In the midrash (Rabbinic commentary on the text) we are told a prequel to these lines that clarify why Abram was chosen by God. Terah, Abram’s father was a maker and dealer of idols. One day young Abram entered his father’s shop and smashed all of the merchandise to demonstrate his understanding that polytheism was not true. His angry father asked him why he had done this. The child’s answer demonstrated an understanding that these objects were NOT gods. The story continues with Abram leaving with Sarai, his wife and his possessions to settle in the land that the one and ONLY God promises to him. When he arrives there, he discovers that people are living there. The text continues with stories of conflict and battles and ultimately of a famine that forces Abram to ‘go down to Egypt’ (Genesis 2:7) in order to avoid starvation.

Most of the history of the Jewish people has taken place in other lands - in diaspora! Yet we continue to remember the covenant with Abram and its promise of our own land. Rarely have all of the Jewish people lived there and much of our history and literature were developed as we lived in many different countries. 

Current Zionist teaching reinforces the Biblical text as historical source for the existence of the contemporary State of Israel. Although Zionism was not a religious movement in its early years, it has moved into contemporary Jewish life as part of our ancient heritage. Tour guides lead Christians and Jews to sites that are identified as exact locations of biblical events. (Joan Comay’s, Essential Guide to Israel, published in 1966 located the streets in Jerusalem that were reputed to be the site of the battle between David and Goliath. We lived near there in 1984 in an Arab house whose occupants had been replaced in 1948 with Jews displaced from the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem by Jordanian army.)

Allan Wolfe, professor of political science at Boston College and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life presents a reading of Jewish history in opposition to the Zionist ideas that dominate today’s Jewish world. 

The destruction of European Jewry and the displacement of Jewish communities in Moslem countries after 1948 have resulted in the two major concentrations of Jewish population in the world; North and South America and Israel. Liberal synagogues have revised the rabbinic teaching that a just world stands on three pillars; Study, Worship, Acts of Lovingkindness; to include total loyalty to Zionism and the contemporary State of Israel, as a fourth leg. Wolfe’s response encourages us to zoom out and to look at Jewish history and the development of Judaism as a religion the many years before Herzl, Hitler, Ben Gurion, and Netanyahu!
               “In the diaspora,” pro-claimed the Economist in the summer of 2012, “Jewish life has never been so free, so prosperous, so unthreatened.”1.
The book begins with this bold quotation and the author proceeds to describe the development of the Judaism and

At Home In Exile                  Pg. 2

the sense of Jewish people as we lived in Diaspora. He continues:
Because it was built on land occupied by others, the Jewish state has been unable to satisfy the need for security that gave rise to it. Nor, despite a dynamic economy and numerous efforts at outreach, has it been able to appeal to all Jews: roughly half of world Jewry has made aliyah (ascent), the Hebrew word that characterizes the decision to leave the Diaspora for Israel. (Worse than that, at least for those who consider Israel the only appropriate home for the Jews, a significant number of Israelis in recent years have made yeridah, or descent into the gentile world.) …Diaspora is not a disaster and that the security offered by statehood has proven to be precarious, the lost universalism that has been so much a part of Jewish tradition may well be prepared for a comeback, and this time on firmer ground than in the past. This will be good for the Jews no matter where they live, Israel very much included. It will be just as important for the non-Jews with whom they live, Israel, again, very much included. That, … is what this book aims to demonstrate.2

Judaism has grown, developed, adapted, and survived: the destruction of two Temples - numerous exiles and has developed the ability to continue to challenge contemporary idols as Abram did. We have developed universalist ideas that include the belief that all humans are reflections of god’s image. A theocratic state that does not give the same rights to all of its citizens is not in consonance with the broader vision of the world that has grown since the days of Abram!
Although the twentieth century teaches the dangers of statelessness, however, it also demonstrates the blinders of nationalism.3.

This book challenges the reader to think beyond the dominant views of today. Wolfe reminds us that there are Jews with universalist visions who live in Israel; just as there are many xenophobes within the American Jewish community. He also reminds us that life in Diaspora has enabled us to thrive in many times and places. This  well researched and thoughtful presentation of the history of the Jewish people, our cosmopolitanism. It goads the reader to revisit her/his understanding of the State of Israel and its role in nourishing a vital, thoughtful, caring Judaism in the future.
Cy Swartz
Cy and Lois are founders of Bubbies and Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East

1. 1. Alan Wolfe, At Home in Exile; Why Diaspora is Good for the Jews, p.1, Beacon Press)
2. Ibid, p. 3

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