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The Appeal of Israel: Whiteness, Anti-Semitism, and the Roots of Diaspora Zionism in Canada

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The Appeal of Israel: Whiteness, Anti-Semitism, and the Roots of Diaspora Zionism in Canada THE APPEAL OF ISRAEL: WHITENESS, ANTI-SEMITISM, AND THE ROOTS OF DIASPORA ZIONISM IN CANADA by Corey Balsam A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Graduate Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Corey Balsam 2011 THE APPEAL OF ISRAEL: WHITENESS, ANTI-SEMITISM, AND THE ROOTS OF DIASPORA ZIONISM IN CANADA Master of Arts 2011 Corey Balsam Graduate Department of Sociology and Equity Studies Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto Abstract This thesis explores the appeal of Israel and Zionism for Ashkenazi Jews in Canada. The origins of Diaspora Zionism are examined using a genealogical methodology and analyzed through a bricolage of theoretical lenses including post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical race theory. The active maintenance of Zionist hegemony in Canada is also explored through a discourse analysis of several Jewish-Zionist educational programs. The discursive practices of the Jewish National Fund and Taglit Birthright Israel are analyzed in light of some of the factors that have historically attracted Jews to Israel and Zionism. The desire to inhabit an alternative Jewish subject position in line with normative European ideals of whiteness is identified as a significant component of this attraction. It is nevertheless suggested that the appeal of Israel and Zionism is by no means immutable and that Jewish opposition to Zionism is likely to only increase in the coming years. ii Acknowledgements This thesis was not just written over the duration of my master’s degree. It is a product of several years of thinking and conversing with friends, family, and colleagues who have both inspired and challenged me to develop the ideas presented here. I want to thank a few of my close friends – Lia Tarachansky, Ben Saifer, and Diana Ralph – without whom I may have never had the courage or tenacity to follow this academic and life path; my two brothers, Adam and Joel, to whom this thesis is dedicated, for accompanying me on this explorative journey and for always sharing their thoughts and perspectives; my mom, Leslee, and my partner, Jenna, for being so incredibly supportive and for always helping me work through my ideas; my dad, Dave, for challenging me to strengthen my arguments; and my grandmother, Cecelia, who has never quite accepted my views, but has always tried, and always supported me. A special thanks goes to my supervisor, Sheryl Nestel, for giving so much of her time and energy to this project, and for providing me with so much knowledge, feedback, and books (!). It was truly an honour and a privilege. Last but not least I want to acknowledge all of the helpful feedback I have received from Jessica Pinto, my brother Joel Balsam, and David Mandelzys, as well as from professors Sherene Razack, Monica Heller, and Abigail Bakan. Thanks so much to all of you! iii For my brothers: Adam and Joel iv Table of Contents Introduction: My Journey to the Dark Side .........................................................................1 Research Focus and Field of Study ................................................................................................... 9 Piecing Together a Framework ......................................................................................................... 12 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter Organization ........................................................................................................................ 23 Part One Chapter One: Diaspora Zionism ..........................................................................................26 Defining Diaspora ............................................................................................................................. 28 Nationalism: The French, the Germans and the Jews ....................................................................... 31 Zionism in the Canadian Jewish Diaspora ........................................................................................ 46 Diaspora Zionism .............................................................................................................................. 57 Chapter Two: New Jews and Old Jews: Past and Present ..................................................65 Freud and the Jewish Male Body ...................................................................................................... 68 Redemption through Regeneration ................................................................................................... 75 The Impact of the Holocaust on Support for Zionism ...................................................................... 80 New Jews and Old Jews in the Age of Israel .................................................................................... 87 The Thing of the Nation .................................................................................................................... 91 Chapter Three: The Quest for Whiteness ............................................................................95 Beyond Skin Colour.......................................................................................................................... 97 Jewish Bodies, White Masks ............................................................................................................ 101 The Whiteness Test ........................................................................................................................... 107 Israel, Relationality, and the Arab Threat ......................................................................................... 113 “I'm not white, I'm Jewish” ............................................................................................................... 121 Part Two Chapter Four: Engineering Consent ...................................................................................129 The Jewish National Fund ................................................................................................................ 132 Taglit Birthright Israel ...................................................................................................................... 142 Conclusion: Rupture .............................................................................................................156 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................166 v INTRODUCTION My Journey to the Dark Side I remember the goose-bumps I used to get whenever I heard that simplistic yet powerful Hebrew chorus: Am Yisrael chai! “The People Israel—the Jewish People—live!” This past year during his Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) sermon, the rabbi at my parents' synagogue explained that Am Yisrael actually has various interpretations. It can connote the Jewish people, meaning everyone defined as Jewish; it can refer to the ancient people of Israel who lived 2000 years ago in the land of Canaan; and it can mean all good people, whatever their religion, so long as they abide by basic precepts of human decency. I appreciated the rabbi's universalistic interjection. Jewish approaches to religion and life in general have historically oscillated between particularism and universalism,1 but it has seemed that the former has been outweighing the latter in recent years. Indeed, it is the particular, the Jewish people, which is the reference in Am Yisrael Chai. It is an intonation that emphatically evokes the need to hold on to and have pride in Jewish identity; especially in the face of the enemy. Believed to have originated in the 1930s amongst Jews in defiance of the Nazi rise to power, the chorus was later revived during the 1960s by “Reb” Shlomo Carlebach for use in the student struggle to liberate Soviet Jewry.2 Today it is most commonly sung at Zionist rallies in support of the state of Israel. But the 1 See, for instance, Svante Ludgren, Particularism and Universalism in Modern Jewish Thought (Binghampton, NY: Global Publications, 2001). 2 Jacob Birnbaum, “Am Yisroel Chai: Shlomo Carlebach's Version and Earlier Versions,” Chazzanut, May 2003, http://www.chazzanut.com/articles/on-am-yisraeil.html. 1 2 essence of the message remains the same: we are Jews and we are proud. The first time that I remember singing Am Yisrael Chai was on my first visit to the state of Israel when I was 19. I can vividly recollect the intense rush of excitement and emotion that I felt. There was something about chanting this song with my peers that made me feel different, empowered, strong. I loved it. Like many of my Jewish peers in Canada, my grandfather, Zaida as we called him in Yiddish, is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. He is the only survivor in his immediate family and one of the few from his small Polish village to have made it out alive. He was strong, I suppose, and healthy, but above all he was lucky. Anyone who has heard accounts of Holocaust survivors can attest to the sheer luck one needed to have to make it out of so many close encounters with death. I first heard my grandfather's story when I was 16. He was not the type to have talked about his experiences to anyone. But when my younger brother asked him to tell us about our family and about his life, he agreed. I had heard many stories of survivors by then,
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