(RNS)– In reporter Joshua Leifer's brand-new book, a sweeping historic account of American Judaism, is an impassioned indictment of a fractured and controversial spiritual custom. His main charge is that Judaism is hindered by its accept of Zionism, which has actually ended up being an alternative to the faith itself.
It was for that reason paradoxical that recently, a Brooklyn book shop canceled a book talk with Leifer, where he was slated to go over “Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life,” with a popular Reform rabbi. The factor for the cancellation? The rabbi's proclaimed Zionism. (The book talk was later on rescheduled and occurred previously today at another location.)
In his book, which covers a whole century, Leifer, 30, now a Ph.D. prospect in history at Yale University, explains the number of 20th-century Jews, getting away pogroms in Europe, settled in America and for the a lot of part shed their spiritual customs and accepted Americanism, ending up being extremely effective hyphenated Americans. After 1967, they significantly discovered in Zionism and assistance for Israel a replacement for spiritual faith and custom.
Over the previous 50 years, the most crucial spiritual Jewish facility companies, at first established to combat discrimination and champ equivalent rights, moved their focus to Israel advocacy. Groups such as the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations ended up being subsumed with a genuine– and typically craven– assistance for Israel. The exact same ended up being real of the liberal spiritual customs that have actually ended up being less moored in custom and more in multiculturalism and syncretism.
Registered nurses overtook Leifer just recently to speak about his book. The interview has actually been modified for length and clearness.
What lesson did you obtain from the earlier book cancellation? Do you see a restriction on Zionism as antisemitic?
A blanket restriction on anybody thought about a Zionist is in impact antisemitic since it disallows the large bulk of Jews from the phase. It likewise shows the removal of subtlety and of intricacy from the general public conversation. Zionism suggests various things to various individuals.
In your book you handle Jewish organizations really powerfully for their genuine assistance of Israel. How have they responded to it?
Among the paradoxes of the occasion cancellation is that facility groups that had actually been extremely unwilling to have contact with the book in fact started to connect. That has actually been a little bit of a surprise. It's likewise discouraging, due to the fact that these mainstream Jewish companies that took on the cancellation have themselves cast out critics of Israeli policy for years, and continue to disregard what has actually been at the center of my work: the immorality and destructiveness of Israel's profession.
The thrust of your book is that Zionism has actually ended up being the center of American Jewish life to the point that it superseded the Torah and the Commandments. Inform me why you believe that occurred.
A great deal of American Jews were enthralled with Israel after its success in the Six Day War,
