Rabbi Michael E. Davis, BA and Ordained Cantor and Rabbi, mdavis@rabbimichaeldavis.com, Congregation Makom Shalom, Chicago, IL, 1109 Hinman Ave., Evanston, IL 60202
Civility is called for where there is tension and the prospect of incivility. It is normative for liberal Jewish communities today to be explicitly inclusive of Christian-Jewish couples, LGBT and other formerly excluded groups. With the rise of pro-Palestinian solidarity there is no greater threat to civility in a Jewish context or between Jews and other faiths than the united Palestinian call for justice known as BDS. The pre-eminent area where incivility is a constant danger and a regular occurrence of incivility is in Jewish attitudes towards Palestinians and their supporters. This is fundamentally a question of tolerance. I have led intrafaith and interfaith gatherings devoted to promoting civility in the Jewish community on the Israel-Palestine issue. I founded a national rabbinic organization and other groups devoted to open dialog on this issue. The model I use as a congregational leader and in other forums is to affirm the existence of the range of viewpoints within the group: I desire to be in community with Jews whose views I oppose. The incivility towards Palestinian solidarity is often masked by other complaints. I believe it is essential that we become comfortable with the underlying concepts that drive this incivility. In traditional terms this is the question of how to relate to the heretic. I am currently teaching a course to my rabbinical seminary students on “Heretics and Excommunication in Jewish Tradition.” We can only uphold a tradition’s spirit of debate and inclusivity if we engage with the equally potent tradition of shunning heretics. The dialectics of exclusion and inclusion apply inside the Jewish community and with implications to Jewish relations with other faiths and people of no religious faith.
