In that sense, then, the hundreds of Jews who gathered
across from Zuccotti Park for Kol Nidre services October 7
— in solidarity (their words) with the Occupy Wall Street
encampment across the street — were upholding a tradition
that began in Revolutionary War times, continued through
the anti-slavery and civil rights movements, and even was
manifested in the protests against the Vietnam War.
So why did it seem so new? Why did the sight of young
Jews in white kittels davening steps away from
the iconic heartbeat of American capitalism on Judaism’s
most solemn day stir many souls and aggravate others?
It seemed new for good reason, marking a small but
significant turning point for both Jews and progressive
causes, a sign of arrival for Jews and a return to the
historic place that religion played in the public face of
progressive activism.
For at least the past three decades, religious _expression_
in the political sphere has been dominated by evangelical
conservatives. Many of the younger people organizing the
street protests and religious services in New York and
around the country don’t remember a time when rabbis like
Abraham Joshua Heschel marched for civil rights, and
Arthur Waskow created a Freedom Seder, and Catholic
priests and nuns were instrumental in anti-war agitation,
their actions propelled by a fervent religiosity and
expressed in liturgical terms.
Then again, until a few decades ago, minority religions
in America “tried to keep their heads down,” in Putnam’s
words. Parade around Wall Street in a yarmulke and prayer
shawl? Gather together hundreds of Jews to recite Hebrew
prayers out loud? Beat one’s chest in repentance under the
bright lights of Lower Manhattan? Unimaginable.
A few decades ago, it also would have been difficult to
imagine how such a Kol Nidre service could have come
together. Like Occupy Wall Street and its growing number
of spin-offs, these events happen because of the extensive
use of social media by savvy organizers who don’t need or
seek the blessings of communal leadership. “It seems more
bottom up than top down,” observed Alan Wolfe, a Boston
College political scientist whose latest book is
“Political Evil.” He’s right. Our image of a Jewish
protester from the 1960s is of an ordained rabbi. Our
image of a Jewish protester at Occupy Wall Street is of a
scruffy guy with an iPhone.
Lew Daly, senior fellow at Demos and author of “God’s
Economy: Faith-Based Initiatives & the Caring State,”
drew another important distinction.
“Perhaps the most striking thing about Yom Kippur at
Occupy Wall Street is the act of public worship,
worship as ritual and worship as witness,” he wrote in an
e-mail. “We have seen this before, fighting racism and war
from religious tradition, the deepest part of our culture.
“But we have not seen it as often in economic crises — it
is in the nature of a market-dominated culture for people
to blame themselves before others if they struggle or fail
economically. But that may be changing now as Wall
Street’s protected status has become plain for all to
see.”
And in the past, when populist movements embraced
religious talk, that often came with an undercurrent of
anti-Semitism. The most famous example was William
Jennings Bryan’s mesmerizing speech at the 1896 Democratic
National Convention, when he vowed, “You shall not crucify
mankind upon a cross of gold!” Yep, many think it’s clear
that he was talking about the Jews.
Today, a few conservative commentators, uncomfortable
with the Kol Nidre service and Occupy Anything in general,
have highlighted the boorish, anti-Semitic rants by a
handful of protesters to suggest that the entire
enterprise is dangerous. Maybe it is. But if it is, then
it doesn’t reflect mainstream America.
Even though Jews occupy some of the loftiest positions in
national finance, the rhetoric of this recession has been
remarkably free from anti-Semitism. “The only people in
America worried about that are the Jews,” said Putnam, who
has plenty of research to back up his claim, even though
it’s still difficult for Jews to believe that everyone
doesn’t, in fact, hate us. (Putnam knows. He’s Jewish
himself.)
Indeed, what is novel about this emerging “Occupy
Judaism” — the Kol Nidre service, followed by celebrations
of Sukkot coinciding with protests across the country — is
that it challenges the establishment on several fronts.
The still-inchoate pleas by protesters for a new kind of
American economy are a direct affront not only to
Republican policies, but to Democratic ones, too. Mix that
with the audacious display of empowered Judaism, conducted
without the authorization of Jewish officialdom, and
you’ve just undermined the credibility of two powerful
institutions with the speed of a Facebook post.
Alan Wolfe offered another astute observation. By linking
public prayerwith protest, “it says that the protest has
an element of the sacred associated with it.” The prophet
Isaiah is read on Yom Kippur, which may be just what our
political discourse needs right now
