Eli Rubenstein: Avi Lewis' wrongheaded defence of anti-Zionism - National Post
NDP Leader Avi Lewis Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/PostmediaArticle contentAs a synagogue leader for almost 40 years, I have encountered many different expressions of Jewish identity: religious and secular, spiritual and intellectual, Holocaust-centred — and, of course, Zionist and anti-Zionist. Some of these descriptions I am comfortable with, except the last one: anti-Zionist.
Let me begin with a story. In pre-war Poland, two close Jewish friends took very different paths in response to seemingly unending antisemitism. One became a fervent Zionist, believing the Jewish people needed their own country in their ancestral homeland.
The other became an equally committed Bundist, believing Jews should remain in Poland, unite with Jewish workers and fight antisemitism through universal brotherhood. (The Bund took its name from a Yiddish word meaning “union” or “federation.”)
Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.
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Both men lost their families in the Holocaust and barely survived themselves. After the war, the Zionist moved to Israel, while the Bundist eventually settled in America.
Years later, the Bundist visited his old friend in Jerusalem. As they approached the Western Wall, the elderly Zionist looked around at the city and marvelled that they had survived the concentration camps and now stood together in a free and democratic Jewish state.
“Is this not truly a miracle?” he asked.
His friend nodded. “Yes, this is indeed nothing short of a miracle.” Then he paused. “But you know, it’s all a big mistake.”
I thought of this story after the election of Avi Lewis as leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party. Lewis, who is Jewish and openly anti-Zionist, has spoken of a long Jewish tradition of opposition to Zionism.
Historically, he is correct. The modern Zionist and Bundist movements emerged in Europe around the same period, in response to virulent antisemitism. They represented fundamentally different answers to the same question: how could Jews achieve security and dignity?
Yet one cannot help wonder how many young Bundists would have chosen the same path had they known that two-thirds of European Jewry would ultimately be murdered during the Second World War. By contrast, the young Zionists who emigrated to the Land of Israel before the war likely survived and thrived there.
