Before the Enlightenment and modernity (circa 1800), Jews never had equal political rights anywhere. We were physically persecuted at the will of the government.
Sometimes things went well for us; sometimes we were murdered in cold blood. It depended on the whim of the government, the Church or our neighbors.
The vision and goal of Theodor Herzl’s Political Zionism (circa 1900) was to establish a geographically-based nation for Jews that would guarantee political autonomy, removing inequality imposed simply because we were Jews. What better place than the historic homeland of the Jewish people, Israel?
America’s founders based their vision of human equality, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the American Constitution (1787), largely on the philosophical writings of Enlightenment philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Later, influences would come from Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). Jews began being afforded political equality for the first time in 1800 years with the American and French revolutions of 1776 and 1789.
The rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States, alongside Islamism that rules over some nations in the Muslim world, is returning the world to premodern prejudices and proves the continued necessity of a Jewish state as refuge: a nation in which Jews cannot be persecuted just for being Jews.
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hartman of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem recently commented on the hardship of knowing that another nation’s theological salvation depends upon his death. Both Hamas and the Iranian regime hold the death of Israel and Jews generally to be necessary goals of their existence. If you doubt that, Google Hamas’ 1988 and 2017 Charters. It’s plainly written, although for political purposes, it’s a bit convoluted in the 2017 Charter.
Both Iran and Hamas, in other words, state that fundamental to their existence is the destruction of Israel and Jews. In the case of Hamas, that was most evident recently in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on kibbutzim in the Gaza Envelope area of Israel. Iran, shortly after its founding in 1979, began developing proxies to destroy Israel and kill Jews, beginning with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Subsequently, it surrounded Israel with military foes: Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
Tragically, the renewal and rise of premodern religious bigotries and messianic hatreds necessitates a political state dedicated to the protection of Jews and the Jewish people.
While these historic facts irrevocably justify a Jewish State, they do not guarantee the righteousness of the actions of that State, either in governmental structure or in waging war. But disagreement with governing policies or criticism of war strategies of a sovereign State does not delegitimate the nation. They only provide grounds to debate the actions of the government, just as in any other country. Israel acts according to the vision of their elected governing bodies, just as the U.S. or any other democracy.
My life, now closing in on the end of its eighth decade, has witnessed the post-WWII rise of the middle class, the ‘60s movements for equal rights, the Reagan revolution’s triumph of Conservatism and now the Trump era. The post-WWII belief in infinite human progress has nearly died.
As a result of modernity’s view of human equality, Reform Judaism transformed Passover’s messianic promise of redemption for the Jewish people into the redemption of all people. The Seder has been reenvisioned to celebrate liberty for all of humanity.
Our modern Seders conclude with the statement typically translated as “Next year in Jerusalem.” But that’s a mistranslation. The actual translation of “L’shanah haba’ah biRushalyim” is “by next year, may we all be in Jerusalem.” The meaning is a messianic wish that by the next Passover, the messiah will have arrived, the world will be perfected, and all will live in peace. It’s a statement filled with hope, that God intends for all peoples to live together peacefully, without national animosities and in mutual acceptance.
Our religious understanding is that it is our obligation to live our lives to bring on that redemption, when all of humanity will live in peace. May that be God’s will, and may we guide our actions in the coming year to do our part in bringing that divine vision to reality. That is the vision of Passover, that the Redemption from Egypt can be universalized to all humankind.
