Foundation of Balance & Israel’s 75th Birthday, 20 Days Omer 5783

OmerSoul JourneyKabbalahMysticismAnti-JewishHistoryIsrael

Apr 25

Today is twenty days, which is two weeks and six days of the Omer, in the year 5783. יסד שבתפארת. Yesod ShebeTiferet. Foundation of Balance. Today is also Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. Today, we celebrate 75 years of a free, independent, democratic, modern Jewish state.

Zionism is Central to My Identity

I believe in the right of the indigenous people of Israel, my fellow Jews, to have autonomy in deciding how to live in our ancestral land. We are the people of that land. We have been there at least since the Iron Age, if not earlier. Though our enemies have destroyed our Temples and dispersed the majority of us off our land, there has been a continuous presence of Jews on our land throughout time.

Anti-Zionism is Jew Hatred

No other people in the world is expected to give up their right to self-determination. No other people in the world is disparaged as much for simply existing.

My people are a people. Am Yisrael Chai - the People of Israel Live! It is not racist to refer to us as an ethnic identity. That’s a term that perhaps most closely aligns with our tribal loyalty and tribal inheritance. Jewishness is passed down from generation to generation. And one can choose to become Jewish. There are distinct Jewish cultures. We are different. And we deserve sovereignty in our homeland.

Anti-Zionism Makes Jewish People Across the World Less Safe

Anti-Zionism is a strong part of what legitimizes anti-Jewish rhetoric in schools. Not just college campuses — in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools as well. We aren’t allowed to talk about our unique status as a people with a distinct culture who have been persecuted throughout time. Because many Jews have white skin privilege, and because anti-bias activists are often anti-Zionists, the violence and prejudice we face is swept under the rug.

These sweeping statements are not meant to declare that all anti-bias activists are anti-Zionist. Nor am I implying that white skin privilege doesn’t exist. But I have never been white. No Jew who is fully conscious of their Jewishness can ever be fully perceived as white. Just ask the elementary principal who declared that her school had “Chinese white families,” but we’d be the first “Chinese Jewish family.” (I doubt we were; I was just the only Jew self-identifying as one by wearing a yarmulke.) That white principal also thought the Book of Maccabees exists in some Jewish Bibles (note to readers: there’s only one Jewish Bible and none of the Books of Maccabees are in it).

Hanukkah is About Jewish Political Independence

Beyond the fact that the Maccabees created one of the most corrupt and discriminating dynasties in Jewish history (seriously, the Hasmoneans were awful), early rabbis tried to squash the celebration of Hanukkah because it is the tale of Jewish political independence. It’s about standing up for our right to self-determination in the land that is central to our identity. We truly are the indigenous people of that land.

Every other religion that built sacred space in that country did so either on the ruins of our sacred space or by forcibly removing us from the space. Calling Jews colonizers of Israel is historically inaccurate and morally offensive.

Our Prayers Referred to Us Collectively as Israel for Thousands of Years of Forced Removal From Our Homeland

This is what actually made me a Zionist.

Daily, I read the Birkat HaShachar, the Morning Blessings, that traditionally begin a Jewish day.

When I began reading the blessings, I was honestly disgusted at having to repeat the word “Israel” so many times. I became an adult fed the lies of the peace movement about my people’s history and global politics. Instead of seeing a parallel between Israel / Palestine and India / Pakistan, I saw “corrupt fellow Jews and innocent Palestinians.” That lie nearly destroyed my soul. I became further and further isolated from my authentic self and from my community.

When I finally turned the corner and realized that Israel in my prayers referred to me as a human who wrestles with people / ideas, human / Divine, as well as to my people, I finally began to truly pray. I found how important it is to allow repeated prayers the opportunity to transform.

The Foundation of my Balance is Being a Zionist Jew

I say this with full certainty. Perhaps you will think less of me when I tell you that I’ve never stepped foot on the land of Israel.

I was supposed to once. Not in rabbinical school,* but when I was a peace activist.

I had attended the international Congress of Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom in Bolivia. While there, I facilitated dialogue between different members of the international Middle East working group.

The next year, the International Secretariat of WILPF was planning a fact-finding mission to the region. They wanted to help untangle the animosity between the WILPF section in Israel and the WILPF section in Palestine. They asked me to join them, as I was Program Chair of the United States Section. The funders who would be paying for the international staff to fly to the Middle East said they would not fund the trip if I was involved. Those funders (also American) had been convinced by other American members of the organization that it was impossible for me to be impartial, because I was clearly pro-Israel, since I insisted on referring to Israelis as human beings. Even though my own travel was not being subsidized (I was planning to take a leave of absence from work and pay for the flight with credit cards), the entire thing was cancelled because the mere fact that I was Jewish and expected Israelis to be seen as human made me beyond the pale. At the time, I didn’t even identify as a Zionist!

*I did plan to go to Israel for a summer during rabbinical school. I had waited until my kids were potty trained and it seemed more reasonable to leave my working partner alone with them for three months. Unfortunately, Covid hit and I never went. That doesn’t make me less of a rabbi. As a beloved Israeli friend reminded me, for thousands of years rabbis were ordained having never touched a foot in the land of Israel.