opinion
“T he right of people to self-determination is
something I believe in … but we are opposed
to the idea that Israel should be preserved as a state
for the Jewish people.”
Amnesty’s blinkered anti-Zionism is a recipe for
disaster. Paul O’Brien, the non-Jewish executive
director of Amnesty International USA, stirred
up a storm of protest with this self-contradictory
statement, despite attempts to walk it back. There
was a good reason for this: O’Brien appears to
believe that all peoples are entitled to self-de-
termination — except the Jews. There’s a name
for that kind of double standard — antisemitism.

For this alone, O’Brien deserves the opprobrium
heaped upon him.

With what would O’Brien replace a Jewish state?
“Jewish people want to know that there’s a
sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place
that the Jewish people can call home,” he told
a Women’s National Democratic Club audience.

“The key to sustainability is to adhere to what I
see as core Jewish values, which are to be princi-
pled and fair and just in creating that space.”
It could be argued that Jews enjoy a place of
safety in the United States. Although, if you are
an ultra-Orthodox Jew in New Jersey, for exam-
ple, your sense of safety might be fraying at the
edges. But to project the values of a pluralistic
democracy on to the Middle East, as O’Brien
does, smacks of mind-blowing naiveté.

BY IDIT KLEIN AND IS PERLMAN | JTA
the ruler of the day and paid him the jizya tax, i.e.

protection money. Under a benevolent ruler, the
Jews could thrive.

At other times, they could not escape violence
and oppression. They might have exercised infl u-
ence as courtiers or advisers, but they never
exercised power. To them, the “core Jewish val-
ues” evoked by O’Brien meant powerlessness —
knowing your place, keeping your head down and
accepting “dhimmitude,” which was, again, apart-
heid according to Amnesty itself. For all intents and
purposes, O’Brien is advocating that Jews revert to
their former status as a vulnerable minority.

It is likely that the Jews Paul O’Brien meets are
the type who belong to Jewish Voice for Peace,
delusional liberals who are willing to trade in
Jewish sovereignty for his “core Jewish values.”
These individuals aim “to promote Jewish pow-
erlessness once again, in an eff ort to restore
the apparent moral purity of a Jewish powerless
existence,” as the Israeli academic and former
politician Einat Wilf puts it.

Holocaust survivors, Ethiopian Jews, Soviet
Jews, Middle Eastern and North African Jews and
now Ukrainian Jews have found an unconditional
haven in a sovereign Jewish state that is committed
to defending them. They all know that Jewish pow-
erlessness is a luxury that liberal American Jews
may aspire to, but most Israeli Jews can ill aff ord. JE
Lyn Julius is the author of “Uprooted: How 3,000
Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World
Vanished Overnight” (Vallentine Mitchell, 2018).

Bills Attacking LGBTQ Rights
Are an Assault on Jewish Values
W e are alarmed by the surge of legislative
attacks on the rights, safety and dignity of
LGBTQ youth across the nation.

Among over 100 pending anti-LGBTQ bills are
the recently passed “Don’t Say Gay Bill” in Florida
and the terrifying equation of trans-affi rming health
care with child abuse by the governor of Texas.

18 In O’Brien’s dystopian scenario for a de-Judaized
Israel, the Law of Return that grants all diaspora
Jews Israeli citizenship would be abrogated, giv-
ing them nowhere to fl ee if necessary. “Hatikvah”
would cease to be the national anthem. And, very
quickly, Israel would become a majority-Arab state.

The Arab world is full of failed and authoritarian
states. Its record on democracy and pluralism
is disastrous. And tellingly, with the exception
of tiny communities in the Gulf and Morocco,
the Arab world is now judenrein. In the wake
of the Jewish exodus from the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s,
Yazidis, Maronites, Baha’is, Copts, Assyrians and
Chaldeans have streamed out as well. The Arab
world’s failure to establish a society respectful of
dissent, of minority and women’s rights, promises
a bleak future of subjugation and intolerance.

Ironically, the million Jews who fl ed the MENA
region they had inhabited since 1,000 years before
the rise of Islam were victims of “apartheid” by
Amnesty International’s own defi nition: “depriva-
tion, segregation, fragmentation and disposses-
sion.” Amnesty’s silence on this massive injustice
is deafening. And, needless to say, the 650,000
Jews who sought a haven in Israel from Arab and
Muslim countries and now form a majority of Israeli
Jews did not escape in order to fi nd themselves
once more under Arab-Muslim domination.

Until the colonial era granted them greater
security, Jews occupied a space in the Muslim
polity — “the Jewish quarter in an Arab town.”
They lived as inferior “dhimmis” at the mercy of
MARCH 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
We are a queer Jewish communal professional
and a nonbinary Jewish college student. We
recognize that now is a time when we must fi ght
for ourselves, and we call on our beloved Jewish
community to join us in our fi ght for the rights of
LGBTQ people everywhere.

One of us, Is Perlman, grew up in Florida and was
blessed with parents who supported the start of their
medical transition there. Despite that love and affi r-
mation, Is endured years of self-loathing and shame
due to the onslaught of anti-trans rhetoric in their local
communities and the broader world. Indeed, Is was
one of the 40% of trans and nonbinary young people
who attempt suicide by age 24. They’ve shared that it
was only when they met other LGBTQ Jewish teens
and adult mentors through a Shabbaton organized by
Keshet — a national organization working for LGBTQ
equality in the Jewish community — that they came
to understand themselves as not just worthy of basic
dignity, but as a holy person who is made in the image
Klein: Courtesy via JTA; Perlman: Courtesy via JTA
BY LYN JULIUS
Amnesty’s Blinkered Anti-Zionism
Is a Recipe for Disaster



Via JNS.org
opinion of the Divine.

If Is were still a high school student
in Florida today, any reference to their
identity or experience as a nonbinary
person could be banned under the
newly-passed “Don’t Say Gay” law.

For the many LGBTQ youth who live
in Florida, this bill serves to further
marginalize a group that already expe-
riences severe stigma and isolation.

Legislators should be supporting
educators to ensure that all stu-
dents have access to affirming, safe
learning environments where they
can grow and evolve in the fullness
of their identities. Instead, Florida
legislators — and legislators in the
dozens of states around the coun-
try that have introduced anti-LGBTQ
legislation — are playing politics with
the lives of LGBTQ youth and under-
mining their basic humanity. Do not
be fooled by these politicians’ rhet-
oric. Do speak out to condemn how
this law will spark shame and fear
among LGBTQ youth and no doubt
threaten their safety and even lives.

In Texas, the governor directed
the Texas Department of Family and
Protective Services to open child
abuse investigations of parents who
provide gender-affirming care for
their trans children. This means that
parents who support their trans kids
and help them access the health care
they need may be subject to investi-
gation that could lead to their children
being taken away. Imagine the terror
that parents of trans kids and the kids
themselves are now experiencing.

Thankfully, an ACLU lawsuit has thus
far blocked its implementation, but we
don’t know if they will succeed in per-
manently stopping this destructive pol-
icy. Already, Texas Children’s Hospital
in Houston, the largest pediatric hos-
pital in the country, announced that
it will no longer prescribe gender-af-
firming hormone therapies. Hospital
officials cited the governor’s directive
as the reason for the change. Similarly,
numerous parents of trans kids report
that pharmacies are refusing to fill pre-
scriptions and insurance companies
are pulling coverage.

It has been nearly 40 years since
legislation was first proposed to out-
law discrimination based on sexual ori-
entation, with gender identity added
more recently. We have been active
in a national Jewish community cam-
paign led by Keshet to support the
passing of the Equality Act that would
at long last give LGBTQ people the
civil rights protections that everyone
deserves in their homes, jobs, public
services and more.

At 18 years old, Is has already
spoken publicly in multiple settings
about what enabled them to survive
their teenage years as a young trans
person: access to trans-affirming
health care and connections with
other queer Jewish youth. Speaking
with such vulnerability is never easy.

But Is continues to do so because
they understand the catastrophic
impact of threats to the safety and
wellbeing of trans youth everywhere.

Polls consistently tell us that a clear
majority of American Jews support
LGBTQ civil rights. We know from
our own experience in the “Yes on
3” campaign to preserve transgender
rights in Massachusetts that when
called upon, our Jewish communities
do take action: Over 70% of syn-
agogues and other Jewish organi-
zations played an active role in the
campaign and helped us win. This is
just one of many examples we could
offer of how American Jewish com-
munities have moved to take mean-
ingful action on LGBTQ rights issues.

The crisis for LGBTQ young peo-
ple, especially trans youth, should
concern all of us. There are so many
ways to make a difference: speak out
against harmful legislation with your
state legislators and urge your sena-
tors to pass the Equality Act; mobilize
people in your local Jewish commu-
nity or organize an educational pro-
gram; tell a trans kid in your life that
they can count on your support. We
need every Jewish community mem-
ber to recognize this time as a time for
action. Only then will all LGBTQ youth
be able to live with safety, dignity
and the certainty that they, like every
human being, are indeed holy.

We know from Is’ experience, and
that of countless other trans young
people, that trans-affirming care is
the opposite of abuse; it is health
care. Often, it is life-saving care. As
a community whose highest value is
pikuach nefesh, saving a life, we call
on Jews everywhere to say to trans
youth: Your life matters and we will
fight to save it. JE
Idit Klein is the president and CEO of
Keshet. Is Perlman is a Jewish non-
binary first year student at Columbia
University and a Keshet youth leader.

This is Real War
F GERSHON BLORITZKY | JNS
or most people, when the images
of Russian tanks approaching
Ukraine’s border began to be broadcast
around the world, it was something
looked upon as news from a distant
front — horrific, but very far away.

But for me, who lives in Ukraine,
this was life, and it was all too real.

At first, most people around here
said that it was just Russian President
Vladimir Putin being Putin, and that he
wouldn’t invade. I wasn’t at all sure and
thought he very might well invade, so I
made the decision to buy airline tickets
for my family to escape to Israel. My
wife and five children (ages 6 to 14)
were able to get on the very last flight
out of Ukraine destined for Israel.

I stayed behind because I knew my
help would be needed. Together with
the chief rabbi of Ukraine, we began
to look for solutions to an escalating
crisis. We were able to find a path for
many Jews living in the larger cities to
flee. We set up hotels along the border
where the refugees would be able to
stay. We bought food, medicine and
basic supplies, and on that last night
before the Russians invaded, we were
able to evacuate dozens of people who
never in their lives thought they would
see such a shocking day.

When the sounds of bombing
began at 4 a.m., we were already in
the shelters. Over the course of the
day, as people realized what we were
facing, the roads became jam-packed
with people trying to head west. Many
people who wanted to escape weren’t
able to find transportation. Many bus
drivers simply were afraid to drive
fearing they could be struck by the
enemy at any time on the road.

Over the course of that first day, we
desperately worked to help people into
shelters. By Shabbat (a day later), we
saw the Russian air force attacking and
thought it was just a matter of time
before our hideout would be hit by a
rocket. Because of the immediate dan-
ger to our lives, we were permitted to
drive on Shabbat; however, we had no
idea which direction was the best to take
or which roads might lead us directly into
danger. We had to make sure that we
weren’t driving toward a Russian army
brigade or that we wouldn’t get stuck in
the middle of a battlefield. I can’t hon-
estly tell you which roads we took, but by
Motzei Shabbat (Saturday evening), we
had reached the border crossing.

You need to understand that people
are fleeing with literally nothing to their
names. This is real war. They are run-
ning out of their homes after being told
that there’s a bus to leave on, and they
jump aboard without asking any ques-
tions. Where possible, they grab some
clothing, critical documents and some
money, and they just run.

At the border, they arrive completely
exhausted; physically and emotionally.

Every day, I meet hundreds of Jewish
refugees, and I do whatever I can to
help them and set them on their way.

Shorashim has set up a hotline that
helps anyone who wants to make aliyah
and to assist them in getting the neces-
sary documentation. We are working 24
hours a day, and the phones never stop
ringing. War doesn’t care about the time
of day or whether it’s light outside; no
matter the hour we need to be available.

Within those masses of refugees
are countless incredibly difficult sto-
ries. Many of those women and chil-
dren you see on the news are leaving
behind husbands and fathers who are
fighting, and they truly don’t know if
they will ever see them again.

One family that we have helped
comes from the town of Irpin, close to
Kyiv. They lived for two weeks under
almost constant attack from Chechen
forces, who are known to be among the
most brutal soldiers serving the Russian
army. Miraculously, they were able to
flee and are now in a far safer area
— still in Ukrainian territory but along
the Hungarian border. They are now
thinking about their next steps with the
likelihood that they will soon call Israel
their new home. And we will be there
to help them, and a growing number of
families like them, to make that possible.

Despite the awful images and painful
stories I’m seeing and hearing, I choose
to be optimistic. I chose to think that if
a war has a beginning, then it will also
have an end. Our greatest prayer is that
it will be here very, very soon. JE
Gershon Bloritzky works in Ukraine
with Shorashim, a project of the Tzohar
Rabbinical Organization that provides
Jewish identification services.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 19