To the Editor:
As Chabad on the Vineyard’s fourth annual Jewish Cultural Festival has now concluded, I want to respond to the events that occurred, which were covered in The Times.
This year, the festival headliner was Lior Raz: an ex–Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) commando turned Netflix star. Some members from MV for Palestine demonstrated outside the festival in support of Jewish culture and against Lior Raz and his show “Fauda,” which some view as Israeli propaganda. While Chabad on the Vineyard characterizes Fauda as being “embraced across political lines,” Jewish Currents writes that the show is “locked into an Israeli Jewish point of view.”
In his speech quoted by The MV Times, Lior Raz said on the question of peace between Israel and Palestine, that it may not be possible because of “how vicious they are.” While speaking about the protesters, Raz gave them the middle finger, and told the crowd that they should do the same. It says something about how he treats his neighbors that he thought a group of Islanders would want to give their neighbors the finger. Having grown up on the island — and being an American Jew — I take offense.
Why Chabad on the Vineyard chose to host Lior Raz, who dutifully proved the point that the protesters were trying to make, prompts a more fundamental question: What is Chabad?
As outlined on Wikipedia, Chabad is a messianic sect of Hasidic Judaism headquartered in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that follows the teaching of the seventh Lubavicher Rebbe (Reh-Beh), Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as “the Rebbe.” Chabad’s website states it “is the largest and fastest-growing Jewish organization,” and that it operates “over 3,500 Chabad institutions located in more than 100 countries, with a new center opening on the average every 10 days.”
Being apolitical may be its public relations approach. However, Chabad quotes the Rebbe: “[the Land of Israel] is ours by Divine covenant […] and the ‘facts of life’ and ‘truth’ are that Jews are not ‘occupiers’ or ‘aggressors’ in their homeland, but that [the land] is rightfully ours by Divine will and grace, not by the ‘false grace’ of the United Nations.”
If that’s not a political statement, I don’t know what is.
Lior Raz’s inflammatory words were a repugnant representation of the ideology of Greater Israel, which fuels the genocide in Gaza, and leaves no room for the rights and safety of the Palestinians. His words should be apologized for by Chabad on the Vineyard.
Adam Lipsky
West Tisbury and New Palz, N.Y.
Adam Lipsky is Jewish American, a member of MV for Palestine, and was a part of the group that protested Lior Raz headlining Chabad on the Vineyard’s Jewish Culture Festival. This letter was shortened for space.
The issue is not whether Israel may be criticized; it is whether criticism is weaponized through language that distorts history, abuses law, and evades moral responsibility.
Antisemitism is more than hostility toward Jews. It is an alarm bell that a society is abandoning moral discipline, scapegoating minorities, and shrinking its tolerance for difference. Hatred beginning with Jews rarely remains contained; it corrodes freedom and threatens other minorities and open societies.
Anti-Zionism should not become a cover for denying Jews the legitimacy granted to others. When criticism of Israel applies a double standard, it ceases to be sober political analysis and becomes prejudice disguised as principle.
The genocide accusation demands seriousness. Genocide requires specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Military action against Hamas is not equivalent to a campaign intended to destroy Gaza’s civilian population. Civilian deaths in urban warfare are tragic, but tragedy alone does not establish genocidal intent.
Hamas’s embedding within civilian areas complicates warfare, but does not erase Israel’s obligations under international law. Using “genocide” as a political slogan risks weakening a grave legal category. Mr. Lipsky, that is distortion, not clarity, and it should be rejected.