Then, five young Jews disrupted the keynote speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Federation General Assembly in New Orleans. This was a clarion wake up call to this rabbi.
Rabbi Brant Rosen says: *“How do we reach Jewish young people?” This has long been one of the central mantras of organized Jewish community – as those of us who work as Jewish professionals can surely attest. But while we wring our hands over the state of the Jewish future, a remarkable new generation of Jews has been knocking insistently at our door.”*
This is when Rosen details what happened at that Assembly: *“One by one, at five different points during the speech, the activists stood on their chairs, unfurled banners and shouted out in turn:*
*Young Jews say the settlements delegitimize Israel!
Young Jews say the Occupation delegitimizes Israel!
Young Jews say the siege of Gaza delegitimizes Israel
Young Jews say the loyalty oath delegitimizes Israel!
Young Jews say silencing dissent delegitimizes Israel!”*
He tells us that with each successive interruption the shouts from the crowd grew louder and angrier. As security attempted to safely walk them out, one protester was put in a choke hold by a convention attendee and wrestled to the floor. Another conventioneer grabbed a banner and tore it in half with his teeth.
At the very same moment, “Young, Jewish, Proud” launched its activities, and website, announcing the “Young Jewish Declaration” – an astonishing statement of purpose that seemed to come directly from the collective heart, mind and gut of this newly-formed youth movement.
*“We exist. We are everywhere. We speak and love and dream in every language…*
*“We remember how to build our homes, and our holiness, out of time and thin air, and so do not need other people’s land to do so…*
*“We refuse to have our histories distorted or erased, or appropriated by a corporate war machine. We will not call this liberation…*
*“We commit ourselves to peace. We will stand up with honest bodies, to offer honest bread…We are young Jews, and we get to decide what that means.”*
Predictably, the Jewish establishment hit out at the protesters. As for Rosen, he watched those events unfold with genuine hope for our Jewish future. *“After all, weren’t these young people claiming and proclaiming their Jewishness in classic Jewish fashion? Like young Abraham destroying his father’s icons, they stood up to the hypocrisy and corruption of their elders. In the heart of the the largest gathering of American Jewish leaders, these proud young Jews called out their community on its most sacred of sacred cows: namely, the unquestioning, unconditional support of the state of Israel.”*
Rosen had never witnessed such an authentic an act of young Jewish self-expression as he did that afternoon at the New Orleans General Assembly. He informs us who listen that while the Jewish establishment has been excellent at creating and funding expensive projects, the same establishment seems to be chronically incapable of listening to Jewish young people. The establishment wants to tell the youth how they think the youth should express their Jewishness, but rarely do they stop long enough to really, truly learn what Jewish passions are driving young Jewish adults today.
*“Taglit-Birthright Israel – the Jewish establishment’s signature youth initiative – is the most obvious case in point,”* he continues. *“For well over a decade, it has invested literally hundreds of millions of dollars in providing free, all-expense-paid trips to Israel. The essential goal of these trips, as the Birthright’s Marketing Director puts it plainly, is to make Israel ‘an integral part of every Jew’s identity’.”*
It is understated that Birthright was born in response to growing reports that American Jewish young people were becoming increasingly disconnected from the state of Israel. But by rushing to address this issue through a massive multimillion dollar community initiative, the establishment successfully and cleverly avoided asking deeper questions.
*“Could it be that young people are becoming disenchanted with Israel because they are becoming increasingly troubled by its treatment of Palestinians? Could it be that growing numbers of young Jews regard Israel more as an oppressive colonial project than a source of Jewish pride? Could it be that in the 21st century world, the identities of young Jews are tied less to Jewish ethno-nationalism than to a more universal vision of liberation?”*
“Young, Jewish, Proud” is decidedly not the product of a Jewish communal initiative. On the contrary it is a grass-roots, self-organized effort of young Jews who seek to express their Jewish identity in a time-honoured Jewish manner: by speaking truth to power, by advocating unabashedly for peace, justice and liberation, by standing up to oppression, racism and persecution in Israel/Palestine – and throughout the world. They simply aren’t buying what the Jewish establishment has been selling them. They are finding their own voices,” Rosen insists.
Rosen says he is well aware that it is not easy for a Jewish community so thoroughly focused on Zionism to hear it challenged in such a fundamental way and continues with: “But aren’t these young Jews doing precisely what they were raised to do? They are taking a good, educated look around them, thinking critically about what they see and taking a stand for what they believe in as Jews. Are we [you, the Jewish establishment] really prepared to disown them because their conclusions make us uncomfortable?”
Bringing into play a ‘sermon for today’ theme he chose to read that part of the Torah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah: *“We read that when God saves the life of young Ishmael in the wilderness, “God heeded the cries of the boy where he is.” (Genesis 21:17) In other words, God was able to find Ishmael by truly listening to him. Not where God wanted him to be or were God thought he should be, but where he was.”
*“On this New Year, I fervently hope our community can do the same with our newest adult generation. These young Jews certainly have every reason to be disenchanted with the organized Jewish community, but for some reason they refuse to go away. They’re here and they’re knocking loudly at our door.*
*“Do we, the gatekeepers of the Jewish community, have the vision, the faith and the courage to open it up and let them in? Shanah Tova,”* Rabbi Brant Rosen
Occupy the Occupiers: A Jewish Call to Action
We call for young Jews and allies nationwide to join in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and with our Palestinian siblings living under their own form of occupation. Let us stand up to the 1% in our own community – the powerful institutions that support Israel’s corporate-backed military control of the Palestinian people and act as the gatekeepers for our community.
Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted as the scapegoats for powerful financiers, thus bearing the brunt of economic hardship on multiple fronts. This collective memory instills us with the responsibility to speak out against corporate exploitation and human rights violations, such as the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, which has politically and economically disenfranchised over nine million people in the name of Jewish statehood.
The ongoing colonization of Palestine has concentrated wealth in the hands of the ultra-stratified Israeli elite, as well as multinational corporations like Caterpillar, Motorola, Elbit, Northrop Grumman, and Veolia. In the United States, over $33 billion in foreign aid has gone to sustaining Israel’s occupation— most of it going directly into the pockets of US-based arms-makers— instead of funding jobs, education, healthcare, and housing for the 99%.
We face a similar dilemma in our own Jewish institutions, which tend to be dominated by a handful of wealthy right-wing donors who fund their own interests, such as free trips to Israel, while urgent community needs go unmet.
The occupation of Palestine and stratification of our own Jewish community are consistent with the grievances of the Occupy Wall Street New York General Assembly’s “Declaration of Occupation.” It is time for us to reclaim our own community.
It’s time to occupy Jewish institutions that actively obstruct human rights for Palestinians, like AIPAC, the Jewish Federations, Birthright, the Jewish National Fund, Hillel, and the foundations of right-wing philanthropists, like the Schusterman Foundation, which impose ideological litmus tests on Jews who want to work in or with the Jewish community.
It’s time to occupy the offices and stores of the multinational corporations that profit off of human rights abuses in Palestine.
