{"id":56222,"date":"2017-03-16T08:35:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T13:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=56222"},"modified":"2017-03-19T05:19:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T10:19:42","slug":"commentary-remember-linda-sarsour-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/community\/commentary-remember-linda-sarsour-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Should We Remember Linda Sarsour for Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past week was the holiday of Purim, which made me think about Linda Sarsour. <\/span><\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t think she\u2019s Haman (that would be Rasmea Odeh, an actual murderer), but I did wonder whether or not Sarsour might be Charbonah.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not instantly sure who Charbonah is, don\u2019t feel too bad. He\u2019s about as minor a character as gets named in the Megillah. Nobody dresses up like him, which is kind of sad when you consider the number of people who dressed as Minions this year when the Minions don\u2019t appear anywhere in Scripture at all! But I digress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charbonah \u2013 whose name is related to the word \u201cdestruction\u201d in Hebrew, I might add \u2013 was a member of Team Haman. He was down with the whole \u201ckill the Jews\u201d thing. But when the tables turned, Charbonah changed sides. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the seventh chapter of the Book of Esther, <\/span>King Achashv<\/span>– <\/span>King Ahashue<\/span>– the king of Persia has had enough of Haman and has his face covered. Execution is a distinct possibility but the king might cool off and relent. Then Charbonah drives the final nail into Haman\u2019s coffin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what else Haman did?\u201d Charbonah volunteered. \u201cHe built gallows to hang Mordechai, who saved the king\u2019s life!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This did not sit well with the king, who succinctly replied, \u201cHang him on it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Charbonah was no altruistic ally; he was an opportunist. He knew about Haman\u2019s machinations but he didn\u2019t speak up until it benefited him personally through an opportunity to curry the king\u2019s favor. Our benefit was incidental because Charbonah\u2019s needs and ours happened to align. Nevertheless, on Purim night, after reading the Book of Esther, we sing the song \u201cShoshanas Yaakov,\u201d which closes with \u201cv\u2019gam Charvonah zachur latov<\/i>\u201d – that Charbonah should also be fondly remembered. Okay, we don\u2019t bless him like we do Mordechai and Esther \u2013 he wasn\u2019t that<\/i> great! \u2013 but we still look kindly upon him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us to Linda Sarsour.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Sarsour, Executive Director of the Arab-American Association of New York, is a pro-Palestine activist. One could argue that that does not necessitate being an anti-Israel activist, but she happens to be that as well, supporting BDS and tweeting that \u201cnothing is creepier than Zionism.\u201d Unsurprisingly, she supports a one-state solution: all Palestine, no Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among her many controversial actions, Sarsour has alleged that the \u201cunderwear bomber\u201d was a false flag – rather than an al-Qaeda operative, she claims the terrorist was secretly a CIA agent engaged in an American \u201cwar on Islam.\u201d Sarsour has spoken out on behalf of an incarcerated Islamic Jihad member known to recruit suicide bombers. She tweeted a photo of a Palestinian boy clutching rocks and staring down IDF soldiers with the caption \u201cThe definition of courage.\u201d (She attributed opposition to the photo to \u201cZionist trolls.\u201d) Our issues with Ms. Sarsour go beyond a simple difference of opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, in February of this year, Ms. Sarsour did something that was<\/i> surprising. <\/span><\/p>\n

When a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis was vandalized, Sarsour spearheaded a crowdfunding campaign with other Muslim activists to repair the damage. More than $125,000 was raised \u2013 more than necessary for the project – and Sarsour committed to donating the excess funds to other Jewish sites damaged by vandalism. Sarsour said that the project was intended “send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration, and violence in America.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Wow. Do we actually have common ground with Linda Sarsour? Can we possibly dialogue and maybe even work together? Or is this a trick? Like the city of Shushan in the Megillah, the Jewish community was stunned, unsure how to respond. Do we say, \u201cv\u2019gam Charvonah zachur latov?<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ehhhhh\u2026. Not so fast. The dust hadn\u2019t even had time to settle when Sarsour was back to her standard modus operandi<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see, Sarsour – one of the organizers of the women\u2019s march on Washington earlier this year \u2013 has declared that feminism and Zionism are incompatible. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There\u2019s just no way around it,\u201d Sarsour said in an interview with The Nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

This came as quite a surprise to thousands of Zionist feminists. (And, of course, Sarsour singles out the country in the Middle East that has female ministers of Parliament, equal rights and reproductive rights, rather than any countries where \u201chonor killings\u201d are overlooked, rape victims are executed for \u201cadultery,\u201d and women can\u2019t go out unsupervised or drive, but whatever.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarsour\u2019s comments were triggered by Emily Shire, politics editor of a women\u2019s news site called Bustle. In a New York Times op-ed, Shire wrote, \u201cI am happy to debate Middle East politics or listen to critiques of Israeli policies. But why should criticism of Israel be key to feminism in 2017?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarsour has previously conflated other causes with her pro-Palestine\/anti-Israel agenda. Many sympathetic Jews were forced out of the Black Lives Matter campaign by such rhetoric, and now Sarsour is intent on doing the same with feminism. <\/span><\/p>\n

We remember Charbonah for good because he actually switched sides. Even if it was self-serving, he came around. He didn\u2019t have Haman hanged and then go back to making Persia Judenrein. Sarsour, on the other hand, is still the same. I\u2019ll publicly thank her for fundraising to repair the desecrated cemetery \u2013 even if it was a PR stunt, it was a good thing to do \u2013 but I\u2019m afraid \u201czachur latov<\/i>\u201d must be held in abeyance. We expect to differ (big time!) on matters concerning the Middle East but you don\u2019t get to define who is and isn\u2019t for women\u2019s rights. Trying to do so excludes actual allies and hurts the cause you\u2019re claiming to advance. There\u2019s nothing praiseworthy in that.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past week was the holiday of Purim, which made me think about Linda Sarsour. No, I don\u2019t think she\u2019s Haman (that would be Rasmea Odeh, an actual murderer), but I did wonder whether or not Sarsour might be Charbonah. If you\u2019re not instantly sure who Charbonah is, don\u2019t feel too bad. He\u2019s about as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":56288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"yoast_head":"\nCommentary: Should We Remember Linda Sarsour for Good? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do we actually have common ground with Linda Sarsour? Can we possibly dialogue and maybe even work together? 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