Knesset Speaker Says That Israeli Parliament
Represents "The Entire Jewish World"
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
December 2021
In his interview with the Jerusalem Post (Oct. 22, 2120), Knesset Speaker Mickey
Levy declared that the Knesset “represents…the entire Jewish world.” At another
point, he says that, “All streams (of Judaism) in the world should see Israel as
their national home.”
Allan C. Brownfeld, the editor of the publications of the American Council for
Judaism, wrote a letter in response, which was published In The International
Jerusalem Post of Nov. 5-11, 2021. The letter declares: I can think of no other
parliamentary leader who claims that his government is the “national home” of
millions of citizens of other countries. The fact is that Judaism is a religion
of universal values. Jewish Americans are Jews by religion and American by
nationality, just as other Americans are Protestant, Catholic or Muslim. The
“homeland” of American Jews is the United States.
Mr. Levy may be unaware of the fact that this has always been the case, from the
beginning of the United States. American Jews never believed they were in “exile”
as Zionism proclaims. In 1841, in the dedication of America’s first Reform
synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina, Rabbi Gustav Poznanski told the
congregation, “This country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem, this house
of God our temple.”
The letter concludes: Israel and its leaders would do well to confine themselves
to speaking in the name of Israeli citizens, not in the name of all Jews. Before
World War II and the Holocaust, Zionism was a small minority view among American
Jews. It is now becoming a minority view once again more and more Jewish
Americans believe it is guilty of idolatry, making the State of Israel rather
than God the virtual object of worship. This is much like the worship of the
Golden Calf in the Bible. It is possible that Mr. Levy knows little of American
history—and American Jewish history. He may not realize that he has no proper
basis for speaking in the name of citizens other countries. But it is not too
late for him and others who speak in these terms to change course. **
|