Rabbi Daniel Gordis’s writing has brought tears to the eyes of many readers, but his latest column makes me want to cry because it implies that I “don’t get” Jewish history and the Jewish state. When an American friend of his complained that Jews worldwide will come under fire for the flotilla attack on Monday, Rabbi Gordis responded:
As for “being on the defensive,” you “will be on the defensive” only because you totally don’t get it… No, David, you really don’t have to defend Israel. No one’s asking you to. We know that it’s too late to expect many Americans like you to assume we’re right before you assume we’re wrong. As we look out at Jews across the world, we’re just assessing who gets Jewish history, and who’s so thoroughly intellectually assimilated that they’re actually embarrassed that that Jews don’t have to continue to be victims.
I hope you find this post, Rabbi Gordis, because you’re 100 percent off base.
We get it, Rabbi Gordis. We understand Jewish history. We live Jewish values, even if we’re in America. And if you’re going to be serious about calling Israel “the Jewish state,” as its declaration of independence does, then you must respect our opinion even though we disagree with you–because we’re Jews too. Are you, who stresses unity and peoplehood, really too distant from us to recognize that our criticism of Israel is a reflection of our Judaism, just as your views are a reflection of yours? Your intolerance toward our viewpoints certainly negates the Jewish value of democratic dialogue, the foundation of the rabbinic tradition.
And don’t tell us you’re not asking us to defend the Jewish state. We don’t need you to ask us. We want to, because the people of Israel are our brothers, their cities are our cities and their holy sites have also been our holy sites for thousands of years. So we want to be able to look Israel’s detractors in the eye and say that they’re wrong, that the Jewish state, our state, is a light unto the nations, an exemplar of dignity, peace and tolerance, of humanitarianism and the values on which we were raised. We can’t do that now. Now we have to equivocate, apologize and explain because we see people dying and people suffering at the hands of the Jewish army, our army, if not on the Mavi Marmara then in Gaza and the West Bank.
And don’t tell us that we want to be victims. No. We just don’t want our state to victimize others. Maybe your Jewish history pre-1948 is one defined by victimhood, Rabbi Gordis, but ours is not. Our Jewish history is one of ideas, of diversity, of songs and foods, of contribution to society, of promoting freedom, tolerance and peace. And yes, we were attacked. Yes. we were killed and almost exterminated. But we rose up, each time, not because of our guns but because we are a moral people that leads a moral collective existence.
Perhaps you see yourself fighting a constant war against the goyim. Perhaps you see that as the defining motif of the Jewish story. In that case it is you who is on the defensive, not us. We will fight when we need to fight, but we will not assume that we always need to fight. For us, guns will be a last resort, not a first choice.
Perhaps guns were a last resort for the Israeli boys on the Mavi Marmara. Most of us don’t know. But as we struggle through this situation, as surely as you are struggling through it, remember that it’s all the same struggle. Remember that though we may disagree, our disagreements are honest and well-intentioned. Remember that when we argue, it is an argument for the sake of heaven.
We get it, Rabbi Gordis. It’s just that you might not get us.
