April 2024 Message

Purim - Same as it Ever Was

This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat before Purim, the story of Esther. I would call The Book of Esther the truest fictional story in the Bible. It is the story of how one Diasporan Jewish community staved off annihilation, not through the plot device of deus ex Machina, or the sudden appearance of God, but through their own machinations and a little bit of lucky timing.

What makes this story feel so true are the various elements within it. The ease with which Jew hatred, especially from the masses comes about; that the success or demise of a minority Jewish community depends ultimately on the attitude of the sovereign; the initial reluctance of diasporan Jews to stand apart from their gentile neighbors out of fear of being rejected; and the courage of individual Jews to stand up for their people. Even though the story of Purim ends happily, we do not sing Hallel on this day for our Sages understood that the reality of Jewish life as a tiny minority in Diaspora meant that victories were temporary. Who knew when the next shift in power and sovereignty would occur and Jewish fortunes might once again deviate.

In preparation for Purim, we read the section called Zachor Amalek. In it we are reminded of the eternal enemy Amalek who attacked the weak and stragglers among Israel as they left Egypt. Amalek is related to Haman, the Purim enemy. Haman is a descendent of a Agag. Our Haftarah this morning told us of Agag at the time of the prophet Samuel and King Saul. Agag was an Amalekite. Thus evil Haman is in a direct line to Amalek, the eternal enemy of the Jews whom we are commanded to destroy. We have to be careful with the way we throw around the connections to Amalek. There is no Amalek today, though some would designate any enemy of the Jew by that title. Rather, the reason I think tradition connects Haman to Amalek is simply to make the point Jew hatred is a constant. It hides for a time, but resurfaces like a virus that lurks in the world’s consciousness. It never disappears completely, but it is always dangerous and harmful.

I make this point not to scare or depress you, but to return to the sermon I gave on Rosh Hashanah. Then I argued that antisemitism is not the problem for Jews today. Easy access to high-powered guns, ubiquitous social media, and the loss of confidence in liberal democracy is what endangers Jewish Americans today.

And then October 7 occurred. 1200 Jews butchered in the most barbaric inhumane fashion since the holocaust. Over 200 innocent people taken hostage and tortured. And within a week, instead of sympathy for Jewish victims, instead of shame among Arab and Muslim Americans for what Hamas did, the attacks began on Jewish institutions, Jewish-owned businesses, Jews on college campuses. It didn’t matter the attitudes such individuals had regarding Israel, it was their Jewish names, their Jewish affiliations, their Jewish noses to quote Leon Pinsker, the Russian author that Rabbi David Starr spoke about in his classes on Zionist.

Didn’t this disprove my assessment that anti-Semitism was not the problem? No, Jew hatred is always there like that virus that lurks under the skin and rises up at various moments. Haman’s description of the Jews while intending to hurt was correct– “there is a certain people scattered and dispersed, among other peoples, who are different from all others…” We Jews have always been different from those around us – whether we were monotheists in a pagan world, or a literate people in an unlettered world, we Jews are the consummate outsider.

Some may argue yes, anti-Semitism can be a problem but this time isn’t the real cause for its outburst Israel’s horrible treatment of Palestinians and the death of thousands of children in Gaza? Jewish American continued support for Israel justifies the animosity we are experiencing at this time. But as Jonathan Greenblatt the CEO of the ADL pointed out, blaming the victim is first of all, a classic defense of racism. Secondly, anti-Semitic attacks were on the rise under the last Israeli government that even included an Arab Muslim party in its government. But finally it is completely preposterous to argue it is in any way reasonable to attack Jews because of Israel’s actions. No one would tolerate the vandalism of Chinese restaurants or attacks on Chinese Americans because of Chinese human rights violations or the incarceration of 2 million Chinese Muslims. No one has nor would they defend attacking a Russian Orthodox Church as an acceptable act of resistance against Russia for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Ukrainians. But defacing a Jewish owned café on the upper West side of New York is an appropriate response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians?

In Franklin Foer’s cover essay in the Atlantic this month, he begins with a description of one family’s panic for their children in Berkeley, California. Both Jewish high school students and middle school students faced antisemitic threats. Her 16-year-old was pressured to join in a school walk out in support of Palestinians. Jewish kids were in tears, many with family in Israel, as the protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” What sounds like to some a call for liberation falls on Jewish ears as a cry for a second holocaust. At a middle school a similar protest occurred. A parent recorded it and one 12-year-old is heard asking another “are you Jewish?” The second one answered “no I hate them” while another joins in, “Yeah kill Israel”. No 12 year old calls out “kill Russians”, as a result of his teachers telling him about the deaths by of hundreds of thousands of innocent Ukrainians.

Franklin Foer’s article is called “The Golden Age of America Jews is Ending”. His understanding of a Jewish Golden age is similar to what the Jews of Mordecai and Esther’s period would have understood as a Golden Age. A time of safety and prosperity, a time of fitting in and being one with the majority. Mordecai serves in the palace, he thinks nothing of setting his cousin Esther up with the King. Jews join in the beauty pageant like anyone else in the Empire, the king never inquires into her background. We know her Jewish name is Hadassah but the king sees her as Esther or Ishtar, and Mordecai sees no need for her to admit her faith. Is it so different today in our nation when it is a non-story that both candidates for president have Jewish grandchildren?

Foer’s essay is not really an elegy to the American Jewish golden age as much as a requiem for the golden age of American liberalism. With the threat of authoritarianism under a second Trump administration and with it the end of an independent judiciary, it’s not surprising to see Jews once again, chosen as the scapegoat De jure. The right sees us as provocateurs who seek to undermine white Christian America’s hold on this country; while the left believe Jews are the epitome of ascending whiteness, representing all the negative qualities of white supremacy, wealth, power, and duplicity.

The only thing about which they are correct is that we Jews are not like everybody else . To be a Jew is to be different. Abraham was known as Avraham HaIvri. Often translated as Hebrew, but it can also mean on the other side as in “The world stood on one side, and Avraham stood on the opposite side, a majority of one.”

To be a Jew is to live among nuances. In traditional Jewish law, breaking the law of Shabbat is a capital crime. Yet to save a person’s life every Shabbos law can be broken. Senator Chuck Schumer expressed these nuanced views exquisitely when he spoke on the Senate floor as the highest ranking Jewish American elected official about his commitment to Israel’s security, the United States’ special relationship to Israel, and yet still called for new elections in Israel to replace the corrupt and disastrous Prime Minister.

I and so many Jews, who are politically left of center, are hurt and disappointed at how quickly we were abandoned by progressive friends, and our alliances with black, Latino, and other vulnerable minorities broken.

And yet I, and I believe other liberal Jews, will still support progressive causes. We will fight the resurgence of antisemitism the way we believe best – with education, rational argument, and outreach.

I’m sorry if you believe that antisemitism was on its way out of the American bloodstream. Anti-Semitism was over the same way racism was over with the election of a black president. We need to take a page from our Black friends and Black Lives Matter - Jewish lives matter too. And the way we make Jewish life matter is the way we always make Jewish life matter. We support justice for the world, and we vigorously pursue the wisdom of our Jewish forebears through Torah study.

Let me close with a positive affirmation from our Purim holiday. Just as the conditions for Jewish survival turn on a dime when Haman rises to power, so does the redemption. At the end of the Megillah, we read “on the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened.

Things can change in the blink of an eye, but as Esther and Mordecai teach us it doesn’t happen without human effort, without planning, without wise strategies. We have to take it upon ourselves to respond to conspiracy theories, especially when fellow political travelers express them. We need to stand up to bullies. We must continue to network with allies even when they disappoint us. We must vote for and support democracy, unlike AIPAC’s approach to backing politicians who supported the January 6 insurrection as long as they are pro-Israel. And finally, we need to devote time to educating ourselves about our Jewish faith, history, and teachings.

The book of Esther tells us that at the end of the story, the Jews enjoyed light, gladness, happiness, and honor. We American Jews will continue to enjoy light and joy and honor, as long as we remain true to our heritage and our values.