JEWISH SENTINEL

JEWISH SENTINEL • JUNE 18 - 24, 2021 27 Birthright continued from page 23 to Israel but can’t afford it, and we wanted to pay it forward.” T he rise in anti-Semitic acts and presence in the last few months, including but not limited to anti-Israel pressures from col- lege campuses to social media to online hate to the images from the January riot on Capitol Hill, has not escaped the notice of Birth- right-goers. “We’ve had our fair share of pro-Palestinian rhetoric on campus,” says Marshak, noting one professor who said that Israel is an apartheid state and that the Jews have no historical right to the land. “The media also influences what people think, including all of us who came here questioning our beliefs and not knowing how to feel about Israel.” Her own view: “Despite Israel’s problems, here I see Jews of differ- ent politics and religious views all feeling the same way about the rise in anti-Semitism, the importance of Israel and the fear that history could repeat itself.” Berkey, too, had heard the an- ti-Israel voices being raised at his school. “I’ve heard a lot about Is- rael, and it wasn’t necessarily pos- itive,” he says. “But I refused to believe any of it until I could come with an open mind and see it for myself.” The Jaffees recall meeting one young woman who’d bad-mouthed Israel on the flight over — an at- titude that lasted until she got off the plane. ‘She said as soon as she arrived, she began questioning her own assumptions, and wound up falling in love with Israel and the idea of being Jewish,” says Scott Jaffee. “This kind of transforma- tion was something we wanted to be a part of.” Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner who directs the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, one of Birthright’s providers, says “the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and now in the United States makes this such an important time to strength- en Jewish identity. And the only lasting way to do that is to come to the land filled with Jewish history, where you can hear our ancient lan- guage spoken on the street and walk on the same 2,000-year-old stones our ancestors walked on.” M any a Birthrighter reports those few days in Israel truly strengthen their connection to the Jewish people and to Israel, says “People like Benny are reviving things that are so of this place and special to this place but taking them to a whole new level.” Barry Shrage, former president of Boston’s federation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, who now teaches at the Brandeis Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership. “It’s a transformation- al experience, and though we know you can’t get back what you lost so the kids who should have gone this past year might go later or we may have missed them altogether, but now is a particularly important moment to go.” In a time of “woke anti-Isra- el and anti-Semitic propaganda, fighting it with information and advocacy can go only so deep, and facts can and will be distorted by our enemies,” continues Shrage. “The only thing that really works is getting to know their brothers and sisters in Israel, and truly under- standing the heart of the Israelis. You can’t educate someone to love and identify with the Jewish peo- ple and Israel. Falling in love has to be experiential, and Birthright is the best way we have of giving them that experience.” Bauer adds that “just getting them here and showing them the real Israel is the single most pow- erful way to fight BDS attacks. And, though they’re not necessar- ily going to wave the Israeli flag on campus when they get back, they have a much better chance of ques- tioning the hate they could face from a place of deep connection after having seen firsthand what the Israelis are made of and what they’re dealing with.” Bauer says when they do hear accusations, returned Birthrighters tend to “pick up the phone and call their Israeli friends and ask them what’s really going on over here.” Berkey put it this way: While zipping up his backpack as the plane touched down at Ben-Guri- on International Airport: “I’ve al- ways identified Jewishly, but this is my chance to find out what that really means.” Marshak discovered one thing it really means when her group ar- rived at Israel’s national cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount. Herzl. “I wasn’t really expecting much,” she says. “But we saw a bunch of sol- diers mourning over one grave, and everyone in my group just stopped and mourned with them, staying for the prayer. It really felt like one of us had died. “I know I’ll always remember that moment — the sense of uni- ty that I never expected and never felt before,” she adds. “You nev- er know how things will affect or change you. But I guess after this, I’m feeling more open to new ex- periences shaping me and my un- derstanding of things.” Deborah Fineblum is a freelanc- er based in Israel and writes fre- quently for JNS. W hat followed was to some extent a replay of the last House dust-up over Omar’s an- ti-Semitic bombast in 2019. The House Democratic leadership led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi did re- buke Omar for her initial state- ment, but in the same breath also accepted her clarification, putting an end to the controversy as far as they were concerned, with no thought to throwing her off her piv- otal seat on the House Foreign Af- fairs Committee, the way they’ve done to Republicans who make extremist statements. That wasn’t the end of the discus- sion. Rather than those 13 Jewish Democrats being criticized for not speaking up against Omar, it was the ones who did sign the statement that found themselves under attack for supposedly persecuting her. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Pro- gressive Caucus, which is made up of nearly half of all House Demo- crats, issued a statement in support of Omar, who is part of the group’s leadership. Jayapal, speaking in the name of all progressives, said Omar continued from page 4 Omar labeled the 12 Jews who called her out as being guilty of “Islamicphobic [sic] tropes” and constantly harassing her. is an equally clear indication that even among Jews, support for Israel among Democrats is on the decline. Omar subsequently issued what she said was a clarification, claim- ing that her remarks were taken out of context. It was true that what she said was part of a series of questions to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that revolved around her support for the Interna- tional Criminal Court. Omar had thanked the Biden administration for dropping the sanctions that former President Donald Trump had slapped on those responsible for what it had correctly labeled as an anti-Semitic attack on Israel, while at the same time criticizing it for opposing the ICC’s attempts to single out both Israel and the United States for committing “war crimes” during the course of an- ti-terror operations. But this is a distinction without a difference. Omar’s support for the ICC’s attempts to criminalize Is- rael’s self-defense against Hamas terrorism and treat the Jewish state as equally guilty as Hamas is just as appalling in context as it is when seen on its own. that those holding Omar to account were part of a “bad faith” effort to attack a “black, Muslim woman,” and endangering her and her staff. And, despite her “clarification,” Omar was far from repentant and labeled the 12 Jews who dared to call her out as being guilty of “Is- lamicphobic [sic] tropes” and sub- jecting her to “constant harassment and silencing.” That was seconded by oth- ers on the Left, including fellow “Squad” members Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who had joined her on the House floor to falsely accuse Israel of committing war crimes. But along with the an- ger of congressional progressives, there was a tsunami of abuse on Twitter directed at the Jewish 12. That criticism ranged from be- traying their party by attacking someone on the Left rather than just concentrating on opposing Republicans for open anti-Semi- tism. To read the responses to the statement on Omar is to under- stand why so many Jewish Dem- ocrats were reluctant to speak out. For doing so, even in the most re- strained fashion, the 12 were wide- ly denounced for demonstrating “racism,” “white privilege” and for “allegiance” to Israel. I ndeed, the exchange illustrated that a lot had changed since early 2019, when it was Omar who was put on the defensive, at least for a short while, after her claims that Jews were buying congressional support for Israel (“It’s all about the Benjamins”). Even then, Omar easily escaped being censured by the House and was soon lionized by the Left, including its pop-cul- ture influencers among the late- night TV comedians, as a victim of persecution by Trump. But in the wake of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the widespread acceptance of its toxic ideological baggage of critical race theory and intersec- tionality, which falsely labels Isra- el and the Jews as “white” and as colonialist oppressors of “people of color,” Omar’s views are clearly part of mainstream discourse rather than the ravings of a radical outlier. Just as the attacks on Israel for de- fending itself against Hamas terror were far greater this year than they were during the last such fight- ing in 2014, so too are Omar and her “progressive” allies on firmer ground in Democratic circles. Since she and the rest of “The Squad” landed inWashington three years ago (with a few more joining the club in January), many believe that they have gotten far more at- tention than they deserve consid- ering their non-existent legisla- tive accomplishments. Still, this episode illustrates just how much influence she and her friends have acquired and the way the BLM movement has given a permission slip to anti-Semitism. In that short period of time, Omar and company have done more to establish anti-Semitic tropes and libels in mainstream discourse than extremist right-wingers have accomplished in decades. We already knew about the deep divide in the Democratic Party on support for Israel — one that is growing wider as a new and more leftist generation bought into inter- sectional myths that Democratic leaders like Pelosi and other House veterans would never endorse. What we’re seeing now is the price that those in the center of that par- ty will have to pay if they continue to oppose the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism under the guise of support for “human rights” and op- position to Israel’s existence. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS (Jewish News Syn- dicate). Sami Marshak, who after the Birthright experience is starting a summer internship with a Tel Aviv international law rm. She is pictured here in Tzfat, Israel.