"Do not be swayed by nationalist appeals of Palestinians vs those of Jews"
A reminder from my old family friend, Shachna Rosen
“Do not be swayed by nationalist appeals of Palestinians vs those of Jews -- that's a losing argument: You either are for nationalism or for internationalism, not mollifying the demands of one people at the expense of another. It's not the Jews vs the Arabs -- it's the interests of the Jewish and Arab working class that you should be considering. Trust me, the exploiters in both groups would join instantly to quash any truly multi-national struggle for a socialist Middle East. The Yassir Arafats are as full of shit as the Menachem Begins, neither led a struggle to represent the best interests of the working class of their nations, they were narrow nationalists with a capitalist agenda that ultimately enslaves both peoples, Jew and Arab.” - Shachna Rosen (2008)
When I was a little kid we would go to Shachna Rosen’s house to celebrate Passover with his family. Shachna, or Charlie, as I knew him, had been the leader of the largest, most successful rent strike in US history, in Co-op City in the Bronx. It’s where my grandparents lived. It’s where my mom worked. While I was too young to grasp the politics, my early understanding of Judaism was that we had been an oppressed people who had been freed and every year we gathered to celebrate our liberation. The way Shachna told Exodus the Israelites were the Working Class and the Pharaohs were the Ruling Class. That’s how I learned the story.
I was raised in a cultural environment where Jewish identity was basically indistinguishable from Left Wing politics, from the liberal Democratic Party reformist politics of my parents to the full on Communists like Shachna. I was not raised in a Zionist household and frankly didn’t have any relationship with Israel till I was a grown man and became curious about the history of Judaism and the rest of the world.
It’s painful to watch the Left, so consumed with identity politics in recent years, eating itself in these moments at the beginning of a new round of seemingly endless war in the Middle East. I see it all over my social media, between people I know and love. Like the inner polarizations of the clients I work with—born from personal or legacy traumas—the larger societal “us vs. them” polarizations we see in times of war have their origins in these old, unsolved wounds that inspire some really stark black and white thinking. I wish it was easier for all of us to step outside of our fear and pain long enough to see the bigger picture.
Shachna, my old family friend, died earlier this year, but I was lucky enough to have him in my life, as someone to look up to and learn from. In the last couple days I’ve been reminded of a conversation he and I had multiple times, starting when I was in my early 30’s and trying to make sense of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on the pages of the Icarus Project website.
I’ll reprint a comment of his here. I decided to print this because I keep seeing people I care about saying ignorant and hurtful things in both directions on social media, and when I think about how I want my own children to relate to Judaism it’s from a history of internationalism and creative political struggle, way more than anything from an ancient book and definitely not some settler-colonial model of identity formation. I have no love for the State of Israel, but it’s not personal, I’m just not a big fan of nationalisms no matter who’s in control of the state or what romantic story that are telling about the origins.
From my perspective, there is an incredible amount to be proud of in the history of Jewish culture, of being a people who have resisted oppression for many centuries, who have been outsiders to dominant European culture, and produced, in secular times, so many of the most powerful thinkers and creators. In the Mirror World that Naomi Klein has recently written about in her book Doppelganger, “the Jews” are repurposed as a cabal of “Globalists” and we are the rootless cosmopolitians controlling the banks and the media and the universities and trying to spread “multiculturalism” to bring down Western Civilization. But the truth, as usual, is way more complex and interesting. Klein makes the great point that so many of the radical Leftist Jews from the last century were trying, after so many generations of antisemitism, to develop a new science of liberation and unite the oppressed people of the world against the ruling class. not unlike the Passover story I was told as a child.
There are so many different ways to tell an old story. For all my Leftist friends out there I’m just saying don’t forget the internationalist roots of Jewish culture that were wiped out by the Nazis and THEN by the State of Israel.
Shachna Rosen, on The Icarus Project website in 2008:
“On your latest treatise -- I have spent an entire lifetime, which is decades longer than your own -- as did my mother and father -- who were pioneers in addressing these issues in their day -- alongside countless thousands of others who had to address the issues of nationalism vs internationalism, anarchy vs Marxism, class struggle vs capitalism and the divisive role of racism (be it racial, national or anti-Semitic, whatever) which is used as a class device to separate people.
I am not prepared to discuss this on the pages of the Icarus Project today -- I actually am supposedly working right now -- but I want you to know that my mother, a Labor Zionist in pre-revolutionary Russia, migrated to Palestine (long before there was any Israel) and, based on her life experience there among the Jewish nation's pioneer leaders, left that movement, abjoured Zionism, embraced communism and came to the USA to engage in revolution for all people -- not just Jews. My Dad, an anarchist in Poland, became a workingclass leader among Jewish trade unionists in NYC and, like my Mom, embraced internationalism vs narrow nationalism, for his entire life (you remember him as a man in his 90s having spent his active retirement years spreading communist ideology from China to youth here in America!)
Having said all of that -- they organized in Yiddish, worked primarily in the Jewish workingclass communities and organizations and struggled mightily with the issue of Jewish nationalism their entire lives. The issue of Jewish nationalist feelings vs their own internationalist beliefs was a constant struggle for them -- those Pesach seders are a great example). As their experience of the Holocaust they felt compelled (and not unwillingly or unwittingly) to support a safe haven for Jews or all classes, those who fled the camps or who could go home to eastern lands only to face pogroms. These were really tough life choices to contemplate -- and they faulted, as did most, in the wake of the Nazi's final solution of the Jewish problem. So the role of "whither Israel?" has been a burning question for many Jews of the Left, for 100 years now -- because the issue of a Jewish homeland at all was argued in the late 19th, early 20th Century -- the time of my parents' childhood and maturation.
As you enter the fray of this discussion and planning for your future in this endeavor -- do not be swayed by nationalist appeals of Palestinians vs those of Jews -- that's a losing argument: You either are for nationalism or for internationalism, not mollifying the demands of one people at the expense of another. It's not the Jews vs the Arabs -- it's the interests of the Jewish and Arab working class that you should be considering. Trust me, the exploiters in both groups would join instantly to quash any truly multi-national struggle for a socialist Middle East. The Yassir Arafats are as full of shit as the Menachem Begins, neither led a struggle to represent the best interests of the workingclass of their nations, they were narrow nationalists with a capitalist agenda that ultimately enslaves both peoples, Jew and Arab. How to do or even discuss what I am laying out is not so easy, but do-able.
Enough for now -- lots to read and think about -- I am here -- you have some time and my work is not overwhelming that we can't talk and laugh and fight.. I love you buddy -- Shachna”
Can you please explain this internationalist roots narrative? Jews were expelled from everywhere so they didn’t have a choice.
Quite interesting and idealistic. I can agree with some of this, like how capitalism has gone bad for many. I believe in the Israel that was in the 80s with everyone working together with the Kibbutzim and what seemed like a true socialist democracy. Sadly, they adopted much of American’s capitalist thirst. It’s human nature after all to live in fear and thinking that more acquisitions will make one safe.
Labels are very human constructs on this earth. I’d prefer not to have any and simply connect to the Divine all day long.