Commentary… Descent, Is Editor-At-Large at the J'accuse Coalition for Justice

בס״ד cannot acknowledge עש"ק פרשת בהר ISRAEL NEWS that history at the )בחקתי בא"י( 19 Iyar 5779 May 24, 2019 expense of Mizrahi Issue number 1245 A collection of the week’s news from Israel Jews, who with so many others, From the Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee of regardless of skin color, shared the Jerusalem 6:55 Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation desire for a Jewish state long before Toronto: 8:28 the establishment of Israel. The writer, an Israeli writer and activist of Iraqi and North African Commentary… descent, is editor-at-large at the J'accuse Coalition for Justice. No, Israel isn’t a Country of Privileged and Powerful White Europeans By Hen Mazzig Can Reform’s Embrace of Al Sharpton Be Justified? Along with resurgent identity politics in the United States and Europe, By Jonathan S. Tobin there is a growing inclination to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in If the Rev. Al Sharpton were truly willing to repent for his past as a terms of race. According to this narrative, Israel was established as a refuge race-baiter and inciter of anti-Semitic violence, then having him speak at a for oppressed white European Jews who in turn became oppressors of Jewish event titled a “Consultation on Conscience” might be a good idea. people of color, the Palestinians. Perhaps that’s what the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism As an Israeli, and the son of an Iraqi Jewish mother and North African and its leader, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, thought they were doing when they Jewish father, it’s gut-wrenching to witness this shift. invited Sharpton to their event. And after Sharpton made some oblique I am Mizrahi, as are the majority of Jews in Israel today. We are of remarks about regrets he had about his “excesses” after being rebuked by Middle Eastern and North African descent. Only about 30% of Israeli Jews the late Coretta Scott King, perhaps Pesner thinks his mission was are Ashkenazi, or the descendants of European Jews. I am baffled as to why accomplished, and that he had staged a historic moment of black-Jewish mainstream media and politicians around the world ignore or misrepresent unity to rival those from the civil-rights era. these facts and the Mizrahi story. Perhaps it’s because our history shatters a But in order for that to be true, it would have taken more than stereotype about the identity of my country and my people. Sharpton’s vague apology, which didn’t come close to accountability for Jews that were expelled from nations across the Middle East have been his role in fomenting anti-Jewish riots and violence. A reconciliation crucial in building and defending the Jewish state since its outset. based in concerns about “conscience” that the RAC wraps itself in might Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, was not established for just one have also motivated the group and their guest to take a stand against anti- type of Jew but for all Jews, from every part of the world — the Middle Semites on the left, who are their political allies. East, North Africa, Ethiopia, Asia and, yes, Europe. No matter where Jews That’s not what happened. What did occur was the Reform movement physically reside, they maintain a connection to the land of Israel, where arrogating to itself the right to grant absolution to a man involved in anti- our story started and where today we continue to craft it. Jewish violence without the sort of statement that any denomination of The likes of Women’s March activist Tamika Mallory, Temple Judaism would define as genuine teshuvah, or “repentance.” While the University professor Marc Lamont Hill and, more recently, Rep. Rashida participants spoke of common religious values and opposition to hate, Tlaib (D-Mich.) falsify reality in their discussions of Palestinians’ what went on at the RAC conclave was nothing more than a political event “intersectional” struggle, their use of the term “apartheid” to characterize cloaked in religion. Its sole target was U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli policy, and their tendency to define Israelis as Ashkenazi Jews alone. whose defeat both Sharpton and liberal Jews regard as an imperative. I believe their misrepresentations are part of a strategic campaign to The RAC’s supporters see its liberal stands on every conceivable issue taint Israel as an extension of privileged and powerful white Europe, as rooted in religion and a desire for social justice. However, the blatant thereby justifying any and all attacks on it. This way of thinking signals a partisanship of their agenda is an illustration of how the group often dangerous trend that positions Israel as a colonialist aggressor rather than a confuses faith with politics. haven for those fleeing oppression. Worse, it all but erases the story of my In 2019, that means all hands on deck to not merely oppose Trump, family, which came to Israel from Iraq and Tunisia. but to hang the responsibility for acts of anti-Semitic violence, as well as For most of history, the Mizrahim have been without sovereignty and all other forms of hate, directly on him. Of course, they are entitled to their equality in the Muslim world. In Iraq, despite being “equal citizens” on point of view, even if proof of Trump’s anti-Semitism is lacking (the fact paper, my family experienced ongoing persecution. The first organized that he is the most pro-Israel president to date ought to at least mitigate the attack came in 1941, the brutal Farhud, a Nazi-incited riot that claimed the animus of his Jewish political foes). But to use the need to make common lives of hundreds of Jews and forced the survivors to live in fear. My great- cause against Trump as an excuse to put the Reform movement’s seal of grandfather was falsely accused of being a Zionist spy and executed in approval on a figure like Sharpton remains inexcusable. Baghdad in 1951. My mother’s family was permitted to emigrate that same That the movement should take upon itself the right to grant Sharpton year, but with only one suitcase. absolution for the past is chutzpah indeed. Reform Jews weren’t chased Any erasure of the Mizrahi experience negates the lives of 850,000 and beaten in the streets of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Jewish refugees just like them, who, even in the successor states to the N.Y., in the summer of 1991, after Sharpton helped whip up hate by Ottoman Empire of the early 20th century, were treated as “dhimmis,” an seeking to turn a traffic accident into an excuse for what many termed a Arabic term for a protected minority whose members pay for that pogrom. protection, which can be withdrawn at any time. Demographic ignorance As Norman Rosenbaum—the brother of 29-year-old Yankel also works to deny the existence of almost 200,000 descendants of Rosenbaum, a visiting student from Australia who was killed for the crime Ethiopian Jews who were threatened by political destabilization in the early of being a Jew—wrote in the Washington Examiner, Sharpton hasn’t 1990s and airlifted to Israel in a daring rescue operation. atoned for his role in that crime. Nor has he urged residents of the area to One of Judaism’s central themes is a story of national liberation in the turn in those involved in Yankel’s murder, who were never caught by the face of imperial powers. Israel is a place where an indigenous people have police. As Rosenbaum put it: “How pathetic it is that the Religious Action reclaimed their land and revived their ancient language, despite being Center’s conference is titled ‘Consultation on Conscience.’ That surrounded by hostile neighbors and hounded by radicalized Arab organization, in having Al Sharpton speak, only demonstrates that it has nationalists who cannot tolerate any political entity in the region other than none.” their own. Jews that were expelled from nations across the Middle East, The Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, who sacrificed all they had, have been crucial in building and defending the whose members were the targets of the violence that raged for three days Jewish state since its outset. in Crown Heights, shared Rosenbaum’s anguish. Referring to the RAC Without a doubt, the creation of Israel provided a haven for Jews who conference on Twitter, he wrote, “The willingness to wash away our pain survived the Holocaust and extreme oppression in Europe. However, we is so cruel.” He thought the RAC should “deplatform hate … not give it a Readers are requested to please mail contributions to: BAYT - re: Israel News, 613 Clark Avenue West, Thornhill, Ontario. L4J 5V3 Annual Rates: Friend - $36, Supporter - $50, Benefactor - $180. Dedications are welcome at $120/week. Call (905) 886-3810 for further info. See Israel News on the internet at www.bayt.ca and www.frumtoronto.com or email [email protected] to request to be added to the weekly email. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of BAYT. pulpit and whitewash it.” procedure. It’s rooted in a belief that any scholarship that contradicts the He’s right about that. But to be fair to the RAC, they are hardly the first assumptions about the illegitimacy of Zionism and that seeks to put the to give Sharpton an undeserved legitimacy. Sharpton ran for president in movement to destroy it in proper context is, by definition, unscholarly. 2004 and ever since, Democratic politicians have regularly trekked to New Their problem with “Word Crimes” is that it reveals that there is York to court him, including a conference last month where almost all of something rotten about an academic environment in which disingenuous the party’s current presidential candidates bent the knee to the reverend.

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