The lone anti-Zionist synagogue isn't even a synagogue

In yesterday's article on CAIR I wrote that the organization "recently defended one of its officials who labeled virtually every organized synagogue in America 'enemies.'"

The reason I said "virtually" was because of the one anti-Zionist synagogue I'm aware of Tzedek Chicago, whose rabbi is Brant Rosen.

Tzedek Chicago used to call itself "non-Zionist" but just this week it decided to make anti-Zionism one of its "core values." Only the Left can make hate a "core value" while pretending to be righteous.

Their anti-Israel "Jewish" position is absurd:

At Tzedek Chicago we seek to develop and celebrate a diasporic consciousness that joyfully views the entire world as our homeland.

Moving away from a Judaism that looks to Israel as its fully realized home releases us into rich imaginings of what the World to Come might look like, where it might be, and how we might go about inhabiting it now. This creative windfall can infuse our communal practices, rituals, and liturgy.

Oh, and look at their liturgy: they erase Jerusalem and Israel from הַפּורֵש סֻכַּת שלום עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל עַמּו יִשרָאֵל וְעַל יְרוּשלָיִם, they erase Israel from the paragraph of שלום רָב עַל יִשרָאֵל עַמְּךָ . (They forgot to erase Israel in " וְשמְרוּ בְנֵי יִשרָאֵל אֶת הַשּבָּת" but they didn't translate that part into English!)  In Friday night Kiddush, they erase reference to G-d choosing the Jews. 

When they take Israel out of Judaism, all these people have left is...Left.

But...is Tzedek Chicago even a synagogue to begin with?

By any reasonable definition, it isn't.

The "services" it has are all virtual. The only ones it has are a biweekly Zoom Friday Night service that alternates with a biweekly 30 minute candle lighting ceremony. 

On Saturday, instead of services they have what they call a "Torah Study" on Zoom. And on Wednesdays they have a virtual Zoom get together. 

The "synagogue" has no address, just a post office box. A couple of times a year they meet in a church basement for things like a seder. 

In other words, it is exactly like Jewish Voice for Peace - an anti-Israel organization that puts on some trappings of Judaism when they get together to make their hate for Israel sound more legitimate. And, just like JVP, they realize that hating Israel is not enough to attract members, so they throw in some other woke "values".

It is fitting that just as its members are Jews in name only, Tzedek Chicago is a synagogue in name only.

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