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Ethics vs. peoplehood? – a Beinart-Lorbler debate

TJI Pick
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Published: 30 April 2016

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Defending ‘Zionism’s truth-seeking millennials’, Peter Beinart distinguished them from Jewish pro-BDS millennials. In response, Ben Lorbler, a pro-BDS millennial, objected to Beinart’s portrayal of Jewish millennials like him as detached from Jewish communal life and identity: ‘We fight for BDS precisely because we care deeply about the future of the Jewish people.’ In reply, Beinart claims that Lorbler is wrong in seeing no gap between Jewish ethics and peoplehood; he says there is a tension between them and that pro-BDS millennials preference the former at the expense of the latter. What do you think – do pro- and anti-BDS millennials really have to choose one or the other?

For Jewish BDS supporters, personal morality trumps Jewish solidarity – Peter Beinart - Haaretz 27.04.16
‘When you boycott Israel, or reject the ideology on which it was founded, you are estranging yourself from much of the Jewish world.’
Read reply here

For both Beinart’s original essay and Lorbler’s response see: A response to Peter Beinart by a pro-BDS millennial April 26, 2016
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