-born Israel
i professor of chemistry
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
, known especially as a radical political thinker, author, and civil rights activist. Between 1970-1990, he was president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights
and was an outspoken critic of the Israel
i government. Shahak's writings on Judaism
have been a source of widespread controversy.
Born in Warsaw
, Poland
, Shahak was the youngest child of a cultured, religious, pro-Zionist, Ashkenazi Jewish family.
You cannot have humane Zionism, it is a contradiction in terms.
I strongly believe that antisemitism and Jewish chauvinism can only be fought simultaneously.
Modern racism (of which antisemitism is part) although caused by specific social conditions, becomes, when it gains strength, a force that in my opinion can only be described as demonic.
Both before and after a meal, a pious Jew ritually washes his hands, uttering a special blessing. On one of these two occasions he is worshiping God, by promoting the divine union of Son and Daughter; but on the other he is worshiping Satan, who likes Jewish prayers and ritual acts so much that when he is offered a few of them it keeps him busy for a while and he forgets to pester the wikipedia:Shekhinah|divine daughter.
We realize that by criticizing Jewish fundamentalism we are criticizing a part of the past that we love. We wish that members of every human grouping would criticize their own past, even before criticizing others.