Category: Anti-Semitism

What Does God Look Like?

The manger scene of the Baby Jesus swaddled in a Keffiyeh has created much commotion and attention.  Even though the Vatican has removed the display, the consciousness-raising alone means that the image has had the intended effect.

We are talking front and center through religion about the plight of the Palestinian people.

This is not the first time someone has reinterpreted something for their own purpose.  I have seen many iterations of Jesus: white, very white, swarthy, black.  Many religions that have Jesus at the center of their theology have him displayed realistically on the cross, his body cradled in his mother’s arms, lovingly gazing down upon us in a portrait or looking upwards in an icon. As a babe in mother’s arms, as a man spreading the Word, at a bountiful supper, and as a martyr.  And now swaddled in a keffiyeh.  We use religious symbols to motivate the audience toward a vision or narrative.  This is frequently for good and exemplary purposes and too often for malicious purposes.

The charge that this current manger display is Antisemitic is a particular, not universally shared Jewish perspective.  Some deliberately embrace that evil message.   I am sure that was not the intent of the Pope or the Church.  And if the manger is allowed to be a message of hatred, it will have failed miserably in its mission.

Raising awareness of the plight of the Palestinians is important.  Christmas is an essential Christian symbol of God’s love and our hope.  Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards men is the universal message of the extraordinary celebration.

Can this awareness-raising symbol be channeled into constructive forces to promote the welfare of the Palestinian people, who have been victimized for too long? It is time for the people of goodwill to lay down their arms and reach out across the divide to each other.  May love supplant the hatred that has kept both sides at war for too long.  May the promise of Christmas resound in that troubled place of Jesus’ birth so that two people learn to live together in peace and security.

Merry Christmas!

Canary in the Coal Mine

Jews are using the phrase “we are the canary in the coal mine” as a warning that anti-Semitism signals growing hatred of all groups in our nation. This idea is profoundly flawed, ironically counterproductive, and requires immediate redress.

The phrase is a desperate appeal to others that they must fight anti-Semitism as it inevitably will lead to hatred against them—that tactic won’t work. People will stand against anti-Semitism because it is wrong. And if they can rationalize anti-Semitism, they won’t care about Jews, canaries, or anyone else. Besides, there is another group that already experiences an institutional brand of hatred: black people and others of color.

People of color have been experiencing hatred and systemic racism for as long as any of us have come to these shores. When we think of Jews as the ones on the front line, we negate the experience of the black community. That is egotistical and shameful and ironically belies the idea embodied in the Canary Phrase. We should be aware of this hatred and align with those others who experience it.

I am not a canary, and I am not in a coal mine. Despite the alarming sharp increase in public displays of anti-Semitism, we live well, thoroughly enjoying so many blessings of this place. We have the power and the means to defend ourselves. And we are. Others do not, and we must help them.

Let us stand against hatred in all its forms besides every one of goodwill.   We denounce hatred of any group and work together to fight it on the streets, in the courts, and our hearts. So our country may live up to its aspirations.

We are not birds; we are American Jews standing tall for the values we believe in, and together, we will prevail.

Being Canceled

In response to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s decision to cancel the showing of the film The Child Within Me, I make the following statement:

To the Board of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute

You squandered an essential moment of leadership.

Until this decision, you were a cultural icon and an important voice in our community. But instead of devotion to keeping culture accessible through film, its thoughtful curation, and presentation, you cowed in the face of political pressure. You canceled a film thoroughly unrelated to the war.  The only controversy about this film is your decision to condemn it because the Israeli Film Festival sponsors it.  Shame on you.

People protesting against the showing of a film is an act of free speech.  It does not automatically devolve into violence, and using that as a pretense for canceling is a sign of it is either fecklessness or outright bias against Jews (also known as Antisemitism) and Israel.

Protesters are loud and obnoxious, but they are not violent. Those who attend the festival would find them uncomfortable, but they are not a physical threat. Further, the police of Lower Merion would have done an excellent job of keeping the peace even in this potentially testy situation.

BMFI was an important institution, one I enjoyed participating in and supporting. However, I am deeply disappointed that you have focused on other aspects, neglecting the crucial role of bringing influential films into our community. This decision has undermined the basis for our relationship.  I resign from my membership and call on everyone in our community to do the same.

Sincerely

Rabbi David Levin

Response to the vandalism at Temple Beth Hillel Beth EL

The synagogue offered the following public statement in response to the swastika graffitied on the property:

We do not know who did this. We do know that they wanted us to be afraid. A swastika is not a commentary on the policies of the State of Israel, nor is it a sign of solidarity with Palestinians. It is a symbol of hatred and division. We, the leadership of the synagogue, want everyone to know that we will not give in to either fear or division. We are blessed to live in a society in which hate speech is not tolerated by the police, who are working with us to keep us safe. We are blessed to live in a society where our neighbors of other faiths have already reached out to offer support.

It depends on the context

 

Yes, the presidents of Harvard and MIT should also resign. Because it really does depend on the context.

Free speech is not the unfettered ability to say anything.  Free Speech on campus should be balanced against the needs of the students to attend school without threat or harassment.

Advocating for Genocide is despicable.  Although the University is a free marketplace of ideas, calling out for the extermination of Jews on campus is the furthest from a safe and secure space for Jews as there can be.  For those presidents unaware of Jewish history, 6 million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust.  So, Genocide is an exceptionally loaded concept.

The inability to understand the context of this issue and articulate it during an appearance before Congress demonstrates the incompetence of these people to fulfill the role of president at these Universities.  If Harvard and MIT are okay with that, that is on them, but they also demonstrate shameful behavior and terrible judgment.

 

#BringThemHomeNow

 

 

 

Bring Them Home Now

We are anxiously hoping the current negotiations for the return of some kidnapped hostages will bring our people home soon.

It is a deal with the devil, but you do what you must do.

However, the devil is in the details, and the details are troubling.

We have been unable to get “proof of life” for all held captive. Why is this the case?  Is Hamas not in control of all the hostages? If true, it does not bode well for those remaining in captivity.

Why has the Red Cross been unable to check on the welfare of the hostages?  This, too, is an ominous sign that Hamas may not be in control and our people are not being treated humanely.

Why are the negotiations 3 to 1?  For every Israeli returned, three people are returned to Hamas.  This seems an admission, particularly by Hamas, that both sides value Israeli human life more than Palestinians’.

These issues are distressing, But the answers to these questions offer insights into how things will progress after this deal is concluded.

Let us bring home those we can and work to bring the rest back as quickly as possible.

 

Mission to Israel Countdown t-2

Are you pro-Israel or not?

This is a moment of truth.  Which side are you on?

I am pro-Israel.  I believe in the State and its right to exist. I believe in its right to defend itself.  I believe Hamas is intent on Israel’s destruction; as such, it must be treated as an irreconcilable enemy that must be fought. But this battle comes at a price.

I grieve for the suffering of the Palestinians and pray that they, too, might find peace, dignity, and self-determination with a government that serves them.  And I am offended by the violence in the West Bank against Palestinians that seemingly slips under the radar but is no less egregious.

I disagree with Israel’s government and its policies.  But I set these aside for the time being.  Our focus must be on the current crisis.

I’m not too fond of reductionist thinking, but this is a simple binary decision.  You stand with Israel, which is now conflated with the Jewish people, or you do not.  This doesn’t mean we agree on everything (that will require the Messiah’s intervention), but world events have made it clear that the rest of the world has grouped the Jews with Israel.  We, therefore, must stand together.

We must stand for our values and deeply consider how those values are understood, especially in these challenging times.

Which side are you on?

Our lives are changed

All of our lives have been irrevocably changed as a result of October 7. The lives we thought we enjoyed before have had the veneer ripped away, and we are in a new and strangely familiar place as a people of history.

As many of you know, I am planning a trip to Israel with a few of my colleagues from the Philadelphia region through the generous support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Our purpose is to learn, bear witness, and bring home the stories of what is happening to the people of Israel. We will start in Tel Aviv, and we will move South, meeting with families of the kidnapped, hostages, and others whose lives around the envelope have been changed forever.

I do not know what I will encounter. And I say that as someone who is struggling here in the Diaspora and as someone committed to the Jewish state. We have complex and conflicting moral issues to try and understand. It is like threading the eye of a tiny needle. Our tradition is well-versed in parsing, probing, and understanding how we maintain our values even when those values are challenged in the most extraordinary ways. But we have enjoyed the opportunity to study those texts, not live them in real-time, and here in lies the real challenge of what it means to understand what is going on Jewishly.

I will share the lessons I will learn and some wisdom that I hope will come from these experiences. But I will at least bear witness.

I have been asked repeatedly if I am nervous or scared about my trip to Israel, and I do have trepidation, but it’s not the trepidation of being physically hurt. It is the trepidation of everything that I have held dear, of everything that I have worked for, of everything that I believe in, being tested in a way that I never thought would be imaginable today.

The virulent Jew-hatred we believed was part of our history is now being expressed publicly and shamelessly; that is frightening.

I am privileged to know many people of Goodwill, and so many of them have reached out in this fraught time to offer their support and love. But there are so many others who have remained silent and too many others who have let their antisemitism erupt into the public space. We can no longer pretend that Jew-hatred does not affect us. It does, and we must now decide whether we stand for what we claim to believe and fight for those values and ideals.

I pray for the people of Israel, I pray for my Jewish brothers and sisters both there and here, and I pray for peace. Perhaps these things may come more quickly than the all-too-elusive Messiah. It is up to us to hasten their coming.