EDITOR'S NOTIBOOE
Our Tragic Flaw
fact, each year Jewish identity surveys
he ancient Greeks had a
show large chunks of us believing that
wonderful theme running
anti-Semitism is bad and will get
through their plays. A great
worse.
hero, one whose life oozed
But while these recent brutal,
with the piercing depth of human
bloody incidents are real,
emotions, had a tragic flaw .
they are far from the norm.
that would lead to his
And they are far from tol-
demise — and at times that
erated. Each is met by an
of his nation.
outcry of injustice and
American Judaism has
action against perpetrators
spent recent weeks living an
and their like. There is nei-
updated version of these
ther government-sponsored
Athenian dramas. In one
hate at work here nor a
swoop, this mini-theater will
blind eye toward it. And
not force down the walls of
the vast majority of Ameri-
the House of David. Howev-
NEIL RUBIN
cans have more indifference
er, it clearly makes the foun-
Senior Editor
to Jews as a minority than
dation rockier, enabling a
either compassion or enmi-
lust for group paranoia to
ty.
triumph over sensible per-
We need not be stupid, but we are
spective.
safe. We are prosperous. And we are
And it's understandable. After all,
politically and financially powerful.
what Jew is not concerned with recent
We earned it. And we exercise this
headlines?
power for the right reasons — to help
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those in need, to welcome immigrants
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who improve our country, to better
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educate ourselves and to protect Israel
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and Jews abroad.
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So let's spend less time obsessing
In Shooting Spree
over disturbing, occasional headlines
This horrible confluence of events
and a little more on reality.
begs the askinob Has the end of a
More Jewish books are published
remarkable period of safety and pros-
each year in America than in any
perity for Jews in America arrived?
country in the world — ever. There
Of course not. Claims that it has
are no formal barriers to Jewish busi-
should be harshly rejected.
ness success and religious practice
However, perception is reality and
fears remain in the hearts and heads of here. Informal ones are continually
challenged, and usually with success.
Jews as to where this could lead. In
T
.
families fit into an expanded version
of the Jewish community.
OK, but what about when hate vio-
lence occurs — as it will again?
For starters, change the paradigm.
There's a predictable drill after every
incident. Denounce. Call for more
hate crimes legislation. Revel in the
sympathy of non-Jews. Demand inves-
tigation of groups already being moni-
tored.
Instead, what if we held a press
conference with a white, black and
Asian teen talking about their joint
work in a Jewish-sponsored project?
They could invite more funding and
participants.
And what if we let the police and
others do their job while we did
ours. In the face of each incident,
sign a communal pledge to read one
more Jewish book, attend one more
Jewish class, observe one more Jew-
ish event.
And what if we fought hate
groups with their own methods:
sponsoring punk songs by anti-racist
skinheads (they exist); creating and
promoting inviting Web sites for
young adults instead of the boringly
institutional ones that exist; and
bringing entertaining speakers to
college campuses the night that
racist ones show up?
And what if, in coordination with
the police, we went to hate group
rallies dressed like them? After the
first hate-monger begins to speak,
we'd just turn our backs and stand
in silence.
Hate can be effectively countered in
America. In doing so, there's little
time for paranoia. We need to focus
on enhancing our Jewishness and we
need to reject predictable responses,
which only bring their own next-day
headlines.
We Jews far outlived the ancient
Greeks. Let's get rid of their idea of
good theater as well. 7
the Jewish homeland. For me, Israel is
both the center of our culture and of
our people's hopes and aspirations.
Jews in exile, from our ancestors by
the rivers of Babylon to the poet and
philosopher Yehuda Hal Levi in
medieval Spain, have always looked
toward Zion. But in the past, when
our ancestors longed for the East, they
longed for a messianic or utopian
Zion of the future, one that would
replace a Zion enslaved and desolate,
containing only "the dust of the
ruined Shrine" (T. Carmi in The Pen-
guin Book of Hebrew Verse). Today,
however, the object of our desire is not
a utopian future but a concrete cultur-
al, national and spiritual center of the
Jewish people. Israel is the living,
breathing, beating heart of Judaism.
Like Halevi in 12th-century Spain,
we too live on the edge of the West
and at the center of diaspora Jewry.
Indeed, American Jewish life is rich
and varied, undoubtedly another
golden age," much like the one Hale-
vi lived through. Yet unlike Halevi,
contemporary diaspora Jews can be
invigorated by Israeli culture, contacts
and visits. Despite our distance from
our national center, we can still partic-
ipate in that project that is the Jewish
nation, receiving and contributing
from afar.
Like humans in the material world
at the end of the neo-Platonic or kab-
balistic chain of being, we in the dias-
pora, though far from the source, still
receive emanations of the ultimate
reality, or, in our case, the center of
Jewish life. Like the kabbalist in the
material world, our contact with these
There is more creative, dynamic,
educational material and resources —
and I mean big bucks — than ever.
Sure, Jewish day school, camps and
Israel trips for kids are absurdly expen-
sive. But we're struggling to address
that.
When we do fight for a cause these
days, it's more likely to be amongst
ourselves.
And so many non-Jews love us so
much that we can't stop them from
marrying our kids. When they do,
many of us try to make the resulting
Jewish response
to anti-Semitism
is totally
ineffective.
SPECIAL COMMENTARY
N
What Israel
Means To Me
I
n his work, beginning with his
seminal essay "This Is Not the
Way" published in 1889, Ahad
Ha'am argued for a vision of
Israel as a cultural and spiritual center
of world Jewry. Today, this is indeed
what it has become.
It is only in Israel that a full and
flourishing Jewish national life exists.
In Israel, the Jewish language, Hebrew,
has returned. From street signs to lit-
erature, it is a country that lives in a
Jewish tongue. Jewish music, dance,
theater and literature thrive in Israel,
and are spread beyond its borders to
invigorate Jewish communities around
the world. Israeli
art is challenging
and mature, tack-
ling the deep and
troubling issues
plaguing the Jew-
ish state.
Spiritually,
Israel has seen a
religious renais-
JAMES
sance, with an
MAISELS
unprecedented
Special to
number of Jewish
the Jewish News
thinkers, philoso-
phers, teachers and
students active in institutions, ranging
from fervently religious, haredi,
yeshivot to Hebrew University. Jewish
scholarship of every sort takes place,
drawing countless students from both
within Israel and without to study in
C C
7/23
1999
Detroit Jewish News
29