Right-wing Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss is best known for jumping the fence at Auschwitz and insisting nuns leave the convent there, for calling Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan an “anti-Semitic racist bigot” and for serving as Jonathan Pollard’s spiritual advisor.
But neither the Vatican, black anti-Semitism nor supporters of keeping the Israeli spy in prison for life are the biggest threats to U.S. Jewry, Weiss said.
Freedom is.
“Anti-Semitism isn’t our greatest challenge. When there is anti-Semitism, there is no intermarriage. In America, we are so loved, we’re being married in droves,” Weiss said Monday, during a lecture to a Jewish studies class at San Francisco State University.
“We’re so free, we’re assimilating. The bodies of Jews are OK; the souls aren’t.”
Weiss’ visit, sponsored by the department of Jewish studies at SFSU, the Israel Project, SFSU Hillel and the Zionist Action Committee, was open to the public. The class of 23 moved to a larger hall on campus to accommodate “drop-ins.” Every seat was filled. Some sat on the floor.
“I prefer this to getting into yelling matches about borders” in Israel, said Weiss, 52, the founder of AMCHA — the Coalition for Jewish Concerns.
Despite a history of anti-Israel sentiment among SFSU student groups, there were no protests or noticeable opposition to Weiss’ presence.
Although the rabbi was scheduled to speak about spirituality, in the end, he couldn’t avoid the politics for which he’s so well known.
The scheduled 50-minute lecture lasted nearly two hours. Weiss talked of Pollard, Auschwitz, Farrakhan and intermarriage — all under the rubric of spiritual activism.
It was the ship St. Louis that was “the drive for my spiritual activism,” Weiss said.
In the 1940s, the German ship St. Louis docked off the Florida harbor, filled with thousands of Jews attempting to escape Nazism. But the U.S. government closed off the harbor, and the Jews returned to Europe to die.
“The story of the St. Louis taught me to ask, not where was God, but where were the men and women?” Weiss said. “This world is a partnership between God and humankind.
“All humans are created in the image of God. God has been creative and we must be creative. We must imitate the divine. And in this partnership, we will redeem the world.”
Weiss insisted that we not only wait for redemption, “but redemption waits for us.” Humans are in search of God, “but God is also in search of us.”
“God needs us to be revealed in this world,” Weiss said. “Don’t strike me down now,” he added, looking up and shielding his eyes.
Weiss admits that his “partnership” with God in spiritual activism has caused him to make more than a few enemies. But the rabbi who has no enemies has done nothing, he said.
“To stand up for what is popular is easy. But what about standing up for what is right? Will you stand up for that which you’re not sure you will win?” Weiss asked. “Like Pollard?”
Weiss acknowledges Pollard’s spying activities for the state of Israel were both illegal and wrong. However, others who have done the same served three or four years. Pollard is entering his 12th year of imprisonment.
“This is a spiritual issue,” Weiss said.
In the past, Palestinian Authority Chair Yasser Arafat orchestrated acts of terror, Weiss said. “Now he’s a statesman on the South Lawn of the White House. If Arafat can be forgiven, so can Pollard,” he added.
Similarly, his demanding that nuns remove themselves from Auschwitz is about “fulfilling a responsibility to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves,” Weiss added.
“The greatest act of kindness is making sure we show respect for those who have died, as they cannot make certain it is done,” he said.
“The camps are decaying. In 50 years all anyone will see is churches and convents. They’ll assume the Holocaust was a Christian genocide or that the Vatican was protecting Jews, which isn’t true.
“I have respect for all faiths, but they don’t have a right to exist on the largest Jewish cemetery.”
On the subject of Farrakhan, Weiss was brief and to the point.
“He is an absolute, outright fascist anti-Semite bigot,” he said.
However, these external battles still pale in comparison to the fight for continuity, he said. Ultimately, “We’re dropping out, dropping off and forgetting who we are.
“Look in the mirror tonight and ask yourself why you are Jewish. If it’s because your parents are, or because you’re fighting some shnook, your grandchildren aren’t going to be Jewish,” he said.
“This isn’t an Orthodox pitch, but a pitch to feel positive sparks. The key is knowing what it’s all about. And whatever your faith is, being proud,” Weiss said.
“The fate is in our hands, and in our partnership with God.”