The BRIT ḤAZON movement has a close connection to the Chabad of Poway synagogue. Danit Felber and Sharona eshet-Kohen actually grew up in that community. Although events like this shouldn’t surprise us (America being what it is today), this one in particular hit very close to home.
The Jewish community, especially in the United States, has been split in recent decades over whether Jewish concerns, resources and overall vigilance should be primarily directed against threats from the left or right. BDS campaigns, as well as attacks on the legitimacy of Jewish identity and connection to our homeland, have until now been more frequent than rightist shooting attacks on synagogues. And unlike white nationalist shooting attacks, the delegitimization of Jewish statehood carries the potential to spread into America’s politically correct mainstream.
But we should also appraise the question from a uniquely Hebrew perspective. Our ancestors identify the Muslim world with the Biblical figure of Yishma’el and the Christian world with Esav. Esav’s grandson Amalek has – from the time we left Egypt – been understood by Israel as our historic arch-enemy.
If Jewish historiography casts Esav as Western civilization, Amalek represents the most militant and self-aware component of that civilization. So while the criticism Israel faces from Palestinians and their supporters are directed towards our behavior and could potentially even cause us to come closer to what we’re meant to be if properly internalized, white nationalist Jew-hatred is directed at what we are at the core.
There is a clash of civilizations between Israel and Esav that cannot be reconciled. Any basic reading of Wagner’s Das Judenthum in der Musik, Hitler’s Mein Kampf or contemporary white nationalist literature makes this clear. Amalek is determined to protect the broader civilization of Esav from the fundamental threat Israel poses. And the more Israel becomes what our prophets and sages envisioned, the less Esav will be able to tolerate us.
An online manifesto attributed to John Earnest, the 19-year-old gunman who attacked the Chabad of Poway on Saturday, praised the perpetrator of the shooting attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which took place six months earlier. The manifesto also claimed responsibility for a recent arson attack at a local mosque. The writer identifies himself as a man of European descent and asserts that Jews seek to “doom” the white race.
White nationalists, determined to preserve a system of white supremacy that might often find temporary use for Jews but could never actually include us, stand diametrically opposed to the type of world Israel is meant to create.
This is radically different from Israel’s conflicts with the Muslim world and international left. If the people of Israel were to truly become the best versions of ourselves on a national level, it’s possible that many devout Muslims would experience us as Muslim (with notable differences greater but similar to the differences between existent Islamic branches) and Marxists would see Israel as a revolutionary agent of positive historic change.
As difficult as it might be for many of us to admit, our ancestors might have agreed with many of the criticisms directed against Israel from Islamic and Marxist circles. Internalizing these criticisms could actually help our people to become who we are ultimately meant to be (while of course neutralizing any threats against us and ensuring Hebrew sovereignty in the entire Land of Israel). But we have to end all illusions of solidarity with the Western right. Their fight isn’t our fight and those among them with the deepest self-awareness already understand this to the point that they’re ready to use violence against us.
Returning to Poway, Rabbi Yisrael Goldstein acted with great courage. He gave two of his fingers to protect his congregation from Earnest. He even continued his sermon after being shot. Lori Gilbert-Kaye also displayed great courage in confronting the gunman and giving her life. Her memory should continue to be an inspiration for the community.
But the most obvious lesson in all this is that in an age where we’ve returned to self-determination in our land, the children of Israel no longer belong in exile and Jewish life in America must be understood to be as temporary as it was in every other country where we once thrived but were ultimately forced to flee. The security Jews once enjoyed in the US is over and even if we can’t yet all physically come home, aliya should be firmly instilled as an ideal at the center of Diaspora communal life.
