Action & Praxis in Wartime: SHIUR Newsletter from Tel Aviv - Part II
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Shalom Aleichem from Tel Aviv,
I remember the evening of October 7, walking through the empty streets of Tel Aviv. I felt it was not the quiet before the storm but the quiet of the storm. The silence soon became emblematic of the condition Jews and Israelis would experience and continue to experience.
I experienced an involuntary change in my whole person—both emotionally and physically. I was overcome with a profound sense of seriousness—everything else that seemed significant in my life before October 7, lost meaning, and I felt (and still feel) that I entered a liminal stage that was, unexpectedly and strangely, solid and decisive. At first this may sound a bit paradoxical—how can an intermediate stage, where we have no certainty of what will follow, allow for decisiveness?
I think that a truly liminal stage, where there is a clear break from the most superficial elements of what was and a restoration of our deepest values, allows for a complete sense of empowerment—that we will be the ones to shape the future. We are no longer dependent on flimsy structures that failed us—nor are we reliant on our former friends and allies. This makes us realize that it is only our actions that we can rely on. The silence of the storm liberated us from the noise that clouded our pre-War minds. The silence of our former allies frees us from their influence.
The whole of Israel went through this process—Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Left Wing and Right Wing—all came together in action. It felt as if everyone was doing something—we collected much needed supplies and goods, for the survivors who were evacuated from the South, for the young women and men who were going to risk their lives to liberate the hostages and fight Hamas.
The words of R. Shimon ben Gamliel suddenly gained a new meaning:
“All my days, I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better than silence. Interpretation is not the main thing, but action! Whoever multiplies words, brings transgression!” (Avot 1.17)
The silence was not the silence of “action speaks louder than words”—No! The silence that began on October 7 is the silence that liberates action from its pre-revolutionary overthought mundanity, and elevates it to a revolutionary human & basic deed.
In the days after October 7, every act was equal in status—we were all involved in keeping the ship afloat. Every action came from our gut, from what we call in Yiddish, the kishkes.
When facing inhumanity you discover what it means to be human.
Nearly everyone in Israel, lives according to the following words of the revolutionary theorist Georg Lukacs:
“...from the ethical point of view, no one can escape responsibility with the excuse that he is only an individual, on whom the fate of the world does not depend. Not only can this not be known objectively for certain, because it is always possible that it will depend precisely on the individual, but this kind of thinking is also made impossible by the very essence of ethics, by conscience and the sense of responsibility.” (Tactics and Ethics.1919)
Silencing the “outer” noise reveals the ethics, conscience and sense of responsibility that belies our very being—which, is of course, not exclusively innate, but a tangled product of both nature and nurture. I spent time learning about the backgrounds of the different volunteers and fighters—and I was never surprised to discover that they were raised with a distinct value system unique to Israel, that perhaps runs so deep, that it is taken for granted when superficial differences distract.
The shared values that come to the fore break the previous veneer of factionalism and prove where we really stand. In some ways, this reveals the low level of “acts of solidarity” that are essentially political products of thought and reason. The act of a brother for his sibling is not an act of solidarity—there is nothing performative about it. It emerges from somewhere deeper…from the kishkes.
Now I would like to focus a bit on the Israeli Left and how they are dealing with the “situation.”
There is a feeling that Israeli leftists were disproportionately affected by the initial attacks by Hamas. This is because:
1) the Kibbutzim (collectivist agricultural communities) that were attacked were primarily far left on the political spectrum
2) the Nova peace festival was attended by secular, largely progressive young people
3) the territories attacked were all in undisputed parts of Israel (i.e. not occupied territories).
Many of the people murdered and kidnapped were themselves pro-Palestinian activists—some leaders in far left organizations.
Amongst certain elements of the left, previous to October 7th, there was the (mistaken) notion that the attacks and animosity towards Israel was mainly tied to Israeli policy in the West Bank, as if those that were not in disputed territories and were vocal against the government were somehow excluded from the wrath of Israel hatred and antisemitism.
The sense of betrayal felt by the Israeli left is best captured in the following words by Israeli writer Nissan Shor, in the left wing newspaper Haaretz:
“It's often said that we direct our anger toward those we love, because this anger stems from unmet expectations and unfulfilled hopes. I find myself angry with those I believed were like me, those who I thought shared my values - leftist ideals, humanism, human rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights and so forth. It seems I was mistaken, and we were all mistaken, both Israelis and Jews. All too swiftly, we were cast aside, as if thrown beneath a speeding train.” (Opinion, October 26, 2023)
Dan Reisinger. Again? 1993
What we can focus on here–is the realization that the Israeli Left is the last bastion of a humanist value-driven left. Much like the German National socialists detached themselves from universal humanist socialism- we observe a similar drifting away from universal humanism within the contemporary global left that appears to involve a new type of antisemitism.
The Israeli left still fights for Palestinian rights, still tirelessly works to achieve a social democratic Israel, and has not lost the human value that defending progressive democracy also means fighting evil on both sides, whether from within or without.
Walter Benjamin famously wrote:
“In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from a conformism that is about to overpower it.” (Theses on the Philosophy of History. 1940)
Israeli and Jewish progressives have the opportunity to wrest the revolutionary progressive tradition away from the pseudo-left conformism that is about to overpower it.
The global left has succumbed to a value system that reflects more the capitalist stock market & amoral algorithms rather than any commitment to fundamental human values or theory for that matter. The commodification of values has led to an alienation similar to what Marx described in his early writings on economics and labor. Well meaning “progressives”-- antiracists, LGBTQ+, feminists, secularists, and others–will actively advocate for anti-progressive Hamas rule “from the River to the Sea.” The images of people like themselves being gunned down, raped, murdered and taken hostage are “exhilirating and energizing” as one “left wing” professor proclaimed.
Walter Benjamin’s critique of the amoralism of certain futurists comes to mind:
“Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.” (The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction)
The Israeli left can take it as its cause to maintain its humanist values - and to resist the following tendencies: to no longer to be the useful idiots of Palestinian nationalists who exploit Israeli progressives for their unprogressive nationalist cause, nor become Israeli Jewish chauvinists hardened by the Global Left’s great betrayal and Hamas’s atrocities.
Dan Reisinger. Peace. 1969.
I believe the answer is to bond with those that share the same values. Those whose kishkes lead them towards a humanism of the universal kind. Those who never legitimize rape, kidnapping, or murder, but who strive towards a revolution that brings out the best in humanity.
This requires what Hannah Arendt describes as an “enlarged way of thinking”:
“...knows how to transcend its individual limitations, cannot function in strict isolation or solitude; it needs the presence of others ‘in whose place’ it must think, whose perspectives it must take into consideration, and without whom it never has the opportunity to operate at all.” (The Crisis in Culture in Between Past and Future, 1961, p220-221)
For this reason, I’ve decided to develop SHIUR programming in the following direction:
In Israel:
1) Discourse.
Weekly in-person SHIUR gatherings where Jews and Arabs, Israelis and foreigners, come together through text-based discourse. Thinking together, reading together, developing ideas and experiences together–is, I believe, the best use of this liminal moment in our history.
2) Actions that promote unity between Arabs and Jews here.
This involves programming for Arab and Jewish children, to play and bond together. For many, the inciting background noise from television, relatives, and playmates will ensure another generation of hate–we want to combat this by creating spaces and experiences instilling universalist humanist values.
There are also Arabs risking their lives protecting Israel from Hamas, both as civilians and as Israel Defense Forces soldiers–having saved lives during the massacres of October 7 and after. We want to show our love and appreciation for them by helping their families with whatever needs they have.
Globally:
1) Bi-weekly virtual SHIUR. Maintaining a direct connection across borders and cultures is the path to “enlarged thinking” par excellence. Currently we meet on Thursday evenings (8pm) at Radical Publishing House, a progressive publishing house and cultural space.
2) Regular live meet ups for the SHIUR community in Germany (Berlin, Munich), New York, Netherlands, London and Paris. Please email “contact@shiur.eu” if you’d like to join one of these. If you live somewhere else besides the regions above and would like to host, please also email.
I’ll conclude with two texts.
Back to Lukacs:
“In order for correct action to become an authentic…consciousness must raise itself above the level of the merely given; it must remember its world-historical mission and its sense of responsibility.” (Tactics and Ethics)
And the words of Theodor Herzl’s Altneuland (1903):
“If you will it, it is no fairytale.”
“Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen”
I look forward to seeing you at the virtual SHIUR.
Best from Tel Aviv,
Micki