{"id":56369,"date":"2017-10-02T17:05:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=56369"},"modified":"2017-10-02T14:11:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T12:11:25","slug":"07-05-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=56369","title":{"rendered":"Catalonia: Jewish Community Split Over Secession Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Catalonia Independence Activist: Jewish Community Split Over Secession Vote<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Benjamin Kerstein<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A demonstration in Bilbao, Basque Country in solidarity with the Catalan independence referendum, September 16th, 2017. Photo: Wikipedia.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish community in Catalonia is \u201cheavily split\u201d on the question of possible independence for the region of northeast Spain, a local activist asserted, as the vote on secession and police attempts to stop it continued on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking from a polling station in Catalonia, Borja Vilallonga, an Orthodox Jew who is the editor of the prominent weekly magazine El Temps and an independence activist, said that the Catalan Jewish community, which numbers some 4-5,000 people, is bitterly divided on the issue. He described the split as \u201cacute and painful\u201d and noted that it appears to be taking place along denominational lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have on the one side the more liberal Jews\u2014also most converts\u2014who support independence. They have a movement called Jews for Independence. They have been very vocal since the very beginning of the secession movement,\u201d Vilallonga told The Algemeiner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have a new collective that appeared a month ago,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey call themselves Jews of Catalonia. They are more traditional and conservative and they heavily denounce separatism as something going against halacha (Jewish law). They consider that the referendum is going against the law of the land and the halacha defends the law of the land, so going against the law of the land is going against halacha.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasically,\u201d he concluded, \u201cwe\u2019re split.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Vilallonga, while himself Orthodox, is nonetheless a strong supporter of independence. \u201cI\u2019m separatist,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve been a long time separatist. I\u2019ve been politically involved from the very beginning of its foundation. My magazine has a deeply separatist editorial line. So I stand for this, but I\u2019m also not a liberal. I\u2019m a halachic conservative and I take this very seriously. So I was very shocked to see that there was a group of Jews in Barcelona arguing against secession on these grounds, which could be easily challenged. \u2026You have Soloveichik writing about the right of revolution and halacha. So this is basically my stance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether the secessionist movement has a positive or negative view of Israel, Vilallonga answered with a fascinating history lesson. Noting that the liberal Jews in favor of independence are \u201cheavily Zionist,\u201d he pointed out that Catalan nationalism itself has \u201cZionistic roots. The movement emerged as the Jewish state was created in \u201948, so the Catalan nationalism in the \u201950s was modeled on the Israeli experiment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This affection for Zionism, he said, remains \u201cdespite the fact that the left-leaning group of separatists are pro-Palestinian, and they don\u2019t really appreciate any kind of Zionistic leanings. So you have these two poles, extremely contradictory, but very present. I see a big line in front of me of people waiting to vote, they could have very opposed feelings about whether they are siding with the Zionists or if they are siding with the Palestinians. It depends on the generation, it depends on the ideology, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he asserted, \u201cZionism is very powerful in Catalan nationalism, historically and in the present.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote itself is currently not going well, Vilallonga noted, because \u201cthere\u2019s been a lot of violence on the part of the police.\u201d At his polling station, he said, the servers have gone down and activists have been using a hot spot on his cell phone and a VPN (Virtual Private Network) through Canada in order to continue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe oppression has been bloody. It has been merciless,\u201d he said of the Spanish authorities\u2019 attempt to block the vote. \u201cThey have been beating old people. They have been beating children. It\u2019s nonsensical. \u2026I think at this point it\u2019s extremely open, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. \u2026The next few days are going to be critical.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

twoje uwagi, linki, wlasne artykuly, lub wiadomosci przeslij do: webmaster@reunion68.com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catalonia Independence Activist: Jewish Community Split Over Secession Vote Benjamin Kerstein A demonstration in Bilbao, Basque Country in solidarity with the Catalan independence referendum, September 16th, 2017. Photo: Wikipedia. The Jewish community in Catalonia is \u201cheavily split\u201d on the question of possible independence for the region of northeast Spain, a local activist asserted, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56369"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56385,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56369\/revisions\/56385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}