Lift the ban.Oz (L) and Yehoshua
Photo: Shaul Golan
Open letter to Oz, Grossman
Op-ed: Authors supporting boycott of Ariel fuel divisiveness with undemocratic conduct
One of my hands shakes impulsively over the keyboard as I compose the following letter:
To the honored writers, A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, David Grossman and their colleagues,
I assume that you do not know, but your books occupy an honored position in my home library. ‘Journey to the 1000 Depths’ and ‘Return from India’ next to ‘Here and There in the Land of Israel’, ‘Proper Rest’, ‘Land of the Jackal’, and, of course, ‘The Story of Love and Darkness’. ‘Someone to Run With’, ‘Consider the Value of Love’, and, of course, ‘A Woman Runs from the Message’. This is, of course, a partial list. When the congregants of my synagogue where I serve as rabbi visit my home, they see your books next to the holy books which fill my shelves.
Another Opinion
Gideon Eshet
Op-ed: Boycotts are the Jewish way, so why all the fuss over Ariel theater embargo?
Don’t think that your books entered my home without hesitation, for I do not agree with you on a wide range of topics. And I know that your great talent lends great strength to your ideas. I also know how easy it is for youth to become confused. And even so…I did not ban, I did not banish; I even chose knowing that my children and my students would learn the various voices of others in Israeli society. I chose to listen to you and deal with your world view in my home, in my community.
Even though I am a resident of undivided Jerusalem, the enterprise of settlement in the Land of Israel is a cornerstone of my Religious-Zionist outlook. And my Religious-Zionist outlook is a cornerstone of my spiritual world, which is the essential life-force of my existence.
And I realize that my manner of listening and debating without silencing or banning, is strange to you. And you respond to me and the many Religious-Zionist homes who read your works with boycott and banishment in humiliating and despising tones. I realize in your moral weakness that your boycott of Ariel is a form of violence (which, at times, unfortunately, is justified). I realize that my impulsive hand that runs over the keyboard immediately formulates a public cry to my congregation, to my friends, community rabbis all over the country, to heads of Religious-Zionist educational institutions. And my appeal to them is: ‘Ban the books of these banishers from your homes. React to banishment with banishment. Let us part from them and remove their books from our homes in a festive manner. We will not burn, Heaven forfend, and we will not humiliate. We will sell them in an organized fashion, as one, to used book stores. We will no longer buy them and no longer read them. We will recede inward into our sect that daily reveals the list of these talented writers. React to banishment with banishment, detachment with detachment. And so on and so forth…’
Yours,
Rabbi Rafi Feuerestein
Thankfully, I have another hand, more even-handed, one that tries to see the complete and broader picture, and this is how that hand formulates the following letter:
Honored writers,
Regrettably, I have come to realize that the responsive path is not your lot. In a somewhat critical moment, you have announced banishment on something dear, holy and important to most of the nation, or a significant part of it. I do not view this banishment that you support as a moral weakness but as an intellectual weakness. For one who is convinced in the justice of his position and the truth of his arguments, is prepared and even interested in voicing them everywhere. On the contrary, if his opponent should open his door for him, he will enter his home and try to bring him closer to his position, explaining to him his world view and even try to convince him.
And you have taught us for many years that peace is made with enemies. Do not be confused. Even the Religious-Zionist public finds itself in an isolationist, withdrawn position. Your banishment will not cause anyone to change his opinion. It is an excellent vessel to strengthen the entrenched, intolerant position which is so widespread in Israeli society. Is this the open, democratic society you are interested in?
On the eve of the High Holy Day, I beseech you to adopt the basic motif of the Kol Nidrey prayer. ‘In the name of the Lord, in the name of the community, we give permission to pray with wrongdoers’. Yet what are your feelings about the residents of Ariel and the residents of Judea and Samaria? It is safe to assume that they are ‘wrongdoers’ or at least that their behavior is ‘wrong’ in your eyes. Let us assume that the opposite is also correct.
Please adopt the all inclusive viewpoint of Kol Nidrey - lift the ban - as the prayer continues, ‘All the pledges and banishments that I pledged and banished – I regret them all and wish to nullify them, so that they will be permitted and voided.’
Hopefully we can make the coming year one of productive dialogue between us. For I still believe that we still have much to learn from each other.
Yours,
Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein
I've decided to send the second letter, although I feel more and more isolated in this approach. A fiery flame of dangerous zealotry burns around us, on the left and on the right, amongst rabbis and writers and intellectuals. Positions like the one I present are viewed as expressions of a kind of compromise, an inability to accept decisions, a public lack of courage.
It seems to me that the most dangerous and threatening thing to our existence is the inability to manage discord. It seems this is part of our Jewish genes. It was not a coincidence that the Second Temple was destroyed due to ‘baseless hatred’. Against the complex challenges that face us, can we not uproot the seeds of hatred and polarization? Peace will be achieved only if there is no semblance of peace amongst us. Shana Tova.
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