methods of their problem solving.

This leads men to trivialiZe or disregard female think-
ing when it is at its most profound. This process can be
seen as another version of pollution tabooswmeaning
the fear of being polluted (read castrated or weakened)
by female perception. This is a rather infantile response
to what could be interpreted as intellectual challenge at
its ?nest.

Pollution taboos have invaded all our thinking?both
the ways we see the problems confronting us and the
ways we?ve chosen to express ourselves. For decades,
women were able to acquire training as artists, yet, even
now, most women do not express their own experience
as women in their art. Why? Because we consider our-
selves ?polluted,? meaning not worthy of public ex-
posure. We?ve internalized a view of ourselves that

continues today. And the fact that many men are still
uncomfortable around powerful women can be seen as
another example of pollution taboos. Women?s power
is to be restricted to the domestic sphere; her realities
are not to be imaged; her power is not to be demon-
strated in the public arena. To violate this rule is to
become ?unfeminine,? even today.

The tradition of pollution taboos in Jewish culture
is, of course, particularly relevant to the issue of women
and tikkun. For there must be a complete rede?nition
of gender roles in Judaism if women are to seriously
participate in transformation. How the magazine Tilelzzm
can facilitate this transformation and also offer a more
humanized dialogue seems to be implicitly connected
to the answers to the questions raised in Nan Pink?s
column. El

PAPER: LESBIAN, GAY, AND PROGRESSIVE Jews

Jewish Progressives and the Jewish Community

 

I rem Kiep?rz

do not accept the assumption that there exist two

distinct Jewish worlds?progressive and main-

stream (or traditional) ?whose values and norms
are always in conflict. My experience as a feminist and
a lesbian is that the Jewish world we call progressive
has often been as slow and reluctant to deal with feminist
and gay issues as has the mainstream Jewish world.
Some advances haVe been made, and many, though not
all, Jewish progressives have reached the stage of paying
obligatory lip service to and ensuring token represen-
tation at progressive events. But ?ghting sexism and
homophobia and gainng full rights for gays have not
evoked the same passion that the causes of other
minorities evoke. Most Jewish feminists and gays that I
know remain angry at and frustrated with Jewish
progressives. Deeply committed to progressive causes,
frequently in the vanguard of political action, Jewish
feminists and gays find ourselves ?ghting for the rights
of others without the secure knowledge that others will
?ght for us. Most of the time we ?ght sexist and
heterosexist battles alone in both the mainstream and
progressive Jewish worlds.

 

Irena Klep?rz ir a and coedz'tor of The Tribe of
Dina: A Jewish Women?s Anthology (Beacon, 1989). She a
founder of the Jervis/9 Womenit Committee to End the
Occupation.

And because my expectations of these two worlds
are different, my reactions to advances in them vary as
well. For me, the advances for feminists and gays in the
mainsrream Jewish community are more meaningful
because they are the result of greater effort than the
advances in the Jewish progressive community, whereI
always expect validation and support. Thus, I ?nd greater
satisfaction in the fact that a lesbian support group
exists at the New York Section of the National Council
of Jewish Women than in the fact that a lesbian and gay
panel is scheduled at"a progressive event?usually only
after protests and at the last minute. In this instance,
the National Council seems to have a higher conscious-
ness and is acting more progressively than progressives
themselves.

So the two Jewish worlds?progressive and main-
stream?do not differ that greatly and require the same
energy in ?ghting these speci?c battles. Perhaps that is
the reason I attempt to avoid the ?us? and ?them?
division and try to ?nd common ground from which to
launch various battles in both worlds.

The ?us? and ?them? division??us? meaning pro-
gressives and ?them? meaning the mainstream?is too
simple and veils a more complex reality. It also smacks
of smugness and self-righteousness, which I ?nd alien-
ating. It assumes that the progressive world has every-

83

 

thing to offer the mainstream and that the mainstream?s
principal activity is to unlearn its evil ways. This attitude
is neither useful not accurate. I am, for example, often
pained by many Jewish progressives? ignorance of Jewish
history, culture, and religion, and I wish we would have
more contact with the mainstream community so that
we could place our Jewishness on ?rmer ground. I am
pained that we are frequently satis?ed with so little,
that we do not even think that our ignorance robs us of
our Jewish identities, that we do not consider placing
the struggle to evolve a solid religious or secular identity
on our progressive agenda. I am as pained and frustrated
with these progressive Jews as I am with Jews who
refuse to grant the most basic rights to Palestinians.

The ?us? and ?them? division ultimately makes politics
the de?ning element of the progressive community and
Jewish content the de?ning element of the mainstream
community. This is a dangerous division, one that needs
to be struggled against, for it forces unnecessary choices
upon us, each of which leaves us incomplete. Clearly
there needs to be greater communication between Jewish
progressives and the Jewish mainstream; there needs to
be an exchange, a bartering, if you will. If such an
exchange does not take place we will still be progres-
sives, but not Jewish progressives.

 

Jewish feminists and guys ?nd
ourselves ?ghting for

the rights of others without the
secure knowledge that
others will ?ght for us.

 

Let me give a brief example. At the National Women?s
Studies Association conference last June, an Israeli
friend of mine took on the dif?cult task of explaining
the intzfaa'a to American Jewish women, many of whom
were quite hostile to her political position. Among
those people participating was a woman rabbi who was
de?nitely on the conservative end of this issue but who
later thanked my Israeli friend for her contributions
and for giving her the opportunity to learn. My Israeli
friend ended up feeling glad that this woman rabbi had
come to the event and had participated. The rabbi, in
turn, invited my friend to come to the shabbat service
she was conducting the next day. My friend, who is
nonobservant, did not attend. Afterward she told me
she felt she had been wrong not to go. If the woman
,rabbi had been willing to come to her event, to listen
to the discussions, surely she, the Israeli woman, could
have supported the woman rabbi in her struggles and
interests, even though she did not fully share them.

84 TIKKUN VOL. 4, No. 3

I agree with my Israeli friend. We need to foster a
greater sense of exchange between equals rather than a
nonreciprocal, giver-and-receiver relationship. If this
sense of mutual respect does not exist, then we progres-
sives will forever be seen as outsiders. I think the main-
stream Jewish community is correct in its accusation
that we progressives do not care enough about what it
considers the central Jewish issues: assimilation, identity,
anti-Semitism, healing from the Holocaust. Certainly
these are issues that should be of concern to us too,
and they could help provide common ground for the
two communities. Becoming more sensitive to these
issues would also give Jewish progressives greater
credibility in the mainstream community.

know, of course, that not all progressives lack Jewish

consciousness. But enough do that I think it is a

real concern. As a feminist and lesbian, as a Yid-
dishist and a cultural Jew, I often feel alienated from
Jewish progressives who do not share my cultural
concerns, who do not worry about Jewish cultural sur-
vival. At those times, I feel closer to the mainstream
community because I know I can turn to its members
for sources and resources and they will always appreciate
my efforts. I have found, in fact, that my concerns
about Jewish identity and culture often form the bridge
to the mainstream Jewish community and enable me to
get progressive issues such as women?s and gay and
lesbian rights a more sympathetic ear.

I have never heard of a tradition among Jews that
encourages us to support each other?s differences. Quite
the contrary. What I?ve always been taught is that Jews
forever see each other as bitter enemies with irreconci-
lable disagreements. We have many jokes about this
point?three Jews meet on a street corner and form
?ve political parties, none of whose members speak to
each other. This is comic, but it also has its tragic side,
as in the Warsaw Ghetto where for a number of years
the Communists, Zionists, and Socialists could not get
together to ?ght a common enemy. We somehow must
learn to take our tolerance for difference outside the
Jewish community and develop it for each other. Many
of us are far more tolerant of Christians and other
ethnic cultures than we are of Jewish sects and traditions.
I know many Jewish progressives who will join hands
with Catholic priests but will not step into a synagogue.
We applaud the struggles of Hispanic people for bicul-
turalism, but we are often embarrassed by our Yiddish
tradition and give it no support as it struggles to main-
tain a footing in contemporary Jewish life. The degree
to which this intolerance of our own community is
carried has been most evident in the incredible polari-
zation in Israel in the last few years. We hate many of
our own people, and they in turn hate us. And what we

 

 

 

see played out in the extreme in Israel is also true here
in the United States; the separation between Jewish
progressives and the Jewish mainstream is just one mani-
festation of this intolerance. This gap must be bridged.

And the initiators of such bridging must, of course,
be the progressives and radicals. It is they who need to
develop the foresight, need to set the example. By
incorporating the best of radical politics and Jewish
tradition, they can serve as a role model and also as a
draw to Jews in the mainstream. \We Jews are living in
a strange historical period in which our sense of history
is often quite warped. For many American Jews, the
Holocaust and Israel have reduced Jewish history to
the years 1939 to 1945 or 1948 to the present. This
extremely limited view of Jewish history naturally nar-
rows the concept of Jewish identity, and progressives
ought to be countering this narrowness. Progressives
and radicals should not only offer a critique, but again
should serve as role models by showing how cultural
identity can function in comemporary American society
and how it can be intertwined with Jewish tradition
and progressive ideals.

The sphere in which progressives have been mosr
visible outside the political arena is the religious one.
There is much being done now by feminists?women

PAPER: ANTI-SEMITISM ON THE LEFT

and men?to transform the liturgy and religious con-
cepts, and to bring them in line with progressive ideals.
But this movement does not touch most of us who
remain intransigently secular and who need greater sec-
ular knowledge and a stronger connection to Jewish
history and culture. This lack of emphasis on secular
knowledge also plagues the mainstream community, and
a greater concern for secular Jewish culture may serve
as common ground for both progressive and main-
Stream Jews.

In the end, let us not take the attitude that because
of our politics we must remain pure and not mix with
the Jewish ?rabble"?the mainsrream. Let us be as
willing to meet with Jews in small community centers
in our neighborhoods as we are to meet with Pales-
tinians. The work to be done at these centers and
synagogues is as critical as the work needed to resolve
the con?ict between Palesrinians and Israelis. The Jews
at these centers and synagogues are our peeple, the
people we need to reach and persuade. And they have
valuable cultural and historical gifts to offer in exchange
?in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino. In order to maintain
our Jewish identity and our sense of peoplehood, we
need to work together and be mutually supportive in
our struggle to make a reality of our political ideals. El

Anti?Semitism Parading as Anti-Zionism

 

Daniel Lander

overs of Zion who are critical of Israel?s policy
On the West Bank face a dilemma. They feel duty-
bound by their Judaism and by their Zionism to
continue the criticismwbelieving that it is in the best
interests of Israel and the Jewish people that criticism
be made. At the same time, they know that much of the
worldwide uproar against Israel is not inSpired by true
concern for Israel?s safe, secure, and morally correct
future. It is important for us to become aware of the
problematic nature of the growing anti-Israel forces.
Many people tend to dismiss the various hateful ex-
pressions against Israel that one frequently hears as
only overheated rhetoric that will disappear as soon as

 

Daniel Lander, an Orthodox rabbi, teacher at lei/Diva University
in L0: Angela: and is the director of the National Education
Prefect at the Simon Weren't/2a! Center:

the Palestinian crisis is resolved. But many of the anti-
Israel sentiments being expressed today are not produced
by the current situation nor will they disappear once
the Palestinian issue has been resolved. Rather, many
leftist anti?Israel sentiments must be understood for
what they are?a structural extension of earlier forms
of anti-Semitism.

To understand the contemporary anti-Israel stance
of the left, one must ?rst understand the speci?c forms
that anti-Semitism has taken in the past. Let us start by
considering the anti-Jewish hatred of the Greco-Roman
world. The root cause of this hatred seems to be the
prominence of Jewish The Jews in the classical
world said ?no? to a variety of appealing offers. They
said ?no? to intermarriage, the sharing of holidays,
communal sacri?ces, the perfect body (since Jews insisted
on retaining the ?mutilation? of circumcision), shared

85