Here is my article for the Shavuot issue of Sussex Jewish News.
Shavuot is one of those festivals which emphasises Jewish unity. The Talmud tells us that every single Jewish soul, past present and future – even those of future converts – were present at Sinai to receive the Torah.
Jewish unity has been under threat recently. In fact, the last couple of months have marked one of the most divisive periods in Jewish history; certainly in Israeli history. Protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government have spread out from Israel itself into diaspora communities.
The question has been asked, how come diaspora Jews feel they have any entitlement to speak out about the politics of a country where they don’t live.
It’s a fair question, but it also has several very convincing answers.
Firstly, the State of Israel continually seeks the support of diaspora Jews, including finance and advocacy. Daniel Taub, when he was Jerusalem’s ambassador to the UK, asked British Jews to be Israel’s “character witnesses”. We therefore surely have a right to opine on the character to which we are bearing witness.
Secondly, support sometimes means doling out advice on how to avoid destructive behaviour. If I let my friend drive while drunk, I wouldn’t be a very good friend; it’s not somehow ‘anti-friend’ to urge them to take a taxi.
Thirdly, there is the basic point of reputation and integrity. Israel is (for now) a democracy, and that means its ministers voluntarily lay themselves open to criticism, from both within and outside their country’s borders. As Jews with a long textual tradition of ethics and justice, we are duty-bound to promote those values in the world around us.
Fourthly, there is the sad fact that goings-on in Israel have a tangible effect on antisemitism in the diaspora. Whenever things go wrong in Israel, communities around the world pay the price. As Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Tamaret wrote in the early 20th century: “The mud which the chalutzim (Zionist pioneers) drain from the swamps in the Land of Israel, in order to create green spaces for them to live in, is thrown into the face of every diaspora Jew.” Thus, we most definitely have ‘skin in the game’.
This brings us back to our question: how come diaspora Jews feel they have any entitlement to speak out about the politics of a country where they don’t live?
But there is a flaw in the question. Israel isn’t just ‘a country where we don’t live’. It isn’t merely an equivalent of Iceland, India or Indonesia, which truly are arbitrary foreign countries.
Israel is somewhere with which Jews have a unique and important connection, historical, practical and emotional.
Every Jewish soul was present at Sinai thousands of years ago, when our people reached its greatest heights. Every Jewish soul is present in Jerusalem right now, where our people is in jeopardy.
I’m writing this article at the beginning of April, to meet SJN’s deadlines. It’s a dangerous game, writing about a fast-moving situation this far in advance. But just as the Jewish souls at Sinai would pray for how the future would turn out, so too I pray that the State of Israel and its leaders will recover their sense of justice and their fealty to the worthy aspirations of their Declaration of Independence.
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Chag sameach!
Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber 