August 30, 2012
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4251
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One of the conundrums associated with the enduring nature of
global anti-Semitism which has soared exponentially in recent years, is
why, having made such disproportionate contributions towards all levels
of civilization and left major imprints on science, ethics, medicine,
culture and the arts, we Jews continue to act as a magnet for such
virulent hatred.
Equally bizarre is the failure of formerly oppressed groups and
nations to reciprocate or even acknowledge the extraordinary Jewish
contributions in support of their struggles towards overcoming
persecution, discrimination, abuse of human rights and achieving
independence.
This is typified by the fact that whereas there is no American
group comparable to the Jews who sacrificed so much to help
African-Americans to overcome racial discrimination and their struggle
for civil rights, ironically, today they are amongst the foremost US
racial or ethnic groups promoting anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism. The
recent loathsome outburst by the African-American writer Alice Walker
who sought to prohibit her novel – relating to racism – from being
translated into Hebrew, typifies this. Walker’s demonization of Israel
even extended to accusing Israel of practicing “racism” in a more
extreme manner than was the case in apartheid South Africa. This is all
the more perverse because aside from being the only free and democratic
society in the region, the Jewish State probably also comprises the
greatest mélange of racial groups in the world committed to equality.
The same criticism would apply to the current South African
government which is today bitterly anti-Israeli despite the fact that
individual South African Jews were at the vanguard of the struggle
against apartheid, many having been forced to leave the country during
apartheid regime.
Yet, even Archbishop Tutu, whose anti-Israeli outbursts have now
morphed into vulgar populist anti-Jewish diatribes, concedes that “in
our struggle against apartheid, the greatest supporters were the Jewish
people… They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the
disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones”. But in the same breath he paved
the way for his government’s recent anti-Israeli initiatives by calling
for divestment from Israel which “has oppressed more than the apartheid
ideologues could ever dream about in South Africa” and descends into
primitive anti-Semitism referring to Jews as “a peculiar people” who
“once oppressed and killed” are now “empowered”, and “refuse to listen
and disobey God.”
Similar attitudes prevail amongst a number of Third World
leaders. I will never forget a meeting in New Delhi in 1981 with the
late Indian President Indira Gandhi in which she erupted in a frenzied
anti-Israeli outburst laced with rage against “international Jewish
power” which she claimed was responsible for having turned the US
against India. In response to my rejoinder, she conceded that whilst in
England, the majority of the closest friends of her family were British
Jews who passionately supported their struggle against colonialism and
efforts to achieve independence. Yet, this in no way mitigated her
hatred against Israel or her conspiratorial fantasies about
international Jewish power.
History records the numerous misguided Jewish idealists in Europe
and the United States who, in the 1930s, abandoned Judaism and Zionism
and devoted their lives towards promoting and even worshipping the false
messianic cause of communism. Even distant members of my own family in
pre-war Belgium, in their passionate desire to combat Nazism,
relinquished their Jewish heritage and in 1936, needlessly sacrificed
their lives for Stalin on the battlefields of Spain.
Yet these same Jewish communists who, out of a misplaced
exclusive commitment to universalism, devoted their lives to fanatically
serving an evil totalitarian system, subsequently themselves became
victims of the anti-Semitic purges and bogus trials initiated by Stalin
in the late 1930s, the murder of the Jewish writers in 1948,which
culminated with the infamous 1952 Moscow Doctors’ plot. These
initiatives, unquestionably motivated by feral anti-Semitism, would
probably have resulted in massive deportations of Jews to the Gulag were
it not for Stalin’s timely demise in 1953.
There are Jews today who still maintain that the universalist
tradition in Judaism obliges us to set aside our own “parochial” Jewish
interests and in order to concentrate exclusively on making the world a
better place by combating injustice.
Yet in reality, the alleged tension between the Jewish role in
maintaining itself as a particularistic nation and promoting
universalistic ethical values is often exaggerated and not mutually
exclusive. Abraham did not smash the idols and Moses did not struggle
for his people’s freedom in order to create a cult. They served the
Jewish people but were also providing messages of universal significance
to humanity.
An example of the fusion between both concepts is reflected in
the oft quoted sentence from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) “If I am not for myself who will be for me?” But it is balanced by the following sentence stating “And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
There is thus every justification for us to take pride in the actions of Jews who contributed towards “tikkun olam” - repairing a fractured world - and making it a better place for mankind.
That many oppressed groups struggling for freedom, on whose
behalf we fought frequently at considerable personal cost, subsequently
turned against us, must not deter us from our universalistic obligations
towards humanity and ongoing commitment to promote justice and human
rights.
Yet, when viewing the world in today’s troubled times, we, the
Jewish people who have overcome powerlessness and miraculously regained
nationhood, are obliged to recognize that our overriding priority must
be to safeguard ourselves against those seeking to destroy us. In times
of peril, it is both rational and incumbent to focus on our families and
our own people before attempting to reform the world. By prioritizing
the particularistic goals of defending and securing the well-being of
the Jewish State and the Jewish people against those still seeking to
fulfill Hitler’s objectives, we are ensuring that Jews will survive. One
of the by-products of this will enable us to continue as in the past to
contribute towards Tikkun Olam – repairing the world.
He may be contacted at ileibler@netvision.net.il
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
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