A Message for Hadassah
/I am going to put forth an opinion I hope will be reasonable, persuasive, and not a rant. This means I need to be careful and judicious, not angry. Or more precisely, to reign in anger in favor of calm.
In case anyone does not already know it, Hadassah in the USA is a representative of Israel. I quote the following:
From Hadassah, on its “Vision”: To strengthen a connection to Israel with Hadassah leading the way, bringing healing and justice to the world. From Hadassah on its “Mission: Hadassah is a volunteer organization that inspires a passion for and a commitment to the land, the people and the future of Israel.
I am sorry to report that at this moment of national disarray, Hadassah has decided put aside its primary mission, indeed its raison d’etre, and to join in the “virtue signaling,” that is sweeping the country.
FYI: From the Black Lives Matter Manifesto, 2016: “Israel is an aparthied state, guilty of genocide against Palestinians.” Further, Black Lives Matter has joined with the BDS movement in calling for a total academic, cultural and economic boycott of Israel, and no other country.
From Alan Dershowitz, in The Algemeiner, July 9, 2020
“In 2016 I wrote an op-ed demanding that Black Lives Matter rescind the portion of its platform that describes Israel as an “apartheid state, involved in “genocide…against the Palestinian people.”
They refused then, and continue to refuse now.
The current issue of Hadassah Magazine is a breathtaking example of virtue signaling: The action or practice of publicly expressing opinions intended to demonstrate one’s fine character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.
Some quotes from Hadassah Magazine, July/August, 2020 in “Time For Moral Imagining,” by Rabbi Sharon Brous.
“A veil lifted: A call for justice for black Americans…is laying bare the gross inequities… in a sustained piercing, aching cry from the street–a collective expression of rage, trauma and grief… (that) demands a new kind of moral imagining. …the burden and opportunity of our time..on rabbis and educators.
She adds a challenge to us: “Who have we marginalized?”
Also, in the same magazine, From “Needed: A Sense of Urgency,” by Debra Nussbaum Cohen.
…”…”get into the habit of practicing saying, “”Black lives matter.” …build up the courage to be able to say black lives matter with no exceptions or buts.”
Of course black lives matter, as do all lives.
It is one thing to support strength in the face of bigotry–but where are their heads? Doesn’t anyone there understand that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is also bigotry?
I think we need the courage to remind Hadassah of it’s mission, which is to promote affiliation and support for Israel.