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What’s So Bad About Excommunication?
Much of Jewish political discourse is managed by a leadership that is commonly and unfortunately focused and obsessed on superficial characterizations and personalities at the expense of policies and communal priorities. This dysfunction in our political discourse, primarily as it relates to Israel and Zionism, has led to attempts at ostracizing and outcasting not unlike the traditional rabbinic cherem, or communal excommunication.
From the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organization’s rejection of J Street’s application for membership in the umbrella group to the reaction to Open Hillel’s resistance to the censorship efforts of the Jewish campus organization’s headquarters, to be labeled a “leftist” by the conservative-leaning mainstream is to be branded and ultimately outcast as a heretic, a “self-hating Jew,” or even an antisemite; this, despite the objective fact that Zionism has never been a monolithic movement but rather has consisted historically of the full spectrum of sacred and profane political ideologies.
As the political performances of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, building up and exploiting popular fears, from Iranian nuclear ambitions to the international effort toward boycotting, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel as “existential threats,” Jewish leadership often seems encouraged by the short…