By Jay Bernstein
The exodus from Egypt that we recently commemorated on Passover begins with Moshe receiving his mission at the burning bush, returning to Egypt and assembling the Jewish leaders, the elders of Israel. Yet when Moshe and Aharon appear before Pharaoh to demand he let the Jews go, the elders are not present. Rashi explains that fearing what might happen, the elders dropped out, leaving Moshe and Aharon to confront Pharaoh by themselves.
When these events occurred 3000 years ago, what was at stake was the future of the Jewish people: enslavement and eventual assimilation, or freedom and the challenge of creating a holy nation. This Passover, at risk are the existence of the state of Israel, and the safety and security of Diaspora communities. The stakes are very high, which begs the question: Where are our leaders?
In the six months since Oct. 7, Baltimore — like other cities across the country — has experienced a vicious campaign to slander and delegitimize the Jewish state and the Zionist movement, including protests, marches, legislative campaigns and the spread of hate on social media. Assessing the response of our elders, the leadership of the Baltimore Jewish community, one is struck by a lack of urgency, and an overall passivity.
Now is the time for our leaders to publicly and unapologetically call out individuals and institutions who glorify and justify the murder of Jews, such as the imam of Mayru Islamic Center in Howard County who called the Oct. 7 massacre a “great victory,” and a staff member for the University of Maryland School of Journalism who justified Hamas’ atrocities as a “response to a 70+ year violent occupation.” Instead of full-throated, public denunciations of these vile comments, our leaders have remained silent.
Now is the time for our communal organizations to disassociate from institutions that harbor haters of Israel, such as the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention. When Attorney General Anthony Brown shamefully reinstated to the commission a serial defamer of Israel, the director of CAIR’s Maryland office, the appropriate and necessary response was for the Baltimore Jewish Council, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Anti-Defamation League to have resigned from the commission en masse. Instead, our representative organizations continue to serve on this sham body.
Now is the time for our leaders to call out the mainstreaming of radical anti-Israel groups whose end game is not a cease-fire or two-state solution, but the end of Israel. A prime example is the participation of Baltimore County Young Democrats, an official subsidiary of the Maryland Democratic Party, in a “Rally for a Free Palestine” organized by extreme anti-Zionist organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Finally, now is the time to firmly stand our ground against the Israel haters. Rather than canceling or relocating events for fear of protesters, our leaders must stand firm and refuse to be intimidated. The best response to the anti-Zionists is to proudly and loudly proclaim our commitment to Zionism, not to hide it.
The events of the past six months confirm that, as we recited at the seder, “in every generation they arise against us to destroy us.” But, like our ancestors in ancient Egypt and like generations of Jews since, we will prevail — not by staying silent and avoiding confrontation, but by proudly, loudly and defiantly defending and supporting the historic justice of Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. Am Yisroel chai!
Jay Bernstein is a local attorney and activist and chair of the Israel Committee of Ner Tamid.
