Criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic
In early December, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution condemning antisemitism. A local member of Congress, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), was one of the 311 people who voted for it.
Good enough. But the resolution also includes a definition of antisemitism, describing criticism of Israel as a form of antisemitism.
Really? The many thousands of Jews, like myself, who support the human rights of all people, including Palestinians, are antisemitic? How crazy is that?
The House of Representatives, including my own member, is weaponizing my belief in the most basic tenet of my sacred Judaism to attack me? This is what the renowned Jewish leader Rabbi Hillel said about Judaism more than 2,000 years ago: “That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah. The rest is the explanation. Go and learn.”
I’m 78 years old, and I remember when antisemitism was about Jew hatred, excluding Jews from jobs, university entrance and other privileges granted to non-Jews. Practicing the Jewish religion my parents taught me, treating other people the way I want to be treated, is not antisemitism. But opposing me for doing so is.
Lois Pearlman
Guerneville
Dan Kalb deserves better
I was appalled by news of the UC Berkeley environmental studies class that rescinded a guest speaking invitation to Oakland City Council member Dan Kalb because he is not anti-Zionist (“Jewish environmentalist on Oakland City Council disinvited from speaking to UC Berkeley class,” Dec. 14).
There is so much anti-Zionism and antisemitism right now, but this hit close to home, literally: My husband and I had just hosted a fundraiser at our house for Kalb’s state Senate campaign.
Kalb is a thoughtful, progressive, pragmatic legislator with a longstanding track record in environmental advocacy. It’s appalling that these students would impose a litmus test of anti-Zionism on him. They certainly wouldn’t have made such a demand of a non-Jewish guest speaker.
What can we do about this kind of intolerant campus anti-Zionism that spills into antisemitism? In the long run, our young people must learn the importance of listening to and allowing room for opinions that are different from theirs (as well as that there are two peoples with legitimate rights in the Israel-Palestine conflict).
In the short run, I encourage people to donate to Kalb’s state Senate campaign as a way to ensure that voices like his are not silenced. You can get more info at dankalb.net.
Ilana DeBare
Oakland
Support for Israeli policies hurts us all
As we plan communal responses to antisemitism in the year ahead, let us think and act more expansively than erecting larger menorahs requiring 24-hour security (”Hundreds attend Oakland menorah lighting after antisemitic vandalism,” Dec. 14).
To achieve peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, we must raise our voices to demand a two-state solution. As Jews, we have marched for innumerable just causes. We Jews should also have been marching for all these decades to demand a two-state solution. A recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll revealed that a majority of 18- to 24-year-old Americans, whom we know were raised learning the lessons of our civil rights leaders, now believe Israel should no longer exist! Perhaps they would have joined our voices for justice in the Middle East.
Our silence makes us complicit in the Israeli government policies that strengthen and abet the occupation and thus foment worldwide rage, anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
James Gracer
Oakland
Jewish staffers’ baffling response
One can understand why people concerned about the death toll in Gaza might advocate for a cease-fire. Even with knowledge that the Hamas-reported death toll is inflated and that a significant number of the dead are Hamas fighters, nobody should be celebrating the civilian deaths. While Hamas bears the moral responsibility for those, it doesn’t lessen the human tragedy.
However, the letter from staffers of Jewish community organizations calling for a cease-fire is baffling (“More than 700 staffers of Jewish groups, most of them progressive, appeal to Biden for cease-fire in Israel,” Dec. 11). These are people who have undoubtedly been informed that Hamas has promised to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again.
Some of them might have access to the video documentation of the torture and murder of civilians provided by Hamas itself, if they chose to watch it. “Lasting peace and security” simply cannot be achieved if Hamas remains in Gaza to steal international aid and rebuild its capacity to terrorize Israelis. Yet it appears that these staffers advocate for allowing Hamas to remain, as their letter does not require that as a condition for a cease-fire. One rabbi was quoted in the article as saying that she supported a cease-fire “for the sake of defeating the insidious ideology of Hamas.” Exactly how does leaving Hamas in control defeat its ideology? Perhaps their privilege of living thousands of miles away from Gaza is what allows these individuals to support keeping Hamas in power, which is the inevitable result of their demand.
Hamas can bring about a cease-fire tomorrow by surrendering, giving up power in Gaza and returning all the remaining hostages. And never forget that there was a cease-fire with Hamas in place on Oct. 6.
Michael Harris
Bodega Bay
Not the Oakland I know
I am dismayed to learn that in Oakland a civic displayed menorah was vandalized and thrown into Lake Merritt. That is not Oakland. For 13 years, I lived in the Oakland area and walked two miles to shul every Shabbat wearing a kippah. Often various people, Jewish and non-Jewish, white and of color, would greet me with a “Shabbat Shalom” and a nice smile. (Many non-Jews seemed to know the Hebrew greeting.) It was a joy.
I lay the blame for this recent incident solely at the feet of the Oakland City Council and its recent unnecessary and uninformed resolution against Israel, which opened the door to the haters and sent a signal that antisemitism is OK. The members of the Oakland City Council should be ashamed of themselves. They should reverse course, apologize, close the door to antisemitism and allow the natural friendliness of Oaklanders to flourish again.
Alan Titus
San Francisco
I belong in the ‘quiet middle’
I was interested to read “‘Quiet middle’ among U.S. Jews has growing qualms over the war” (Dec. 18) about the apparently large and growing number of Jews who don’t align with either those who unquestioningly support Israel’s military actions in Gaza or those who call for a cease-fire without also calling for a return of the hostages.
Most Jews I know fit somewhere on that spectrum, feeling serious misgivings about the death and destruction being wrought in Gaza and wondering to what end? In addition to being a moral and humanitarian disaster, it seems to ultimately be a strategic disaster, guaranteed to prolong the endless cycle of hatred, death and destruction that plagues Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Many of us believe that the only real way forward is to forge a path of coexistence, dismissed by some as naive, while the “realistic” alternative is permanent conflict and insecurity. Something is very wrong with this picture. Something is also very wrong with portraying a particular kind of pro-Netanyahu-government position as the “consensus position,” while it’s very possible that the real consensus is represented by the quiet middle.
Avi Rose
Oakland