Disposable allies
What happens when the Story you live by is not your own?
Grigory Zinoviev was a Russian revolutionary, a Soviet politician, a close associate of Vladimir Lenin, and the chairman of the Communist International from 1919 to 1926. He was a real big shot — a macher, my Grandma Rose might have called him — until, suddenly and unceremoniously, he wasn’t.
Rabbi Menachem Levine recently shared the story of Zinoviev’s rapid rise and fall, and while I recommend you read the Rabbi’s full Substack post, here’s a condensed version:
Grigory Zinoviev, born Hirsh Apfelbaum (1883-1936), was one of the top three members of the Communist Party. Although he is not as well known as his contemporary Leon Trotsky, he was a major power player in the Communist movement. He was one of Vladimir Lenin’s closest associates, and used his talents as an orator to support the revolution within the Soviet Union and abroad….
As far as his fellow Jews, Zinoviev did not use his influence to help them at all. He spent his life building the regime that would utterly destroy the Soviet Jewish community.
Yet, for all of his devotion to the cause and his role in giving Stalin the leadership position, his idealism would reveal itself to be naive….
The end began in 1925 when the Troika started to fall apart. With manipulations and deception, Stalin gained total control over the Soviet Union. In December 1934, Stalin had Zinoviev and Kamenev and their closest associates arrested, accusing them of murdering Sergei Mironovich Kirov. Zinoviev was sentenced to 10 years in prison….
In August 1936, Zinoviev and his associates were brought to trial on new charges. Despite Stalin’s promise to spare their lives in exchange for an admission of guilt, after Zinoviev and his co-defendants were found guilty on August 24, Stalin gave orders that they be executed that very night….
In his final moments, when the edifice he had spent his life building crumbled before his eyes, Zinoviev saw the truth. Facing the firing squad, he raised his hands to the heavens and shouted, “Shema Yisrael!” With his last words, he returned to his God and his people.
Rabbi Levine presents Zinoviev’s tragic story as a cautionary tale for liberal Jews who support such groups as IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
“Sure,” Rabbi Levine writes, “Hamas and Palestinian supporters welcome your support and will stand arm-in-arm with you as you both stand against Israel. But, as Zinoviev discovered, when they are done using you and your idealism, the antisemites will turn against you just as they fight against your Jewish brothers and sisters. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew.”
This is an extraordinarily provocative and bleak reading of history, and one I desperately want to reject. What happened to Hope? The problem is that history suggests Rabbi Levine might be right. But if the Rabbi’s logic applies to progressive Jews — “when they are done using you and your idealism, the antisemites will turn against you” — then shouldn’t the same logic apply to these Jewish guys on the Right?
Prager, Shapiro, and Rubin are proud Jewish conservatives who are enthusiastic allies of Republicans in general and Christian nationalists in particular. But if Rabbi Levine is correct, then what happened to Grigory Zinoviev can easily happen to Prager & Co.
That’s a horrible comparison, you say. Grigory Zinoviev abandoned the Jews to pursue a Leninist-Stalinist messianic fever dream. Whereas Prager, Shapiro, and Rubin are Jews who love the Jewish people, Israel, and America. Just look at the thousands of Jews who have migrated to the Right since October 7th. Haven’t they received the warmest of welcomes from the Republican party?
Yes, they certainly have. But I don’t believe that anti-Semitism is an immediate threat in America. However, philo-Semitism might be.
Many millions of devout Christians love the Jews, and that love only grows deeper when diaspora Jews pack their bags and move to Israel.
Why the deeper love? Because Jews returning to their ancestral homeland is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The ancient words of Deuteronomy 30:1-5; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 29:14; and Ezekiel 20:41-42 seem to be finally coming true.
For Christian Zionists, the “ingathering of the exiles” is an essential plot point in their Story about the redemption of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. And if diaspora Jews don’t want to “return” to Israel and play their part in that Christian Story? Well, that screws up the whole Show, doesn’t it?
Oh, c’mon, Alan…
Who wants diaspora Jews to return to their ancestral homeland?
Glad you asked!
This video (above) is from the Trinity Broadcasting System, which:
owns more than 30 full-power television stations in the United States,
claims more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates worldwide, and
is available to 98 percent of the total [U.S.] households, and globally, TBN’s estimated reach approaches more than 2 billion viewers (per TBN).
And let’s not forget…
From The Washington Post:
At a White House Hanukkah party in 2018, Trump said Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence go to Israel “and they love your country. They love your country. And they love this country” — the implication being that “this country” is distinct from “your country.”
In a September 2020 call after Rosh Hashanah, Trump told American Jewish leaders, “We really appreciate you; we love your country also.”
In 2019, he referred to Benjamin Netanyahu as “your prime minister” at a Republican Jewish Coalition event.
There are many more examples I could share, but let me conclude with this:
Connect all the dots above and look at what you’ve drawn.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Postscript
This morning I had the following exchange with
, a good Substack friend and a very thoughtful, well-read guy.
Really we just need to look at Jews who are cozying up to the people who would kill us like right now … and those cozying up to those who want to convert us in the end of days.
I wonder when the Show Trials will begin.