"Uncle Sheldon," actually the uncle of my best friend, was Jewish, Communist, and anti-Zionist, and slightly cranky. I loved him. But in 1969, my best friend's mother was continually telling him to shut up, particularly when he began to talk about Zionist atrocities, such as the bombing of the King David Hotel. "Goy aren't supposed to know about that," my friend pretended to whisper to me. "Don't go there either!" his mother quickly interjected. "What's a goy?" I asked, innocently.
It's hard to describe how unique an experience this was. My best friend's mother was most often my second best friend, if not my first. No friend's mother ever gave so freely of her time for me. Nowhere did I feel as much at home as at their house, often even more than at my own house, and for many years after this conversation. It was only this one time, almost when we first met, when Israel was questioned, that she demanded control of the conversation to put the "correct" spin on it. It shows, to me, the power of Zionism, and extreme Nationalism in general, I believe, to supercede all other sensibilities. Also strange, that while I began to ask questions about Israel to my other Jewish friends, I never went further with this friend, without ever remembering why. Nor did I ask any more questions of Uncle Sheldon, though I had at least one more opportunity. My friends and I later agreed that he was nuts.
The above conversation began something like this:
Friend: Uncle Sheldon knows everything about Israel. Don't you Uncle Sheldon?
Sheldon: Go ahead and try me.
Me: Is Israel the most Democratic country in the Middle East?
Sheldon: That's a question I can't answer. You have to define these things correctly. Firstly, Israel is not a country. Israel is a State. As a State, it's very democratic.
Mother: What kind of nonsense is that Sheldon? Of course Israel is a country.
Me: Ok, as a state, I see your point. But what about, as a country?
And so it went, but not much farther. This was all unfolding in a short car ride. At the time, I didn't have a clue that there was such a thing as Zionism, and also anti-Zionism. So I couldn't understand what he was saying at all, except in the light of things I learned over decades later. Uncle Sheldon was in fact most often put down than and later as some kind of nut. But in this one conversation, really the only extended conversation I had with him, there WAS something I very much liked about him, and I continued to feel that way later.
Someone: That's all nuts.
Me: I like Uncle Sheldon. He makes sense to me.
Friend: You like Uncle Sheldon? You could be the first Communist President! You're Communist, aren't you Uncle Sheldon?
Silence.
Me: Why do you say Communist President? I'm a Republican! Communists are in Russia. I believe in Freedom and Prosperity!
I only had one later opportunity to get the answer to the "as a country" question from Uncle Sheldon, at a (wonderful) party hosted by my friend's mother, and I never dared ask. Only later did I learn from another Jewish Leftist that a State was not a Regime (my real question) because a State includes all other non-Regime institutions, the courts, the out-of-government political parties, and so on. But it still, does not necessarily include everyone in the country, and such exclusion is abominable. "As a country," Israel/Palestine is very undemocratic, with half of it's natural population systematically excluded, including the Palestinian refugees. Ethno-statehood is fundamentally opposed to longstanding Communist principles. However, for practical and political reasons, USSR was the second state to recognize Israel. Meanwhile, following my own principles, which I thought were also Jesus and Paul's principles (from each accoding to their ability, to each according to their need) I drifted away from Republicanism and into Leftism over the 70's.
People of Jewish ancestry are important way back in Communism, of course Karl Marx had Jewish ancestry (whose immediate ancestors had converted to Christianity for political reasons), but he was also an avowed Athiest who renounced Judaism and all other Religions, and many of his Jewish ancestry followers followed suit. Nevertheless, Hitler (architect and leader of a globally disasterous ethno-fascist state) condemned Communism as part of "Jewish Thought," eliding both the Athiest declarations and the contributions of non-Jews. Hitler himself was a declared Athiest too, like many Socialists the nominally socialist NAZI party originally included, but had been raised Catholic, and was on good terms with Christian churches in Germany generally. Meanwhile, there is at least some evidence to believe Hitler had some recent Jewish ancestry as well, though this is highly disputed. NAZI "socialism" was a fraud proven at Krystallnacht and ever afterwards, if not before. Nationalism swamps socialism every time, Nationalism leads to Conquering States that seek to make the world safe for their nationality of fascism.
Jews go way back in anti-Zionism too, to about the beginning of the Common Era. Jewish theology set essentially impossible (world peace) preconditions on a mass Jewish return to Israel. After the Holocaust, the Jewish mainstream came to accept Zionism for the first time, but not all Jews went along with that, estimates are quite variable.
This essay tells the story from a Jewish non-Communist perspective from 1919 to WWII, and alleges that Jews were more attracted to Communism than Socialism, and made up most of the US Communist organization as well as vote. I'm really interested in what happened after WWII and annoyed by how this narrative ends right at WWII, where in my mind it may have gotten interesting.
One of my questions is, what happened after WWII, the Holocaust, and the creation of Israel, did some and perhaps the larger group of Jewish leftists migrate to Socialism because of Communism's long association with anti-Zionism? I was looking for that answer and found the above, which is only a start.
It's hard to describe how unique an experience this was. My best friend's mother was most often my second best friend, if not my first. No friend's mother ever gave so freely of her time for me. Nowhere did I feel as much at home as at their house, often even more than at my own house, and for many years after this conversation. It was only this one time, almost when we first met, when Israel was questioned, that she demanded control of the conversation to put the "correct" spin on it. It shows, to me, the power of Zionism, and extreme Nationalism in general, I believe, to supercede all other sensibilities. Also strange, that while I began to ask questions about Israel to my other Jewish friends, I never went further with this friend, without ever remembering why. Nor did I ask any more questions of Uncle Sheldon, though I had at least one more opportunity. My friends and I later agreed that he was nuts.
The above conversation began something like this:
Friend: Uncle Sheldon knows everything about Israel. Don't you Uncle Sheldon?
Sheldon: Go ahead and try me.
Me: Is Israel the most Democratic country in the Middle East?
Sheldon: That's a question I can't answer. You have to define these things correctly. Firstly, Israel is not a country. Israel is a State. As a State, it's very democratic.
Mother: What kind of nonsense is that Sheldon? Of course Israel is a country.
Me: Ok, as a state, I see your point. But what about, as a country?
And so it went, but not much farther. This was all unfolding in a short car ride. At the time, I didn't have a clue that there was such a thing as Zionism, and also anti-Zionism. So I couldn't understand what he was saying at all, except in the light of things I learned over decades later. Uncle Sheldon was in fact most often put down than and later as some kind of nut. But in this one conversation, really the only extended conversation I had with him, there WAS something I very much liked about him, and I continued to feel that way later.
Someone: That's all nuts.
Me: I like Uncle Sheldon. He makes sense to me.
Friend: You like Uncle Sheldon? You could be the first Communist President! You're Communist, aren't you Uncle Sheldon?
Silence.
Me: Why do you say Communist President? I'm a Republican! Communists are in Russia. I believe in Freedom and Prosperity!
I only had one later opportunity to get the answer to the "as a country" question from Uncle Sheldon, at a (wonderful) party hosted by my friend's mother, and I never dared ask. Only later did I learn from another Jewish Leftist that a State was not a Regime (my real question) because a State includes all other non-Regime institutions, the courts, the out-of-government political parties, and so on. But it still, does not necessarily include everyone in the country, and such exclusion is abominable. "As a country," Israel/Palestine is very undemocratic, with half of it's natural population systematically excluded, including the Palestinian refugees. Ethno-statehood is fundamentally opposed to longstanding Communist principles. However, for practical and political reasons, USSR was the second state to recognize Israel. Meanwhile, following my own principles, which I thought were also Jesus and Paul's principles (from each accoding to their ability, to each according to their need) I drifted away from Republicanism and into Leftism over the 70's.
People of Jewish ancestry are important way back in Communism, of course Karl Marx had Jewish ancestry (whose immediate ancestors had converted to Christianity for political reasons), but he was also an avowed Athiest who renounced Judaism and all other Religions, and many of his Jewish ancestry followers followed suit. Nevertheless, Hitler (architect and leader of a globally disasterous ethno-fascist state) condemned Communism as part of "Jewish Thought," eliding both the Athiest declarations and the contributions of non-Jews. Hitler himself was a declared Athiest too, like many Socialists the nominally socialist NAZI party originally included, but had been raised Catholic, and was on good terms with Christian churches in Germany generally. Meanwhile, there is at least some evidence to believe Hitler had some recent Jewish ancestry as well, though this is highly disputed. NAZI "socialism" was a fraud proven at Krystallnacht and ever afterwards, if not before. Nationalism swamps socialism every time, Nationalism leads to Conquering States that seek to make the world safe for their nationality of fascism.
Jews go way back in anti-Zionism too, to about the beginning of the Common Era. Jewish theology set essentially impossible (world peace) preconditions on a mass Jewish return to Israel. After the Holocaust, the Jewish mainstream came to accept Zionism for the first time, but not all Jews went along with that, estimates are quite variable.
This essay tells the story from a Jewish non-Communist perspective from 1919 to WWII, and alleges that Jews were more attracted to Communism than Socialism, and made up most of the US Communist organization as well as vote. I'm really interested in what happened after WWII and annoyed by how this narrative ends right at WWII, where in my mind it may have gotten interesting.
One of my questions is, what happened after WWII, the Holocaust, and the creation of Israel, did some and perhaps the larger group of Jewish leftists migrate to Socialism because of Communism's long association with anti-Zionism? I was looking for that answer and found the above, which is only a start.
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