Rabbi Barry Dolinger lives in Providence.
Members of the Providence City Council introduced an ordinance on June 6 that would prohibit future bond purchases from Israel. The city currently owns no Israel bonds, as it did not renew them after their maturation in 2022. By allying with antisemitic movements that seek not peace, but the destruction of Israel, this largely symbolic ordinance will create actual hostility for the Jewish community of Providence, already reeling from years of increasing antisemitism.
As the current president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island, as a rabbi of a politically diverse congregation, and as a parent who engages with Jewish practice in visible ways that shape my daily life, I feel compelled to articulate my strongest opposition to this ordinance.
The Jewish people are not a monolith. Jews can and do have fiercely critical opinions about the current war, and certainly about the current Israeli government. Preserving latitude for reasoned disagreement and debate is always important, especially in times of war. Like with any country, folks should and can call out specific policies or leadership in Israel. But the singular demonization of Israel, the erasure of passionate Jewish connection to its beloved land, and actions in support of the elimination of Israel feed antisemitism everywhere.
Some 80% to 90% of American Jews say Israel is part of their Jewish identity − I would never expect us all to agree, but I sincerely hope that we can establish reasonable boundaries around what we disagree on.
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A safe future for Israelis and American Jews does not take away from efforts for Palestinian dignity, safety and self-determination; our futures are intertwined. Preventing the city of Providence from holding future potential bonds with Israel does not send a message of allyship to peacebuilders in the region. Instead, it aligns our city with the movement to boycott Israel (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions). As founder Omer Barghouti explains, BDS is opposed “to a Jewish State in any part of Palestine” and the goal is the delegitimization and ultimate destruction of Israel. Boycotts suggest not a critique but a rejection of the entire enterprise of a Jewish State. For most Jews, we understand this to include the violent death and exile of our people, the same goal we witnessed Hamas wield with gut-wrenching brutality on Oct. 7.
Each week since Oct. 7, I’ve received calls from Jewish Rhode Islanders who have been singled out at work, school and on the streets, harassed merely for being Jewish. There was the doctor whose patient asked the practice to fire him because he wore a Jewish star necklace, the art student who was told not to draw art relating to Oct. 7, and the visibly Jewish professor asked to teach virtually to avoid incitement merely by being physically present on campus. Synagogues have contended with countless bomb threats, and Jewish professionals have received death threats. Jewish elementary school students have had activities canceled as they need armed protection simply to leave school. I, as an identifiable Orthodox Jew who walks to synagogue each Sabbath, have been targeted with vile verbal attacks.
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There are other paths forward. If peace is the goal, let the Providence City Council engage in statements and actions that pursue it. Boycott movements like this, though, do nothing to promote peace in the region. Quite the opposite, they promote the notion that peace is zero-sum and about, in the words of author and activist Ahmed Moor, “upending the Jewish state itself.”
This is the ideology that led to Oct. 7 in the first instance and one that will only delay a sorely needed future with safety and dignity for all in the region.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: The true cost of Providence City Council boycotting Israel | Opinion
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