The fake Jewish family on the Far Left
Did you renew your subscription for the Jewish Chronicle? You must do it quickly because this year might be the last. You know, the oldest Jewish newspaper of Europe may cease its publications in the coming months. It is currently boycotted by JewDas.
JewDas, as you know, is an anti-Zionist group. Most of its members, if not all, were among the small crowd who famously said Kaddish for Gaza. They also held a Pesach Seder last year with Jeremy Corbyn as the main guest, with whom they are apparently well connected. They wanted to prove to the public that that man, who calls Hezbollah “my friends”, was not a threat to the Jewish community. Not a very successful enterprise: if you look at the polls, Jeremy Corbyn is still the most unpopular leader among the English Jews. Given the precedents, one wonders how effective can be this boycott.
Why has JewDas launched this campaign (on Twitter, where else)? You see, these militants are furious with the Jewish Chronicle, because of an article (you can also find it in this week’s printed edition). The author of the article is guilty of not showing enough enthusiasm for the last JewDas related enterprise, which is, wait for it, a video posted on social media. Really subversive stuff, you see.
In this video, you can see a young-ish militant of JewDas and a couple of other Leftist Jews, both quite senior indeed, plus the Dear Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn in person. This learned Leftist Jewish threesome, teach Jeremy Corbyn, and the viewers of the video, that Rosh Hashanah is about “one of the most important elements of Judaism, the guardianship of the Earth”. Which gives to the man who calls Hezbollah “my friends”, Jeremy Corbyn, the opportunity to explain that if you really care for the environment, that is if you want to be a good Jew, you must vote for his Party. If you do not, then you are not a good Jew.
This from the English politician who believes we cannot get English irony. I must say that I personally found this video very amusing. It showed, as I said, a young-ish radical, who literally worships Jeremy Corbyn, under the benevolent eyes of two elderly militants, who happen to be a man and a woman, in a greengrocer shop in Islington (again, where else?). It looked like the dream family, Jewish and not Zionist, that this poor kid is so desperate to have, to claim his own place in the great book of Jewish history.
Yes, because for these folks, radical antiZionist militants, the Jewish world is a family, guilty to have rejected them. Think of the most known specimen of anti-Zionist Jew, the one we know here in Brighton. He’s the son of a Rabbi! It is so obvious why he is furious against the Jewish world. Equally, if you look at the video we are talking about, even at the single footage published by the Jewish Chronicle, you can see that the young(ish) militant is eager to look like a nice Jewish boy next to Grandpa and Grandma. Which they are not. It is a fake family. Those two, Jon Lansman from Momentum, and Labour councillor Sue Lukes are not related in any way, except because of their ideology and their opposition to Israel.
The same ideology that motivated the kid to organise a Kaddish for Gaza, to condone publicly, as a Jew, anti-Semitic terrorists. The same ideology 0f the son of the Rabbi down here, who once threatened to assault this synagogue because the Rabbi (which is me) is, he claims, an “anti Arab racist”. By the way, the young-ish militant of JewDas whom you see in the video called me in the same way: “anti-Palestinian racist”, and kept silent when I was threatened. What a strange coincidence.
To be honest, looking at the video, my first reaction was a very Rabbinic observation. They call the apple “a fruit of the earth”. But in Jewish practice the apple it is not a fruit of the earth, it is a fruit of the tree, as it is known by whoever has uttered at least once the proper bracha over apple and honey, for example, the five-year-old students at our Cheder. Again, the young-ish Jew-ish kid-ish is eager to show off that he knows about Judaism; but he does not. Amusing.
Others were less amused and have reacted with outrage to the video. More than one viewer, (including Labour members), commented on Twitter, that Rosh Hashanah is not about climate change but rather introspection, self-examination, and apologies. Jeremy Corbyn, thus, has lost another opportunity to apologise to the Jewish community, in times when Jewish MPs are put on trial by his own party.
The Jewish Chronicle gave an account, in a correct and journalistically appropriate way, of the video and of the outrage it has caused in the Jewish world, or at least in those with enough time at their disposal to follow what happens in the certain fringes on the Left. And this has caused a furore in the JewDas corner. As a reaction, they have started this JewDas campaign of boycott, which will probably achieve what all the JewDas activities and campaigns have achieved so far: nothing, except getting the Jewish media to talk about JewDas. The image of immature teenagers screaming for attention comes to mind another time. And now you have those who complain of being silenced and censored, who want to silence a Jewish newspaper, just to add a Stalinist flavour to their weird version of Judaism.
The whole matter is so depressing. During these days of teshuvah, of repentance, it is perfectly legitimate, more so, it is praiseworthy, to think of climate change. If we really care about the environment we must rethink, and seriously reconsider our lifestyle and the choices we make. Care for the environment IS a Jewish value. It is not by chance that Israel is a leader in countering the climate change, and at the forefront of the development of renewable energies.
In this field, Israel is truly a light unto the nations, although I doubt that the JewDas crowd ever bothered to take notice. The care for the environment is truly a global cause and can be a reason for unity across different faiths, factions, and of course inside the Jewish world. The Rabbis taught that the Temple had been destroyed, twice, because the Israelites stopped observing the shemitah, and indulged in over-exploitation of the earth. This is a teaching for all the Jews, Orthodox, Reform, Masorti, Liberal…
These days of repentance are the proper time to consider what to do, to rethink our lifestyle and the choices we make. Climate change is an emergency for everyone. It is a pity that this important issue, that requires unity, is exploited by sanctimonious and immature militants, only to cause divisions within the community. They can do better. We all can do better. Let us try to do better.
Shabbat Shuva 5780, Brighton & Hove Reform Synagogue