Secular Jews and Pacifism

By BENNETT MURASKIN

Growing up as a secular Jew and a red-diaper baby in the 1960s and 70s, I was never too keen on pacifism. The major milestones of progress, I was taught, were violent revolutions—the French and especially the Russian. We admired the Red Army for its role in defeating the Nazis; our heroes were the volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who fought Franco’s fascist armies in Spain, and the Jewish resistance fighters who led the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The partisan hymn, "Zog Nit Keynmol" (Never Say) inspired us with hope and courage. One line proclaimed that it “was sung with weapons in hand.”

I was aware of anti-war pacifists like A.J. Muste and David Dellinger, but they couldn’t hold a candle in my imagination to Che Guevara, spreading revolution throughout South America through guerilla warfare. Our romance with violence reached its peak in the mid-1960s, with the Black Panther Party. The Panthers glorified violence, advocating armed resistance to the police, and we chanted our solidarity: “Revolution has Come; It’s Time to Pick Up the Gun.”

I mention this to highlight a seeming paradox: Few secular Jews from that era were pacifists, despite the fact that many were secular leftists. And those who were pacifists tend not to come from Eastern European backgrounds. Why this under-representation among pacifists, when East European Jews and their descendants were so over-represented on the left in general? The question prompts a related question:  What is there in Jewish tradition to sustain leftist secular Jews in their anti-war or pacifist positions?

The answer to the first question lies in Eastern Europe. The traditional Jewish version of “pacifism” consisted mainly of submission to Gentile power. As long as Jews placated their Gentile rulers, they were allowed to regulate their own affairs. Should anti-Semites threaten the Jewish community, the tried and true strategy was to appeal to the highest Gentile authorities and seek their protection, often through bribery. If Jews kept their heads down and rolled with the punches, they would outlast their enemies and in God’s good time, the Messiah would arrive and return Jews from exile to the Land of Israel.

To secular Jews, this seemed like passivity. As rebels against the Jewish establishment, they rejected it, along with adherence to Jewish law (the other “secret” to Jewish survival). In place of religion, the most politically active among secularized East European Jews adopted either socialism or Zionism. The former, with its emphasis on class struggle and social revolution, had no use for pacifism. Jewish socialists opposed “capitalist” and “imperialist” wars, but not class war; it was impossible to convince them that the tyrannical anti-Semitic Czarist regime could be toppled by non-violent means. Meanwhile, Zionists sought to create a new Jew—a pioneering nationalist—who would settle a new land and be willing to defend it against the native population. Their heroes were Jewish warriors: the Maccabees and Bar Kochba.

Jewish pacifists did exist, though, and many came, not surprisingly, from non-Zionist or anti-Zionist circles. They included the secularist Toma Sik (1939-2006), an active advocate of non-violence and conscientious objection in Israel, and American violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999). More typically, Jewish pacifists were German Jews or of German-Jewish origin, and they included social activist Lillian Wald (1867-1940), Marxist humanist philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), anarchist Gustav Landauer (1870-1919), and the German-born Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery (1923-)—all secular Jews. The anarchist pacifist Gentile, Rudolph Rocker (1873-1958), who learned Yiddish, lived among Jewish workers and became the charismatic leader of Jewish anarchists in England and the United States, was also from Germany.

Why did most pacifist Jews come from Germany?  Was it the influence of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, which originated with the German Jew Moses Mendelssohn?  Or perhaps their affinity for the Christian pacifist tradition within Central Europe begun by the 16^th century Anabaptists and continued by their Mennonite descendants? Many German Jews, including Martin Buber and Albert Einstein, were familiar with Christianity and fascinated by the personality of Jesus, who can legitimately be considered a pacifist.

But what is there in Jewish tradition to sustain leftist secular Jews in their anti-war or pacifist positions? Talmudic sources are ambiguous at best, and the Torah itself is a very militaristic text. Even the prophetic literature is more concerned with stamping out pagan beliefs than with social justice, or peace. The Prophets provide many lofty sayings, including the famous  one from Zechariah 4:6—“Not by might nor power, but by My spirit saith the Lord”—but their dedication to peace was highly conditional. If the Jews obey God’s laws, as interpreted by the Prophets themselves, swords will be beaten into plowshares and nations will study war no more. But if the Jews disobey, plowshares will be beaten into swords and God will exact horrific punishment.

Above all, the Prophets were fanatical in their insistence on religious conformity and, therefore, terrible role models for progressive Jews.

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A more fertile source for progressive secular ideals, including pacifist ones, is the Agada, the non-legal portions of the Talmud. From the Agada, in particular Pirke Avot, we find the earliest invocation to tikkun olam, by Rabbi Tarfon: “It is not your obligation to complete the task [of perfecting the world], but neither are you free to desist [from doing your part.]” We also find Hillel’s familiar ethical maxims (What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow, etc.), which are so fundamental to humanistic values.

And then there are the two books of the Bible that most stand out for their messages of respect and compassion: Ruth and Jonah. In the Book of Ruth, the Moabites—putative enemies of the Jewish people—welcome a Jewish family fleeing famine. Ruth is a Moabite, but she marries into the Jewish family; by affirming her love for the Jewish people, she was accepted as a Jew. No indoctrination or conversion ceremony was required. And she did not become just any Jew, but the great grandmother of King David.

In the book of Jonah, non-Jewish sailors seek to save a shipwrecked Jonah, who is eventually swallowed, eaten, and expelled by the whale. In short order, the people of the city of Nineveh repent and God forgives them, but Jonah is upset because he fancied himself a prophet of doom. God admonishes Jonah: “And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left [referring to the children] and many beasts as well!”—thus extending his compassion to non-Jews who prove capable of moral redemption. There is no other book of the Bible in which non-Jews are depicted so favorably, or in which God is concerned with their fate, or where God uses peaceful persuasion, rather than threats and violence, to teach a lesson in universal human dignity.

Another terrific source of secular values—my favorite, in fact—is Yiddish, and I have found two folktales that clearly embrace the concept of non-violent civil disobedience.

In one, the leading men of the community decide that their Rabbi’s caretaker must be fired. When they suggest this to the Rabbi, he demurs—he won’t do the firing.  Baffled, the men ask why, and the Rabbi explains:

"Since you read and know the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, you know that when the Blessed Name commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, we find that it is written that He Himself spoke as follows: ‘Take now thy son, thine only son...’ But when He commanded Abraham to spare Isaac, God sent an angel, as it is written, 'And the angel called unto Abraham...’

"This poses a question. Why was it that the Blessed Name did not send an angel at the beginning? The answer is that He knew very well that no angel would have accepted the assignment. Each of them would have said, ‘If You want to command death, You had better do it Yourself.'"

And one on the lighter side:

To a rabbinical school in Old Russia, the military came in search of recruits. The entire student body was drafted.

In camp, the students amazed their new masters by their marksmanship on the rifle range. Accordingly, when war broke out, the Yeshiva youths were ordered en masse into the front lines.

Shortly after the contingent arrived an attack began. Far in the distance, in No Man's Land, an advancing horde of Germans appeared. The Czarist officers called out, "Ready... aim... fire!"

But no fire was forthcoming.

"Fire!" yelled the officers. "Didn't you hear? Fire, you idiots, fire!"

Still nothing happened.

Beside himself with rage, the commanding officer demanded, "Why don't you fire?"

One of the youths mildly answered, "Can't you see...there are people in the way. Somebody might get hurt!"

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Fast-forward to the present: Where are the secular Jewish pacifists and anti-war activists in the U.S. today? Noam Chomsky may not identify himself as a pacifist, but his anti-war record is distinguished. Howard Zinn became a pacifist after serving as a bombardier in World War Two. Grace Paley, the short story writer and child of East European immigrants (who died in August 2007), described herself as a “combative pacifist” and was involved with the pacifist organizations such as the War Resisters League and the Quaker American Friends Service Committee.  In keeping with her Jewish commitments, she also joined the progressive Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and subscribed to Jewish Currents magazine. Her anti-war credentials were impeccable.

Of the three explicitly secular Jewish organizations in North America, the Workmen’s Circle, the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, and the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the first two have long demonstrated strong anti-war commitments, extending to support for a two-state settlement in Israel/Palestine and opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Jewish Currents, a magazine sponsored by the Workmen’s Circle and edited by Lawrence Bush, represents the intellectual and literary legacy of the secular Jewish left and is broadly sympathetic to a pacifist agenda. And progressive Jews of all persuasions work together in organizations like B’rit Tsedek v’Shalom, Americans for Peace Now, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

As for myself, I still cannot say that I consider myself a pacifist. On a case-by-case basis, however, I find myself having a harder and harder time justifying war. Stalin once said that you cannot make an omelet without breaking some eggs, and many Jewish communists once justified his repressive policies on that basis. However, I believe that leftist secular Jews have long rejected the idea that idealistic goals of human equality and social justice peaceful ends justify violent means.

In order for our goals to be justified, the means to achieve them must also be justified, which is a strong argument for pacifism; or if not pacifism, then resorting to violence only in self-defense, and only as the last resort, and only if civilian casualties are minimized. If these criteria rule out all wars, so much the better.


"Secular Jews and Pacifism" originally appeared in Peace, Justice & Jews (Bunim & Bannigan, 2007), where it was published in slightly longer form. It was adapted with permission of the author and the editors, Murray Polner and Stefan Merken.