New Chicago Congregation Seeks to Separate Judaism
from Jewish Nationalism
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
December 2015
A new congregation, Tzedek Chicago, has been established which, reports the
Chicago Tribune (Sept. 11, 2015), “seeks to separate their Judaism from
Jewish political nationalism. Instead, they hope to focus their energy and
efforts on relieving poverty, engendering equality and fostering peace and
justice both locally and worldwide.”
“Our vision is not opposing Zionism,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen, who left his
longtime Evanston synagogue last year amid what the Tribune called “growing
concern about his pro-Palestinian activism.” According to Rosen, “It’s a
core value that fits into a larger core value of anti-racism and anti-
oppression. We point that out because Israel is doing it in our name as
Jews.”
According to the Tribune, “The emergence of Tzedek Chicago underscores the
growing rift in the American Jewish community over the Middle East conflict,
the nuclear accord with Iran and more broadly the concept of inclusion.
Founders hope that by opening the doors during the Jewish High Holy Days, a
time for reflection and atonement, Jews across the spectrum will find a
sanctuary where they can openly contemplate nagging questions and unpopular
views about the Holy Land.”
Lynn Pollack, one of the founding members of Tzedek Chicago, says, “There
are many congregations that you can go to where the blind support of Israel
is so endemic to the whole institution. You can’t find one that honestly
discusses what’s going on in Israel and our obligation to speak out about
it.”
The Tribune discusses the evolution of Reform Judaism from being highly
critical of Zionism to slowly embracing it, and highlights the role of the
American Council for Judaism in keeping the classical Reform Jewish
philosophy alive: “A synagogue that does not champion Israel as a Jewish
homeland might seem incongruous, but Rosen and his congregants insist
Zionism and Judaism don’t go hand in hand. After millions of European Jews
had perished in the Holocaust in the 1940s, leaders of the American Reform
movement first adopted a pro-Zionist stance … but not all American Jews felt
that way. Chicago’s Lessing Rosenwald, former chairman of Sears Roebuck &
Co., helped found the anti-Zionist association, the American Council for
Judaism, that still exists today … For Rosen, who grew up in the Reform
movement in Los Angeles, Israel was a central part of his Jewish identity …
He lived on kibbutzim for 2 years and in his early 20s considered moving
there permanently. He chose to pursue ordin¬ation in the Reconstructionist
movement, where he found his spiritual home. Reconstructionism teaches that
God is a life force that inspires everyone to make the world a better place.
In 1992 he was ordained and in 1998 became spiritual leader of the Jewish
Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston. He fought hard for a peaceful
two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. But he also harbored
doubts about his Zionist identity.”
Rosen recalls that, “As a peace activist in this country I would habitually
let Israel off the hook.” He notes that in meetings, he and his fellow
Zionists often referred to the Palestinian birthrate as a demographic
threat, a mantra he realized over time was unconscionable. “If I talked
about people here in the U.S. being a demographic threat, that would be
considered downright racist. To treat a group of people as a threat for no
other reason than their identity, that’s ethically problematic.”
In Dec. 2008, shortly after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza,
Rosen wrote on his blog Shalom Rav: “We good liberal Jews are ready to
protest oppression and human rights abuse anywhere in the world, but are all
too willing to give Israel a pass. It’s a fascinating double standard and
one I under¬stand all too well. I understand it because I’ve been just as
responsible as anyone else for perpetrating it.”
In 2009, he and another rabbi organized a community fast to protest Israel’s
blockade of Gaza. And on Yom Kippur of that year, Rosen called on the
faithful to do more than fast but also to reflect on Israel’s military
actions. “For, painful as it is for us to admit, Israel’s behavior in Gaza
has consistently betrayed our shared Jewish ethical legacy.”
Concerning Tzedek Chicago, he says: “I really believe in my heart that
there’s a place for a congregation like this. I’m hoping to create a model
that I believe serves a significant portion of the Jewish community, that
has previously been unheard and unserved … We allow them to connect Jewishly
in ways that they haven’t been able to. •
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