One People! One Antiracist Community in a House of Worship for All Nations!

בֵיתִ֔י בֵּית־תְּפִלָּ֥ה יִקָּרֵ֖א לְכׇל־הָעַמִּֽים׃

Isaiah 56:7c

Judaism is not an ethnic religion. To be Jewish is not about belonging to any specific ethnic group, regardless that in the USA for legal reasons it is both. Judaism is the biblical faith, although today with the Rabbinical touch (commentaries and interpretations on how to practice it – Some Jewish scholars would argue modern Judaism is an “invention” of the Rabbis). Its origins go back to an ancient nation called Israel, later divided between Israel and Judah; Judah becoming the centre of the faith, i.e., Jerusalem, hence the adjective Jew or Jewish. However, Judaism or should we say, the faith of the Hebrew prophets, was intended to be the faith for every nation. Just as the house of worship in Judaism is for all nations. Even in the ancient days, Israel/Judah had their origins within many ethnic groups that came out of Egypt with the children of Jacob and the Hebrew-Egyptian children of Joseph. Today the diversity is greater. Tragically, even in some synagogues Jewish people refer to Judaism as an ethnic religion and about themselves as being “white.” This follows the politically motivated definition of “white” in the USA which includes Northern Africa’s communities of Arabs, Egyptian, and Jewish descendants regardless of the colour of the skin.

The Nazis erred by classifying the Jewish people as a "race," adding that we were of a lower "race." Then placing the yellow star on their clothes to identify this "lower race." The labels and insults were not just with words, now with an actual label. Racism was not the only issue, after all there were many people from German ancestry who were part of the Jewish faith and suffered the tragic crime of the Holocaust. 

The Nazis persecuted German people from many other religious and ethnic groups. They sent to forced labour camps German members of the Watchtower, especially because they opposed military service. The Gypsies (Romani people) were also victimized due to their ethnic origins and traditions. German homosexuals were also discriminated and sent to die. There were people, regardless of ethnicity, who suffered under the Nazi regime due to mental health or physical limitations. However, it seems that the Nazis made the Jewish people, either for religious, economical or race reasons, or all of the above, the main target of their racist campaign. A good resource on antisemitism per se is the booklet A Brief History of Antisemitism by the ADL. Another article is Antisemtism in American History. It shows the growing racism and prejudice against the Jewish people in the USA, regardless of the romanticizing of USA history by (a great teacher) Rabbi Meir Soloveichik (currently serving as the Rabbi of the oldest Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in Manhattan). Another important organization fighting antisemitism and other type of ethnic discrimination is the Simon Wiesenthal Center. They also have excellent resources on this important topic.

Louis Harap wrote in Creative Awakening The Jewish Presence in Twentieth-century American Literature, 1900-1940s (page 24), the following: 

Anti-Semitism can be religious (Jew as Christ-killer), economic (Jew as banker, usurer, money-obsessed), social (Jew as social inferior, "pushy," vulgar, therefore excluded from personal contact), racist (Jews as an inferior "race"), ideological (Jew regarded as subversive or revolutionary), or cultural (or as undermining the moral and structural fiber of civilization). It can be an inchoate feeling, a mindless repetition of anti-Jewish verbal cliches and locutions, which we might call "folk anti-Semitism," or it may be an articulated system of ideas that rationalizes the particular variety of anti-Semitism entertained. Very often one resorts to several contradictory types at one.

Racist antisemitism, within all its forms, seems to be the main reason for the Holocaust suffered by the Jewish people. Jonathan Greenblatt, of the ADL, is correct in his answer to a comment by Whoopi Goldberg, said: “There’s no question that the Holocaust was about race. That’s how the Nazis saw it as they perpetrated the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people across continents, across countries.” However, let us take out “instead” from the comments by Goldberg and we must agree with her, a member of the Jewish faith by confession and practice as she stated in earlier interviews (I do not know if that have changed), that the Holocaust was also “about man’s inhumanity to man.” The crimes of the Holocaust, as well as the Inquisition, and many other type and forms of persecution of the Jewish people, either targeting them as an ethnic community or a religious group, must be prevented from ever happening again against anyone, Jews and non-Jews. 

Whoopi Goldberg's comment do raise questions we need to answer to ourselves. It is understandable when some African Americans, even some members of the Jewish faith, see the horrible persecution of Jewish people by the Nazis as a power struggle within the "white" people. That's if they are just looking at the colour of the skin of the Jews of Germany and Poland who look more like the Germans than Middle Eastern communities. The impression some African American get is that these Jewish people were part of this German "white race" too. They get the idea that these Jewish communities were discriminated as Irish Travellers are discriminated by other Irish who seem them as inferior. Of course, Nazis saw it differently. Their racist views saw Jewish people no just as an inferior "race" but also as evil and completely outside of the so called "white race." Their antisemitism was also religious anti Judaism, political and cultural etc. Either way the Holocaust suffered by Jews, Gypsies, Gays, Conscientious Objectors, and others was one of the most horrible war crimes modern times witnessed. 

Whoopi Goldberg has her freedom to interpret events and express her opinion. The censorship and discipline imposed on her just feed the lies of the "white supremacists" in the USA who claim that the Jewish people control the media system. Obviously it is not a fact.

African Americans have asked why the Holocaust against black Africans and Native Americans is not remembered internationally with the same respect and lament. They have a good question. These tragic evil events must be remembered with the same respect so they never happen again. NEVER AGAIN!

In the following music video one of the most beautiful songs in Hebrew is performed. Sadly, the images misrepresent the Jewish people and perpetuate ethnic and religious prejudices within our own communities. In the video there are only so called “white” Jews. No Jewish person with darker skin from Sephardic, Mizrachi, and descendants of Ethiopian Beta Israel are included. Much less the Chinese Jews or the African American Jewish communities. Reform, Conservative (Masorti), Reconstructionist, or any member of another Jewish denomination, except Orthodox are included. Surprisingly a secular Israeli is included, just as an invitation attempting to reach out to this fast-growing segment, perhaps the majority, in modern Israeli society. No all Jews speak Yiddish. Some speak Aramaic, others Arabic or the Judaeo-Arabic dialect. There are those who speak Spanish (castellano) or the modern dialect developed from XV Century castellano called Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish), a language in its own merits. Modern Israeli Hebrew is becoming a common language, although there are also political diversities within the Jewish communities in Israel and outside it. A diversity some "extremists" within the Jewish and Israeli communities do not welcome. Antisemitism is growing even within Israel among some Israeli citizens, not just among the communities called Palestinians. White supremacist views are held by some in Tel Aviv. Confusing? Who says that racism is not a confusion of the mind that forgets the humanity of everyone?

While we must work against antisemitism, we must also work against racism within our own communities; against the prejudices of Jews against other Jewish people, or against others outside the Jewish faith. We must become antiracist communities if we want to overcome antisemitism. Our temples, synagogues, must become a House of Worship for All Nations.