I Will Stand as One

Another week, another attack.

We pray for the speedy recovery of those injured in the Boulder firebombing attack. According to FBI agents the attacker wanted to kill all Zionists and shouted, “Free Palestine” at the marchers.

Although there were stirrings of Zionist thought throughout Jewish history, the political movement of modern Zionism is traced to Theodore Herzl. And Herzl’s passion for this cause began when he stood in a Paris square on January 5, 1895, and came face to face with antisemitism at the public degradation of Alfred Dreyfus.

Captain Dreyfus was a French military officer who was accused of spying for Germany. It was later proven that the charges were fabricated, and Dreyfus was innocent. Nonetheless a military court found him guilty and sentenced him to exile and life imprisonment on the Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana.

On that cold winter day, Alfred Dreyfus was marched by armed guards toward a military square. Along the way, crowds shouted at him, cursing and yelling “traitor” and “death to the Jew.” He stood still as he listened to the condemnation from a military officer who said, “Dreyfus, you are unworthy to carry arms. In the name of the people of France, we degrade you.” The officer then took Dreyfus’ sword, broke it in pieces, and removed the buttons and insignia from his uniform.

For a moment Dreyfus hesitated. Then he shouted, “Vive la France! You have degraded an innocent man! I swear that I am innocent!”

Theodor Herzl was shaken by what he witnessed on that January day. He determined that a Jewish state granting Jews protection and passports, finally providing them equal status among the family of nations was the only the answer to such antisemitism. He did not care where that state might be or even what language might be spoken there. For Herzl we just needed a state of our own to protect us from such venomous, and murderous, hate.

When a man thinks that attacking Jews marching seven thousand miles away from the ravages of Israel’s continued war with Hamas can effectuate changes to what is happening in Israel-Palestine, then that is antisemitism. When a shooter thinks that murdering two young people who were attending a conference sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, then that is antisemitism.

It is no different than those crowds shouting at Captain Dreyfus. He was suspect in their eyes because they believed a Jew could not be fully French. He harbors dual loyalties, they believed. Sarah and Yaron were viewed as guilty because of the company they kept. The marchers were targeted because they identify with Israel and Israelis.

There are plenty of criticisms for how Israel is currently conducting the war. The marchers in Boulder believe that the lives of the hostages must take priority and that only a cease fire will bring the remaining, living hostages home. They are in effect marching against Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government’s priorities and its actions. Sarah and Yaron were attending a conference about how to bring aid to Gaza’s innocent. Yet again our attackers and haters cannot make such distinctions.

All Jews are guilty. All Zionists have blood on their hands. And so, they can be shot, burned and their swords broken.

Jews respond I am not the kind of Jew who haters hate. Some renounce Zionism. Others distance themselves from Jews who do not share their commitments. But such internal distinctions or philosophical debates are lost on antisemites. It’s the Jew who antisemites hate not the imagined “those other Jews” or “not my kind of Jew.”

I am going to continue my arguments with my people and my protests for a more just world where every people can have a state they call home. I am going to march for the end of this war so that the hostages might return to their homes and that Gaza’s innocent might rebuild their lives. I continue to pray, may Israelis and Palestinians soon know peace! May Gaza’s children no longer feel hunger!

In the face of yet another attack, here is what I resolve. As long as the haters see us as one, I will stand as one.