“The best Jews are vulnerable Jews, 100% dependent on the goodwill of others’ for their safety!” proclaims a Facebook post with hundreds of Likes and Shares by Islamists and White Supremacist users.
New York, February 24 – A progressive group targeting Jewish youths hopes to recruit a large number of new adherents to its philosophy by means of a campaign that involves billboards, online graphics, video clips, posters, and flyers, urging them to adopt an interpretation of Jewish values and tradition that ignores, contradicts, or abandons both the bulk of their millennia-old heritage and of their coreligionists and communities.
Organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, J Street U, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network launched a public awareness and advertising initiative this week to encourage young Jews to embrace a more fully Jewish existence by stepping away from almost everything that has characterized Jewishness for most of Jewish history: longing for restored Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel; devotion to sacred texts and practices; rich literary and intellectual pursuits; defiance of the prevailing, dominant surrounding culture; and attachment to the welfare and safety of their fellow Jews, among other values.
“Be more Jewish,” reads one billboard: “Reject Jewish sovereignty.”
“It’s not Jewish to show concern for Jews in particular,” argues a pamphlet. “It smacks of racism, as if we Jews, the victims of one of the greatest racist crimes in history, have learned nothing from the experience. But come to think of it, using that language to refer to the Holocaust implies that others’ struggles with racism, notably communities of color, rank as lesser, and we must shy away from any such implications.”
“It would be insensitive and counter to Jewish values as we interpret them through the lens of anti-religious socialist wisdom to minimize anyone’s suffering,” reads another ad, “or to employ perverse logic to invert perpetrator and victim, which is just a form of Holocaust denial. We must therefore stand against the Jewish establishment, which is out of touch with true Judaism, and support the Palestinian victim in the face of Zionist oppression and genocide.”
“The best Jews are vulnerable Jews, 100% dependent on the goodwill of others’ for their safety!” proclaims a Facebook post with hundreds of Likes and Shares by Islamists and White Supremacist users.
A spokeswoman for If Not Now explained that the organization and its allies hope to reach Jews who already have little or no connection with their heritage, because only such people have undergone the corrupting influence of thousands of years of Jewish tradition giving the wrong idea.
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