Before I let go of last week’s Torah portion – in which Israelite scouts are sent into Canaan to observe the land and its inhabitants – I thought I’d share a more recent “scouting report.” The excerpt below comes from “Like All the Nations,” a pamphlet written in 1930 by Rabbi Judah Magnes, the venerable first Chancellor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Magnes’ legacy is worth exploring for many reasons – not least of which is that he was one of the very few pre-state Zionist leaders who fully grasped the moral challenge presented by the indigenous Arab population in Palestine. I find the power and prescience of his words simply breathtaking:
What I am driving at is to distinguish between two policies. The one maintains that we can establish a Jewish Home here through the suppression of the political aspirations of the Arabs, and therefore a Home necessarily established on bayonets over a long period – a policy which I think bound to fail because of the violence against us it would occasion, and because…the conscience of the Jewish people would revolt against it. The other policy holds that we can establish a Home here only if we are true to ourselves as democrats and internationalists, thus being just and helpful to others, and that we ask for the protection of life and property the while we are eagerly and intelligently and sincerely at work to find a modus vivendi et operandi with our neighbors. The world – not in Palestine alone – may be bent upon violence and bloodshed. But will not my opponent agree that there is a better chance of averting this tendency to bloodshed if we make every possible effort politically as well as in other ways to work hand in hand – as teachers, helpers, friends – with this awakening Arab world?
What we need is for more advocates presenting Rabbi Magnes’ point of view and philosophy in Israel and all Jews.
Thanks for this historical excerpt. I has stimulated me to read some of his other writings.
LMR
Another voice worth hearing again or for the first time is Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamaret (1869-1931). I have placed on my blog an article by Rabbi Everett Gendler which includes translations of some of Tamaret’s writings.
Here is a taste:
The Jew who immigrates to the land of Israel for self-fulfillment, and does so without any pretense of perfecting the Jewish people as a whole does, in fact, yield satisfaction to that people; for it is a delight to the spirit of the people that its children are to be found living in the holy land of its longings and desires. Such immigrants are indeed precious to all the Jews of the Diaspora.
But one who enters the land of Israel with trumpets and shouting, who proclaims that he “goes up” for our sake, the community of the Diaspora, that he goes to the “homeland” and the “national refuge”—such a one is, plainly put, a “troubler of Israel.” For whoever builds a “national refuge” acts mistakenly, conceding thereby the Sodomite measure by which the dwellers of this planet are declared to be either “owners” or “intruders,” with the former having the privilege of disposing of the latter as they see fit. Furthermore, such a one narrows the universal image of Judaism, demeans the image of Diaspora Jews, and casts upon them shadows of despair.
Brant, thank you so much for including Rabbi Magnes’ words of inspiration and wisdom. I hope that we can meet with folks on our Israel trip who embody his philosophy of co-existence. There should never be one side winning and one side losing, for then the humanity of the sitution is lost as well. If only the leaders of all the sides could see this truth…
Vickie