Rabbi Uri Pilichowski
I was standing with a group of students outside the West Wing of the White House campus when a Chassidic man walked out of the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Seeing the teens wearing kippot, the man asked what we were doing there. I explained that we were on a trip to learn about and lobby for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
I was curious about what a Chassidic man was doing at the White House and asked him what he was doing there. He explained he was advocating for many Jewish issues, but quickly qualified his response by emphatically stating, “But not Israel!” His enthusiasm and gusto made it clear that he didn’t view Israel as a “Jewish issue.” I politely wished him success and returned to talking with my students.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence reaches its crescendo with the words, “We, the members of National Council, representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn assembly by virtue of the natural and historic right of Jewish people and of resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations: Hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel.” To people who are unfamiliar with Israel, Jews and their politics, having a Jewish state that some Jews do not consider Jewish is confusing at best and absurd at worst. They would think an entire column dedicated to demonstrating that the Jewish state is, in fact, Jewish, to be ridiculous.
People who are familiar with Israel and the Jewish people know there are different types of Jews who don’t consider the Jewish state sufficiently Jewish. On the secular left flank of Jews are those who think Israel was born in sin, having established their state by taking land that belonged to Arab Palestinians. They consider the current policies of the State of Israel to be so heinous and inconsistent with Judaism’s values of peace and justice, and that the State of Israel has forfeited its designation as a Jewish state.
On the religiously observant right flank of Jews, many Jews consider Israel’s secular nature and lack of allegiance to the Torah and halachah (Jewish law) as disqualifying factors in its quest to be considered a Jewish state. They await a messianic era where a Jewish commonwealth will be ruled by a messianic king and governed as a theocracy. Until then, a secular state, no matter how close it comes to Torah observance, cannot be called a Jewish state.
For these reasons, among many others, these Jews on the secular left and the religious right do not see Israel as a Jewish issue. They do not support the State of Israel, and many reject the land of Israel as the Jewish home. These are widespread but not mainstream opinions. It is only people on the extremes of today’s Jewish community that advocate these positions.
In the aftermath of the recent New York City mayoral election, many people were shocked to see how much support the now Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received from New York Jews. Called an antisemite by many, the world couldn’t understand how he received more than 30% of the Jewish vote.
In the Yiddish language newspaper, Der Blatt, the Satmar Chassidic community announced its endorsement of Mamdani and condemned the “vicious campaign” portraying him as an antisemite as being “false and dangerous.” In a worldview that doesn’t consider Israel a Jewish state, Mamdani’s many anti-Israel statements aren’t seen as antisemitic.
The point of view that doesn’t regard Israel as a Jewish issue is shortsighted and demonstrates a misunderstanding of Jewish history and its probable future. While Israel was established first and foremost to return the Jewish people to their historic homeland, it was also established as a place of refuge for persecuted Jews.
Jewish history is a rotating cycle of persecution, refuge and persecution again. Time and again, Jews found stability in one land only to eventually face persecution and even eviction. The constant search for refuge only begat the same problems again elsewhere. In every new place, Jews fooled themselves into thinking that this place would be different, but it never changed. The State of Israel was established to be the final place of refuge, where no Jew would ever have to flee again. Israel is a Jewish issue because it will be the place that all Jews will eventually flee to when their current country begins to persecute them.
The newest form of antisemitism masquerades as a political position in opposition to the policies of the State of Israel. These antisemites hide their hate behind a veneer of political advocacy and anti-oppression. Jews see through the disguise of those who hate them and perceive the antisemitism hidden as anti-Zionism. There are Jews whose yearning for stability engenders naivete, and who convince themselves that anti-Zionists don’t hate Jews. Israel is a Jewish issue because the hidden antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism will eventually reveal itself and attack Jews, Zionist or not.
Lastly, there are many Jews who oppose the government of Israel and its policies. Irrespective of their feelings toward the State of Israel, its government or its policies, the reality is that the land of Israel is governed by the State of Israel. Whatever power governs the land of the Jewish people becomes a Jewish issue. To deny this simple logic is irrational. Israel is a Jewish issue because the government of Israel manages the land of the Jewish people.
The Chassid at the White House dismissed Israel as a non-Jewish issue. His view reflected the extreme positions among secular left Jews who decry Israel’s “original sin” and policies, and the religious right Jews who are awaiting a messianic theocracy. These fringe views, like Satmar’s endorsement of Mamdani, ignore Israel’s role as the eternal Jewish refuge amid cyclical persecution, unmasking anti-Zionism’s latent antisemitism and its governance of the Jewish homeland.
Israel is a Jewish issue.
Rabbi Uri Pilichowski is a senior educator at numerous educational institutions. The author of three books, he teaches Torah, Zionism and Israel studies around the world.
