie yeshiva, was altogether different. It carried a countercultural cachet, an air of the illicit. The men’s division had a band with scruffy-bearded newly religious musicians singing Hebrew lyrics set to wild rock music, way before this became accepted everywhere. The women students—whether teenagers or in their thirties—dressed in scraps of hippie-like cast offs, shawls, and long drapey skirts. The students, most of whom came with little knowledge of Judaism, and even less Torah observance, seemed bent on totally remaking their lives. Many marriages happened between the men’s and women’s divisions, and those couples lived in near poverty in Mount Zion’s caves. Sure, the students at the Diaspora Yeshiva made great music, but was that reason enough for my old classmate to have joined up there?

You never knew who might show up at the Diaspora Yeshiva. My friend told me how Tony Curtis popped in one day with his agent, and so did the drummer for Led Zeppelin—a lost soul if ever there was one; sometimes it was people who were less famous but no less unexpected, like the woman who’d just emerged from many years at an ashram, or a Hasid from Williamsburg, or a Harvard-educated scientist. But one type of person rarely ventured there: suburban Modern Orthodox girls like me.

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Defining ‘Pro-Israel’

by Solomon Tarlin for newvoices.com

“It is the epitome of intellectual dishonesty to use a well-established term to define a group (pro-Israel) when that group and its members such as yourself admit that the meaning of the well-established term does not in fact apply.” This was one of the many responses I received after my op-ed last month, “Hillel Student Board Votes to Reject J Street U at Boston University”. While most responses were positive and supportive, telling me and J Street to keep up the good work, the negative feedback, and this one in particular, taking issue with our description as a “pro-Israel organization,” illuminated for me the value of our work at J Street U.

In fairness, if being “pro-Israel” means refusing to criticize the country’s policies, taking an incomplete view of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and ignoring that the occupation threatens the very existence of Israel’s character as a Jewish homeland and democratic state, then the commenter may have a point. However, this is an unnecessarily limiting definition of the term. When I call myself pro-Israel, I mean that I care about Israel’s future, that I proudly support the existence of a secure homeland of the Jewish people, and that my love for Israel has caused me to spend countless hours working to ensure that Israel continues to be a place I can love and support. There is therefore no intellectual dishonesty in declaring this position pro-Israel; in fact, I ask all who care about Israel to have the same honest conversation about the existential challenges facing Israel today.

If I thought this commenter had an isolated viewpoint, I would ignore it; however, it is clear that these concerns reflect the current stance of a significant portion of the Jewish community today. This portion includes Boston University Hillel, whose guidelines around Israel programming are more stringent than those of Hillel International, and exclude a sizable portion of the pro-Israel community, including, for now, J Street U BU. In March, we invited Lara Friedman, Director of Policy at Americans for Peace Now, to speak about the status of negotiations. Our conversation centered around an attempt to protect Israel’s character and long-term security. We spoke about the status of negotiations, gave the American, Israeli, and Palestinian takes on the prospects of an agreement, and discussed what the future of the region would look like without a two-state solution. It was a thoughtful event, from which all attendees learned and challenged their beliefs.

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UCLA Chancellor Slams Anti-Israel Pledge

Alex Margolin for HonestReporting

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block spoke out firmly against measures that would bar those elected to UCLA’s student government from taking part in trips sponsored by certain pro-Israel organizations.

Prior to the recent student council elections, various pro-Palestinian groups asked candidates to sign a pledge that they would not take educational trips to Israel sponsored by AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Hasbara Fellowships.

“I am troubled that the pledge sought to delegitimize educational trips offered by some organizations but not others,” Block wrote in an email to students and faculty, Haaretz reported.

“I am troubled that the pledge can reasonably be seen as trying to eliminate selected viewpoints from the discussion,” he continued. “If we shut out perspectives, if we silence voices, if we allow innuendo to substitute for reasoned exchange of ideas, if we listen only to those who already share our assumptions, truth gets lost, our intellectual climate is impoverished and our community is diminished.”

Most of the candidates who won seats on the council did not sign the pledge. However, it created a stigma around the trips, giving the impression that the trips are unethical for students to take if they are in the student government.

Critics of the pledge, like Jonathon Tobin, claim that its purpose is not only to make it harder for pro-Israel candidates to join the council, thereby weakening opponents of divestment measures, but also to shame those students who would consider participating in pro-Israel trips.

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Showtime Buys Series About An Ultra-Orthodox Comedian

New comedy depicts an aspiring stand-up leaving his Brooklyn community

By Stephanie Butnick for Tablet Magazine
Showtime has nabbed a new comedy series about a Jewish comedian. But not just any Seinfeld or Samberg—this time it’s an ultra-Orthodox aspiring stand-up who steps outside his close-knit Williamsburg community to try and make it as a New York City comic.

Deadline reports that the Homeland network bought the development rights for Yank, a half-hour show from Sex and the City writers Elisa Zuritsky and Julie Rottenberg, which will follow a young man as he leaves his Hasidic enclave for Manhattan’s comedy clubs while still trying to remain part of the community.

“We’ve always been fascinated by the question of how our families’ expectations have and haven’t shaped our lives,” Rottenberg said. “We realized that this is the most extreme version of a family sending a very clear signal of exactly who you’re supposed to be. But what happens if you have your own plans?”

It will be interesting to see how the show depicts the ultra-Orthodox community of Williamsburg, and whether the writers go for easy caricatures (See: The Mindy Project) or present a more nuanced portrait. That the show’s writers come from Sex and the City, another show for which the city of New York served as its own important character, suggests the latter—which would make it a very interesting show.