Cameron Kasky is a Jewish school shooting survivor, anti-gun violence activist, and former congressional candidate for New York’s 12th congressional district. He is also anti-Israel. He recently published a Substack article on his trip to Israel and the West Bank.
This part stood out to me.
Judaism, for reasons that I will further elaborate, is inherently at odds with antizionist Jews. But instead of grappling with their incompatibility, antizionist Jews try to change Judaism…often, into a Judaized version of Christianity.
REMEMBER THIS ANALOGY?
When people think about different religions and about so-called Abrahamic religions in particular, they tend to think of them like this:
In this understanding, the flavors may be slightly different, but at the end of the day, they’re all still cupcakes.
But in reality, Judaism and Christianity are more like this...
One is a home and the other is food.*
*This is not to imply one is better than the other.
CHRISTIANITY AS THE FRAMEWORK
In antiquity, before the rise of the two biggest universalizing religions, Christianity and Islam, there was no clear distinction between a group’s national and ethnic identities and their spiritual beliefs. It was Christianity that introduced the idea the reason one subscribes to a particular set of beliefs is for the purposes of atoning for one’s sins, seeking salvation, and/or being a good person.
Judaism, of course, grapples with moral questions pretty extensively. But Jews are not Jewish because they believe that Judaism is the path to salvation or moral absolution. Jews are Jews because they are members of an ancient nation.
Those who misunderstand Judaism by viewing it through the framework of Christianity are engaging in something known as Christian hegemony, or the manner in which Christians*, as the dominant religious groups in the West, impose Christian social constructions as the “norm” or “default,” even on those who are not Christian.
*if you are Christian and do not impose Christian social constructs on others who are not Christian, then this post is not about you and there is no need to get offended or upset!
ZIONISM AND JUDAISM
Before the introduction of the comparatively modern construct of religion, the Jewish people understood themselves as an עם — a nation, meaning a collective identity with common language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory, and/or society. It’s a term that’s more “political” in nature than “ethnic group,” as nations see themselves as having a common political destiny. Once understood in that context, it becomes clear how and why the Land of Israel, which birthed and sustained the Jewish nation, is inextricable from Judaism. For example,
- Jews pray facing Jerusalem.
- Jewish holidays celebrate the harvest in the Land of Israel.
- Many Jewish prayers are Israel-specific; for example, we pray for rain in the Land of Israel.
- The Hebrew calendar follows the agricultural cycle of the Land of Israel.
- Many of the 613 mitzvot (“commandments”) can only be fulfilled in Israel, and living in the Land of Israel is considered the equivalent of fulfilling all other mitzvot combined.
It’s true that modern political Zionism can be dated to the 19th century. But modern Zionism not only stands on a foundation of three millennia of Jewish tradition, culture, and verifiable history, but it’s also the latest (and most successful) movement for Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel in a long string of Jewish movements for sovereignty in the Land of Israel that date back to the Babylonian period. Since our first exile, the desire to return to and recover sovereignty in our homeland has always laid at the heart of Judaism.
THE REFORMERS: CRUCIAL CONTEXT
After the French Revolution, a wave of Jewish emancipation swept Western Europe. Eager to finally integrate with the wider non-Jewish society, a group of Jews, known as the “Reformers” (not to be confused with today’s Reform Judaism), sought to make Judaism more palatable – that is, more Christian-like – to Europeans.
- For millennia, Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) had prayed in Hebrew. The Reformers removed Hebrew prayer from the liturgy entirely.
- They stopped practicing Brit Milah, decrying it as barbaric.
- They renounced attachment to the Land of Israel and the Temple, declaring Germany their new “Zion.”
- They did not have Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, replacing them with “confirmations.”
- Shabbat was observed on Sunday.
- Kashrut was considered “repugnant.”
JEWISH ANTI-ZIONISTS VS ANTIZIONIST JUDAISM: CRUCIAL CONTEXT
Pre-1948 Jewish anti-Zionism and post-1948 antizionism are two different movements entirely. The former opposed the establishment of a Jewish state, under either one of two premises:
- Some Orthodox Jews believed a Jewish state should only be established upon the coming of the Messiah.
- Other Jews believed that Zionism was a far-fetched, “reactionary” idea, and that the best course of action for Jewish survival would be for Jews to integrate into full members of their societies.
Today’s antizionism supports the elimination of an already existing Jewish state, with its 10 million citizens and all, and relentlessly projects ancient antisemitic tropes, conspiracies, and stereotypes onto the State of Israel.
"JUDAISM" THAT EMULATES CHRISTIANITY
When antizionist Jews ignore, distort, or deny the centrality of the Land of Israel to Judaism in an effort to appease those who deem Jews “colonizers” in our ancestral land, they tend to do so by viewing Judaism through a framework that emulates Christianity (in other words, they too are participating in Christian hegemony).
They see the Jewish people not as an ancient nation with deep ties to a particular land, but instead regard Judaism as a moral framework in the way that people might follow Christianity because they believe that the tenets of the Christian faith are the path to being a moral person and/or personal salvation.
Again, that is not to say that Judaism does not ponder morality; both the Tanakh and Talmud are replete with moral quandaries. But that is just one aspect of Jewish peoplehood (and yes, an important one); it is not Judaism in and of itself.
"JUDAISM" THAT ATONES FOR ITSELF
When antizionist Jews see Judaism through a Christian framework, they not only inherently distort foundational principles of Jewish peoplehood (most commonly, the concept of Tikkun Olam), but they do so in a way that mirrors the Christian understanding of the Jewish rejection of Jesus on the cross. In other words, in their view, Judaism has to atone for its sins in order to save its soul. That’s not a Jewish understanding of Judaism (or sin or atonement). In the antizionist context, the perceived sin is Zionism.
"Justice, justice shall you pursue, so that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you."
DEUTERONOMY 16:20
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