Two Roads

Thank you once again Mr. Fein for expressing the silent sadness of many American Jews. This liberal American Jew, painfully, no longer considers Israel as ‘the Jewish State.’ Yes, a state for Jews but not a state that expresses the values of my Judaism. Yes, a state for Jews and others within the pre-1967 boundaries. No, not “The Jewish State” because that state makes a mockery of my Judaism by corrupting the concept of “Btzelem Elohim”; the precept that every person is created in God’s image and therefore every person is equal in the eyes of god. There’s no place in my Judaism for a state that has for 60 years discriminated against its own Arab citizens and for 40 years oppressed and slowly destroyed the spirit of the Palestinian people. My Judaism is a Judaism that confronts injustice and speaks truth to power. I suspect that many liberal Jews feel some of these same feelings but are not yet able to say not my ‘Jewish State’