WAMM Activist: Anne Winkler-Morey

Editor's Note: Usually the "WAMM Activist" column features a profile of a WAMM member. Sometimes, however, the autobiographical words of an activist say far more than what can be conveyed by a third party. Anne Winkler-Morey's open letter proves this point well. Anne is a long-time member currently serving on the WAMM steering committee. She teaches Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota and at Macalester College. She was the founding director of the Resource Center of the Americas. And now, in her own words . . .

An Open Letter to Jewish Supporters of the Israeli Government (and Other Nationalists)

To those of you who would call me a self-hating Jew because I oppose the Israeli government's policy of terrorism and apartheid against the Palestinian people: Let me say right away, before you do, I do not go to synagogue. I would like my daughter to have the experience, but I have not found a synagogue that does not advocate support for Israel.

While I usually celebrate Passover, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah, and while I say the Kaddish for my father, I do so in a nontraditional manner, changing words and rites to suit my internationalist ideology. This year the matzos and the horseradish I bought a month ago are unopened. When I heard growing Israeli terror justified by biblical references, I could not bring myself to organize a Seder, even with all the good ideas and web sites providing alternative services.

Yet I am Jewish. I am Jewish because I am the child of a Holocaust survivor, the grandchild and great grandchild of survivors of countless pogroms. This history, this heritage, explains much about who I am. It has led me to look at the world in such a way that I could not possibly support the Israeli government.

Nationalism

The experience of the Holocaust-my father's experience-makes it impossible for me to embrace nationalism of any sort. I know that the (non-Jewish) German people are made of the same stuff as all other humans, and that it was nationalism-a belief in the Fatherland over all-that created so many Nazi collaborators. I also know that the German people felt like a besieged people, an oppressed people, as a result of World War I, when they voted for Hitler in 1933. It is true that nationalism can be liberating for an oppressed people, but it is an ideology that is not easily tempered. There is always the possibility that it will become racism. The Jewish experience should serve as a lesson for all.

Most Israelis of my middle-age are the children of the oppressed. Yet a reported 75 percent of them support their government's oppression of Palestinians. (We need to hear more about the other 25 percent!) Nationalism is racism when it defines a good American as a flag-waving American and it is racism when it defines a good Jew as one who stands by Israel, right or wrong. "Never Again, Never Again" is a promise canted and re-canted by Holocaust survivors and their progeny. For some it means "never again for my people," i.e. Jews. For me and many others it is a powerful commitment, a calling, to fight against oppression of any people anywhere. It mandates my support for Palestinian sovereignty, not because their nationalism is potentially any less dangerous than Jewish nationalism, but because in this case, they are the oppressed people.

I do not always live up to my ideals. I wish I had combated my fear of you, and written this earlier, instead of using my embrace of internationalism as an excuse to let you define who is a Jew. In the United States and around the world there is a Jewish tradition of internationalism, of radical dissent. It is a tradition born of the experience of oppression and often made tenable by access to educational and other resources. For Jews like myself looking for footsteps to follow, these ancestors provide a strong, viable, and self-loving alternative to the myopic ethnocentric tradition that has led so many Jews to support Israel über Alles. We are all products of our history, but we do have choices. Let us follow the ancestors who have struggled for all humanity.

Jewish and Israeli Peace Resources

Local:

Minnesota Jews for a Just Peace
4632 York Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55410
612-925-5277 Phone
SallyShalom@aol.com

National:

Jewish Unity for a Just Peace
www.junity.org

A Jewish Voice for Peace
P.O. Box 12386
Berkeley, CA 94712
510-239-2239 x5788 Phone
info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Jewish Voices Against the Occupation (JVAO)
P.O. Box 11606
Berkeley, CA 94712
www.jvao.org

Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA)
905 Parker Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-548-0542 Phone
510-548-0543 Fax
meca@mecaforpeace.org
www.mecaforpeace.org

Not In My Name
PMB 206
2859 Central Street
Evanston, IL 60201
312-409-4845 Phone
info@nimn.org
www.nimn.org

Israeli:

Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link
P.O. Box 8083
Jerusalem 91080 Israel
+972-2-563-2622 Phone
+972-2-561-7983 Fax
batshalo@netvision.net.il
www.batshalom.org
Note: Bat Shalom is a feminist, Israeli peace organization that works in close cooperation with The Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's peace organization.

B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
8 HaTa'asiya St. (4th Floor)
Jerusalem 93420 Israel
+972-2-673-5599 Phone
+972-2-674-9111 Fax
mail@btselem.org
www.btselem.org

Gush Shalom
POB 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033 Israel
info@gush-shalom.org
www.gush-shalom.org