Letter: The Internalized Jew Hatred of Anti- Zionist Jews

Dear Letter to the Editor:

Psalm 137 of the Jewish Bible makes clear that anti Zionist Jews have forsaken Judaism:

“How Shall We Sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget (her cunning).
“If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”.

Yet anti Zionist jews have proudly proclaimed for years that they have excised from the Passover Seder its most important prayer: “Next Year in Jerusalem”.

Of course consistency requires that anti Zionist Jews excise the word Jerusalem from the other 659 places that it appears in the Jewish Bible.
So what do they then worship? A book of Shreds!

As historian Ben M. Freeman has eloquently written in ” The Jews. An Indigenous People” :

“Antizionism is antithetical to Jewishness. As I examined in ‘ Reclaiming Our Story’ , and the second part of the Jewish Pride trilogy, Jews have internalized Jew- hate for thousands of years. Antizionism exemplifies this process in action in our times. It is perhaps the ultimate example of internalized jew-hate. It also illustrates one of the key manifestations of internalized anti- Jewishness: deployment. In the 15th and 16th centuries, some Jews converted to Christianity and then spent their lives demonizing Jews. Today antiZionist Jews aren’t content to simply reject Israel. Today, they deploy their Jewishness as a weapon to provide a sheen of respectability and legitimacy to Jew- hate focused on Israel. In other words, they kosher antizionism. Antizionism is an illogical position for Jews to take. After all, who are Jews without Israel? Who are ANY indigenous people without their native lands? It is impossible to separate Jews from Israel. We must be clear to those Jews who are so warped by Jew-hate that they shed this connection. They have strayed too far, and unless they make amends they have no place among us. We may be diverse in our practices and beliefs, but anti Zionism is simply not a legitimate expression of Jewish identity…..

“Understanding Zionism as the indigenous rights movement is crucial — both for ourselves and the wider world…The United Nations’ position on the right to self-determination is rooted in the notion that an indigenous people have the right to define their own destiny and to create a society in their image. To be masters of their own destiny. This is what the Jewish people have done in Israel since 1948. It is an act of decolonization unprecedented in world history. Never had an indigenous people been colonized and exiled from their land and then able to reclaim their sovereignty 2,000 years later”.

(“The Jews. An Indigenous People”, Ben Freeman, 2025, pp 243-244).

Having forsaken Jerusalem at least 660 times , anti Zionist Jews have forsaken Judaism as Psalm 137 makes clear.

Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida