Knesset Speaker Says That Israeli Parliament Represents "The Entire Jewish World"

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. **