"I only wish to lay out the facts in as straightforward and convincing a manner as I am capable, to chip away at our collective walls of resistance and denial that keep our people trapped in the illusion that that which we see in our surroundings today will remain so also in our future."
Thank you, Larry, for a reasoned critique of my writings. And, were I involved in building what you attribute my efforts to, to building a “coherent human group” they would certainly apply. But my Zionist project is not so ambitious as you seem to view it. I have set out merely to critique Western “civilization” as a viable vehicle for Jewish survival. My survey of the history of our encounter with the West begins in the first century and appears as several short critiques of the roots of Christianity as they appear in Christian scripture; and particularly the gospels. I then consider the evolution of what several modern Catholic theologians describe as the Theology of Hate, (see also my review of Anglican minister and theologian William Nicholls), beginning with Chrysostom and Augustine, and continuing on to Luther. Several weeks ago I turned to the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, and our less than complete and enthusiastic emancipation following the French revolution and Napoleon. All of these are on-line in my JPost blog, Antisemitism and Jewish Survival. My historical travels will, of course, come to the conclusion you are already aware of, that the West is our cemetery.
So why spend so much thought and effort on this project if not intended to build a “group Jewish effort”? While in our collective gut we Jews sense that the open but, most often hidden antisemitism endemic to our Diaspora lands of residence represents more than “run of the mill” xenophobia, that it is a permanent and potentially lethal survival in the belly of the beast, we generally deny the obvious due to a perceived lack of alternatives, hopeful that the outcome our efforts at educating our neighbors about our true good nature, our benefits to society, will eventually eliminate the threat.
Certainly Israel is too small to house us all, even were we convinced of the risk to self and our children. And anyway, Israel has its own “identity” issues, some of which are a definite “turn-off” to our more “liberal” Diaspora religious beliefs and political sensitivities.
Which brings me to your earlier stated position that, since we Jews really have nowhere to go, we should hunker down in our trust and hope that this or that branch of liberal Christianity is not only an ally of Jews, of our survival both in our Diaspora homeland and in the state of Israel. But even a cursory look over our shoulder, Larry, provides little basis for such optimism, not in the present and definitely not in the future. Our most recent example of the dangers continues to be German Jewry. Nowhere in the world before and during the interwar years were Jews more comfortably integrated, so engaged in the arts and politics, so socially active, intermarried and generally accepted.
I am not a politician, Larry, but a psychotherapist. In the past, as a JNF regional director in NYC I did deliver my Zionist message before many synagogue congregations. But not to enlist my audiences into a political movement. My purpose then and now is far less ambitious. I only wish to lay out the facts in as straightforward and convincing a manner as I am capable, to chip away at our collective walls of resistance and denial that keep our people trapped in the illusion that that which we see in our surroundings today will remain so also in our future. As History is our witness, Larry, it does not!