I just finished an excellent book, highly recommend it to everyone, written by an imprisoned Soviet dissident, Israeli politician (all the way to the deputy PM), and the head of Sochnut (The Jewish Agency) – in equal measure, 9 years each. A fascinating read in which he argues how important the diaspora is to Israel, and how important Israel is to the diaspora. Which made me think about how our (a broad community of BCAA members) different politics can easily tear us apart, if we let it.
Today, we Jews stand against two powerful tides sweeping the world. One is the tide of illiberal liberalism. It speaks in the name of universal human rights, but in its extreme form denies the value of a nation-state while seeing Israel as the last remnant of colonialism. But Israel, the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people, insists that its strong bottom-up grassroots national identity, consecrated by the will of the people, gives it the strength to be the only island of democracy in the Middle East.
Opposing illiberal liberalism is also the tide of the new nationalism, which appeals to a lost sense of national pride and helps to mobilize the energy citizens get from belonging. But it, in its extreme form, is illiberal. Most members of the progressive Jewish community oppose this extreme, insisting that their strong liberal society preserves their Jewish identity.
Each community is doing what it does naturally to survive. But when the Jewish world works together, as a Jewish democratic state in the Middle East and as a constellation of minority Jewish communities in Western democracies, we can bring out the best in each other. Benefiting from the best of liberalism and the best of nationalism, together we can champion the joint mission to belong and to be free as both central to human happiness. This synthesis could also help moderate some of the extremes afflicting the West and affecting each of us in our respective communities today. This approach requires a conceptual leap in all societies, accepting that we are complementary, not carbon copies of one another.
Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy. Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People, 2020.
And this is how Sharansky ends this 2020 book, with these five rules for surviving the COVID epidemic, but I think they transcend that. You may think of them of how to be Never Alone.
• First, remember that you are a soldier in a bigger struggle, and you have an important role to play in determining whether we win or lose.
• Second, don’t try controlling what you can’t control—focus on what you can control. You cannot control when this craziness will finish, but, in the meantime, you can take on ambitious plans to challenge yourself. Learn a new language. Read that thick book. Clean your closets—or finally build that new one. Don’t let corona bring you to despair.
• Third, don’t stop laughing at yourself and the world—it puts everything in proportion.
• Fourth, use your hobbies, like I used chess. This is your time to enjoy life.
• Fifth, always remember that you are part of something bigger than yourself.
Ibid.
Brock Coalition Against Antisemitism 