Jewish anti-Zionists: The wayward sons of our generation

The phenomenon of fellow Jews misunderstanding the essence of our unique Jewish mission is, unfortunately, not new. It is nonetheless deeply disturbing. 

To fit in with the dominant religious or cultural orders, some Jews have, throughout history, been willing to sever parts of our complex identity – cutting the indelible bond between Judaism and Jewish nationhood, while remaining determined somehow to maintain their association with the Jewish community. Jews for Jesus abandoned Judaism, while the early German Reformers – “Germans of the Mosaic persuasion”– abandoned Jewish peoplehood. 

Today’s Jewish anti-Zionists pursue the same goal, wishing to cling to Judaism while forsaking a core principle of both Judaism and Jewish nationhood: the ingathering of the exiles and the right of the Jewish people to sovereignty and self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Biblical and rabbinic tradition make it abundantly clear there cannot be authentic Judaism without the inextricable link between Judaism, Jewish peoplehood, and Jewish statehood in our ancestral homeland. 

I have personally witnessed, in both New York and Toronto, members of Neturei Karta – thankfully numbering no more than a few hundred misguided Jews worldwide but perhaps the most dangerous representatives of this phenomenon because of their outward appearances – marching side by side with Hamas supporters calling for the annihilation of Israel. 

On the progressive left, the numbers are unfortunately larger, though still marginal to mainstream Jewish communities. Incredibly, these types of Jews are able to somehow march alongside supporters of murderous internationally recognised annihilationist radical terror regimes – such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the ayatollahs – while feeling almost nothing for the suffering of their own people. 

With pain, I would humbly contend that these Jews are the wayward sons of our generation, the very figure we read about in the Haggadah. 

The Haggadah depicts the wayward son as one who sets himself apart from the Jewish people and places himself outside Jewish communal life. The Haggadah is harshly direct and critical to this well-meaning but wayward child, since he excludes himself from the people of Israel (Klal Yisrael), he has denied a fundamental principle of our faith. You should blunt his teeth and say to him that had he been in Egypt, he would not have been redeemed. 

Faith is not independent of fate, and Judaism is not independent of the Jewish people. One cannot claim to be either a good religious or humanitarian Jew without being intrinsically connected to the particular fate of our collective family and fortune of our people. Not out of tribal honour, but because of kinship of family. Kindness and charity does not end in the home but most certainly begins there. 

The Haggadah could not be clearer as to who the misguided wayward children are – Jews who want Judaism without Jewish peoplehood, faith without collective fate, universalism without the bonds of brotherhood. 

These often well-meaning but wayward members of our community need to decide which side of Jewish and human history they stand. If they do not feel the pain and cry of their long-suffering extended family and historic community, from Pharaoh’s horrific decrees through to the barbarism of Hamas and Hezbollah, the Haggadah is clear: they have divorced themselves from authentic Jewish life. 

To those who question whether this wayward Jew can still find their way back, I believe the answer is a resounding “yes”. I will never forget how a meeting of South African Jewish community leadership played an important role in shifting the views of Justice Richard Goldstone. 

Goldstone naively led a harsh and characteristically biased United Nations report condemning Israel for war crimes and potential crimes against humanity in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9. 

The Goldstone Report was released in September 2009, triggering outrage in Israel and across the Jewish world. Goldstone believed that leading this libellous report did not disqualify him from being a good Jew, a Zionist even, as he saw himself. 

He did not anticipate the uproar that erupted or the planned communal protests surrounding his scheduled participation in his grandson’s Barmitzvah in April 2010. An agreement was reached: no protests, on condition that Goldstone meet with the leadership of the South African Jewish community. He agreed, and we met on 3 May 2010, exceptionally led by then chairperson of the South Zionist Federation Avrom Krengel. 

It was a remarkable meeting that I had the privilege to attend. Leaders from left and right, religious and secular, across all Jewish streams, came together with one clear message: not in our name. You cannot claim to be a faithful Jew and Zionist when you have caused greater damage to Israel than arguably any other Jew of our time. 

I was the last to speak – rabbinic privilege. Drawing on the proximity to Pesach, I explained to Goldstone who the wayward son of the Haggadah is and why his actions had made him such a harmful son of our people. We left that difficult but necessary meeting with the sense that our words had been heard. 

Less than a year later, in April 2011, Goldstone incredibly retracted the key findings of his report, stating that the evidence did not support the claim that Israel had intentionally targeted civilians. He expressed regret over the report’s conclusions and acknowledged that the report had failed to give sufficient attention to Hamas’s targeting of Israeli civilians. 

Goldstone understood, it seems, that as long as he wished to remain part of the Jewish community, he couldn’t be oblivious to its pain and suffering, certainly not while actively strengthening the hand of its sworn, brutal terrorist enemy. If a wayward son wishes to be embraced by his family and people, he must return to them. 

We are one family and ought to do all we can to preserve that family. The Haggadah reminds us that to be unable to feel the collective pain of our people is to miss something fundamental about Jewish life. It also reminds us that the wayward child is present at the table and wants to be part of our family story. We must be honest with them about their destructive ideas and actions. Without truth they cannot learn. But without love and an open heart, they may never return. 

• Rabbi Doron Perez is president of the World Zionist Organization and executive chairperson of the World Mizrachi Movement. He is an oleh from South Africa.