Even our rough eye and ear are not accustomed to blunt sentences like those formulated by the Boards of Deputies of British Jews. Hours after landing in London on Tuesday, the chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, MK Bezalel Smutrich, promoted a tweet in Hebrew on the council’s official account, a representative umbrella organization of British Jews: “Bezalel Smutrich and call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. Get back on the Bezalel plane, and you will be forever. You are not welcome here.”
We reject his abominable views and the hatred ideology of Bezalel Smutrich and call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. Get back on the Bezalel plane, and you’ll be in the world forever. You are not welcome here.
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) February 9, 2022
The official tweet in Hebrew (a bit sloppy), which lacks both British courtesy and understatement – is so unusual in the landscape that it is hard to remember when an institutionalized Jewish community recently promoted another Jewish politician. He mentioned in his spirit the boycott imposed by Jewish organizations on Rabbi Meir Kahana in the 1970s and 1980s, both in the United States and after his immigration to Israel.
Smutrich is not Kahana. His views are not as extreme as his own (although he is a member of the heirs of Kahana of the Jewish Power Party, which has not gone unnoticed by British Jews), and his popularity here is immeasurably greater than that of Kahana ever in his life. in this sense, The tweet of the Council of Governors indicates a disconnect from what is happening in Israel.
But this disconnect has another side – the side of Smutrich and his supporters. First, in an error that can be called intelligence: Smutrich got on the plane thinking that the religious public of England is the religious public of Israel. He found out he did not. Unlike Kahana at the time, or Menachem Begin, who was also boycotted in the early 1970s by the same British organization, Smutrich expected a warm hug from the Jews of Britain, or at least the religious public. He sees himself as part of the consensus in the Orthodox community, and so he thought it would be accepted.
Smutrich believes that the reform in conversion and the weakening of the chief rabbinate will also harm Jews abroad, but he is also convinced that those who appear to be “national religious” will embrace him from wall to wall.
We will soon return to the slap he received from the Board of Governors, but there was a more ringing slap. The Bnei Akiva movement in the United Kingdom issued an official statement yesterday following a meeting with Smutrich the day before of two of its members, who work at the British branch of the world movement. The movement made it clear that the meeting was held without her knowledge and without her consent, and that she remained apolitical, “committed to educating our members for tolerance and understanding, in accordance with the values of religious Zionism and ‘Torah and work’.”
This statement, as well as an official statement issued on Wednesday by the British Zionist Federation, has been critically formulated against Smutrich and is still respectful, leaving room for dialogue with him. But in many ways it was more painful. The head of a party called “Religious Zionism” is receiving criticism in the name of the values of religious Zionism, and this also comes from the most powerful religious Zionist brand – Bnei Akiva.
Senior members of the British Jewish community against Smutrich | MK Bezalel Smutrich to@mayarachlin: The tweet is not worded in a classic British style, it would have seemed more like someone in the State of Israel, in a cheeky Sabri style, stirred this message. Nachman Shai took advantage of this to make a small political turn, while destroying Israeli-Diaspora relations#Erberb pic.twitter.com/w5o5SmJTpf
– News here (@kann_news) February 10, 2022
Bnei Akiva’s announcement illustrated how big the gap is between the Israeli image of a religious, modern and Zionist public, and the concrete Orthodox community of Britain, which by the way is also represented in the Council of Governors. Smutrich is a legitimate key player in Israeli politics, a former minister and party chairman, but his involvement in the Israeli public, and especially among young people from the religious and ultra-Orthodox sector, does not mean that every Jewish soul is homophobic towards him. There are Jews for whom he and his positions are difficult to digest. It is possible to argue with this, but it is impossible to deny the existence of a gap – and this gap is ideological.
Smutrich’s trip to Europe is not meant to be a diplomatic event, in which Foreign Minister Yair Lapid intervenes with a sting at an official press conference, but an intra-sectoral event. Smutrich flew to England and France on his own initiative, with one goal: to mobilize outside support for his local political struggle with Matan Kahana, the Minister of Religious Affairs, and his reforms in matters of religion and state. He believes that the reform in conversion and the weakening of the chief rabbinate will also harm Jews abroad (legitimate) and was convinced that what appears to be a “national religious” public will embrace it from wall to wall.
British Jews, I love you, all of you.
– Bezalel Smutrich (@bezalelsm) February 9, 2022
Is Matan Kahana’s conversion reform at the top of the agenda of British Jews? There may be those who are concerned about the conversion reform, but in leafing through the headlines of the Jewish newspapers in the kingdom, this is a very small concern, if any. British Jews are worried about a report published this week pointing to a serious record in antisemitic attacks against the kingdom’s Jews, but it is less interesting to Israelis. Also when it comes to the religious world, Smutrich will be surprised to discover that British Orthodoxy is not his Orthodoxy. This is a community where the Chief Rabbi published a guide a few years ago to the inclusion of LGBT people in the religious community.
We, the Israelis, are mostly interested in Jews from abroad through a narrow prism. Are they with us? Against us? BDS or immigration to Israel? Are they more Smutrich or more Nachman Shai? The tweet against Smutrich is really blatant and unusual, but the Israeli shock also indicates disconnection From the Jews on the ground, in contrast to the image of the “Jews of the Diaspora” who are supposed to be moved by the arrival of an Israeli politician wherever he is. Those who are interested in the support of British Jews may also be interested in the marginal question of who they are, what their identity is and what they want..
Back to the Board of Governors announcement. Smutrich argued in his defense that “progressive elements had taken over” the Jewish organizations. This is an unserious argument, mainly because for many in the Jewish world the word “progressive” is not a derogatory term. on the contrary. The tweet also does not represent all British Jews, probably not, but something authentic – a set of values that has certain past and present connections of British Jewry, and that is in a declared conflict, for example with Smutrich and his values.
Listen to the interview with MK Bezalel Smutrich here on Net B.
One does not have to flee to the conspiracy districts, and it seems to me that Smutrich himself – a politician and ideologue of the whole truth in the face – can carry an ideological confrontation. The culture of “cancellation” is disgusting, but it can not be condemned only when it comes from one side.
Smutrich has meanwhile arrived in France, where he will also make the Sabbath before returning to Israel. One can only guess that his strange visit to the two great Jewish communities in Europe will end there with more comfortable chords for him.