Tag: thomas-jefferson

Let’s discuss Zionism

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I am a proud Zionist. I’m not afraid to say it. I’m never going to deny it. Those who hate Jews continue to attempt to turn that word in a slur. They want it to be something evil. They don’t understand what it even means. Their Jew hatred has them blind to what it means.

In response to this Jew hatred and attempt to reclaim the word Zionism, those who love Israel have fallen into the simplicity of hasbarah. For those who don’t know, Hasbarah is pro-Israel propoganda. It reduces the concept of Zionism and Israel to talking points without depth, without understanding.

So here we are today – people who hate Jews thinking Israel and Zionism is a racist and hateful ideaology. And people who love Israel thinking that Zionism means that Israel does no wrong. It’s not a helpful place and won’t address the core need.

As I spent a few days with my colleague from Dror Israel this week, we talked a lot both among ourselves and with those we were meeting with about Zionism. About what it really means. About the origin. Herzl defined zionism as a political and nationalist movement to establish a sovereign Jewish state in the ancestral Jewish homeland. It came during a time of rising antisemitism as a solution for the homeless Jewish people. Herzl believed that Jews were a nation without a homeland. As a result, the Jewish people had become unwelcome strangers in other nations; a target for hatred. His vision was designed to be both a political and practical one, creating a Jewish national home secured by public law, providing Jews with self-determination and security.  Yet it wasn’t just about the land. Herzl emphasized the importance of restoring the “inner unity of the Jewish soul” and building a strong Jewish consciousness. He famously said, “Zionism is a return to Judaism even before there is a return to the Jewish land”.  It’s far more than just the land although the land is a critical part of it.

If we want to call ourselves Zionists, it means we must know that yes, it is about having our ancestral homeland but it is also about being Jewish. The Zionist experiment, like the American experiment, is far from perfect and far from finished. When David Ben Gurion read the In Israeli Declaration of Independence, he said these words that are written in it:

“THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles;
it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on
freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality
of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will
guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the holy places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United
Nations.”

This is what Israel and Zionism is about and strives to be, no matter what anybody else tells you. The simpler explanation that keeps resounding in my head was shared by my colleague Noam, from Dror Israel. He said that Zionism is about being a “just, safe and equally prosperous home for all of its inhabitants.” That is a great summary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. You may ask, “what about Smoltrich and Ben-Gvir?” To that I would reply, that they are politicians and but a part of a democracy and the Israeli and Zionist experiment. Every country has their outliers and that’s who they are. You may ask, ‘What about Bibi?” and I would reply that in a democracy, sovereign nations have the right to elect their leaders. They don’t always choose who we may want or make the best choices. All you have to do is look back at the history of the American experiment to see that.

The more I learn about David Ben Gurion the more I am inspired by him. With the statues of him and his wife Paula near their home in Tel Aviv.

The American experiment is very similar to the Israeli and Zionist experiment, tying back to the words of the American Declaration of Independence where it states that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yes, it’s clear that women and people of color were omitted in 1776 and the American experiment has adjusted for and continues to adjust for this throughout the years. The Free Press had a great article about the writing of that sentence today and how it got to it’s final form. Both Zionism and America are experiments that require adjustment, change, and constant work. They are not in their final form.

It’s also important to remember that the Israeli and Zionist experiment is only 77 years old. To put that in context, when the American experiment was 77 years old, we were in the middle of the civil war. Israel is a young country, the Zionist and Israeli ideals are being tested, just like the American ideals were tested in 1853. Slavery wasn’t abolished until 1865 when America was 79. Women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920, when America was 144 years old. We didn’t codify comprehensive civil rights into law in America until 1964, when America was 188 and marriage equality wasn’t made into law in America until 2015, when America was 239 years old. Perhaps giving some time and grace to a 77 year old country is a good idea. Unless you are obsessed with Jew hatred.

Those of us who identify as Zionists also need to let go of the belief that everything Israel does is perfect and right. The country, the leaders, and the people make mistakes. Unfortunately, due to the incredible Jew hatred that we face, we think that we can’t admit when things happen that aren’t correct. We buy into the Jew hating world view that any mistake made by Israel, her elected or military leaders, or any Israeli people, means the country itself should not exist and extended further, that Jews should not exist. This is a fallacy that we cannot afford to buy into. Admitting Israeli’s mistakes is how we truly become that “just, safe and equally prosperous home for all of its inhabitants.”

I have spent most of my career as a servant leader for the Jewish people. As a result, I have chosen not to serve in volunteer leadership for many organizations. The one that I have chosen to serve is the Center for Israel Education. Why have I chosen that one to serve? Because it is truly about what its name says. Israel Education. Not hasbara. It is fact based, uses source documents, and tells the story of Israel, warts and all. It provides knowledge so that those who want to support Israel, who want to defend Israel, have the real information, the whole story, and can address the lies told by so many who are really just Jew haters. If you haven’t been to their website, I urge to you go and to explore. Get lost in the information. Search for things you may have heard something about but don’t know the whole story. Read the original documents so you know what they say, not what somebody who is doing hasbara tells you they say nor what those who hate Jews tells you what happened.

If we truly believe in the State of Israel, in Zionism, and in Jewish self-determination, we need to make sure we know exactly what we are saying and what that means. Those who hate Jews don’t know what it means – it’s simply a line and word they can use to express their Jew hatred. When I was in Israel a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk to my friend Shadi, who lives in an Arab village in Israel, and is Israeli, Arab, and a Zionist. We began an incredible conversation about the challenges he faces being Israeli, Arab, and loving the State of Israel in these tumultuos times. We need to have these conversations. We need to continue to work to ensure that the words of Israel’s Declaration of Independence remain our guiding principle. Israel needs to be a country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; ensuring complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; and guaranteeing freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture. When we are clear about what we are fighting for, we can fight for real Zionism and truly fight the Jew haters who want to steal the word from us. Make the effort to learn.

Is America safe for its citizens?

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine called to tell me that her family was moving from Orlando to DC because they felt Florida was no longer safe for their family. It is a strange thing to hear about where you live. Yet I understood what she meant and why she felt they had to move. It wasn’t the gun laws in Florida nor was it the mass tourists or the humidity. It was the political climate where the government was getting into their personal lives. It was because their daughter is Trans.

My heart broke as they sold their dream home, packed up, and moved. We stayed in touch and I saw her last year when i was in DC and we got together for dinner and to hang out. Her daughter was flourishing and the family, while missing Florida, was doing well.

She reached out to me today to let me know that she and her daughter were moving to Israel for two years because America was no longer safe for her family. I had known this was a possibility for a few weeks and hoped that it wouldn’t be what ended up happening, but it is.

How do we live in a country where people literally have to leave because they feel unsafe to live here because of who they are? I know there are many people who are undocumented, who did not follow our immigration laws, that feel unsafe. Their feeling of being unsafe is the risk of being sent OUT of the country and their desire is to stay. This is the opposite. They are choosing to leave because staying wouldn’t be safe.

I understand the concern about safety. With the rise of antisemitism and my public stance on speaking out, I felt that I became a target of those who hate. I was on TV regularly and was clearly identified as being Jewish and a leader in the Jewish community. My information is public. Anybody can find where I live with a simple property search. They can see what cars my family and I drive and follow us easily. We had people in Orlando wearing Nazi uniforms, flying Nazi flags, chanting hateful sayings, hanging Jew hating banners from bridges over interstate roads and even assaulting jewish students on camera.

Two hate groups met on a bridge in Orlando in September 2023
The entrance to Disney in June, 2023, with protesters flying multiple Nazi flags

I couldn’t take the risk of being a victim of serious hate crimes against me or my family, so I went to get my concealed carry permit. I made sure that if the need every came up to protect my family from serious harm, I could. I also reached out to a friend to ask if they would hide me and my family, if the need every came. Just the thought of making that call made me sick to my stomach. When I actually did it, it felt worse.

As I watch what my friend and her family are going through, they are actually leaving the country. We have reached the point where American’s don’t feel safe living in our country because of hate. Hate for those that are different. Hate for those we don’t understand. Hate based on lies, misstatements, misunderstandings, and lack of knowledge along with pure bigotry.

I have friends who have many differences. At least four that I know of have children who are Trans. Some of my friends are Gay or Lesbians. Others are different races and religions. Their differences only enhance my life, they don’t detract from it. Their friendship, who they are, make my life better. I have learned that friendship is about who shows up. It’s not because you are have similar physical characteristics. As I think of my friend and her daughter getting ready to leave for Israel, I am both excited for them and this journey (a part of me has always wanted to make aliyah), and I am sad for them, forced to move once again due to safety concerns as a result of hate and bigotry.

We can do better. We must do better. We must be better. This isn’t about giving any singular group ‘special privileges’. This is about ensuring that every American has the same inalienable rights guaranteed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, where it is written, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In this time where hate in our country continues to grow, we must also remember the words of the Declaration of Independence that come after this. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. Government is to ensure we have these rights, not to take them away. The past few decades have shown our Government to be taking them away. And once again, the Declaration of Independence tells us what happens when our Government does this. “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, had many beliefs about the government. It’s purpose was to ensure these rights for all. Not for some. Not for those who agreed with him. Not for the limited few who met random criteria of wealth, age, race, gender, sexuality, etc. For all. That’s why he wrote those words in the Declaration of Independence.

Our Government exists to serve the people and ensure our inalienable rights. Somehow we have forgotten that. Somehow we have gotten to a place where Government now scares half the country all of the time.

Once again I go back to Thomas Jefferson, one of our most influential and impactful founding fathers for inspiration. We have seen our government struggle to truly guard our inalienable rights for nearly 30 years. Year after year, it seems to get worse. It doesn’t matter who the President has been, which party has control of the House of Representatives or the Senate, our government has bred divisiveness and created fear among the citizens. The type of fear that led my friend to leave the country with her daughter to keep her daughter safe. For the past 3 Presidential elections I have chosen to write in candidates because I refused to support either of the ones running. I reject the ‘lesser of two evils’ with the belief that I don’t want evil at all. I want inspiration. I want somebody who truly cares about the entire country to lead it, not with an agenda to only benefit half the country (I don’t care which half). I’ve taken lots of grief for this but I don’t care. In this past election, it seemed many people agreed with me. Now it’s time for us to to listen to Jefferson and have ‘a little rebellion’ to force the change we want. What we are currently doing isn’t working. There is no reason to think it will work after the election in 2 years or in 4 years if we keep doing what we are doing.

It’s time for us to stop the insanity. It’s time for us to take action and do something different. We need to listen to Albert Einstein and take action. Forget about bringing business back to America. We to make sure our citizens feel safe and don’t need to leave to stay safe. We need to have a government that reflects the vision of Abraham Lincoln. “Of the people, by the people, for the people.” The way things continue to go, what we have will perish from the face of the earth.

I hope my friend and her daughter will feel safe enough to return to live in the United States. That is up to each of us to remember that if we want freedom for ourselves, we need freedom for everybody. If we want to feel safe in our country, we need everybody to feel safe in our country. If we truly value our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, we need to make sure that everybody is represented and personal beliefs don’t become our country’s policies.

The question is what are you going to do? Do you want to wait until it’s your turn to have to leave the country? Do you want to put your head in the sand and think they won’t eventually come for you? Because they always do. I faced it myself with Jew hatred. I have seen it happen to my friend and her family. I choose to speak up. I choose to take action. As long as we allow hate to exist, it will grow and eventually will come for all of us.

I hope you take action before it comes for you.