Amalek?

A cousin of mine, this past Shabbos, ended up davening in a chasidish bungalow colony. He said he was very welcomed there and was given an aliyah as well as an invitation to participate in the kiddush that followed davening. They were all very cordial.

But then, toward the end of the kiddush, the rav of the shul referenced Amalek, which is read at the end of Parshas Ki Seitzei. The rav said that the Amalek of today are the Tziyonim, the Zionists. The crowd then went on to sing a song equating the Tziyonim with Amalek. My cousin erupted and demanded that they explain how exactly they can refer to Zionists as Amalek. In reaction, some of the chasidim jokingly put a shtreimel on him.

Earlier in the week, a video appeared that showed a bunch of men from Meah Shearim taunting Israeli soldiers while brandishing Palestinian flags.

It can truly be said, with friends like these, who needs enemies? Don’t those in Meah Shearim realize that if there would, G-d forbid, be a Palestinian victory over the Land of Israel, they, as visible Jews, would be among the first victims of the Palestinian dream of wiping out all Jews from Israel? What is their thinking? Or do they indeed not think?

As for the bungalow chasidim, my cousin was wondering what, if anything, could have been said in protest. The truth is, nothing can be said because you’re not dealing with a rational or logical group. But what needs to be driven home to them is the need to explain in what manner the Zionists resemble Amalek. Are they killing Jews? Are they harassing them? Yes, they are making an attempt to draft eligible yeshivah students; but that is surely a far cry from Amalek. It is what any reasonable society would do in order to maximize the capacity of the soldier supply, albeit it’s being done rather forcefully.

I believe that the reaction of these people is precisely because they know their cause is bankrupt. The Satmar Rav, Rav Yoel, was contending with Zionism in its formative years. He saw Zionism as a threat to religious Jews everywhere. Considering that everyone was caught up in the Zionist movement, his concerns were credible. But Zionism has proved it is here to stay. The Zionists have not produced any pogroms against religious Jews – at least not since the days in the 1950s with the Yaldei Tehran, when the Zionist establishment forcibly removed pei’os from children coming from Tehran or Yemen. In fact, the Zionists have been quite accommodating to religious Jews, offering them all kinds of grant money for their yeshivos, at least up until recently.

There is really very little that’s awful to be said of today’s Zionists. Plenty of yeshivah boys serve in the army and are unscathed from a religious standpoint.

I believe that this is why some of the extreme elements in the Orthodox world double down and resort to name-calling and Palestinian flag-waving. They know that the battle with the Zionists is essentially over. The dreaded effect of Zionism no longer takes place.

This is not to say that one must be a committed Zionist. There are ideological issues that may be an obstacle to right-wing Orthodoxy. But Amalek? That is too far a stretch to be tolerated.

Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.