A fascinating debate occurred last month in Jerusalem
during the launch event of Dr. Asaf Malach’s book From the Bible to the Jewish
State – The Cycles of Jewish Nationalism and the Israeli Polemic.
Responding to Malach’s analysis that shows how Jewish
nationalism was always core to Judaism itself, famed Israeli author AB Yehoshua
argued that the linkage with the Jewish religion has been detrimental to Jewish
nationalism, and that it has downgraded the “homeland gene,” which according to
Yehoshua is the basis of every nationality. A nation should be based on
territory, and not on religion, he argued.
But Yehoshua’s argument fails both historical and
contemporary realities.
Historically, nearly all nations that existed during
the Greek and Roman invasions of the Middle East have vanished. This, to a
great part, is because they were over-connected to a territory. Once the
territory was gone, the national ethos was too weak to keep it as a distinct
group in exile or under occupation. After a few generations, those nations
evaporated.
This was not the case with the Jews, who were able to
respond to their new state of exile by transforming. The architecture that
bound Judaism since its inception – physical presence in Judea and Jerusalem,
as well as the Temple and the ritual of the sacrifices – were all gone. Yet the
Jewish nation-religion persevered by adapting a new architecture: Halacha
(Jewish law), rituals, Oral Torah, learning, yearning to return, and indeed,
religiosity. The transformation from Biblical Judaism (Judaism 1.0) to
Rabbinical Judaism (Judaism 2.0) enabled Jewish survivability.
Religion did not hurt the Jewish nation, as AB
Yehoshua claims; religion was the glue that kept the Jewish nation-religion
intact during 18 centuries of exile. Jews prayed at the same time, celebrated
Shabbat in an identical manner, marked the holiday in a similar fashion and
proclaimed, “All Israel are friends” once a month on the same day.
THEODOR HERZL, the father of modern Zionism,
understood this unique survival trait: the ability of Jews and of Judaism to
adjust to changing circumstances. He compared Jews to seals, who happened to be
thrown into the sea, and therefore adapted the traits of fish, even though they
are not.
Just as Yehoshua’s argument fails historical context,
it also fails contemporary global realities. Yehoshua seems to use outdated
models of national absolutism. “There are no French without France,” he
declares. But this simplification fails to take into account the current state
of a multi-identity world on one hand, and the rapid migration to cloud
mentality and shared economy on the other.
The package deal has been long broken. In the United
States, patriotic Americans are proud of their Irish, Mexican, or Italian
ethnological national affiliation. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo is not in conflict
with being a proud American; it is an expression of American patriotism.
Similarly, two Cuban-American candidates who ran for president in the 2016
Republican primary repeatedly argued which one of them is more Cuban. One of
them (Marco Rubio) even accused the other (Ted Cruz) of not speaking Spanish.
No one accused those Senators of being unAmerican.
Indeed, political national affiliation (where you
vote, which passport you hold, which flag you wave), is just one element of a
person’s composite of identities. One’s profession, university, social circles,
sexual orientation and club affiliations are other components of identity, and
indeed so is religion, ethnicity and ethnological national affiliation. Each
individual places those and other values at different positions in his or her
own personal hierarchy of identities.
Yehoshua is correct that “there are no French without
France,” but this need not be a physical France. It could be on a cloud. There
are certainly Francophiles without French citizenship, just as there are French
citizens today who care nothing for French culture.
Nowhere is this multi-identity reality more prevalent
than with the American Jews. While the vast majority of American Jews have
never been to Israel, there is a clear trend of cultural Israelization of the
American Jewish experience. Old Jewish connectors, such as Yiddish culture are
becoming irrelevant, and so is the previous connection through the Holocaust,
as the survivors’ generation passes. At the same time, Israeli-related
connectors – innovation, entrepreneurship, Israeli wine, Israeli cuisine, Israeli
soldiers, Israeli culture – all are sources of Jewish pride, and are
increasingly incorporated into the American Jewish experience.
For American Jews, connection to Judaism through want
is replacing connecting through duty; happiness is replacing sadness; the shuk
is replacing Carnegie Deli; Wonder Woman is replacing Yentel; and strength is
replacing victimhood. Even the passionate political debates and criticism of
Israel by a significant portion of American Jewry are a form of connection to
one’s Judaism through Zionism. Moreover, for many young liberal and progressive
Jews, Zionism has rapidly become the primary arena in which they meet their
Judaism.
THIS IS a reversal of a trend: For decades, Judaism
has been descending in the hierarchy of identities of the American Jew. Zionism
now allows Jews to elevate Judaism in that hierarchy. This is exactly what
Chaim Weizmann predicted over a century ago: “Zionism is Judaizing the Jewish
communities.”
Indeed, the seal in Herzl’s analogy is evolving again.
With secularization, removal of external walls and integration into the broader
global society, the architecture of Rabbinical Judaism (Judaism 2.0) that
enabled Jewish survivability for 18 centuries is fading. But another
architecture has emerged: Zionism. This is enabled not only by the
reestablishment of the Jewish state, but also by its astonishing success in
recent years, as well as by the disassociation of Zionism from secularism. Such
disassociation is a product of the increased democratization of Israeli society
– the gradual shift of power and Zionist ethos from the secular minority to the
religious/traditional majority, as well as of the growing interest of secular
Israeli Jews in the Jewish religion, while staying secular.
Therefore, we are in the midst of a historic
transformation of Judaism: from Rabbinical Judaism (the religious aspect being
its organizing principle), to Zionism: its national aspect serving this role
(Judaism 3.0). This transformation is occurring without any compromises to the
religious aspect of Judaism, just as in 18 centuries when the Jewish religion
was the organizing principle of Judaism, the national element of Judaism
remained a core aspect of Judaism.
Indeed, Yehoshua’s novels and insightful essays are
not just Israeli heritage assets, they are also Jewish heritage assets, and
along with Malach’s new book have their rightful place in the library of Jewish
texts. Herzl noted that once the seals return to dry land, “they will turn
their fins into feet again.” The pluralism of thoughts and fierce debate in
Israel is a celebration of Zionism and of the return: Return to the homeland,
return to Judaism.
Source: https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/The-Jewish-religion-is-indeed-intertwined-with-Zionism-615855
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