MLK, Exodus, and the Clash of Values

Friday January 13, 2023 –  כ׳ טֵבֵת תשפ”ג

By Ariel Fogelman

As we begin reading the Book of Exodus, the United States will commemorate the man who dared to ‘have a dream.’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the story of the Exodus as a torch, lighting the path for America:

“The cry of ‘Let my people go,’” said MLK, “is more than a request for deliverance from physical slavery. It is a call to the eternal freedom of the children of God.” (Martin Luther King Jr., “A Creative Protest”).

Hebrew poet Moshe Beilenson (1889-1936) wrote:

“The very moment when the first spark of dignity was lit in the heart of the first humiliated slave, the nation of Israel was born.”

The birth story of the Jewish people begins with labor, continues with liberation, and arrives at a climax with revelation on Mount Sinai, instilling groundbreaking universal values designed to build an exemplary society.

On the Israeli front, the liberation of the Jewish people and the universal values of democracy and equality are strongly represented and connected in Israel’s “Birth Certificate” (its Declaration of Independence), declaring:

“…in light of the vision of the prophets of Israel; [Israel] will maintain complete equality of social and political rights for all its citizens, regardless of religion, race or sex.” (Declaration of Independence, paragraph 13)

The definition of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state [according to The Knesset’s Basic Law “Human Dignity and Liberty”) suggests that these sets of values, the Jewish and the democratic, are intertwined. However, at times these values look more like a struggle between two gladiators in the arena of Israeli society. This struggle to balance our particular and universal identities must be seen through the lens of the historical evolution of the past and the coming centuries.

Over a century ago, during the Second Aliyah (1904-1914), a renewed Israeli identity arose in full force brutally dismissing traditional Jewish identity:

“We completely eradicate the Old World to its foundation. Yesterday: Nothing. Tomorrow: Everything.” ~ Avraham Shlonsky (1900-1973)

There’s nothing quite like reading Shlonsky’s poems to understand the spirit of the pioneers who built the country. This is true also in America. My grandparents, who emigrated from Poland to the United States, said similar things about the “Old World.” For them, the ”New World” and its values were antithetical to their past. The pioneers who founded the State-to-be in the first half of the twentieth century worked with unimaginable devotion toward a national renewal and for the establishment of a State. Generations of children born to this ideology were deprived of thousands of years of Jewish tradition. During World War II the famous author Haim Hazaz (1898-1973), through his story “The Sermon,” put these words into the mouth of Yoshke, the Palmach soldier:

“Comrades, we have no history. From the day we were exiled from our country, we became a people without history. You are exempt from learning… now go play soccer.”

Thousands of young Israelis I meet will admit that when it comes to Jewish history, the education system of the State of Israel has closely followed the recommendations of Yoshke.

This Israeli “old-world rejectionism” thesis and its fundamental values have been rooted in Israeli identity. At the same time, an antithesis has emerged that sees those democratic values as the manifestation of the enemy of Jewish identity. The attack on Jewish identity by universal modern values created a new form of Jewish identity: an antithesis that grew stronger and was seen, by some, as a contrast to secular Israeli identity. This form of Jewish identity that, with a tendency toward nationalism, entered the public arena competed for budgets and political power, but mainly for the identity and soul of the Jewish state for generations.

More and more Israelis began to see Jewish identity as the enemy of democratic values, and democratic identity as being contradictory to Jewish values. Over the last generation, Israeli-identity politics have been based on this dichotomy of ‘Jewish nationalist identity’ vs. ‘liberal Israeli identity.” The recent elections for the leadership of the Knesset and the State of Israel came to be a contest between these two camps. I can’t remember the last time that the public discourse discussed so passionately the fundamental values of the State of Israel and what it means to have a Jewish State. Although the great majority of Israelis speak Hebrew, many may have forgotten the language of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the language of the delicate dance between Jewish tradition and democratic universal values. It is only through this fusion and the breaking of the hundred-year-old dichotomy that the State of Israel and the Jewish people can prosper as a free people in our Land. This kind of Jewish education is the Zionist mission of our generation. One such example is the Jewish educational model that aligns the messages of MLK day with the Shabbat Torah reading, utilizing the language of liberation for us as Jews with the understanding that we have an obligation to work for the freedom and liberation of others. It took 32 years from the assassination of MLK until this Memorial Day was canonized into federal law, and the United States is still on the journey to fulfill Dr. King’s vision.

A synthesis between Jewish nationalism and a pure democracy that sees all human beings as having been created equally is faithful to our true Jewish vision, unifying the Jewish people, and allows the State of Israel to prosper in the twenty-first century as a Jewish and democratic state.

We, in the Reform Movement, support this kind of Zionist leadership from top to bottom, from grassroots organizations to the echelons of political leadership. We understand that the process of turning the wheels of history takes time both in America and in Israel. We are dedicated to turning these wheels for as long as is necessary, for it is we who have a dream.

Shabbat Shalom

Ariel Fogelman is the Director of Israel Summer Programs & Operations for the Union for Reform Judaism. A rabbinical student in the HUC-JIR Israeli Rabbinic Program, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three daughters.

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