Ruining it for the rest of us
That's a nice Star of David you got there, shame if something were to happen to it.
Editor’s note: Some sad news from our Nordic neighbors. After years of painful debate, Finland has decided to finally phase out the last of its swastikas. Not that there’s anything wrong with them? But, you know, Germany kinda made it impossible to un-see the Na-zi when looking at a swastika.
While we sit shiva for the loss of the Finnish swastika, its demise is an opportunity to consider what other ancient symbols of pluralistic significance and cultural continuity may nonetheless need to be done away with thanks to genocidal nudniks.
THE CATSKILLS, N.Y. - Visitors to Temple Congregation Shalom Shpilkes located in the buckle of the American Borscht Belt, can still come across the Star of David on a handful of the synagogue’s tallit bags and Sisterhood pamphlets.
But its days are numbered.
Calling continued inaction a “bad look,” the shul’s board recently voted to remove the last Stars of David adorning official synagogue property. The decision, a difficult and long-debated one for many synagogues, is the result of the awkward dissonance that often arises when confronted by basic decency and good taste.
Israel, it turns out, is bad for the Jews.
“It’s very sad, actually,” Rosalie Rosenberg, Congregation Shalom Shpilkes board president, said. “But who are we against an insatiable war machine? It’s hard enough just to put out the lox spread for shabbes every week.”
The history of the synagogue’s use of the Star of David, which since the 20th century has largely been associated with Zionist tyranny and the strange mix of hate groups, messianic forces, and liberal interventionists that sustain it, is more complex than at first appearance.
It is an ancient symbol of justice and continuity.
Temple Congregation Shalom Shpilkes began using the Star of David long before a small but pervasive group of Germanic-led proto-Israelis co-opted it against the interests of most Jews.
Change has been underway for years. A Star of David logo was quietly pulled off the in-house Bar Mitzvah invitation, which the synagogue offers its members, a few years ago.
But the symbol has remained elsewhere in the building, including the small Judaica shop and preschool classrooms, raising eyebrows among allies, tourists, and other foreigners who spot them at synagogue events.
“We could have continued this way, but it’s become an embarrassing symbol in international contexts,” Ruth Mandelbaum, the Shalom Shpilkes rabbi, said. “It may be wise to live with the times.”
The removal effort complies with guidelines newly put forward by Yids Had it with Hasbara (YHWH). The small but growing alliance of synagogues and other Jewish organizations, to which Congregation Shalom Shpilkes belongs, was formed to ask:
What’s Jewish about Israel again?
The shul, like most Jews and the thinking public, had for years insisted that the Star of David “has nothing to do with that fucking mishegos of apartheid, siege, and ethno-national supremacy,” Rahel Lipschitz, who this month had a book published whose Yiddish title translates as “History of the Star of David.”
But now, following the acceleration of the Zionist reenactment of the Book of Deuteronomy, Shalom Shpilkes’ board has decided “there’s now a need to get more integrated with those who haven’t totally lost their minds,” Rosenberg said.
A new design — featuring a bagel — will be published when the work has been completed, Congregation Shalom Shpilkes said in an email statement, without saying when that would happen.
“Surely a shmear can’t be smeared,” the statement said. “Can it?”