Our emotions are all over the place. The funeral of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas z”l has torn us to shreds. We mourn with Yarden and all the other families who have buried those who returned from Hamas captivity in caskets, including Shlomo, Tsachi, Itzik, Ohad, and Oded. At the same time, we celebrate the return of Omer Shem Tov, Eliya, Omer Wenkert, Tal, Avera, and Hisham while we pray more captives will return home alive. We also celebrate the strength and resiliency of our people. We know this awful war is far from over. We struggle in our own community over what the next steps should be as our own government interjects its strong opinions – making some of us livid, some of us thrilled, and some of us torn. We continue to learn about the nightmare the surviving hostages lived through (including be brought to witness Hamas’ sick “liberation celebrations”), watch antisemitism run rampant on our campuses and in our streets, hear about new terrorist attacks in Israel – including a failed missile launch from Gaza during the Bibas’ funeral and a car ramming that injured 13, and now wait with great anticipation to see what happens next.
We have every right to be outraged, furious, and filled with rage right now. This being said, I am deeply troubled to see folks, some of them with very powerful platforms, praising the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Given the intensity of our anger and the real need for us to stand up strongly and fight back against the antisemitism we face, embracing Kahane and his message might feel “good,” BUT it is so dangerous and undermines the values that define the Judaism we love.
You can read more about Kahane here but know that he promoted violence in New York City and spent time in jail for conspiring to make bombs. He and his family moved to Israel in 1971. There he founded the anti-Arab Kach party which called for the forcible removal of all Palestinians. He pushed his ideas in violent ways, was jailed on several occasions, and was accused in Israel of arms smuggling and sedition. His Kach party was banned in Israel by an amendment added to Israel’s Basic Law which disqualified any candidate whose platform included “incitement to racism.”
While Kahane was assassinated by a Muslim terrorist, his legacy is very much alive. Kach and its offshoot, Kahane Chai (“Kahane Lives”) were designated as terrorist organizations by both the Israeli government and the U.S. State Department as a result of a 1994 attack on the al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in which Kach member, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire and murdered 29 Palestinians and injured 125 more. Kach fanatics supported Goldstein and referred to him a “hero.” Kahne’s son, Binyamin, condoned Yigal Amir’s assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Binyamin was murdered by Arab extremists in 2001. Several attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank during the “al-Aqsa intifada” have been attributed to Kach or Kahane Chai affiliates.
I understand the anger. I feel it myself. I also feel we Jews need to stand up strongly for ourselves and insure “Never Again” is not just a slogan. But I won’t stand by as some attempt to get us to embrace violence, murder, racism, and hate – things that run counter to our tradition – to Judaism.
We should be angry now. We must be talking about how best to strengthen ourselves and defend our families and communities. But we must never allow ourselves – no matter how furious we are – to stoop to the level of our enemies. We can be extremely powerful without embracing the extremism of monsters, extremism that undermines the essence of Judaism which is LIFE (See Exodus 30:19 which commands us to choose life).
Please, embrace this essence this Shabbat and always. Let’s stand strongly with each other as we work to powerfully disrupt and undermine the hate and violence directed at us in ways that reflect the morality and dignity of our faith.
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