The world notices when Jews behave badly

JONATHAN S. TOBIN

Incidents of Jews spitting at Christians in Jerusalem deserve condemnation. But in a world that is indifferent to so much suffering, why do so many people care so much about it?

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Thousands of Christian evangelists and Israelis march at a parade in center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot or the Feast of the Tabernacles, Oct. 4, 2023. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90..

It’s the sort of thing that makes Jews around the world cringe in disgust and shame. Videos of haredi Jews spitting at Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem or at the entrance to a church in the Old City during Sukkot went viral in recent days. Among Israelis and Jews around the world, the incidents set off an orgy of condemnations and soul-searching, in addition to some unpersuasive rationalizations.

Yet one has to wonder why so many people are ready to pile on the Jews when they are seen to behave badly amid relative indifference to what goes on in the world that is inarguably so much worse. To note this is not to justify or even downplay the awfulness of Jews behaving in such a manner. But it is hard to ignore the eagerness of so many, including and perhaps especially secular liberal Jews, to seize on any evidence that their religious brethren have some flawed individuals in their ranks.

Nevertheless, there should be no mixed messaging about how wrong it is for Jews—in Israel or anywhere else—to mistreat members of another faith. There is no excuse or context that can make it right or even understandable for a Jew, religious or not, to spit on anyone or even at the ground in their presence, or, needless to say, near a holy site or house of worship.

In the days since the videos were published, a discussion has started about there being a tradition of some sort, among Ashkenazi Jews, of spitting in response to the presence of Christians.

The notion that this was widespread or in any way justified by religious authorities is highly doubtful. To the extent that there is any truth to it, it was clearly a matter of a secret protest against the persecution that Jews faced in Christian nations. But whatever Jews might have done to express their resentment against those who oppressed them in the past, the idea that a Jew living in a Jewish state in 2023 should feel entitled to engage in an act of public contempt for a religious minority living in their midst is outrageous. Anyone who thinks this is a tradition that should be passed on to the young is doing Judaism and the Jewish people a grave disservice, as well as demonstrating their own bad character.

That is why whatever other emotions these videos evoke, there can be some satisfaction that some of the spitters were arrested. It is also reassuring to note that condemnation came from across the spectrum of Jewish life, including Israeli political leaders like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even right-wing figures like Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is often the target of opprobrium for his own statements and conduct.

Christians deserve respect

This should go beyond the current debates between religious and secular Jews or even those about whether or not Christians seek to proselytize among Jews.

That the targets for these incidents were foreign evangelical Christians visiting Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is especially outrageous.

These Christians are devoted supporters of Israel. They come to the Jewish state on pilgrimages both to practice their faith in the land of its origin as well as to express their love for Israel. For even a tiny minority of Israelis to mistreat them is not only morally wrong, it’s also a blow to the country’s efforts to build support abroad. It undermines the dedicated efforts of Christian Zionists—such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, which organizes the annual Sukkot event—to combat the slurs and lies of antisemites. These friends should be welcomed to Israel with open arms, and that is how most Israelis rightly regard them.

And while the political divide on many issues between pro-Israel Christian conservatives and liberal Jews in the United States is enormous, American Jews should think of them in the way Israelis do. The contempt many on the Jewish left have for these same evangelicals is no less disgraceful than the behavior of those who spat at them.

Nor should the fact that some Christians seek to spread their faith in Israel in any way justify these incidents.

Jews have a long memory of past injustices. Throughout the period that lasted from the Christian faith’s conquest of the Roman Empire to the modern era, there were numerous attempts at forced mass conversions that were punctuated by massacres or forced exiles of Jews from countries they had long inhabited.

Christians may have a religious obligation to share what they believe is the “good news” of their faith with non-believers. But they should always tread carefully among Jews, who harbor a natural resentment against those seeking to entice them away from their heritage—whether by honest advocacy or, as is sometimes the case with so-called “messianic Jews,” with arguments that are disingenuous or downright deceptive.

Still, while their sensibilities should be respected, Jews living in free countries—let alone a Jewish state—should have enough confidence in their own identity to regard Christian missionaries with benign indifference. The notion that such Christians present a genuine threat to the Jewish people is nonsense. If a small number convert, then the fault lies far more with the failure of Jews to educate their children about their heritage and faith than anything else.

In Israel, where the right to free speech and free exercise of religion is not protected by a First Amendment, as it is in the United States, this is sometimes forgotten. Any Jew who is offended by the presence of Christian exercising their faith or even advocating for it should just have the grace to ignore it.

The appetite for stories of Jewish misbehavior

Yet even if all this is true, it’s still worth asking why the actions of only a few Jews who behave in this way should be considered such a big deal.

Part of it is the standard logic of journalism in which “man bites dog” stories are always considered more newsworthy and interesting than those in which the dog is behaving like a dog and doing the biting. So, when Jews—who are a religious minority everywhere but in the State of Israel—act like bullies towards a minority faith, it is bound to evince interest.

Sadly, the appetite for stories of Jewish misbehavior is also always proportional to the intensity of antisemitism, such as the present, when there is a rising tide of Jew-hatred around the globe. That is primarily manifested in efforts to delegitimize the one Jewish state on the planet. Thus, it is a given that anything that makes Jews appear in a bad light or abusing their majority status in their own homeland will be highlighted by a media culture that is already predisposed to attack Israel.

To these unfortunate factors, we must now add another motive for giving the spitting incidents more attention than they might otherwise deserve: the secular-religious divide.

The protest movement against the Israeli government’s judicial reform is driven more by resentment on the part of the secular liberal sector of Israeli society towards the religious than any real concerns about the future of “democracy.” Given the absurdity and oppressive nature of the official Orthodox rabbinate that has control of life-cycle events and the refusal of the haredim to serve in the military or take part in the economy, some of that resentment is justified. But as the events of the last week showed, in which the city of Tel Aviv has sought to effectively forbid public prayer services by Orthodox Jews and secular activists have assaulted and disrupted such services, this anti-religious spirit is one motivated primarily by intolerance for the religious than anything else.

That is why the left-wing press in Israel, such as Haaretz and Times of Israel, which have carried the water for a movement that is rooted in the desire of the secular liberal elites to defend their last bastion of unaccountable power—Israel’s Supreme Court—have been so quick to treat the spitting incidents as more evidence of the inherent badness of their religious and nationalist political foes.

I don’t sympathize with those on the Israeli right who pointed out that more Israelis were arrested for spitting at Christians than for attacking religious Jews who had the temerity to pray in public. The spitters are despicable and deserve whatever is coming to them. But those who consider the spitters to justify a new variant of politics that can be fairly described as anti-Judaism are no better than the rabbis they condemn.

In a world where the ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs in China is ignored and anti-Jewish terrorism is considered so commonplace as to hardly rate a mention in the press, let’s not pretend that this story is anything more than a lamentable curiosity. The desire to hype it out of all proportion to its actual importance is every bit as disgusting as the act itself.

JONATHAN S. TOBIN – is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.

‘A Lot of Anti-Israeli Feeling Is Antisemitism,’ Says Writer of Golda Meir Film

Shiryn Ghermezian

Helen Mirren in character as Golda Meir in a scene from the Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ film “Golda.” Photo: Sean Gleason, courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures

The screenwriter of the recently released film Golda, a biographical drama about former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, said in a new interview that he hoped the movie would “help people understand” Israel’s history and provide some education to audience members who are critical of the Jewish state.

“There is antisemitism and there is anti-Israeli feeling, and the two crossover,” Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Martin told Yahoo UK. “If the truth is told, I think that a lot of anti-Israeli feeling is antisemitism in disguise.”

“When people are talking about Israel, they usually don’t know what they’re talking about, and they have no sense of the complexity and the nuances of Israel’s history,” Martin continued. “If we are ever going to diffuse this tremendous problem, this tremendous hatred felt between these two communities, the only way it will be done will be through learning and education.”

Golda, directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, stars British actress Dame Helen Mirren as Meir and focuses on the late prime minister’s time in office during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, when she was forced to make hard-pressing decisions for her country.

Martin said Golda is the first film about Israel in the English language that is “accurate” in its portrayal of the country. He added that he hoped the movie would be “useful” for audiences and shed a new light on Meir, who received criticism for some of her decisions during the Yom Kippur War.

“I’ve had very, very positive feedback from Israeli historians who have been saying that they felt that the movie was very accurate,” he noted. “So I think we have changed the narrative, or certainly moved the narrative on with regards to Golda, and that’s been very gratifying. And it’s been very gratifying for her family who have always felt that. Her grandsons have always felt that their grandmother’s reputation needed rescuing, and I think we’re on the way to doing that.”

Meir died in December 1978 at the age of 80 from lymphoma.

When Mirren was first cast to play Israel’s first and only female prime minister in Golda, criticism piled up about the casting of a non-Jewish actress to play an iconic figure in Israel’s history. The film’s director defended the decision ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

Martin also weighed in on the issue, telling Yahoo UK: “I don’t think that argument that only Jewish people should play Jews holds water.”

“I just think if someone has done a really, really good job, that’s all that matters. I’m only really interested in talent, I’m not interested in people’s identity,” he explained. “The fact she’s not Jewish, did that stop her from inhabiting this character? I don’t think so, her family don’t think so, and the audience don’t think so.”

Holenderska minister finansów Sigrid Kaag przemawia przed spotkaniem ministrów finansów Eurogrupy w Brukseli, Belgia, 17 stycznia 2022 r. Zdjęcie: Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock.

Holenderski minister, który finansował palestyński terror, przemawia podczas obchodów Nocy Kryształowej

AKIVA VAN KONINGSVELD
Tłumaczenie: “google.com”

Holenderska minister finansów Sigrid Kaag, która jest żoną byłego palestyńskiego urzędnika, wysłała miliony na rzecz palestyńskiej organizacji pozarządowej powiązanej z terroryzmem.

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Przywódcy gmin żydowskich w Holandii stoją przed trudnymi pytaniami po zaproszeniu na doroczne obchody Nocy Kryształowej ministra rządu, który wysłał miliony euro palestyńskiej organizacji non-profit powiązanej z terroryzmem.

Holenderska minister finansów Sigrid Kaag, która wcześniej pełniła funkcję ministra spraw zagranicznych i współpracy rozwojowej europejskiego kraju, przyznała w 2020 r. przed parlamentem, że jej ministerstwo wypłaciło część pensji dwóm terrorystom zamieszanym w morderstwo izraelskiego nastolatka.

Rina Shnerb (17 l.) zginęła, a jej ojciec i brat zostali ciężko ranni w zamachu bombowym w sierpniu 2019 r. w pobliżu gminy Dolev w Samarii.

Terroryści zamieszani w atak, Samer Arbid i Abdul Razeq Farraj, byli zatrudnieni przez Związek Komitetów Pracy Rolnej (UAWC), który ma bliskie powiązania z grupą terrorystyczną Ludowy Front Wyzwolenia Palestyny.

Ignorując wielokrotne ostrzeżenia izraelskich grup nadzorujących, Kaag, który jest żonaty z Anisem al-Qaqiem, byłym wiceministrem Autonomii Palestyńskiej i ambasadorem OWP, w dalszym ciągu wspierał UAWC, przekazując około 11,7 mln euro (prawie 12,3 mln dolarów) w latach 2017–2020.

Na domiar złego Kaag została przyłapana na kłamstwie, gdy w wywiadzie stwierdziła, że ambasador Holandii odwiedził pogrążoną w żałobie rodzinę. W rzeczywistości ambasador nigdy nie skontaktował się z Shnerbami i choć ostatecznie zerwał on stosunki z UAWC, Haga nie wydała jeszcze oficjalnych przeprosin.

Niemniej jednak holenderscy przywódcy żydowscy zaprosili Kaaga do przemawiania podczas przyszłomiesięcznych obchodów Nocy Kryształowej wraz z przewodniczącym Centralnej Rady Żydowskiej Chananem Hertzbergerem, ambasadorem USA w Holandii Shefali Razdanem Duggalem i ocalałą z Auschwitz Mirjam Weitzner-Smuk.

„Życzę społeczności lepszych przyjaciół”

Noc kryształowa, zwana także „nocą tłuczonego szkła”, była masowym atakiem antyżydowskim, który miał miejsce w nocy z 9 na 10 listopada w Niemczech, Austrii i okupowanym przez Niemców regionie Czechosłowacji. W ciągu 48 godzin naziści zniszczyli synagogi, splądrowali i zdewastowali żydowskie firmy, domy i cmentarze, zabijając Żydów na miejscu.

W ekskluzywnym oświadczeniu dla JNS rodzina Shnerb stwierdziła, że „oburzające” jest zaproszenie Kaaga do udziału w jakimkolwiek wydarzeniu związanym z Shoah.

„Kaag mógł zdecydować, czy finansować terrorystów-zabójców, którzy podobnie jak naziści próbowali mordować Żydów tylko dlatego, że byli Żydami. Kaag zignorował wszystkie znaki ostrzegawcze i nalegał na finansowanie terrorystów LFWP. Następnie terroryści zamordowali Rinę” – stwierdziła rodzina.

„Jak może rzeczywiście potępiać działania nazistów, aktywnie wspierając terrorystów mordujących Żydów?” zakończył oświadczenie.

Sprzeciw wobec obecności Kaaga na wydarzeniu 9 listopada rozpoczął we wtorek Geert Wilders, lider prawicowej Partii Wolności (PVV). Wilders, zagorzały zwolennik Izraela, mieszkał w państwie żydowskim i jest żonaty z byłą węgierską dyplomatą pochodzenia żydowskiego.

„Kaag będzie przemawiał podczas obchodów Nocy Kryształowej?” – napisał Wilders na Twitterze w poście skierowanym do Centralnego Zarządu Żydowskiego. „Została sfotografowana z terrorystą [Jaserem] Arafatem i finansowała terrorystów palestyńskich. Życzę społeczności żydowskiej lepszych przyjaciół” – dodał.

Uderzenie Wildersa nawiązało do rodzinnego zdjęcia z lat 90. XX wieku, na którym Kaag, jej mąż i czwórka dzieci pozowali z przewodniczącym OWP. W tym czasie Kaag pracował dla Agencji ONZ ds. Pomocy i Pracy dla Uchodźców Palestyny na Bliskim Wschodzie (UNRWA).

Tymczasem instytut badawczy NGO Monitor z siedzibą w Jerozolimie, który stał na czele śledztwa w sprawie holenderskiego wsparcia dla palestyńskiego terroryzmu, stwierdził, że Kaag „ma historię wspierania kampanii dezinformacyjnych, które demonizują Izrael poprzez fasadę praw człowieka”.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, założyciel i prezes organizacji pozarządowej Monitor, powiedział w środę JNS, że chociaż holenderska społeczność żydowska mogła zapraszać na to wydarzenie, kogo chciała, wybór Kaaga był „trudny do zrozumienia”.

„Jako minister rozwoju zignorowała raporty z badań NGO Monitor dotyczące finansowania sieci palestyńskich organizacji pozarządowych powiązanych z terroryzmem. Niezależne śledztwo zlecone przez parlament zweryfikowało później dowody wskazujące, że ministerstwo Kaaga wypłaciło pensję organizacji pozarządowej terrorystom LFWP, którzy zamordowali… Rinę Shnerb, i dopiero wtedy zakończono finansowanie” – dodał.

The Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, which was founded in 1997 and counts among its member organizations some of the country’s most prominent Jewish religious and pro-Israel interest groups, claims to “represent the interests of the Jewish community with the government and in society.”

Central Jewish Board chairman Hertzberger did not respond to multiple JNS queries for comment.

Far Left French MP Accused of Antisemitism Over Parliamentary Question Targeting IDF Participation

Ben Cohen

By Abadiea – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

A far left member of the French parliament has been accused of spreading antisemitism by calling on the French authorities to take measures against French citizens who serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

In a question on Tuesday directed at the Ministry of Justice, Sylvie Ferrer — elected to the French parliament in June 2022 as a representative of the far left La France Insoumise (LFI — “France Rising”) — called on the government to take action against the “direct and indirect participation of French citizens in illegal acts.”

Ferrer’s question highlighted the participation of French citizens “in Israeli military programs and indirect financial support for the IDF.” She named five organizations — Sar El, Marva, Mahal, Garin Tsabar, and Atouda — as arranging for “international volunteers to join the Israeli armed forces.” She expressed concern over her realization that “it seems that the French are the most numerous to enlist, representing 43 percent of the volunteers, 90 percent belonging to combat units.”

The MP then complained that “these programs are the subject of publicity on French territory, for example during their presentation on May 26, 2017, at the Grande Synagogue de la Victoire in Paris by an IDF officer. Furthermore, there are a number of associations and support groups that allow the transfer of French donations to IDF soldiers. They benefit from tax deductions due to their status.”

Ferrer went on to state that the “direct or indirect participation of French people in military maneuvers in the Levant raises questions in view of the successive condemnations of the State of Israel by international law.” She added that France “does not seem to be taking the slightest action on its own territory and with its own means to stem this phenomenon, which is said to be proliferating because of the presence of persistent antisemitism in the country.”

Several Jewish leaders voiced outrage over Ferrer’s parliamentary question, among them Yonathan Arfi, president of the umbrella organization Crif.

“Raising the suspicion of the dual loyalty of French Jews: that is basically the only objective of this lying and error-ridden text from LFI MP Sylvie Ferrer,” Arfi posted on the X/Twitter social media platform.

“The anti-Israel obsession on the far left is once again targeting the Jews of France and their attachment to Israel. Jews are French like any other. Sorry, they are not accountable to an LFI MP!” he continued.