The Jewish social justice community has not robustly defended its position. The Siach conference signals a change
I have just come back from Siach, the first-ever global Jewish social justice and environmental conference, which included 120 organisations from north America, Europe and the Middle East.
This is the first time Orthodox, Reform, conservative and secular Jews have come together to build such a broad platform. Those attending the conference, held in rural Connecticut, included social justice projects from synagogal movements and Jewish Representative Councils sitting side-by-side with human rights movements, street projects, Jewish farming collectives, refugee centres and environmental campaigners.
Siach is the Hebrew word for conversation, and this particular conversation has been a long time coming. The Jewish social justice movement is traditionally disorganised, disparate and incoherent in the face of more organised conservative and rightwing movements within the community.
The Jewish social justice community seems to be increasingly challenged from two opposing forces: a more particularistic trend within the Jewish community, which is broadly "survivalist" in its ideology and from certain leftists outside of the community whose critique of the situation in the Middle East seems to result in the exclusion of Jewish voices.
Let us start with the basics. Judaism has always promoted universal values and holds that all humans are created in the same image. Therefore, Jews have responsibility for the wellbeing of our neighbours regardless of their faith, should ensure justice for all and especially the widow, orphan and stranger (those who are traditionally poorest in our society), as well as for the environment as guardians of the creation and should seek peace and the welfare of our cities. The existence of this tradition is undisputed and goes back centuries.
The Jewish community has a particularist tradition, too, which becomes more evident at times when the community has faced persecution and oppression. This was perhaps a natural reaction by Jewish thinkers and leaders trying to rally their followers and ensure the survival of the Jewish people and Judaism at times when their religion was being outlawed and/or Jews were being persecuted, expelled and murdered. There is a middle ground, which was discussed at length during the conference, where the two traditions sit side by side and in the perfect world should compliment each other.
Rav Kook, the first chief rabbi of Palestine believed that there was room for synthesis of these concepts and that individuals can have concern for themselves, their community, humanity and the creation at the same time. He summed it up in what he called the four-fold song: the "song of the soul [self-development], the song of the nation [responsibility to the Jewish community], the song of humanity [responsibility to humanity], the song of the world [responsibility to the creation and the environment]" and that ultimately "all mix together with this person at every moment and at all times". In other words, it is possible to have a particularistic faith that expounds universal values.
The Jewish social justice movement is criticised by more survivalist strands in the community for being too outward looking at a time when there is an existential threat to Jews in terms of rising antisemitism and the nuclear threat from Iran. Indeed, this is reinforced each time there is an attack on Jewish targets. The Jewish social justice movement has not been robust enough in defending its position, which is simply that it is not a Jewish response to be inward looking and that while we are non-proselytising, it is our mission to promote justice in the world ("justice, justice, you should pursue") and that promoting justice for all does bring about security, peace and prosperity for all.
The other critique comes from leftist social justice groups (often outside the community) that it is not possible to both be universalistic and Jewish. I beg to differ. Judaism provides a value-based system used by a particular community to promote humanism and should be seen as an ally by social justice causes. Furthermore, in their critique of the Middle East some on the far left call for Jews to prove their loyalty to leftist causes. This does not tend to happen to Christian socialists, for instance. If those on the left genuinely want to promote a solution to the Middle East, then it needs a discourse with Israeli Jews and those in the diaspora that support them.
The Siach conference was well attended by civil society workers trying to promote equality, justice and good relations in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Surely, those workers should not be alienated or boycotted for their efforts but rather should be unconditionally supported by the peace movement, social justice bodies and international organisations.
The Jewish social justice movement needs to be given space to explore its agenda within its own communities: the Jewish one and the general social justice movement. To do this it needs to become more coherent in its own discourse: Orthodox with Reform, European with American, secular with religious, Israeli with diaspora Jew.
This week the Jewish social justice movement started this process. In coming together in a sleepy retreat in Connecticut, the Jewish social justice and environmental community may have awoken up from its slumber.
? This article is written in the author's personal capacity
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/20/jewish-social-justic-siach-conference
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