New Chicago Congregation Seeks to Separate Judaism from Jewish Nationalism

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. •