“I feel committed to defend the future existence of Israel as a state of all its citizens and to work for regime change.”
The Interviewee – Charles H. Manekin (Born 1953), Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland. I was born in Baltimore, MD.
In your opinion, what importance, if any, does the existence of a Jewish state have to you personally and to Jewish people in general?
“I made aliyah forty years ago because the problems facing Jews in Israel interested me more than those facing Jews outside of Israel. Those problems have worsened in the past forty years: social and economic gaps have widened; “tribal“ loyalties are rampant; and Israel is even more an ethnically exclusivist state than it was at its founding.
“Israel can become legitimately important to me and to the Jewish people in general if it becomes a liberal democratic state of all its people, creating an Israeli national identity, and allowing the cultures of its citizens (Jewish, Palestinian, etc.) to flourish.”
Do you feel committed in some way to defend the future existence of Israel?
“As a citizen, I feel committed to defend the future existence of Israel as a liberal, inclusive, democratic state of all its citizens, with a sense of national responsibility for the welfare of those who have been adversely affected by its existence.”
Do you affiliate yourself with a specific denomination in Judaism? What is your view regarding the dominance of the Orthodox denomination in Israel religious establishment?
“I am modern orthodox, and I think that no state should have a ‘religious establishment’. Religion should be left to religious communities and organized privately, as is the case in the US. Failure to separate religion from the state apparatus has been bad for the state, bad for religion, and bad for orthodox Judaism – and ditto for the other religions in Israel.”
Do you feel morally responsible for Israel’s actions (such as its management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict)?
“All Jews have a moral responsibility for each other, but as a Jew, I have no more responsibility for Israel’s actions than for other Jewish communities. As an Israeli citizen, however, I share responsibility and am complicit in Israel’s actions.”
In your opinion, what is the main thing Israelis fail to understand about the reality of being Jewish outside of Israel?
“What Israelis fail to understand is that one can live a fully Jewish life outside of Israel and one can fail to live a meaningful Jewish life within Israel, even if (in some cases, especially if), one lives according to Jewish law and tradition.”
How would you describe Israel’s policy (formally and in practice) regarding its relationship with the Diaspora?
“In so far as Jews in Israel can contribute to strengthening Jewish knowledge among Jews outside of Israel, I think that is a good cause.”
In your opinion, does Israel have an obligation to defend and help Jewish communities in need?
“I think all Jewish communities have the obligation to defend and help Jewish communities in need, and that includes the Jewish community of Israel.”
Have you ever been to Israel? if you have, can you summarize your impression from the Israeli reality?
“I live in Israel and commute to teach at the University of Maryland. I enjoy most Israeli people I know, as well as the culture, the food, and the weather. As a liberal and a Jew, there is much about the Israeli ethos that I find off-putting, and needless to say, I dislike the sense of ethnic privilege and bias that is endemic to the state.
The State of Israel has been described a collection of tribes that negotiate with each other, and being Jewish carries with it rewards. I would like ‘being Israeli’ to replace ‘being Jewish.’ I would like people to get past a post-Holocaust trauma syndrome that, in my opinion, numbs the Jewish soul.”
