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| Authored by: David Mandelzus on Thursday, November 04 2004 @ 12:54 PM CST |
"But the reason the card is so often played is because there is some element of truth to it. The main Jewish cultural / representative organizations in Canada (that I know of, anyway) are B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress........"
Ok. Now I think I understand a little bit more about where you are comming from with this. Yes I agree with you that unfortunately certain Jewish orginizations that claim to be representative have made their main task advocating ISraeli government policies. I also recognize that for someone not familiar with the intricacies of Canadian Jewish society or Jewish culture in general this can make things at times confusing, however, you need to be careful when trying to honestly understand the Jewish community.
Zionism is a political ideology that calls for Jews to migrate to Israel.
Judaism is a religion and a culture based on that religion.
One could say that diaspora Jews, by account of the fact that they still live in the diaspora, implicitly reject zionism as a political ideology they believe in. This does not mean they reject the existence of the state of Israel, but they do not believe that they should move to ISrael as the Zionist ideology calls for. There is in fact often tension when Israeli zionists call on Diaspora Jews to migrate. Such was the case recently in France when Ariel Sharon called on the Jewish French community to come to Israel due to the rise of Anti-Semitism in France. French Jews were understandably angered by Sharon's comments and made it clear that they were French Citizens and that France was where they wished to remain.
Furthermore, while groups such as the CJC and B'nai Brith may claim to represent the Jewish community they are more political lobbyists then centers of Jewish life. Synagogue, Hebrew Schools, and Jewish communities are where Jewish life is centered, and Jewish culture/regilion, as well as modern Canadian culture/values (in Canada of course) play a much larger role in these places than Zionist ideology does.
"Probably even this statement needs some explanation. I realize the Judaism = Zionism link is an old card regularly played by people who have some hateful grudge against either group."
I think this is very true, and I believe this is what Elmasry's comments in the article were trying to accomplish. If all Jews are Zionists and all Zionists bad then all Jews are bad. It's a technique that unfortunately is being used more and more amongst people attempting to utilize anti-Semitism to further the Palestinian cause, or even more often attempting to utilize the legitimate Palestinian struggle to spread Anti-Semitism.
So, given popular perception maybe saying "Judaism is largely dominated by Zionism" is not 'extreme' but I would still assert it is extremely incorrect, and in Elmasry's case I don't quite buy that it's a misunderstanding. [ Parent ]
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