It's not up to Hitler

Recently I had a conversation with a secular Israeli academic, who said to me that being Jewish is a genetic state and our common connection is the fact that Hitler would have gassed both of us. I find the notion that my identity is defined by Hitler rather offensive.

In fact, it arouses defiance in me. For the first time I realized why so many secular Jews in America choose not to marry Jewish. The more one dilutes the Jewish gene through intermarriage the less one is able to be defined by an evil man such as Hitler.

One may argue that our connection is our common heritage and, although this is a major factor, in the age of globalization it is becoming less and less important to people. I posit that the most important common factor among Jews is in the here and now. Jews have a religion in common – Judaism.

And I'll go further. The linking of genetic identity to Jewish identity is responsible for much of the anti-Sephardi and anti-Ethiopian racism which continues to plague Israel and places Israel in the precarious position where 18 families, a mostly Ashkenazi elite, have a combined wealth equal to 77% of the nation's budget. Hitler was in Europe and his sphere of influence did not reach throughout all of the world's Jewish communities (thank G-d). Linking Jewish identity to a largely Ashkenazi experience intrinsically disenfranchises Sephardim.

Add to that the linking of Israeli national philosophy to a stream of thought born in Europe, and this contention which aroused defiance in Rabbi Levi is almost shown to be racist and ugly.

Not to mention the blatant omission of converts from said "academic"'s definition. Yet this is what the secular Israeli elite would want: a state whose inhabitants are defined by their propensity to being the victims of genocide. Rabbi Levi continues:

The second one takes the religion out of the equation and we are left with an awfully troubling question: What unifying factor do we as Jews have? In fact, without religion, the desirability of living in Israel is severely challenged as well. Who wants to live in a country, Israel, whose whole existence and definition are shaped by a genocidal dictator?

Who will decide?

So if we can agree that it is Judaism that defines and unites us as Jews, the question arises: Who defines Judaism? Liberal and Reform Jews may reply that it is Jews who define Judaism; tradition, however, would suggest that it is the Torah and God that define Judaism. Whichever way one puts it, the majority of religious Jews in Israel are Traditional and not Reform, Conservative or Liberal; thus, Judaism in Israel, a democratic country, is defined by Traditionalists such as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi.

It does not seem unreasonable for his office to say that they want to rule on this definitively religious matter. Although I have sympathy for those converts whom the Israeli authorities will not accept as Jews, yet denying these authorities the right to decide who is and who is not considered a Jew undermines the Jewish status of Israel and causes the entire character of the Israeli state to fall even further into question.

Separating Traditional Judaism from the state of Israel would in essence transform Israel from a Jewish state into a secular state defined by Hitler and run by Jews. Is this what Jewish leaders in the Diaspora really want to see happen?

Not only do they want to see it happen, they want to make it happen. They are making it happen.
Anti-Torah discrimination is rampant and Judaism is derided in Israeli media.

And those of us who want to see the Jewish state have a Jewish character -- as defined by the tenets of Judaism -- are pushed so far off to the margins that some of us end up having to combat the state itself.