Time for Israelis to listen to the murmurings of their American brethren... before it's too late.
Inimical to Democracy
Estelle Gilson
EXCLUSION is inimical to democracy. For all the United States' faults, its struggle has been to include.
Though Jews arriving in this country in the middle of this century experienced anti-Semitism here, they were safe from pogroms and learned with pride, as did their children, that they were living in a nation in which white men had fought each other to free black slaves. In their lifetimes these Jews saw American anti-Semitism essentially disappear; saw this once anti-Catholic country elect a Catholic president, move to integrate its black population into new streams of opportunity, recognize and begin to redress the wrongs it had perpetrated against Native Americans. They saw the United States lurch, however unevenly, toward inclusion.
Inclusion has allowed American Jews to sleep soundly and dream large. Its concomitant struggle to provide justice and opportunity to all, in which American Jews have participated, reflects the noblest goals of both American democracy and Jewish ethical teachings.
Israel, born of a commitment to embrace all Jews and found a social democracy, has been not merely a source of joy to American Jews, but insurance, if you will, for their sound sleep and large dreams.
Passage of "who is a Jew" legislation in Israel, which would bar Jews from marrying whom they wish, from worshipping where they wish, points toward exclusion of Israeli as well as Diaspora Jews from living freely within the nation.
Exclusion, no matter its motivation, is never a remedy. We have all seen what it leads to: hate, fear and violence. For Jews to suffer state-sanctioned exclusion, and the kind of insults, public humiliation and violence at the hands of Israeli haredim that their ancestors suffered at the hands of Christians and Muslims throughout history, would be perilously repugnant, ultimately murderous.
I don't believe Americans, Jews or not, would long support a nation that violated their most cherished ideals, that stigmatized and sundered the very people it pledged to unite and protect.
Estelle Gilson is a writer without any pertinent affiliations.
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