A Telling Global Encounter with a Poly First Grader

Yesterday at my job as a TA for Poly’s summer camp, I had completely innocent but interesting encounter with a first grader regarding Israel and Judaism and conflation between the two of these entities. During my first period gardening class, the kids and I were playing with chalk when I noticed one girl drawing Stars of David on the ground. She was drawing the double triangle stars simply because she didn’t know how to draw a more complex five pointed star, which, to her defense, is beyond most 5 year olds’ skill sets. I was observing her drawing these stars innocently when another student approached her to tell her that she was, in fact, drawing the ‘Israel star’. I was slightly taken aback by his inaccurate recognition of the Jewish Star of David as a political symbol of the State of Israel, as the presence of the Star of David on the Israeli Flag represents Judaism. Just as a square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t always a square, Judaism inherently includes Israel in it's history, however Israel is not synonymous with Judaism. Of course, it makes sense to me how a 6 year old child could associate the Jewish symbol, the Star of David, with the Jewish state of Israel, but I was unsettled to understand that he associated the Jewish symbol with Israel before associating it with Judaism itself. This innocent association by 6 year old child at PolySummer is an idea I see represented frequently in today’s political discussion about Israel; people tend to parallel Judaism as an ideology with the political state of Israel, which contributes to anti-zionism becoming anti-semitism. Of course, one can be anti-zionist without being anti-Semitic, but it is sentiments and associations like these that contribute to anti-zionism crossing this line and becoming anti-semitic. 

Especially recently, this conflation between Judaism and Israel has been increasingly problematic. The anti-zionist and anti-Israel group Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) held a rally against the state of Israel the day after the Pittsburg shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. BDS, of course, is allowed to hold rallies anytime they wish, but since BDS as an organization has continually made associations between the Jewish people and Israel, the timing of BDS’s rally almost made it seem as though BDS was turning a blind eye to the fatal anti-semitism in Pittsburg as well as a blatantly disregarding the loss of life that day. This rally can be seen as one example of how anti-semitism can be hidden and expressed through anti-zionism. 

Of course, I don’t blame this 6 year old child for his innocent associations, but his actions did seem to represent a broader issue I’ve observed in society. Instead of thinking about Judaism and Israel as one in the same, we must, as a society, move towards making a clear distinction between the two entities. We must distinguish between them as well as understand the ways in which they actually do overlap in order to be better political advocates and to resist anti-semitism.