Why the Jewish community should also take to the streets in Germany

How can we, as Jews in the diaspora, explain and maybe even excuse what is happening in Israel right now? Quite simply: we can't. And we shouldn't even try. Instead, the Jewish community in Germany should also do what Jewish Zionists did last Sunday in San Francisco. She should take to the streets and protest. Or express your disagreement in some other way. Whatever the form of protest, the diaspora Jews should show that what is happening in the Jewish state does not reflect our values, but the opposite of them. And we should stand with our families and friends in Israel, many of whom are fighting for the soul of their country.

Who take to the streets with their flags and their desperation. Whose sons are ready to die for the country. And who are treated like traitors by the extremists – by the ultra-Orthodox, for example, whose own children are exempt from military service. "We need you now," said a friend in Jerusalem in our last conversation. In early February, Israeli authors and scholars Matti Friedman, Daniel Gordis and Yossi Klein-Halevi, all of whom belong to the more conservative-liberal camp, published an open letter to North American Jews. "It is not only your right, it is your responsibility to protest now," they write. I think you should have addressed your letter to all diaspora communities and not just the largest one.

The planned judicial reform is an attack on democracy. The government wants to be able to overturn decisions of the Supreme Court in the future. This is fatal for democracy - deadly in the truest sense of the word. Israel has no constitution. The Supreme Court is the body that upholds fundamental rights of individuals and communities in disputes. If the court has practically no more possibility of objection, there will no longer be this protective authority for minority rights, for freedom rights, for everything that gets in the way of the government at the moment.

Even a democratically elected government would then no longer stand for a democracy. In addition, the politicians with the so-called reform de facto also want to fill the benches according to their mood. And I should probably mention that the far-right in the coalition doubts the rights of Reform Jews, conservative Jews and women anyway, to say nothing of the LGBTQ community, and want to restore the use of the death penalty for terrorists.

How it can end up when a government puts aside the moral compass and lets things slide was recently demonstrated in Hawara in the West Bank. When, after the murder of two young Jews, a Jewish settler mob vigilantism beat hundreds of Palestinians who had nothing to do with the brutal crime, killed one of them, and set fire to the homes of innocent people to say evening prayers by firelight, Jewish citizens around the world shuddered . Their religious leaders were no less shocked. The most important orthodox and conservative rabbi organizations in the USA condemned the outrage with sharp words, and the reform rabbis did the same.

Because all of this is not only diametrically opposed to the values ​​of a democracy, but also to Jewish ethics – the teachings of the Torah and the Talmud and the writings of the rabbis and Jewish philosophers. If the diaspora Jews don't open their mouths now, then when will they?

Of course, one can argue that the governing coalition under Benjamin Netanyahu was elected by the majority of Israelis. And so it's not the diaspora's job to get involved. You can discuss that. And yes, at some point we will also have to talk about how this coalition came about. Why the left in Israel has hardly any influence. It will be necessary to analyze in more detail why the voting behavior of Ashkenazi Jews differs so greatly from that of the Mizrahi and Sephardi. And above all, how massively fear and insecurity in the population have contributed to the election result.

After numerous attacks on civilians, many Jewish Israelis understandably yearned for safety, which they felt was more guaranteed in the Netanyahu camp. However, at some point one should also talk about the fact that the election result differed from the pure numerical values ​​by only a few tens of thousands of votes. But for the moment and in this context, all this is immaterial. If a government – ​​no matter which one – endangers the foundations of the state, protesting against it is not an option but a duty.

Especially those of us who love Israel, who support it, who keep trying to make the difference between legitimate criticism of the actions of a Jewish state government and anti-Semitism, cannot now stand idly by. I myself have been trying for a long time to bring the life of the Jews closer to schoolchildren – their religion and culture, their ethics and values. Also to counteract the growing anti-Semitism. To replace the stereotypes in people's minds with knowledge. Usually Israel is part of our discussion. The children with a migrant background, who often ask about the Palestinians, take care of that. "Shh, not now," her teachers sometimes hiss. I'm always happy about the openness of the boys and girls and I take them seriously in their need to talk about something that really moves them. And I never speak after their mouths.

So far I have always been able to communicate the values ​​that Israel stands for with self-confidence and conviction. I see it as a national and freedom project for the Jewish people. Despite the mistakes and shortcomings, a small miracle. Threatened with destruction and yet democratic and liberal. With a strong court system. A morally led military. Religious freedom and protection of minorities. Values ​​that are not self-evident in the Middle East. I proudly explained how the rabbis practically abolished the death penalty in the Talmud and why the State of Israel adopted this thinking. What will happen if the current government pushes through its plans? Should people like me then become their propagandists? telling lies? Stand up for a cause we no longer believe in?

Most diaspora Jews are willing to do a lot. They set up companies in Israel, support universities and museums, aid organizations and hospitals. The little girl, who had the blue and white flag wrapped around her body in the pouring rain at the demonstration in San Francisco, beaming on her face, looked as if her whole heart had been given. But one thing is the people who are taking to the streets in Israel, and their “brothers and sisters,” as Friedman, Gordis and Klein-Halevi call them in their letter, and who are now protesting in their home countries, unwilling to give up the Jewish state sacrifice: their moral integrity and their ethical values. Even writing this makes me dizzy.

Over the past few days I've had to keep thinking about a film I saw a few years ago. In a fascinating hours-long interview from April 1968, found years after his death, Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion speaks about Zionism, the conflict with the Palestinians and momentous decisions. And the then 82-year-old first prime minister of the country reflects on his own mistakes and deficits. At one point he says that for peace today he would give back all the land Israel took in the 1967 war - except for the Golan Heights, Jerusalem and Hebron.

You don't have to agree with him. But when you see and hear him, you know what you want for Israel now. This is a statesman speaking who knows that every action has consequences and who faces up to these consequences. The conversation shows a thoughtful, incredibly well-read politician, a person who described himself as a non-believer, but who was guided by Jewish ethics, especially by the teachings of the prophets. "They said that Israel should be the 'Am Segulah' among the nations," says the interviewer, the people who uphold the holiness of God and set an example for others. And he asks, "Is that Israel?". "Not yet," replies Ben-Gurion.

The current government in Jerusalem has switched to reverse gear on the way there.

In January 2022, Gunda Trepp published “Instructions for use against anti-Semitism. Learn. Knowledge. Act” (WBG Academic, 256 p., 20 euros). In memory of her husband, the religious philosopher and rabbi Leo Trepp, she founded the Leo Trepp Foundation in 2019, which aims to promote Jewish life. Gunda Trepp is a board member of the American Jewish Committee.