Next Year In Jerusalem

Every year at the close of the Passover seder, Jewish people say "Next year in Jerusalem." In my life I have always repeated that phrase without much thought. Of course I could spend next year in Jerusalem; why wouldn't I? This year, that line takes on a new significance.

I weep at the situation facing Jewish students at elite institutions. Rabbis told Jewish students to return home because it is not safe. Temples hired armed guards to chaperone students to religious services. People wearing Yarmulkes are being berated with the most vicious anti-semitic slurs, and are even being physically attacked. I would commend essays in the Free Press by students from Columbia and Yale.

Let us not forget that this is what years of indoctrination on microaggressions, intersectionality, and DEI have wrought. Next year, may we all be in Jerusalem, and may the Department of Education Civil Rights division be very busy.

Comments

[Please, Daivd, Seek Help]

I'm really sorry this is a hard time for you, I can tell that you're being worn down and affected by both the coverage of and substance of whats going on.

It does seem like in the same paragraph where you're mad about DEI and microaggressions, you want DEI (just for a group historically excluded from DEI initiatives) and you want protection from a variety of aggressions, some micro others macro. I completely appreciate that. The criticism that leftist inclusion efforts have been piecemeal and picked winners and losers is very well founded. There is no good response for "why is it okay to say that all Zionists should be driven into the sea but not okay to say something about [group X who are in favor of the university bureaucracy]" because the double standard is evident.

I'm just not sure I really understand "universities aren't hearing Jewish voices, so they should get rid of initiatives to diversify the kinds of voices they're hearing" or "universities shouldn't be policing people who make others feel unsafe, they should be policing people who make me feel unsafe". Asking for access to these institutions seems like a good idea and asking to tear down the institutions because you want access to them seems like a bad idea.

[Currentsitguy]

If people really wanted to both show solidarity and throw a monkey wrench into the works They'd be distributing Yarmulkes by the bushel load right now to every passerby. It's one thing to stop a single individual from entering campus. It's another matter entirely when hundreds show up.

[Frank Drackman]

Was in Jerusalem last November, safer than Atlanta or Chicago (or New York, Fithy-Delphia, Baltimore.....) and No, I'm not going to move to Israel, what? give you losers the satisfaction?

Frank "Ma shelo horeg mekhashel"

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Has Prof. Blackman expressed similar concerns for other Americans -- gays, Muslims, Blacks, transgendered persons, women, Palestinians, supporters of those groups, etc. -- who have been subjected to violence, slurs, and other mistreatment, including on college campuses?

Or, instead, has he ardently associated himself with a blog that regularly defends the (conservative) bigots in those other circumstances?

This seems nothing more than another chapter of grievance drama and polemical partisanship.

[Currentsitguy]

Why would the most favored groups in the country need defense or support?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Great question from a representative of the poor, persecuted, conservative, white males from Can't-Keep-Up, America.

[Frank Drackman]

Reverend Kirtland! there's a Mister Vega and Mister Winfield to see you, something about a Bible Verse and a Briefcase.

[SRG2]

Favored for attack by bigots and racists...

Every year in the last couple of decades with one recent exception, Jews were more likely to be victims of hate crimes than any other minority group whether by a minority by race, sex, religion, etc. (One year the Sikhs were #1, presumably because the neanderthals thought that turbans meant they were Muslim.)

[Brett Bellmore]

I really think the main reason for antisemitism is that the Jews just make such great targets.

If you're looking for a target, you want a visible minority who are doing well. Visible because it's no use targeting people you can't find. Minority because you don't want to find yourself outnumbered. And doing well because even bigots find it kind of pathetic to genuinely punch down.

Jews just tick all the boxes. That's all.

[Sarcastr0]

There has been a ton of scholarship in the area. Some of it is absolutely the 'evident and vulnerable minority' bit (and nothing makes a state feel strong and full of solidarity like attacking an outgroup).

But something I always thought rang true was that independent political group structure within a nation is a challenge to state power. And the Jews historically were amazing at group solidarity throughout Europe, sometimes to the point of turning the scraps they were allowed into great prosperity.

[Martinned2]

See also: Roma. What do Jews and Roma have in common that caused them both to fall victim to the Holocaust?

[Brett Bellmore]

Mind, a lot of the modern antisemitism in the West is due to immigration from Arab countries, where anti-semitism is endemic for religious reasons, and on account of the Middle East never properly being de-Nazified after WWII.

We're taking people in from countries that have current genocides going on, or basically finished, what do you expect? Sweetness and light?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

It appears the Israeli military unit positioned for censure (and to be cut off from American military aid) for disgusting, criminal conduct is a battalion of right-wing religious kooks!

[Jason Cavanaugh]

"Let us not forget that this is what years of indoctrination on microaggressions, intersectionality, and DEI have wrought."

At the heart of it, everything Josh posts is just political grievance.

[SimonP]

Josh is not a particularly observant Jew - he's explained that his lack of posting on Saturday is a choice he's made rather than a fulfillment of a religious obligation he observes - so his playing up his heritage in recent months appears to be just another cynical move to center himself in the discussion.

[Frank Drackman]

Didn't realize you were the Judge of who's "Observant" or not

[David Nieporent]

Far be it from me to defend the Sage of South Texas, but whether one is "observant" has nothing to do with whether one is subject to, and thus concerned about, antisemitism.

[Zarniwoop]

I’m not Jewish. Closest I’ve ever come to the community was living in a traditionally-jewish college fraternity, participating in Seder. Eye-opening for an agnostic white dude.

And this resonated for me: a movement away from “Jerusalem” and in the direction of “next year in a just world”:

https://ajws.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/AJWS-Passover-Supplement.pdf

To me, “a just world” is way better than a 2000 (or whatever) year old geographic hissy-fit.

[ReaderY]

Should the Navajo stop their geographic hissy fits and just give up their land? Their sacred sites? Would it create a more just world if they did?

[Martinned2]

It is certainly easier for an American (of any religion) to go to Jerusalem than for many people who theoretically live just a brief drive away. Let's hope that next year the position is at least a little bit better for everyone.

[y81]

It can be difficult to visit a country when you are dedicated to its destruction. Somehow the authorities hesitate to issue visas to people in that category. Strange I know. Fortunately Americans aren't in that category when it comes to Israel, though some other nationalities are.

[Martinned2]

It can be difficult to visit a country when you are dedicated to its destruction.

Whether a given American or Palestinian is dedicated to the destruction of Israel remains to be seen. In any case, we were talking about visiting the Old City of Jerusalem, which is not in Israel, as a matter of law.

[Frank Drackman]

well there are laws and there are laws.

[David Nieporent]

It is in fact in Israel, as a matter of law.

[mydisplayname]

The United States Department of State currently estimates that Israelis "illegally killed" at least 21,000 people before then end of calendar year 2023 [see journalistic coverage at, for example, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/22/us-israel-gaza-human-rights/%5D, duly acknowledging Israel's role in destabilizing the Middle East region and wrongly inflicting suffering on others.

Next year in Jerusalem -- and all of Israel -- perhaps there will be fewer murderers... excuse me, change "murderers" to "illegal killers."

[Frank Drackman]

21,000? I thought it was 31,000 or maybe 131,000? maybe 1, 131,000? Maybe if Ham-ass would release the Hostages? Like Stalin said, (and if he didn't say it he should have) The "Murders" will continue until they are no longer necessary. Maybe next October 7 don't commit a Massacre.

Frank

[Jonathan Affleck]

At some universities, the number of Palestine advocates of Jewish ancestry outnumber the number of Zionists of Jewish ancestry.

A Zionist cannot be Jewish. A Zionist is at most post-Jewish because Zionism murdered Judaism by transforming Judaism into a program of genocide.

Accusing Palestinians of antisemitism is genocide incitement, which is a US federal crime.

“Next year in Jerusalem” is not a wish to “return” to Palestine. “Return” is not an element of Rabbinic Jewish eschatology, and modern Jews have no Greco-Roman Judean ancestry. The Roman Expulsion is a fairy tale. Modern Jews are descendants of non-Judean converts to Judeans. Even if there had been a Roman Expulsion, alleged Judean ancestry of modern Jews would not be a cognizable defense to an accusation of genocide.

Palestinians are descendants of Greco-Roman Judeans, who all converted to Judaism and then later substantially converted to Islam.

“Next year in Jerusalem” comes from the Neilah service of the Day of Atonement. It was added to the service in approximately 300 CE when the Temple to El-Yahweh of Ctesiphon (Casifia) was destroyed, and the atonement service could not be performed anywhere any more. Ashkenazim added the phrase to their version of the Haggadah during the Crusades because they were embarrassed that Crusaders cared more about Jerusalem and Palestine than they did. Passover in Biblical Judaism is a pilgrimage holiday. One visits a Temple of Judaism and then returns home. Ashkenazi Talmudists reasoned that the phrase expressed a legitimate attitude toward Jerusalem during Passover.

[Jonathan Affleck]

Correction

“Next year in Jerusalem” is not a wish to “return” to Palestine. “Return” is not an element of Rabbinic Jewish eschatology, and modern Jews have no Greco-Roman Judean ancestry. The Roman Expulsion is a fairy tale. Modern Jews are descendants of non-Judean converts to JUDAISM. Even if there had been a Roman Expulsion, alleged Judean ancestry of modern Jews would not be a cognizable defense to an accusation of genocide.

[ReaderY]

The Roman expulsion, a series of events over a couple of hundred years, is quite well-documented archaaeologically and historically. Moreover, while there have been converts, Jews have significant genetic ancestral links.

Please stop telling fairy tales in support of murderers.

Look, genetic links wasn’t a cognizable defense to the Ku Klux Klans regular and repeated accusations of genoicide — destroying southerners and their culture, raping qnd slaughtering, etc.

The only cognizable defense is the actual one, that African-Americans did no such thing. Repeating a lie over and over and over again doesn’t make it true.

Same here.

The Klan were not the freedom fighters for justice and liberation they claimed to be. You aren’t either. They made up a huge myth of dark savages run amok, committing genocide. You are cribbing their mythology.

[Noscitur a sociis]

You’re still not Jewish, Martillo.

[ReaderY]

It’s like white Americans saying a so-called “Native American” can’t be an Indian. As long as they don’t make any land claims or talk any uppity nonsense about being here first or having a right to self-government, they can have their little culture and entertain tourists with their costumes and dances and stuff.

[Brett Bellmore]

We've considered a pilgrimage there, to visit various holy sites. My church organizes one every few years. It's kind of pricey, though.

[Randal]

Let us not forget that this is what years of indoctrination on microaggressions, intersectionality, and DEI have wrought.

Wrong (and stupid silly, tbh). Let us not forget that this is what decades of occupation, settlements, and apartheid have wrought.

[ReaderY]

The Klan said exactly the same about the occupation of and black rule in the South during reconstruction. The poor traditional agrarian honor-based people put down and occupied by brutal materialist colonialist capitalists who propped an inferior foreign savage race as their tools to rule over them, committing atrocities right and left. Until the Redeemers came and put things aright.

[ReaderY]

“From the river to the sea” is not about a boundary dispute or about Israel’s behavior. It is about Israel’s existence. It is about the occupation and settlement of Tel Aviv as much as anywhere else.