Finding the language for #jewishallyship, a year on from Oct 7th.

We never think that we will be the ones to live through pandemics and holocausts. It seems as far-fetched as living to see the second coming. However, every generation has its plagues and pogroms, forcing us to ask uncomfortable questions about ourselves and our societies. 

A significant shift in political and moral attitudes occurred amid the pandemic, leading to rifts within families and friendships due to fear-driven politics and the manipulation of traditional beliefs by corrupted institutions to confront skeptics. Blindly conforming to group thinking offered a test for patriots and anarchists, with their responses setting them apart.

Another moral and political seachange happened after Oct 7th. The information age allowed the global community to see the horrors of war that were previously only told to us by our parents in hushed and painful confessions, the tears in both of our eyes ensuring that we don’t forget our histories. Israelis and Jews in the diaspora needed to recalibrate with the world around them. And so did their allies.

Bernard Henri Levy’s book ‘Israel Alone’ expands on his earlier sentiments that ‘Israel has good friends, but poor allies’. Israelis and Jews have every right to feel alone in this war, they have been met with calls of ‘yes, but given the context’, ‘ceasefire now and at any cost’, and ‘what about the day after’, all before they had the chance to mourn the day of and bury the dead. How does one practice allyship in this space? Vocally, temperately, and thoroughly. Nothing less will suffice. Levy writes that the theology of reprobation misses what the theology of liberation has afforded and can continue to afford. I would add the caveat that such a conceptualisation has as its God as the all-seeing eye of history, the most powerful and omnipresent judge.

I am a Zionist because I accept the historicity of Israel. I acknowledge the plight of Judeans reclaiming their ancestral homeland from colonizers and invaders, and I believe that a sovereign nation-state has the duty to defend its borders. I also happen to have extended family in Israel, including three reservist cousins I’ve never met. It's a side of my family that I've only ever tangentially been aware of until now. I’ve connected with my aunt who has invited me to visit, L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim, where I hope to visit holy sites and enjoy the people and culture of Israel.