The Bnai Brith statement below, like that of the American Jewish Congress and other mainstream Jewish organizations, should remind you of why it is so important to have Tikkun in the public arena.
When the UN voted overwhelmingly on Thursday, Dec. 21, to condemn the Trump Administration’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel without in any way acknowledging that any peace agreement with Palestinians must include recognition of Jerusalem as ALSO the capital of a future Palestinian state, the “Israel is always right and its policies must be given 1000% support” voices of most of the mainstream Jewish (and Christian evangelical) movements congratulated Trump. Of course Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but it should also be recognized as the capital of the Palestinian people and will be eventually the capital of a Palestinian state, no matter how many decades it takes for Israel to reconcile with the Palestinians in a spirit of generosity and open-heartedness appropriate to a state that calls itself “the state of the Jewish people.”
We, on the other hand, congratulate the United Nations for taking this stand. We also give credit to the Reform movement for not joining with the rest of the Jewish establishment on the Jerusalem issue (all the more credit to them after I learned when I spoke at a Reform temple recently that many of the rank-and-file disagree with their national leadership and want them to be more uncritically supportive of whatever Israel does).
Tikkun is the one nationally and internationally known intellectual and spiritual magazine that gives voice to Jewish progressives and our interfaith allies–and has championed Palestinian rights, insisting that the Jewish people must become champions of social justice not only on every other issue, but also when it comes to dealing with Israeli treatment of Palestinians, refugees, bedouin communities, the rights of women and glbtq, and the rights of Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal Judaism in Israel. It’s not a position that gives us access to much money–many American Jews are “liberal or progressive on everything but Israel.” And, of course, we’ve been actively challenging the racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and xenophobia that have become much more prominent in the Trump years, and doing our best to expose how destructive the Trump Administration policies have been.
Yet Tikkun may no longer be able to afford to stay in print through 2018 unless you, your friends, your contacts on social media, and others donate beyond your comfort zone.
And if you have doubts about how important our voice is, just read this B’nai B’rith statement (completely representative of many of the mainstream organizations in the Jewish world) and you’ll also understand why so many young people depend on Tikkun‘s alternative perspective, read our print magazine on newsstands because they don’t have the money to subscribe, and will feel a huge loss if this voice disappears!!!
Meanwhile, many blessings for the secular New Year ahead!
Michael
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun, rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com
B’NAI B’RITH BLASTS UNGA RESOLUTION BERATING UNITED STATES RECOGNITION OF JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL’S CAPITAL
(Washington, D.C., Dec. 21, 2017)—B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
B’nai B’rith International (BBI) denounces the United Nations General Assembly for today passing another anti-Israel resolution, which objected to President Donald J. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by expressing “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem” and urging “all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City.”
The effectively non-binding motion passed with 128 member states voting in favor, 35 abstaining and nine voting against. B’nai B’rith is appreciative that Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo stood by the United States and Israel.
We agree with U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley that the U.N.’s “disproportionate focus on Israel” is “a wrong that undermines the credibility of this institution and that in turn is harmful for the entire world.” As importantly, no nation has as much claim to its capital as Israel does to Jerusalem, and the U.S. is right to recognize that reality.
It is unacceptable that allies such as Britain, France and Germany voted for yet one more deeply objectionable and unhelpful U.N. resolution. We take note of those European Union member states and Latin American or Caribbean countries that abstained on this motion.
General Assembly “emergency special sessions” like today’s have been held more often to focus on singling out the world’s only Jewish, democratic state for abuse than on challenging or critiquing any of the other 192 U.N. member states. The resolution was brought by Turkey, which has expressed the intention to alter the final status of Jerusalem in Palestinians’ favor, and Yemen, where ongoing violence has seen a nearly unrivaled humanitarian catastrophe fueled in significant part by Iran-backed extremists whose official flag reads, “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews.”
B’nai B’rith International