Jewish History - Jewish Religion by Israel Shahak

Subtitle: The Weight of Three Thousand Years. First published in 1994.

Israel Shahak was born in Warsaw, like me, only some 40 years earlier. He survived the Holocaust, was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the British, and with his mother emigrated to Palestine. He went to a religious school in Israel, served in the IDF, studied and taught chemistry, got a doctorate at Hebrew University, studied at Stanford, become a human rights defender and author. 

This an important book about the history and the present of Judaism. This book is also useful in understanding the history of Israel and Zionism. Even though it was written over 30 years ago, it still helps us understand what is going on in Israel and in occupied-Palestine today, and even the most recent actions and policies regarding Israel in countries like the US, the UK, and Australia. 

This book is primarily addressed to Jews in Israel and in diaspora. It's a call for action:

"Therefore, the real test facing both Israeli and diaspora Jews is the test of their self-criticism which must include the critique of the Jewish past. The most important part of such a critique must be detailed and honest confrontation of the Jewish attitude to non-Jews. This is what many Jews justly demand from non-Jews: to confront their own past and so become aware of the discrimination and persecutions inflicted on the Jews. In the last 40 years the number of non-Jews killed by Jews is by far greater than the number of the Jews killed by non-Jews. The extent of the persecution and discrimination against non-Jews inflicted by the 'Jewish state' with the support of organised diaspora Jews is also enormously greater than the suffering inflicted on Jews by regimes hostile to them. Although the struggle against antisemitism (and of all other forms of racism) should never cease, the struggle against Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism, which must include a critique of classical Judaism is now of equal or greater importance."

This quote by Theodor Herzl - the father of Zionism, perplexed me - he wrote in 1896 in Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) on why Jews must have their own state:

"The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not exist, it is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence produces persecution."

Were Jews special in that regard? Were there groups/cultures similarly finding it hard to live among others? I know of anti-Chinese legislation and riots in the US, Australia and Asia, and I know of anti-Romani attitudes, and their genocide during the Nazi Germany rule.

Regarding attitudes toward Jews, I assumed it was jealousy plus being different: primarily having a unique, non-proselytising, religion, but after reading this book I would probably add that being brought up to follow the Jewish law (Halakha) through religious instruction or through culture, could have caused resentment in every society, where Jews lived in significant numbers. Note: Reform Judaism does not treat Halakha as binding, but it is a relatively new denomination and a niche one in Israel. Some examples of Halakha from the book:

"A Jew who murders a Gentile is guilty only of a sin against the laws of Heaven, not punishable by a court.' To cause indirectly the death of a Gentile is no sin at all."

"In wartime I am not merely permitted, but enjoined [instructed] to kill every Arab man and woman whom I chance upon, if there is reason to fear that they help in the war against us, directly or indirectly."

"As for Gentiles with whom we are not at war ... their death must not be caused, but it is forbidden to save them if they are at the point of death;"

"Jews must not (if they can help it) allow a Gentile to be appointed to any position of authority, however small, over Jews."

"Gentiles are presumed to be congenital [born] liars and are disqualified from testifying in a rabbinical court."

"Jews are instructed to burn, publicly if possible any copy of the New Testament that comes into their hands."

"[...] it became customary to spit (usual1y three times) upon seeing a church or a crucifix, [...]"

"[..] all Gentile women are presumed to be prostitutes."

The last quote above comes from this section:

This sentiment is expressed in the Yiddish word shiksa, which I heard my grandma use sometime in the 1970s, in a modified meaning of an unclean, childish young girl or woman, and which in Hebrew is even worse:

All of the Halakha rules come with an overriding exception: "unless doing so, might cause harm to you or to Jews in general", which in the times of kings meant making exceptions for and maintaining very good relations with the rulers and other people in positions of power. Today, it means politicians, judges,  business leaders, and journalists.

This book also touches on the subject of misinformation, which may lead to hatred and wars. For example, here are the author's thoughts on the Khmelnytsky uprising:

Peasant uprisings were happening in Poland and elsewhere many times over the centuries. I remember how surprised I was when I learned that the last one happened in Poland only in 1937 - 44 peasants were killed. I was not taught about that at school.

I saw the distortion of history, ignorance, and irrational reaction to current events many times. From posters on social media talking about "Polish death camps" or "Nazi Poland", to tweets by recent Israeli and American ambassadors.

Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev called the stealing of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign in the Auschwitz museum in 2009 (stolen by local criminals for a Swedish neo-nazi as it later turned out) a true declaration of war (by Poland against Israel?).

Jewish associations were fighting against the presence of Catholic nuns and crosses on the site where Polish political prisoners of Auschwitz were executed by Germans.

Famous figures, like Steven Spielberg were casually spreading misinformation that Poland prohibited talking about the Holocaust, when in fact the proposed law was intended to penalise the intentional false blaming of the Holocaust on Poles, which was an opinion carried by about half of the population in Israel and Germany in 2024.

Israeli and Australian newspapers were distorting the truth and accusing others of doing it, for example, an article was published in The Australian in August 2024 implying that Poland was in some way responsible for the death camps, and at the same time arguing that the camp museums having an .org or .eu domains, not .pl, or people using the historically accurate names such as Litzmannstadt Ghetto are part of a Holocaust distortion worse than Holocaust denial:

Anyway, Shahak's book is worth reading. If your local library doesn't have it, you can probably find it on the Internet in a PDF format. 

...

My thinking brain wishes long and healthy lives to all(*) people, regardless of their faith, ethnicity, language, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, etc. * - Yes, even the bad people - that's what my Catholic upbringing nags me about - "love your enemy". I just want the bad people separated from the society, so they cannot harm others and hopefully have time to reflect and change.

We live in terrible times again. We should protect nature, try to lessen the impacts of the existential catastrophe caused by burning of fossil fuels, help the most vulnerable among us, and enjoy life, not hate and kill each other.

Shalom.