Progressive Rabbis Support the Underdog: Hamas

Over the years I’ve had many conversations with friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, about the overwhelming number of Jews who are Progressives. Although in some ways, their commitment is perplexing, since many of the Progressive values must result in some cognitive dissonance for liberal Jews. But I’ve explained that many of them believe in supporting the underdog—the people who are oppressed and rejected by the larger society.

When the massacre of October 7 in Israel occurred, there was a great outcry in the Jewish community, in the U.S. and abroad. Reformed, conservative and orthodox Jews in the United States and in Israel raged about the Hamas attack. But one small group—progressive Rabbis— which has taken the view that the Palestinians in Israel are the oppressed, continue to decry Zionism and criticize Israel for its response to October 7. What is happening to these leaders of Jewish communities?

Officially, Zionism is a key pillar of all three major Jewish denominations in the U.S. But in the more progressive Reform and Conservative movements, some prominent rabbis are raising the alarm about a small but significant number of rabbinical students and early career rabbis who identify as non-Zionist or anti-Zionist, and who lack the connection to Israel that has for decades been a key part of what it means to be Jewish in the diaspora.

Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, had this observation:

‘This could create a real problem if the schools are effectively putting people out of the system who hold these views, but they can’t get hired and sometimes get fired, because their views don’t align with what the laity basically believes.’

The fact is that these young rabbis are in conflict with their congregations who believe that the Israelis are justified in destroying Hamas. A primary problem is that these rabbis are not educated in the history and realities of the Jewish state, and have based their beliefs on the progressive agenda. Due to the inherent tensions in discussing Zionism and Israel, the topic is often avoided and put aside.

But one rabbi who spoke to the problem explained that to some people, the issue is a complex one:

‘There’s no loyalty oath that we expect, but we do expect deep, serious engagement in the history, in the culture, in the ongoing reality of Israel, and people can choose to express that in their own ways, from their own point of view,’ said Rabbi Lisa Grant, the director of the rabbinical program at Hebrew Union College’s New York campus.

In a recent Commentary podcast, Matthew Continetti and John Podhoretz brought up a couple of points that I found especially prescient. Continetti described the struggle that arises for liberal Jews who identify with the model of the “oppressed Jew.” In some ways, they have transferred their concerns for oppressed people in general to Hamas, essentially identifying with their attackers and rejecting the Israeli efforts to take vengeance. Podhoretz followed up with the comment that Jews are expected to take vengeance when they have been attacked, especially as they were attacked on October 7. Not only is it the right thing to do, but they alone are responsible for saving their state and vanquishing the enemy.

Fortunately, some Jews have decided to create conversations about Israel and take on the issue of Zionism:

The inaugural three-day conference, ‘Zionism: A New Conversation,’ provided a fresh opportunity for a wide range of rabbis to grapple with modern-day Israel. The conference, which ended Tuesday, brought 110 rabbis from congregations, day schools, rabbinical schools and Jewish organizations across America to Miami for sometimes tough conversations; it was sponsored by the Lisa and Michael Leffell Foundation, the Paul E. Singer Foundation and the Maimonides Fund.

They collected substantial information from across the Jewish spectrum to prepare for the conference, especially confronting the tough questions which come up about Zionism, Israel and the faith.

Rachel Fish, the co-founder of Boundless, a think-action tank looking to revitalize Israel education and combat Jew-hatred, spoke at the conference:

During her two sessions at the conference, she encouraged rabbis to ‘be brave individuals, because they need to model moral courage for their congregants, for their students, for their educators, for the larger community, and they can’t avoid the hard topics.’

They need to remember that talking about Israel is ‘not so complicated,’ she said. You can disagree with the government and its actions. ‘You can hold all of that complexity, but the conversation that’s taking place in the public square is adjudicating Israel’s right to exist. It is not nuanced. It is not holding the complexity. [It’s starting with the idea that] Israel was born in sin and therefore it has no right to exist. That’s what they have to be able to address.’

I don’t know how this question of Zionism will be resolved in the long-term. I wonder how many people, particularly Jews, believe that the survival of Israel needs to be central to Jewish identity?