By Nathan Scherzer, Hasbara Canada High School Intern
On the fast day of Tisha B’av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar commemorating numerous tragedies throughout Jewish history, Jews around the world read Psalm 137. Written by the prophet Jeremiah, it expresses the yearnings of the Jewish people exiled in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. While weeping about the exile, Jeremiah cries out “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour” (5-6).
This summer, I traveled to Israel with a group of 70 Jewish high school students from all religious backgrounds across North America. Every Saturday evening, after Shabbat, we would sing these words over and over again. Jeremiah tells us that we must never forget Israel, but the reason for repeating his message was not immediately clear to me. It seems impossible to forget the existence of a country. Can’t we always just locate Israel on a map, read about its history and current events, or learn about its rich culture? So what does it really mean to forget Israel, and is this psalm still relevant today?
Perhaps when Jeremiah wrote this, he was referring to the necessity of recording our people’s history and tradition. In this case, the need for this message would have ended with the compilation of a codified Talmud. Or maybe it was about instilling the desire to return to Israel for generations to come, but this would also no longer apply since the founding of Israel in 1948.
Instead, I connect this psalm to Zionism – the belief in Jewish self-determination in our indigenous land of Israel – and apply it beyond. Now that Israel is established, modern Zionism is about defending Israel. Today, to forget Israel is to allow Israel to be attacked, including both challenges to its physical existence and degradations of its image. Rather than “if I forget Jerusalem let my right hand wither,” I read this line as “if I do not defend Jerusalem let my right hand wither.” This message applies to all Jews, even those of us in the Diaspora, because if we do not have a homeland in Israel, we lose the sole entity that unites all Jews around the world.
While serving in the IDF physically protects the borders of Israel, and making aliyah ensures that a Jewish presence remains in the land, ordinary Jews, as well as gentile allies, can protect Israel too. I am a proud member of the Hasbara Fellowships High School Internships program. With a dedicated group of high school students across Canada, I am developing the skills to advocate for Israel on social media and university campuses, through workshops and speaker sessions.
While not everyone can be a member of such a program, we can all fight for Israel in our own ways. Parents can raise their children in Zionist households, teachers can hold classes or office hours to discuss Israel, and social justice advocates can spread pro-Israel messages online. When it comes to facing Israel’s detractors, parents can address anti-Israel rhetoric when their children come across it, teachers can correct false statements at their institutions, and advocates can respond to anti-Israel posts online. Even an ordinary person can fulfill their role in protecting Israel by doing something as simple as liking a pro-Israel post, or reporting an antisemitic one.
It is our job as Jews to not only remember Israel’s existence and the Jewish claim to the land, but actively protect this claim in whatever way suits us. While our right hands may not be cut off and our tongues may not permanently stick to the roofs of our mouths, if Israel ceases to exist, the Jewish people will have no place to call home, and we may find ourselves in exile once again.
