Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

This article is part of a series on Christian nationalism supported by the Pulitzer Center.

(RNS) For a moment, Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin imagined that after Aug. 13, 2017, life would go back to normal.

The day before, hundreds of white nationalists had descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, where she was an associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. They carried torches, chanted racist slogans and tore through crowds with flags pointed like spears. A nights sleep, she had hoped, would expel the trauma she had witnessed.

The Unite the Right rally was the most terrifying experience of my entire life, Schmelkin said. I had never seen extremism like that up close and I never feared for my safety as a Jewish person. It changed me.

But four years later, sitting in her new home more than 100 miles away from Charlottesville, she reads news accounts of the court verdict in a civil case stemming from the rally, and acknowledges she still marks time by before and after.

Since that searing summer day, Schmelkin, 33, has devoted herself to better understanding what happened and working to make sure it never happens again. Soon after, she left her position at Congregation Beth Israel for a job with the One America Movement, a nonprofit dedicated to building relationships between people who wouldnt otherwise talk to one another.

Charlottesville taught her many of the lessons she uses in her new work. Now senior manager of Jewish programming at One America, she trains rabbis, cantors and other Jewish professionals about the neuroscience and psychology of social divisions and how to create healthy and constructive dialogue.

A Unite the Right poster advertising the Unite the Right rally. Poster courtesy of Rabbi Tom Gutherz

I actually think the key is to come together across differences and not be afraid to try to build relationships, said Schmelkin. Im not going to sit down with someone who wants to harm me. But there are people with whom I can sit down, even though I might feel uncomfortable.

For Jews and people of other minority faiths, the events in Charlottesville, which resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to more than 50, were the first in a series of wake-up calls about the rise of white nationalism.

It also brought into sharp relief a reality many hadnt before considered that white nationalism is at its root antisemitic.

With its notions of white identity, racial superiority, fear of immigrants and its traditional Christian beliefs, white nationalism is also profoundly anti-Jewish. Many white nationalists portray Jews as infiltrators, global elites or puppet masters secretly controlling the strings of power. A classic example are conspiracy theories surrounding billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has been accused of funding Black Lives Matter and antifa protests.

Such conspiracy theories apparently led a man to kill 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburghin 2018.Authorities say that Robert Bowers, a onetime bakery delivery driver, was a white nationalist whose fears of white genocide through immigration caused him to zoomin on HIAS, a Jewish-led organization that settles refugees of all faiths. One of the congregations that met at Tree of Life supported HIAS work.

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people, Bowers posted to the website Gab the morning of the attack. I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. Im going in.

On Jan. 6, 2021, when an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to thwart Congress confirmation of President Joe Bidens election, some wore T-shirts proclaiming Camp Auschwitz or 6MWE, an antisemitic dog whistle that stands for 6 million wasnt enough.

Were just coming into an awareness of how this movement directly endangers Jewish lives in addition to growing our awareness of the ways this movement endangers democracy and the lives of Black and brown people and LGBTQ people, said Sharon Brous, senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles.

Jews have always known of the existence of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in America. What changed in the past few years is that white nationalism is no longer fringe.

More and more everyday people, and particularly people who identify with the Republican Party, are adopting this white nationalism worldview, said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc, a liberal Jewish group that blends advocacy and political organizing. Many of us are literally in the crosshairs of white nationalists who dont see us as having a valid place in the country.

A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 57% of white evangelicals indicate theyd prefer the U.S. be a nation primarily made up of people of the Christian faith.

RELATED: Study: Most white evangelicals dont want to live in a religiously diverse country

Perhaps more disturbing, 26% of white evangelicals said they believed that violence may be necessary to save the country; that number climbed to 39% among white evangelicals who believe the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Aryeh Tuchman, senior associate director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, sees what he calls a blurring of the lines between self-identified extremists and white Christian nationalists. That has made the work of the center, which employs a staff of 25, more difficult.

Senior Rabbi Tom Gutherz, Congregation Beth Israel. Photo courtesy of Congregation Beth Israel

Were living in a world where the commitment to maintaining a shared center or public sphere that is free from violence, fear and bigotry has eroded, Tuchman said. Were seeing the politicization of every element of our society, including the fight against antisemitism. Thats a fundamental shift.

It fell first to the Jewish community of Charlottesville to figure out what was going on.

We had to answer the questions of our children the very next day: Why were there people on the street saying Jews will not replace us, and why do they hate the Jews? said Tom Gutherz, the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. These were questions that were not asked before.

Schmelkin and her husband, Geoff, moved to Charlottesville in 2016, thinking it would be a relaxed college town with a small Jewish community. Rachel had completed seminary and was ordained a rabbi. Geoff had been accepted to the MBA program at the University of Virginia.

But not long after they settled in, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally. Then came news reports that white supremacists sought a permit to rally in opposition to the Charlottesville City Councils vote to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and rename Lee Park.

A congregant sent Schmelkin a story from The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, that read, Next stop Charlottesville; final stop Auschwitz.

Leaders of Congregation Beth Israel, housed in a 138-year-old, Gothic revival building in Charlottesvilles historic downtown, sprang into action. They conducted security assessments. They hired a guard. They decided to relocate several Torah scrolls, including a Czech Torah that had survived the Holocaust.

On the day of the rally, the congregation held Saturday morning services an hour earlier so members could get home safely.

Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin sings and plays guitar while in her role as a rabbi. Photo courtesy of Schmelkin

Schmelkin, who plays the guitar, had planned to attend a counterprotest on the steps of First United Methodist Church that morning to sing folk songs and Jewish songs of peace Turning of the World, We Shall Not Be Moved and Olam Chesed Yibaneh, Hebrew for The world shall be built from kindness.

She ended up performing only two.

Fifteen minutes into her singing, the church went into lockdown. The rally had been disbanded by police, a state of emergency declared and hundreds of white nationalists were packing the streets. In the melee, the Schmelkins drove an injured woman to the hospital.

The following days brought little relief.

For months afterward, white nationalists continued to flock to Charlottesville. The white nationalist leader Richard Spencer led an October torch rally a block from the synagogues Sukkot celebration. There were court hearings and trials for white supremacists such as James Alex Fields Jr., who rammed his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer. (Fields was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.)

We were often on edge and felt like the synagogue should be on high alert, Schmelkin said.

Shortly after the rally, Andrew Hanauer, the president and CEO of One America Movement, came to Charlottesville to start a clergy group willing to think through what had happened and train people to cross divides. The group included white evangelical pastors, a Black pastor, a lay leader from the mosque and two rabbis.

The rally could have led me to go into my own silos, retreat into my liberal circles and develop a fear and dislike for people who think differently from me, Schmelkin said. I made a concerted effort not to go in that direction.

The work of the group felt transformative, and she began to feel a tug to do more.

Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin speaks during a Martin Luther King event in Charlottesville. in 2019. Photo courtesy of Schmelkin

After her husband completed his degree, Schmelkin joined One America full time. She has led Jews to explore polarization and bridge building and brought together a group of progressive Jews and evangelical Christians in northern Virginia.

She praised the verdict that found Unite the Right organizers liable for injuries suffered by counterprotesters, and awarded $26 million in damages. (The jury deadlocked on two federal conspiracy charges.)

This is a move in the right direction saying loud and clear to white supremacists and neo-Nazis that there is a price to pay for hatred, violence and intent to harm, she said.

But she also knows the work she is doing is far from complete.

It feels like the right thing to do to bring the lessons I learned to other people and use them for the purpose of bettering our country, Schmelkin said. It feels like a calling.

RELATED: Inside the fraught effort to create a Christian nationalist internet

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Senior leaders of The Simon Wiesenthal Center together with communal and political leaders at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County formally opened of the Courage to Remember exhibit, a new and critical tool to increase Holocaust education and combat antisemitism and hate in Nassau County schools and beyond.

Courage to Remember is Simon Wiesenthal Centers 40-panel traveling exhibition on the Nazi Holocaust, which has been seen on six continents by millions of people and continues to be displayed in cities across the United States and across the globe.

Today when Holocaust Denial is rampant and Memory itself is under assault it is critical that we deliver the lessons of the Holocaust to young people wherever they are, stated Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean & Director of Social Action Agenda, Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County teaches the history of the Holocaust and its lessons through education and community outreach. We educate about the dangers of antisemitism, racism, bullying, and all manifestations of intolerance. We promote resistance to prejudice and advocate respect for every human being.

The museum presents a detailed and comprehensive chronicle of the Holocaust in six galleries, using multimedia displays, photographs, artifacts, archival footage, and testimonies from local survivors and liberators.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and HTMC have a long and powerful relationship that has brought the necessary tools to the front lines of fighting anti-Semitism and increasing necessary Holocaust education, said Michael Cohen, eastern director, Simon Wiesenthal Center. I am so proud to be here today to see us add another critical component to Nassau Countys assets toward forwarding those objectives.

HMTC is honored to be a home for the Courage to Remember exhibition and looks to share its content throughout Long Island, both in our building and through partnerships with schools and community organizations. As the exhibition also emphasizes, we must have the courage to remember and study this disturbing and troubling history, for only informed, understanding and morally committed individuals can prevent such persecution from happening again, said Andrea Bolender, Acting Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.

Quotes from dignitaries who Attended the Grand Opening, Nov. 22

State Assemblywoman Gina L. Sillitti:We have seen Nazi symbols and Jewish stars being co-opted by those who preach hate, as well as those that dont understand the true meaning behind these symbols. It is critical that Holocaust education, remembrance, and discussion continue and is strengthened and the Courage to Remember exhibit does just that. Thankfully we have organizations such as the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center and the Simon Wiesenthal Center taking the lead.

State Senator Anna M. Kaplan:At a time when disinformation is exploding, and anti-Semitism is on the rise, its never been more important to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to the next generation, to ensure that we arent doomed to repeat this devastating chapter of our history. With the opening of the Simon Wiesenthal Centers Courage to Remember exhibition at the Holocaust Museum & Tolerance Center of Nassau County, were giving parents and educators more tools to help our kids learn about the Holocaust and providing even greater educational opportunities to ensure our community never forgets. Im so grateful to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the HMTC for bringing this vitally important exhibition to our community, and I urge every parent and teacher to bring their kids to see it.

State Assemblymember Charles Lavine:We must never cease in our efforts to attack hatred through education which is why I so proudly lend my voice in support of this wonderful new traveling exhibit. Education is our best tool to fight continuing senseless acts of hate against not just Jews, but any religion or way of life.

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Hate crimes, anti-semitism and Holocaust denial are on the rise in the U.S. and overseas, which makes acknowledging and caring for those who survived past scourges more important than ever.

Holocaust denial, after all, is easily discredited by tangible proof: the survivors who still live among us. Today, those who experienced the Holocaust are often overlooked and unacknowledged, in part because many people assume that few are still alive. Another common myth is that the remaining survivors are wealthy, and that reparations cover all of their needs.

These are the misconceptions that The Blue Card grapples with every day. In fact, there are over 350,000 Holocaust survivors worldwideabout 65,000 live in the U.S.and they range in age from 76 to 105 years old. For many, daily life is a struggle. The scant reparations that some survivors received didnt go far, and today, one-third live below the poverty line. According to The Blue Card, 78% have difficulty performing basic activities like cooking, washing and dressing, and 67% cant leave home without help.

The Blue Cards mission is to support Holocaust survivors in need, and that can mean countering myths and raising awareness about survivors and their stories. But most of the organizations efforts are focused on directly supporting survivorsproviding home care, hearing aids and everything in between.

The Blue Cards backers include the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the UJA Federation of New York, which calls itself the worlds largest local philanthropy, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and other supporters. The organization also relies on pledges from marathon and bike race participants, and on individual donations.

The Blue Card is the only organization in the U.S. solely dedicated to providing financial assistance to Holocaust survivorsthough a number of other U.S. groups support survivors as part of a broader agenda. According to the organizations website, Their lives were forcibly taken from them during the Holocaust. The Blue Card ensures that needy Holocaust survivors dont lose their dignity again, in their last years.

Blue cards

The Blue Card actually dates to before the Holocaust. The organization was created in Germany in 1934 to help Jewish people who were losing jobs and facing other forms of discrimination as the Nazis consolidated power. Its name comes from the blue cards that were given to donorsthe cards were stamped each time a donation was made. In 1939, The Blue Card was re-established in the U.S. to help Jewish refugees.

Today, The Blue Card helps survivors stay in their homes by providing emergency cash assistance for rent, groceries and home repairs. It underwrites medical costs not covered by insurance, and helps pay for hearing aids, dentures and medications. Some survivors need ongoing financial assistance; still others need in-home support, hospital visits or company to ease their isolation.

Masha Pearl, the executive director of The Blue Card, describes one survivor, named Eva, who lives in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. A widow who lives alone, Eva has cancer. The Blue Card helps cover her medical copays, special dietary needs, and a car service to take her to and from her cancer treatments.

Eva was sleeping in a recliner because sleeping upright helps relieve her pain, Pearl said. But her recliner had gotten so much wear and tear and use over the years, so The Blue Card bought her a new one.

The pandemic was hard on many people, but it was particularly difficult for poor elderly people living alonea description that fits many Holocaust survivors. Some survivors with dementia had trouble understanding what was going on, and why friends and neighbors were no longer visiting or even dropping by to say hello. The Blue Card checked in on survivors and provided opportunities for them to join virtual gatherings. It also sends birthday cards and financial support so survivors can celebrate the High Holidays. As COVID restrictions have eased, The Blue Card is getting many requests for appliance and home repairs, as well as dental care and healthcare that survivors put off during the height of the pandemic.

Basic and life-saving care

The Blue Card provides basic forms of care, but it makes a real difference in survivors quality of life. Sometimes its even life-saving. Funding from Schusterman, for example, helps underwrite emergency response unitsso called panic buttons that elderly people wear around their necks and can use to call for help. The units are relatively inexpensive, but they are financially out of reach for many survivors, Pearl said. Weve had cases of survivors who had just received one of the units, and they had a fall, and thankfully, were able to call for help.

According to a recent survey, close to two-thirds of young adults in the U.S. dont know that 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, and more than one in 10 believe Jews caused the Holocaust. Close to half of the respondents had seen Holocaust denial or disinformation on social media or online. Given this alarming ignorance, education and outreach is important, and as some in the next generation of Jewish donors chart a different path with their philanthropy, as IP has reported, its important to remember that thousands of Holocaust survivors are still living and need support as they age.

Pearl would love to do more to get the word out about The Blue Cards work and attract more support. We are told all the time that people havent heard of The Blue Card, and that is something were working on changing, she said. The organization has a video library that includes interviews with survivors, and is starting a podcast that will feature their stories.

But with limited resources, direct support for survivors is the organizations priority, and Pearl never forgets that time is running out. The window is closingwe cant wait until next month, we cant wait until tomorrow if were going to help survivors, and there is so much to do, she said. That is a reality I wake up to every day.

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the reappointment of the Honourable Irwin Cotler as Canadas Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. This reappointment is for a term of up to one year.

Mr. Cotler was first appointed as Special Envoy on November 23, 2020, after a long career dedicated to fighting racism, antisemitism, and hate, including as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, a Parliamentarian, a recognized scholar, and an international human rights lawyer.

As Special Envoy, Mr. Cotler plays a critical role in advancing our work on combatting antisemitism at home and abroad and preserving Holocaust remembrance. This includes his leadership of the Government of Canadas delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). In the first year of his role, Mr. Cotler moved forward on a number of priorities, including co-convening the National Summit on Antisemitism and supporting the Canadian delegation to the Malm International Forum and Canadas Pledges on Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. In this continued role, he will contribute his vast experience to the strengthening and promotion of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research, at home and abroad. He will also keep advocating and supporting outreach efforts with Canadians, civil society, Parliamentarians, and academia to advance the adoption and implementation of the IHRAs working definition of antisemitism in Canada and internationally.

The Government of Canada created the position of Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism last year, as part of its commitment to reinforce national and international efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and the stories of survivors while combatting antisemitism, hatred, and racism. This work is part of the governments commitment to promote and defend democracy, pluralism, inclusion, and human rights.

Antisemitism is still a lived experience for Jewish communities in Canada and around the world, and its new and resurgent forms require constant vigilance and action. The Government of Canada remains unwavering in its commitment to challenge antisemitism, hatred, and racism wherever and whenever they occur. By learning from our past, we can build a more just and inclusive future for everyone.

Antisemitism has no place in Canada or anywhere else, and we will always stand with Jewish communities to fight hatred in all its forms. As Special Envoy, Mr.Cotler will continue to ensure that the painful lessons of the Holocaust and the memories of those who lived through it are never forgotten. Only through effective education, research, and remembrance can we foster a society free of prejudice and discrimination.

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What was society like in the Nazi concentration camps and ghettos? Can we even speak of society in this context given the suffering of uprooted and imprisoned people, almost all of whom were eventually murdered? There is a widespread notion that the camps destroyed people and atomized society. Hannah Arendt, for example, argued that the totalitarian regime stripped detainees of all their characteristics of humanity until they were no longer moral persons.

By contrast,The Last Ghettooffers a new, systematic exploration of social relations in a Nazi camp. Using the ghetto of Theresienstadt (or Terezn in Czech) as a case study, my investigation shows how people imprisoned in this central European ghetto made sense of a terrifying new place in which they found themselves deciding with whom to share food and accommodation, or whom to join on transport to the East, connecting with friends old and new, and even falling in love. I interpret these moments in the context of everyday life in the camp.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the first transport to Theresienstadt on 24 November 1941, it is worth having a closer look.

Pavel Fischl was a young Czech poet who arrived to Theresienstadt with the second transport of young men deployed to set up the transit ghetto, known as the construction detail. He described how people got used to their frightening new surroundings:

Not for nothing is it said that one even gets used to the gallows. We have all gotten used to the noise of steps in the barrackshallways. We have already gotten used to those four dark walls surrounding each barracks. We are used to stand in long lines, at 7am, at noon, and again at 7pm, holding a bowl to receive a bit of heated water tasting of salt or coffee, or to get few potatoes. We are wont to sleep without beds, live without radio, record player, cinema, theatre, and the usual worries of average people.[W]e have gotten accustomed to see people die in their own dirt, to see the sick in filth and disgust [] we are habituated to wear one shirt one week long; well, one gets used to everything.

For Central and Western European Jews sent to Theresienstadt by the SS, their imprisonment was a shock. Most ofthemhad come from the middle and upper-middle class. The crowded accommodation, meagre food, dirt, high mortality that particularly addressed the elderly, and fear of transports to the East had an equally chaotic and terrifying effect. Some of the newcomers met old friends who helped them navigate this seeming netherworld; others were curious and charmed people to get by. Within weeks, the new prisoners started fitting in. The Jewish self-administration assigned them accommodation, food rations, and a job (there was a universal labor duty). Often, the employment was not one that the person desired, yet with their growing knowledge of Theresienstadt, some individuals acquired the connections and persuasive skills they needed to be hired elsewhere. Fear of the Germans was widespread and people heard about executions in the early months. At the same time, they quickly realized that the SS were the controllers, not the managers, of the ghetto. This job the Germans forced on the Jewish functionaries. Weeks would pass without a detainee even seeing a Nazi.

Settling in was particularly hard for older prisoners. They received the worst accommodation and food rations, and this detrimental treatment was reflected in high death rates. They nevertheless fought to stay alive and embraced the ghetto with curiosity rather than horror. Some seniors described their lodgings as The Lower Depths, a reference to Gorkys play of the same name. They shared stories about the places they came from, about their former positions of power, which they sometimes exaggerated, and at other times they laughed. A famous joke went: A dachshund in Terezn says: back in the day I was a St Bernard in Prague!

Thesociety of the Theresienstadt ghetto reflected and engendered class differences. Stratification was expressed not only in access to material resources (food, accommodation, and protection from transports to the East), but also in status and prestige. For instance, bakers, butchers, and cooks were considered the best positions, not least because of their access to food (they received extra rations to discourage theft). In addition, among those assigned to these professions were the 1,342 men who had arrived on the two construction detail transports to set up the first barracks for the thousands who arrived after them and were thus considered particularly deserving. The SS promised these men protection from further transports, which was extended to their immediate families. Unsurprisingly, these young men became much sought-after for marriageable women in the camp and their privileges elevated them to the position of a social elite.

When theyoungArnotReiservisited hisattractivefriendLilly, he found her living in her own room withher boyfriend,a member of theconstruction detail,who wassmoking a cigarette. Smoking was prohibited in Theresienstadt, and the SS imposed draconic punishments if anyone was caught with cigarettes. They were smuggled in by Czech gendarmes and sold for about 8 Reichsmark (RM) apiece. A loaf of bread was sold for about 40 RM on the ghetto black market. A cigarette was an expensive treat.

To our eyes, social differences in Theresienstadt may appear minimalwhether one slept in a crowded room or had a tiny room of their own. But if we want to understand the experience of the ghetto prisoners, we need to discern their choices and take them seriously, whether it was a decision over whom to share dinner with or join on a transport to the East. This was the agency that Holocaust victims had, and it was immensely important to them.

Camp society during the Holocaust was one of the many versions of what human society can be. It was neither just nor equal (despiteoften beingremembered and depicted in historiography as such). Nor should analyzing social difference within the camp gloss over the fact that it was the German state that did the work of organizing and implementing genocide. The Jews in Terezn behaved like people always do: they created distinctions and made friends, fought for resources and shared them withtheir loved ones.The ways in which they expressed their social ties was sometimes different to our normal world. Interrogating the operation ofclass in the ghetto gives complexity to a place usually narrated in sentimental clichs. Even more importantly, itbrings agency and individuality back to the people of whom we otherwise only know that they were slaughtered.

Feature image is Norbert Troller sketching of Terezin Yard 82.295, Courtesy of the Leo Bacek Institute

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Artemisia Gentileschi was a famous Baroque artist who lived in the Florence of the Medici and the Rome of the Popes. Her dramatic paintings are filled with heroines from the Bible. But it is the audacious story of Judith, a young widow and unlikely savior of the Jewish nation in the second-century B.C.E., that Gentileschi depicts in six magnificent paintings.

When her famine-stricken town is besieged by Nebuchadnezzars top general, the cruel Holofernes, Judith decides to take action. Accompanied only by her maid-servant, she enters the enemy camp. Enticed by her beauty, Holofernes invites her to a banquet where salty cheese is served. They are alone in his tent when he falls asleep in a drunken stupor. Judith prays to G-d for help, then with great courage and fortitude, she takes Holofernes sword and decapitates him in one bloody stroke. With the Assyrian army in a state of confusion, Judith urges the Israelites to stage a surprise attack. They emerge from the battle victorious.

Nowadays, the Hanukkah celebration centers on the victory of the Maccabees over the Assyrian-Greeks, but in the Middle Ages, the Rabbis placed the story of Judith front and center.

Hanukkah is truly the coziest, most joyous time of the year. Every year, I invite my brothers, my nieces and nephews and my cousins and their children. I set up a latke bar with a huge pile of potato latkes and lots of toppings. The choices include caramelized onions, sauted herbed mushrooms, Labne, kosher caviar, smoked salmon and whitefish salad. In a nod to Ashkenazi tradition, I include a homemade applesauce.

Theres also a falafel bar with all the fixingshummus, tahini, Israeli salad, pickles and olives. To add to the commemoration of the little crucible of oil that burned so brightly in the rededicated Temple, I also serve fresh-fried Sephardic style donuts called bumuelos and rosquitas.

We light the big, beautiful menorah that was given to Neil by the Sephardic Educational Center many years ago. Our children light their menorahs, a few more are lighted and then the glow in our home is immense and magnificent.

Rachel

The very talented chef Sam Sheff (yes, Rachels son) inspired us to incorporate Japanese yam into our sweet potato latkes this year. The drier, starchier texture and sweet, nutty flavor of Japanese yams makes them the perfect ingredient for latkes. Their deep purple hue combined with the deep orange of the sweet potatoes made these latkes a thing of beauty and so incredibly delicious.

We contrasted the crispy sweetness of the latkes with two dips. One is an addictive Muhammarra sauce, made with jarred roasted bell peppers and walnuts and flavored with pomegranate molasses, fresh garlic and cayenne pepper. The other is a fresh tzatziki dip prepared with strained Greek yogurt, sour cream, finely chopped cucumbers, dill and mint.

We hope you try these recipes and top your latkes with some crumbled Feta Cheese and raise a toast to the indomitable spirit of Judith and the Jewish people.

Sharon

1/2 lb sweet potato, peeled and grated1/2 lb Japanese yam, peeled and grated1 red onion, grated1/3 cup all-purpose flour2 large eggs, lightly beaten1/2 teaspoon kosher salt1/2 teaspoon black pepper1 cup vegetable oil3 baby carrots

1 cup walnuts cup breadcrumbs1 12-14 ounce jar of roasted red bell pepper, drained3 tablespoons olive oil2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses1 clove of garlic1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper teaspoon salt

1 cup full fat Greek yogurt1/2 cup sour cream1 English cucumber or 3 Persian cucumbers, finely diced2 tablespoons finely chopped dill1 tablespoon finely chopped mint1/2 teaspoon kosher salt teaspoon pepper1 garlic clove, finely minced (optional)

Photo by Alexandra Gomperts

Larache is an importantAtlantic port city in northwest Morocco, located at the mouth of the Loukkos River. Settled successively by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans, the ruins of ancient Lixus sit on the north bank of the River. The cityscape is dominated by two forts. The ancient Kebibat fortress rises out of the sea and the fort of La Cignogne was built by the Spaniards, who ruled Larache from 1610 to 1689 and from 1912 to 1956.

Rachels paternal grandfather, Salomon Emquies was the proprietor of a successful spice business in Larache. A devout man, he attended Shacharit prayer services every morning. Knowing that his youngest son Albert was loath to leave his warm bed at such an early hour, he would bribe him with the promise of buying freshly prepared sfenj after the prayers.

The Berber street vendor would stand in front of a vat of boiling oil; his hands would quickly form rings from the creamy, yeasty dough mix and drop them in the oil. Before young Albert could blink, the dough would puff up and turn a warm amber hue and the vendor would string the sfenj on a palm frond and tie it into a ring. After paying the equivalent of a few pennies, Albert would happily traipse home with the rustic doughnuts. At home for breakfast, the sfenj would be coated with a sprinkling of sugar or a warm honey syrup.

Sfenj are still a common, very popular street food all over Morocco. The recipe originated in Andalusia, Islamic Spain, where in the 12th century an Arabic poet proclaimed The bakers of sfenj are worth as much as kings! The name itself comes for the Arabic word for sponge, likely a reference to the light, airy texture of these irresistibly addictive treats.

While in Larache sfenj were an everyday affair, we think they are the perfect (pareve) treat for Hanukkah!

Sharon

2 teaspoons yeast1 teaspoon sugar1 1/4 cup warm water3 cups all purpose flour1 teaspoon saltvegetable or peanut oil for frying3-6 baby carrotssugar, for dusting

Rachel Sheff and Sharon Gomperts have been friends since high school. They love cooking and sharing recipes. They have collaborated on Sephardic Educational Center projects and community cooking classes. Follow them on Instagram @sephardicspicegirls and on Facebook at Sephardic Spice SEC Food. Website: sephardicspicegirls.com/full-recipes

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A Delicious Twist on Latkes, and the Perfect Sephardic Donut - Jewish Journal

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After a muted celebration last year, public menorah lightings are back across the Bay Area! Here are a few photos from the first night. Send us your Hanukkah event pics throughout the eight-day holiday to [emailprotected] and well add them here and on our Instagram.

And if youre looking for a public menorah lighting to attend, weve got you covered over here.

The city of Tiburon lit its own giant public menorah on Sunday night thanks to the efforts of Gina Waldman, longtime Tiburon resident and co-founder of JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa).

Waldman coordinated the purchase of the 9-foot menorah after a local family who had used their own menorah for public lightings moved away three years ago. Nightly lightings will be hosted by different local families at Fountain Plaza in Tiburon, at 5:30 p.m. through Dec. 5, and a community inaugural event will take place on Saturday, Dec. 4, with a musical Havdalah ceremony and Sephardic-style lighting by Rabbi Tsipora Gabai.

After a small pandemic-safe gathering last year, the annual Bill Graham Menorah Project in Union Square was back in a big way Sunday night. This is the events 46th year. When it began in 1975, it was one of the first big public menorah lightings outside of Israel.

Rabbi Yosef Langer of SF Chabad, known to Giants fans as The Rally Rabbi, was the emcee as usual. He was joined by a number of guests atop the enormous menorah, including State Sen. Scott Wiener (see main image at the top of the story).

San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar joined West Portal Chabads Rabbi Menachem Levin to light the shamash.

Avraham The Dreidel Man Potash, son of Chabad of Cole Valley directors Rabbi Nosson and Chaya Potash, went out in the community on a pedi-bike decorated to look like a dreidel with a colorful flashing LED menorah on top to share the spirit and joy of the holiday.

State Assembly member Mia Bonta helped Rabbi Meir Shmotkin light a 9-foot lego menorah built by local children at a community Hanukkah celebration in Alameda.

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The Grammy-nominated Western Wind Vocal Sextet will present "The Light Returns: Joyous Music for the Holidays" on Saturday, December 4 at 7:00 PM at Church of St. Luke in the Field, 487 Hudson Street, NYC (West Village). The concert will also be live-streamed and available on-demand. The program will include Hebrew, Sephardic and Yiddish Chanukkah Songs, Medieval and Renaissance Christmas Motets and Carols; new works by Gerald Cohen and Yehezkel Braun; and new arrangements of songs by Peter Yarrow, Woody Guthrie and Bla Fleck.

The Western Wind singers are sopranos Linda Lee Jones and Elizabeth van Os, countertenor Eric S. Brenner, tenors Todd Frizzell and David Vanderwal and bass Steven Hrycelak. Instrumentalists appearing are Patricia Davis (violin), Will Holshouser (accordion) and Nir Furman (drums).

Since 1969, the Grammy nominated Western Wind has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a cappella music. The New York Times has called them "A kaleidoscopic tapestry of vocal hues." The ensemble's repertoire reveals its diverse background, from Renaissance motets to Fifties rock'n'roll, medieval carols to Duke Ellington, complex works by avant-garde composers to the simplest folk melodies. Visit them at http://www.westernwind.org.

Western Wind Vocal Sextet to offer "The Light Returns: Joyous Music for the Holidays"December 4 at Church of St. Luke in the Field (West Village).

Come for the live show or catch it streaming.

The performance is on Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 7:00 PM.

Tickets to "The Light Returns...Joyous Music for the Holidays" are $35 general admission, $15 students & seniors. Patron tickets are $100 ($65 contribution) and Friend tickets are $50 ($15 contribution). For in-person tickets, go to http://www.westernwind.org/concerts.html. For live broadcast and streaming on-demand tickets, go to: http://www.musae.me/westernwind. For more concert information, please call 212-873-2848 or e-mail: info@westernwind.org.

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Jews around the world celebrating Hanukkah will light a candle in the menorah each night for eight days. This tradition symbolizes the eight days a one-day supply of oil lasted the Maccabees following the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah is a reminder that faith and hope cannot be extinguished.

Anti-Semitism in the United States is rising. American Jewish Committees (AJC) newest annual report on anti-Semitism revealed that, in the last 12 months, 24% of American Jews were personally targeted by anti-Semitism and 41% of U.S. adults have witnessed an anti-Semitic incident.

THANKSGIVING REMINDS US THAT AMERICANS ARE STILL A PEOPLE OF GREAT FAITH

Yet we also must see the data from the 2021 report as a beacon. It illuminates the problem so we can work toward solutions. In the spirit of Hanukkah, dedication and hope are required to counter anti-Semitism.

Here are eight rays of hope.

First, American Jews feel more secure in America than they did a year ago. While 43% felt less secure in 2020, 31% do now.

Second, there is greater understanding of anti-Semitism among the general U.S. public. 34% of U.S. adults are not familiar with the term anti-Semitism, and while that is still troubling, it is an improvement over the 46% in AJCs 2020 report. All of us can continue to define and recognize anti-Semitism today, using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of anti-Semitism and Translate Hate a comprehensive glossary created to improve media literacy on anti-Jewish prejudice.

Third, while 36% of U.S. adults do not know Jews, 60% of U.S. adults think anti-Semitism is a problem, meaning many Americans who do not know Jews still see anti-Semitism as a concern.

Fourth, more Americans recognize the statement "Israel has no right to exist" as anti-Semitic. In AJCs 2021 report, 85% of U.S. adults said this statement is anti-Semitic, compared to 74% last year.

Astonishingly, 60 cities of over 100,000 residents including Miami, Grand Rapids, Syracuse and Anaheim reported zero hate crimes in 2020.

Fifth, new resources are enabling better reporting of anti-Semitic hate crimes. The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, signed into law last May, now links hate crime reporting to Department of Justice training grants and other resources to help close the vast gaps in hate crimes reporting across America. These resources aim to provide an improved look into hate crime trends, as this is currently obscured by underreporting.

Astonishingly, 60 cities of over 100,000 residents including Miami, Grand Rapids, Syracuse and Anaheim reported zero hate crimes in 2020, according to the latest FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Report.

Sixth, many elected officials use their platforms to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism today. This was not the case 50 years ago. We need to continue this momentum and call on elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to denounce anti-Semitism in all its forms, listen to the needs of the Jewish community, and support bipartisan efforts to combat anti-Semitism. In Congress, this includes encouraging more members to join the House and Senate Bipartisan Task Forces to Combat Anti-Semitism and allocating federal resources for Jewish community protection.

Seventh, private businesses have started to include trainings on anti-Semitism for their employees. While doing this, they should ensure their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) framework recognizes Jewish diversity. There are White, European Ashkenazi Jews, alongside Black Jews from Ethiopia, Brown Jews from India, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East, and many others.

Companies should recognize that hatred against this diverse group is more than a religious bias. Anti-Semitism also takes the form of conspiracy, where Jews are collectively assailed for being "superior," for having too much privilege or too much power. If DEI offices understand this and the connection most Jews around the world have to Israel either historically, religiously or culturally then they will be able to successfully promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace and not discriminate against Jewish employees.

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And eighth, bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to hold large tech platforms liable when their algorithms are proven to promote harmful content, would be a significant step forward in curbing anti-Semitism online.

In addition, if tech companies make their technology more humane and user-centered, adopt a universal standard of what anti-Semitism is with consistent AI and human moderation, and reimagine how content is shared on social media perhaps by limiting the ease of resharing anti-Semitic content will be less likely popularized algorithmically. Focusing on the digitization of anti-Semitism is essential to stopping the spread of this vile prejudice.

These eight hopeful signs should not be replaced with complacency. We must continue to be vigilant.

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This Hanukkah, many will be joining with Jews in a national campaign to Shine A Light on anti-Semitism in cities across the nation, because it is not a Jewish problem. Anti-Semitism is a societal one: tolerating, minimizing or denying it allows hatred, scapegoating and conspiratorial thinking to erode our democracy.

Effectively countering anti-Semitism requires all Americans to speak up.

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The Dawn of Redemption: Ethics and Tradition in a Time of Power, Mikhael Manekin, Evrit Publishing House, 2021 (Hebrew)

In 1988, a year after the First Intifada erupted across the occupied territories, I was a soldier in the Israeli army sitting in the back of a small transporter with my unit. We were travelling from one place to another in the West Bank, when we picked up a soldier who was heading to the casbah, or citadel, in the Old Town of Nablus. We dutifully drove him to about 100 meters from the casbah. It was an autumn mid-afternoon and the area was teeming with life, the sounds and smells of an open market, children running, fathers buying food for their families.

Then, this lone soldier in full battle gear, helmet on, magazine in his rifle got out of the vehicle and walked straight toward the entrance, asserting confidence and authority amidst the crowd of Palestinians. It was a demonstration of what Israelis call ribonut literally power or sovereignty, but in another form, national hubris.

The soldier sitting next to me looked at the soldier marching into the casbah, then turned to me, stunned. What the fuck are we doing here? he said, as we drove off.

I begin with this anecdote because Mikhael Manekins book, The Dawn of Redemption: Ethics and Tradition in a Time of Power, also begins with an anecdote that is both more comical and tragic than mine. As a young religious soldier, Manekin found himself somewhere in the occupied West Bank and needed to urinate. He went into the bushes on the outskirts of a Palestinian village to relieve himself, when, with his pants down, he discovered an elderly Palestinian woman staring at him. In that jarring moment, Manekin realized the immorality of his presence (my translation from Hebrew):

I am living in her home against her will. I took her home by force. And now I stand with my pants down, like an animal (pera adam). In the army I always wear a kippah, at that moment too, but the woman could not see it under my helmet. But I knew it was there. All this wasnt intentional, although I suppose I could have noticed her before I dropped my pants. If there was one moment in my life that I knew instantly that I was desecrating Gods name, it was that moment.

In some ways, The Dawn of Redemption is an elaborate extension of that moment of shame and realization when the sovereign understands the brutality of his power. In that instant, both Manekin and the Palestinian woman are powerless but he knows, and she knows, that once he pulls up his pants, he is the ruler and she is the ruled.

Jewish mourners take part in the funeral of 96-year-old former Ashkenazi Grand Rabbi of Israel, Avraham Shapira, who died yesterday, as they walk past the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem under the walls of the Islams Dome of the Rock, September 28, 2007. Shapira was considered one of religious Zionisms most revered spiritual leaders and a key figure in the religious settlement movement. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Many Israelis have experienced similar revelatory moments. Patriotic in their Zionism, countless young soldiers spent their time exercising ribonut over another people, yet came out of the army disenchanted, disappointed, and confused; many even departed the army more left-wing than when they had entered. When one comes face to face with the destructiveness of their own power, the heart is aflame, the mind is bewildered, and everything they thought they knew is blown apart.

The Dawn of Redemption reflects on the power, abuses, and failure of religious Zionism as an institution of power in Israel today, written by a man inside its orbit who is desperate to find a remedy for his own sake. A prominent Israeli leftist and deeply religious Jew, Manekin served as the director of the anti-occupation veterans group Breaking the Silence during its early years, before heading the Jerusalem-based think tank Molad; he is now the Israel director at the Alliance for Israels Future, a political fellowship network for Arab and Jewish citizens.

Manekin joins a long line of religious Zionist thinkers from rabbis Yehudah Amital and Aharon Lichtenstein, to Rav Shagar and Menachem Froman, among others who recognized the brutality of Israels ribonut and tried to cultivate an alternative vision for their beliefs. In the 1960s and 1970s, especially after the Six-Day War, many Orthodox Jewish thinkers in the United States (like David Hartman and Irving Yitz Greenberg) warned their constituents that the real challenge facing Judaism in the late 20th century would be how to integrate political power into a religious vision that would maintain a moral compass developed over centuries.

Manekin argues that religious Zionism has failed that test, and that in doing so, it has created a monstrous new national religious Jew who has been convinced that power, not mercy, stands at the epicenter of religious life.

There is a largely unspoken thesis that lies at the core of Dawn. Religious Zionist thinkers from Abraham Isaac Kook (chief rabbi of Mandate Palestine from 1921-1935) to R. Isaac Ha-Levi Herzog (chief rabbi from 1936-1959) envisioned the relationship between religion and state as symbiotic, whereby religion would eventually have the upper hand and influence the moral center of Zionisms secular vision. Kook, in a more mystical and romantic vein, and Herzog, in a more practical one, believed that it was worth it for religious leaders to support such a polity (an idea that was not at all popular in their time) because the ethical and devotional elements of Judaism would slowly transform the Zionists radical and rebellious secularism.

Men hold restored Torah scrolls which were desecrated in the 1929 Western Wall Uprisings (Tarpat), during a ceremony at the Rabbi Kook House, in Jerusalem, August 26, 2014. (Uri Lenz/POOL/Flash90)

Manekins thesis is that the inverse happened: secularism has all but swallowed the religiosity of religious Zionism, turning the latter into a tool that justifies the secular state through theological arguments. The devotional and ritualistic practices of religious Zionism (halakha) remain operational, but its moral foundations have collapsed into a vision of sovereignty through conquest, what Manekin somewhat unreflectively calls simply the secular.

It is not that Kook and Herzog were wrong; for Manekin, it is more tragic than that. The mix of theological chauvinism and secular violence has created a state that, in effect, has taken the worst iterations of both. Religious Zionism, argues Manekin, once viewed the state as a temporary reality to be transcended in a messianic moment. Now it sees the secular state as the permanent goal of its theology: messianism enacted through subjugation. In short, unadulterated ribonut.

Manekin brings an anecdote in another context to illustrate this inversion. In the late 19th century, the British Jewish banker Baron de Rothschild visited Palestine and the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem and called for expanding the area around it, which at that time was an Arab Palestinian neighborhood. The ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Old Yishuv refused. The prominent journalist Itamar Ben-Avi the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who founded the modern Hebrew language proposed to destroy the Arab neighborhood and build a space for Jews to pray (this was done several decades later after the Six Day War); Ben-Avi later wrote a book about it entitled, Hear O Israel, The Wall is Ours, the Wall is One.

This violent disregard for non-Jews living under the sovereignty of Zionism would come to dominate the religious Zionist ethos after 1967. And while both the Israeli state and religious Zionism are certainly far more complicated than suggested here, and include secular and religious circles devoted to building a just society that treats others with dignity and respect, Manekins book rightly identifies the alarming trend that has morphed religious Zionism as a source of political power and institution of the state.

To explain how this transformation happened, Manekin uses the life and letters of his maternal grandfather, or sabba, as a specter that hovers over the entire book. Sabba, a man by the name of Yechiel Mikhel Becher, was what one could call a good Jew (yehudi tov). A Jewish immigrant to Palestine from Poland, he was a religious man but not an ideologue, a Zionist but one who maintained a deeply humanistic core cultivated in his early religious life. He had sympathy for the oppressed because he himself was oppressed. Manekin does not harbor nostalgia for his grandfather he knows that the world Mikhel inhabited is long gone but he laments the loss of balance and empathy that sabba represented.

Religious Jews listen to a guide near Josephs Tomb in the West Bank town of Nablus as they attend a tour led by activist Nadia Matar (not seen) of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Matar believes that the Land of Israel including the West Bank and Gaza was promised and belongs to the Jewish People, according to the Torah. September 23, 2009. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

For Manekin, the key question facing religious Zionists today is no longer the individual moral question of How should I behave? but rather the national question of How should a Jewish state behave? The problem, Manekin suggests, is that the national question has easily effaced, even erased, the moral one.

One of the examples Manekin brings to illustrate the moral failure of religious Zionism is the infamous October 1953 massacre in the West Bank village of Qibya, which was then occupied by Jordan. On orders from above, a group of Israeli soldiers led by Ariel Sharon slaughtered at least 69 Palestinian civilians in the village, the majority of them women and children. The assault was framed by the Israeli army as a retaliation for the murder of a Jewish woman and her two children in the town of Yehud. The act was uniformly condemned, even as Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was more sanguine; as he told Sharon, It doesnt matter what the nations will say. What matters is controlling the Arab area. In that we have succeeded.

What strikes Manekin about the Qibya massacre was less the event itself than the justifications that came from some figures in the religious Zionist camp, who defended the killings as an act of legitimate revenge (nekama), and offered it as a halakhic framework of contemporary warfare that enables the slaughter of innocent non-combatants.

As Manekin reads it, religious Zionism became a kind of neo-biblicism (my term) which, ironically, mimics a form of tribal secularism. The moral center of rabbinic teaching succumbed to the pure expression of power as a tool of control. Revenge became a religious imperative, not in theory or in fantasy, but in the justification of military power and murdering innocent civilians. Whereas the secular Ariel Sharon described Qibya as necessary, the religious Zionist Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli defined it as holy. In other words, Sharons military pragmatism now carried theological weight.

Perhaps the most forceful response to the Qibya massacre, and to religious Zionisms defense of it, was the unequivocal condemnation by a young Yeshayahu Leibowitz. Leibowitz was an Orthodox Jew but secular Zionist intellectual who later became one of the most ardent critics of Israeli militarism. For him, the problem begins the moment religion is used to determine any actions or values in a secular state, emphasizing that religion and state had to function independently in order to protect the integrity of both. Leibowitz didnt believe in Jewish ethics: in his mind, there was simply ethics.

Orthodox soldiers pray next to artillery shells, near the Gaza border in southern Israel, November 21, 2012. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

The notion of religion as necessarily distorting state values, however, is something Manekin cannot accept. This is in large part because he believes in the positive potential of religious values in a secular sphere even as they have been deeply undermined in his community. In other words, unlike Leibowitz, Manekins critique of religious Zionism is in its choices, not its nature.

Another way Manekin gets at the problem of religious Zionism is in the hazard of thinking that Zionism has ended Jewish exile, a common belief among both religious and secular Zionists. In a 1975 interview with historian Muki Tsur, the Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem noted that Zionism is a calculated risk in that it brought about the destruction of the reality of Exile. The foes of Zionism certainly saw the risk more clearly than we Zionists.

Relatedly, Manekin uses the famous poem Qibya by Yiddish poet Jacob Glatstein to make a stronger point: that maybe Jewish morality cannot survive Jewish sovereignty. Perhaps, as Manekin writes, A Jew cannot be tolerant (savlan) in the state of Israels ribonut. [Perhaps] the morality of my grandfather and Glatstein was murdered in Lublin on the foreign soil of Poland.

There are many religious Zionists who would applaud this deflection of exilic morality. Some would argue that the kind of morality which Manekin and Glatstein speak about is only relevant in exile, not in a state where we are the sovereign. Other may say that we must be moral, but still defend immoral actions as necessary for nationalistic ends.

Manekin does not buy either of these views, arguing instead that part of religious Zionisms problem is in believing itself to be on the other side of exile. The state of Israel is not redemption and also does not nullify redemption. The state of Israel is a political reality of a portion of the Jewish people, he writes. Manekin thus reframes his original question from How should a Jewish state behave? to How should a traditional Jew, and a traditional Jewish community, behave when it has power and independence? Manekin wont let his belief in the morality of exile inform the reality of sovereignty. He refuses to believe his sabba has become totally irrelevant.

Some religious Zionists have recently sought to cut the pie differently. The Israeli philosopher Micah Goodman, for example, argues in books such as Catch 67 and The Wondering Jew against the temporary nature of the secular state. Unlike Kook, he does not hold out for a transformation via divine fiat but opts to inject religious values into the secular Israeli project.

Students of the Israeli Zionist Yeshiva Machon Meir gather at the Beit Midrash where the Israeli flag hangs from the ceiling. May 21, 2008. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Halakha, as traditionally construed, is indeed an exilic mode of behavior for Goodman, but he wants to reinvent it beyond its original intent to build walls, and rather deploy it to build bridges between the religious and the secular. This is not a new idea, but was articulated decades earlier by David Hartman in his celebrated essay, Halakha as a Shared Spiritual Language. In a sense, Goodman secularizes religious values to bridge the divide between the two camps.

But Goodman does not solve Manekins problem, because his vision does not include the non-Jew that is, the Palestinian as a partner in the project. In Goodmans world, the non-Jew is simply an outsider without real agency, who may be treated with dignity but ultimately ruled over by the Jewish hegemon. This only works if it works at all on his premise in Catch 67 that the land is not occupied, only the people are occupied. You can thus alleviate the occupation, but not end it through equality or tolerant policies.

To put it bluntly, Goodman is an occupier who has found liberal language to justify an illiberal project. And if you maintain, quite rightly, that both the land and the people are occupied, then Goodmans argument collapses.

Manekin, on the other hand, argues for a new Torah of the goy (gentile) that is, that the non-Jew, the Palestinian Arab, must become a subject of a new halakhic discourse, not just a walk-on in a Jewish drama. Ishai Rosen-Zvi and Adi Ofirs book Goy can be of help, if only to trace the genealogy of the goy as an invention of the Jew. And in a diasporic context, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi decades ago argued for a similar approach to conceiving the non-Jew not as an enemy but as a partner in the larger Jewish and global humanistic project.

A new Torah of the goy is arguably just as necessary in Israels struggle to negotiate its own ribonut. Religious Zionism, however, does not fulfil this in its current condition: it simply translates the exilic halakha to the new context of state power, likening the Arab to the Polish peasant except now, it is the Jews who have the guns.

The unanswered question in The Dawn of Redemption is whether there really is a way back to the religion of Manekins sabba, and whether the poet Glatstein was right in saying that power especially when exercised by divine mandate and in the wake of the Nazi genocide cannot cultivate mercy and empathy. Hannah Arendt warned in 1947 that establishing a country in a condition of collective trauma, where power could be wielded by the traumatized against a newly traumatized people, would not go well. People scoffed at the suggestion. Manekin shows that Arendt was right.

MKs Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich (second and third from left) with MKs from the Religious Zionism party at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem Old City, October 20, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Can religious Zionism overcome its attachment to settler colonial conquest and its messianic belief in power? Manekin believes the institution can be saved but its not really clear why. For Manekin, religious Zionism should be saved because that is the ideological space in which he lives. That is where he prays and where he chooses to educate his children. Manekin wants a better life for his family and a more moral society to live in. He does not want to feel both shame and guilt when he stares into the face of an elderly Palestinian woman on her land. He does not want her to hate him, and he does not want to rule over her.

While understandable, I am not sure that this is a sufficient reason to aspire for its redemption. When Scholem noted that Zionisms erasure of exile was a calculated risk, he was implying that it was a gamble that could fail. Indeed, by the early 1970s, Scholem became outspoken about what he negatively deemed the neo-Sabbateanism of the Israeli settler movement that the settlers, and perhaps the religious Zionism that supported it, had become truly and dangerously heretical.

I therefore doubt that the chauvinism that pervades religious Zionism today will grant Manekin his wish. Those who have power do not cede it easily, especially when they claim it as a divine gift. It is a potent drug that hides and relieves fear, and makes the weak feel strong.

The bigger question is how deeply religious Zionism is embedded in Israel today. For Palestinians who live under the thumb of the Zionist state, does it really matter if the hegemon believes its right to rule is divinely ordained? Probably not. Manekins focus is not on the question of Zionism in general but given that religious Zionism arguably dominates the narrative today, Manekins diagnosis of its demise has much larger ramifications. When religion becomes the justification for secular power and domination, changing the minds of believers becomes an enormously difficult task.

Perhaps the battle for Manekins sabba is already lost, and all we can do is pick up the shards of what might have been. Yet Manekin doggedly has not abandoned hope for religious Zionism. To honor that doggedness, I give him the last word, from the conclusion of his book:

The Jewish world has changed enormously in the past century. And more specifically the life of power (koah) and independence (azmaut) has placed an enormous burden on us. We must remember not to be arrogant and not to become mired in the dark recesses of our base instincts that now characterize those who have power. The traditional world (olam ha-mesorti) makes this possible and obligates us to find a way. It makes possible and obligates us to aspire toward a full redemption. It makes faith possible. The first step is to separate ourselves from the mentality of power (baalei koah).

Correction: The reference to Baron de Rothschild has been corrected from Baron von Rothschild.

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Can religious Zionism overcome its addiction to state power?

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