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Photo: International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network)
This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
It’s an amazing witch hunt right now. Rabbi’s are under scrutiny for ethical violations. Peeping Rabbis in the mikvah and assorted violations relating to sex. All for the good I suppose.
Other ethical violations are under reported or, actually, never mentioned. Like rabbis enabling congregants to flaunt International Law by supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Or, going back further, rabbis helping deflect their congregants conscience from the birth of Israel in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.
So who’s investigating rabbis who cross the line is quite relevant when the red line is identified and expanded. But, then, if the entire Jewish establishment is in denial of these war crimes committed by Jews in the name of the Jewish people, who will investigate them?
The Jewish case is much like the police and the need for independent investigations of crimes committed by the police. Since the blue line of silence is hardly ever crossed by the police themselves, independent investigations are a must. Other government agencies have to step in. In the case of the Jewish establishment until now the only watchdogs have been progressive Jews who, it turns out, deflect the same crimes the Jewish establishment deflects. Only with the emergence of Jews of Conscience has the Jewish establishment been called to task. Unfortunately, Jews of Conscience don’t have subpoena power.
Jews of Conscience don’t even have a court, except one. The court of Jewish history. And it seems that this court, though lacking material power in the present, is drawing an incredible amount of attention by establishment Jews in America and Israel, including the rabbis. For aren’t Jews involved in the BDS movement, say, Boycott From Within, or Ilan Pappe’s, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, declaring historic judgments against the abuse of Jewish power meted out to the Palestinian people?
So the answer to the question of who’s investigating rabbis who cross the line is clear. Jews are. In the name of Jewish history. And that judgment is already in. The rabbinate, broadly considered, at the most crucial juncture in Jewish history, after the Holocaust and after Israel and what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinian people, is a scandal to Jewish history. Sex is the least of it.
It’s an amazing witch hunt right now. Rabbi’s are under scrutiny for ethical violations. Peeping Rabbis in the mikvah and assorted violations relating to sex. All for the good I suppose.
Other ethical violations are under reported or, actually, never mentioned. Like rabbis enabling congregants to flaunt International Law by supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Or, going back further, rabbis helping deflect their congregants conscience from the birth of Israel in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.
So who’s investigating rabbis who cross the line is quite relevant when the red line is identified and expanded. But, then, if the entire Jewish establishment is in denial of these war crimes committed by Jews in the name of the Jewish people, who will investigate them?
The Jewish case is much like the police and the need for independent investigations of crimes committed by the police. Since the blue line of silence is hardly ever crossed by the police themselves, independent investigations are a must. Other government agencies have to step in. In the case of the Jewish establishment until now the only watchdogs have been progressive Jews who, it turns out, deflect the same crimes the Jewish establishment deflects. Only with the emergence of Jews of Conscience has the Jewish establishment been called to task. Unfortunately, Jews of Conscience don’t have subpoena power.
Jews of Conscience don’t even have a court, except one. The court of Jewish history. And it seems that this court, though lacking material power in the present, is drawing an incredible amount of attention by establishment Jews in America and Israel, including the rabbis. For aren’t Jews involved in the BDS movement, say, Boycott From Within, or Ilan Pappe’s, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, declaring historic judgments against the abuse of Jewish power meted out to the Palestinian people?
So the answer to the question of who’s investigating rabbis who cross the line is clear. Jews are. In the name of Jewish history. And that judgment is already in. The rabbinate, broadly considered, at the most crucial juncture in Jewish history, after the Holocaust and after Israel and what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinian people, is a scandal to Jewish history. Sex is the least of it.
