Beyond Words” is a published 7- volume collection of Rabbi Meir
Kahane’s writings in The Jewish Press, in other serial publications, and in his
privately-published works.
Beyond Words can be purchased at Amazon.com
Letter to a Secular Jewish Nationalist
Written on March 9, 1973
My Dear Friend,
I note that you, as so many others who are good Jewish nationalists
and devoted to the Jewish people and the state, have been puzzled and critical
of some of my actions and policies.
Because I sincerely respect you and want you to understand what I have
done and intend to do, I think the time is long overdue for you and your
colleagues to understand my thinking and the ideology that led me to do the
things that you so approved of in the past as well as those you may not agree
with today.
There really is a great deal of misunderstanding – I might add
basic and almost total in some cases – of the REAL, things that the Jewish
defense League has done and more important WHY – at least for me – they were
done. Most people join a movement not so
much out of ideology, but out of community of interest they think exists
between them and the movement. Thus,
when the Jewish Defense League protected Jewish teachers in New York City from
anti-Semites, it was both praised and joined by many Jewish teachers. The latter did this, not because they agreed
with the JDL in its entirety or even in most of its views – INDEED THEY HAD NOT
THE SLIGHTEST KNOWLEDGE THAT THERE WAS AN IDEOLOGY. They did not care about ideology or anything
else except their own narrow interests, and the result was not only that they
thus misunderstood the movement, but as soon as the crisis for THEM was over
they simply dropped out, not caring that other Jews – not teachers – still
suffered and had to be helped.
These teachers were not interested in the fact that JDL was an
organization with a philosophy of Ahavat Yisroel, the need to both love
and to aid Jews in distress wherever they might be. (And that only because of
this philosophy did JDL – many non-teachers – take up the fight for them.) These Jewish teachers were as disinclined to
suffer for Soviet Jews or Jews of Arab lands as non-teachers were. The ONLY thing that drove them to join and be
active in the movement was their OWN suffering.
The moment their problem was relieved, there existed for them – as for
most other Jews – no other problems. And
what I say about teachers can, of course, be written about all the others who
came into the JDL because of personal interests; because THEIR neighborhood
needed protection of THEIR child’s school was plagued by crime. Self-interest, not Ahavat Yisroel, was
the hallmark of most members, and the self-evident truth of this basically
selfish motive is seen in the question asked me in every city which has not JDL
chapter: “But why do we need a JDL chapter here, WE have no problems.”
You, as a sincere Jewish nationalist who does not fall into this
category, can therefore understand what I write about and why we could find
among even some of the JDL leadership those who, when we began the struggle for
Soviet Jewry, said: “But our first interest is the protection of American
Jews.” You can understand how these kind
of people failed to grasp the JDL essential that Ahavat Yisroel means
looking upon ALL JEWS as one people, as brothers, and that there is no
difference between Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Damascus and Riga.
And so, you in Israel sang our praises and defended us when we
acted violently against the Soviets and broke the law in defense of Jews who
suffered at the hands of anti-Semites.
For you understood the philosophical and ideological basis of our
movement and you did not make the mistake of self-interested teacher, merchant
or housewife. But even you do not
understand, really.
We come to Israel and puzzled, you ask: What you did in the Exile
for Soviet Jews and for poor Jews in troubled neighborhoods was magnificent and
no one can fault you for that. But what
need is there for a Jewish DEFENSE league in Israel? After all, we have an army and a police
here! And why do you waste your time on
unimportant issues such as fighting the missionaries and placing a mezuzah on
the Sha’ar Shchem (Damascus Gate)? And
why do you plan a yeshiva and a school for Jewish education here when there are
others who do this? Your contribution is
in the Exile where you can defend Jews, and the Meir Kahane whom we knew of
there is no longer the same Meir Kahane, today.
I hear the words and the criticism and realize that just as the
simple Jewish teacher backed the Jewish Defense League while not having the
slightest idea what it was all about, so do you, my much more knowledgeable
Jewish nationalist friend, fail to grasp the essentials of the JDL and why I,
at least, helped to bring it into being.
You see, my secular nationalist friend, unlike you, I see nothing
at all very special or logical about nationalism, per se. I see nothing very rational about setting
up boundaries and a barrier separate governments, armies, parliaments,
economics, exchange rates and languages.
If anything, nationalism is a barrier to world brotherhood and one of
the major fomenters of conflict and war. If I were a secular nationalist I
would be hard put to explain why Jews should remain separate and not assimilate
and I would struggle for a rational explanation of Jewish behavior – stubborn
and obstinate – over two millennia of exile as they suffered every conceivable
manner of persecution and yet, refused to disappear.
There is only one reason why Jews should be different, and that is
the very special difference, the uniqueness that makes them separate and
different from all other peoples. ONLY
the election of Israel, only the concept of a Chosen people, a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation; only the “Ata b’chartanu, You have chosen us
from all the nations”: only the “hamavdil beyn kodesh l’chol, He who
differentiates between and separates between holy and profane, between Israel
and the nations”; only the need to be different, apart and separate NOT BECAUSE
OF SOME VAGUE LANGUAGE OR HISTORICAL DIFFERNCE but because of the distinct
uniqueness of Torah and the commandments as a DIVINE decree – only this gives
any validity to the Jew remaining alive as a distinct entity.
There is nothing special about a Jewish tank or jet plane, nothing
special about an independent state of your own with a Parliament, Prime
Minister, national airline and social-economic-political problems, all nations
have them. There is nothing special
about a scientific institute, universities and lawyers, physicians and
sanitation men; all nations have them.
But no nation has Torah except the Jewish people, and that is the
difference. The only one.
And so, when I helped to found the JDL and called to people to love
Jews so much that they should be prepared to climb barricades for them, fight
physically for them, perhaps sit in jail for them, why in the world did I care
about some Jew in Leningrad or Damascus more than some Zulu in South
Africa? Only because Ahavat Yisroel follows directly from the special quality
of the Jewish people – the DIVINE nation – each of whose members partakes of
that divine quality and is my brother MORE than other peoples. Without my belief in the Jews as the Chosen
People of G-d, there would be not the slightest interest for me in them more
than in other people.
And if you wonder why secular Jewish
nationalism, that which we call Zionism, has proven to be such a disastrous
failure among our youth in Israel; and if it bothers you that the youth
questions the basic axioms that, to you are truth incarnate, going so far as to
dispute the right of the Jews to Israel and even joining an Arab spy ring; and
if you are disturbed at the fact that most Israelis have little ties to world
Jewry, and so many would like very much to leave the country and make a great
deal of money elsewhere; and if the Jew in Israel looks more and more like any
other people and feels nothing special about himself and his state – learn an
important lesson.
Secular Jewish nationalism – no more
than any other kind – can give no rational reason to a sensitive and
intelligent young person to see anything special about his people or his
state. The beginning of the moral and
spiritual crumbling of secular nationalism is all around us to see – both in
the exile and here, in Israel. Your love
of Jews stems from nostalgia, the fact that you were raised either in Europe or
amidst the revolutionary war against the British. Because of this, you either avoid the
contradictions or are incapable of seeing them.
The young Israeli or the young assimilated Jew in the exile, however, is
not a Jew by habit or nostalgia. He asks
the logical questions and gets no logical answers – because you are not capable
of giving them to him and NO SECULAR NATIONIST IS.
And so perhaps you can begin to
understand why the problem of Christian missionaries is, to me, just as important
as that of Soviet Jewry. For to me, they
are both the same problem, the question of keeping Jews Jewish. And thus you can see why the problem of
Jewish SPIRITUAL DEFENSE in Israel is just as important as PHYSICAL DEFENSE
elsewhere. I want to save the Jew
physically in order that he, someday, be able to live as a good spiritual
Jew. Without that, I would be prepared
to put the Jew together with the black, Puerto Rican, Chicano, Zulu, Latin
American, Mestizo and all the rest.
I love Jews more than any other people –
not because I was born a Jew, but because the Jew, unlike any other peoples,
was born for a Chosen destiny. If we
believe that, then the Jew is everything; if we do not – he is no better, or
worse, no more deserving of our attention, than anyone else.
Anyone
reading this Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane article and is not on my personal list to
receive the weekly articles and would like to be, please contact me at:
To view
articles written by Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane go to blog:
Search on Facebook for:
Anglos for Otzma
Barbara Sandra Ginsberg
