Jewish radicalism differs from Islamic and Christian fundamentalism - opinion

One of the lessons I have taught every year for 20 years is the difference between Islamic fundamentalism and Judaism. Many Jews don’t understand the difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism and often confuse the two. Based on their misunderstanding of these differences, they then conflate the differences between Islam and Judaism.

Islam is a monotheistic religion that worships the same God, the only God, as Judaism. There is a rich history of Islamic wisdom taught by Islamic scholars who have made significant contributions to the study of science and philosophy. Jewish scholars such as Maimonides have quoted Islamic scholars and their teachings in their own writings.

Islamic fundamentalism is entirely different from the rich tradition of Islam. As we see in Iran today, it takes the tenets of Islam and radicalizes them with a violent extremism. Islamic fundamentalists charge that it isn’t enough for a Muslim to study the teachings of Islam and follow the Quran and Hadith, they must violently attack the Muslim followers with a different approach to Islam or are lax in their observance. Islamic fundamentalists kill not only non-Muslim heretics, but also Muslims with different traditions of Islam, and will not hesitate to blow up their mosques.

Fundamentalist Muslims also believe that infidels, those that do not believe in Islam, like Buddhists, Christians, and Jews, must die or be conquered. Their lands must be controlled by the followers of Muhammed. They will utilize terrorism to achieve their goals and kill innocent Muslims and others without hesitation.

CHRISTIANITY ALSO has its fundamentalists. Thankfully, Christian fundamentalism is largely a relic of the past, but in its heyday, that lasted over 1,000 years, the Crusades and pogroms had disastrous consequences for Jews and Muslims. Millions of Jews have died at the hands of attacking Christian fundamentalists. Today, they largely express their views through antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric, eschewing violence.

Judaism, on the other hand, does not have a form of mainstream and accepted fundamentalism. Jewish history doesn’t have a fundamentalist tradition. While Judaism isn’t monolithic with all Jews subscribing to the same set of beliefs, it does not have a fundamentalist element to it. It is rare, if ever, to find Jews who have violently attacked other Jews who believed in a different form of Judaism. 

Many different Jewish movements have emerged, and they all started their break-off movements from mainstream Judaism without other Jews violently attacking them. There has never been a widespread phenomenon of Jews blowing up the synagogues of other Jews or killing them because they believed in a different form of Judaism.

False claims of Jewish supremacy

LATELY, antisemites have begun charging that there is a radical form of Judaism which believes in Jewish supremacy. They charge that these radicals are not just in the world of Jewish scholarship but have infiltrated the Israeli government and are influencing policy – especially in the ways Israel deals with Palestinians. They place Jewish radicalism in the same category as Islamic and Christian fundamentalism.

The antisemites who claim that Jewish radicalism is the same as Islamic and Christian fundamentalism don’t understand the important difference between them. Jewish radicalism is found solely in the realm of Jewish scholarship and doesn’t have a violent expression. Jews who maintain that Jews are created differently than non-Jews do not extend their teachings to posit that Jews must rule the world and kill non-Jews. 

The charge that Israel’s policies are motivated by Jewish radicalism is spurious. There has never been an Israeli prime minister or chief of staff of the army who has said that Israel must carry out a specific policy or mission to subjugate non-Jews because Jews are superior to them. Every Israeli policy, whether one agrees or disagrees with the specifics of it, is dictated by security concerns.

The accusation that Israel deals with non-Jews, and Palestinians in particular, from an angle of Jewish supremacy misunderstands the foundations of Zionism. The movement that stands as the underpinnings of Israeli policy is Zionist philosophy that was developed by Israel’s founders in the century before the establishment of the State of Israel. Zionist philosophy is based largely on Jewish traditions and values but, due to the plethora of different views of Judaism, the State of Israel relies on Zionism rather than Judaism to develop policy.

Zionist thought does not allow for the notion of Jewish supremacy. Ironically, the charge of Jewish supremacy is the most frequent charge leveled against Zionism, culminating in the United Nations resolution – since revoked – that Zionism is racism. It was Zionist values which dictated that the Jewish State of Israel should grant equal citizenship to Arabs and other non-Jews living in Israel. 

Today, some 2.3 million non-Jews – over 20% of the population – are equal citizens of Israel. These citizens have representation in Israel’s Knesset and are at the top of every professional field in Israel. There are no laws in Israel that favor Jewish citizens over non-Jewish citizens.

THE JEWISH sage Avtalion warned that scholars must be careful with their words, lest their students learn the wrong lesson and disastrous consequences follow. Maimonides explained that Avtalion’s concern was that scholars wouldn’t be as careful as they should be with their words and their students would learn incorrect, even heretical, ideas from erroneous conclusions drawn from their mistaken teachings. Words can be misunderstood easily, and when they are, no one knows what the repercussions will be. 

This applies as much to teachers as it does to parents, older siblings, and leaders. Jewish teachers, rabbis, and elected officials must be careful that their statements don’t reflect Jewish supremacist teachings that can act as fuel to the charges of Israel’s enemies that Israel is a radical society whose supremacism dictates policy and allows the taking of non-Jewish lives without hesitation.

In 1975, the United Nations proposed a resolution charging that Zionism in racism. In opposing the resolution, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog said, “I do not come to this rostrum to defend the moral and historical values of the Jewish people. They do not need to be defended; they speak for themselves. 

“Zionism is the name of the national movement of the Jewish people and is the modern expression of the ancient Jewish heritage. The Zionist ideal, as set out in the Bible, has been, and is, an integral part of the Jewish religion. Zionism is to the Jewish people what the liberation movement of Africa and Asia have been to their peoples,” he said. 

“Zionism is one of the most stirring and constructive national movements in human history. Historically, it is based on a unique and unbroken connection, extending some 4,000 years, between the People of the Book and the Land of the Bible.” Herzog’s words are still as relevant today as they were almost 50 years ago.

The writer is a Zionist educator at institutions around the world and recently published his book, Zionism Today.