{"id":400,"date":"2012-03-12T18:46:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T18:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/to-sing-or-not-to-sing.html"},"modified":"2012-03-12T18:46:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T18:46:00","slug":"to-sing-or-not-to-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/to-sing-or-not-to-sing.html","title":{"rendered":"To Sing Or Not To Sing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Like other non-believers, If I happen to find myself in a place where people are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, I leave out the line \u201cunder God.\u201d So when Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran refused to sing the Israeli national anthem, \u201cHatikvah,\u201d I fully understood.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t make a scene.\u00a0 He simply refrained from singing.\u00a0 A few years back Muslim cabinet minister Raleb Majadele did the same thing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a few politicians in Israel find it necessary to engage in demagogy over his respectful non-participation.\u00a0 Calls for Joubran\u2019s condemnation \u2013 and even removal \u2013 were quick to come just as they had for Majadele.\u00a0 Back then the former minister reacted to the brouhaha:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a government minister, I swore allegiance to the laws of the State of Israel, and I intend to honor them.\u201d Majadele noted that he expresses his respect to the national anthem by standing up whenever the song is being sung.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, the law does not require me to sing the anthem, but to honor it. I fail to understand how an enlightened, sane Jew allows himself to ask a Muslim person with a different language and culture, to sing an anthem that was written for Jews only,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some have called for changing the anthem (notably, the \u201cForward<\/a>\u201d and \u201cHaaretz<\/a>\u201d), something that is unlikely to happen.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably even less likely than removing \u201cunder God\u201d from the Pledge.<\/p>\n

For a change (some would say typically) I don\u2019t have a coherent or consistent opinion on this.\u00a0 I am greatly moved by Hatikva.\u00a0 It speaks to my lifelong love and devotion to the best in Zionism. \u00a0 My great-grandparents were patrons of Naftali Herz Imber<\/a>.\u00a0 Emotionally speaking, I would not want Israel to change its anthem.<\/p>\n

Plenty of national anthems have lyrics that are objectionable to someone.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure plenty of non-believers choke on the lyrics to \u201cGod Save the Queen.\u201d\u00a0 Unlike the United States, founded as a completely secular undertaking (according to my worldview anyway), Israel was created to preserve a uniquely Jewish cultural outlook.\u00a0 In an ideal world Arab Israelis could happily participate, feeling love and admiration for the Jewish heritage of the state.\u00a0 This will happen just after peace descends upon the planet heralded by unicorns and rainbows.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy being a minority in a country which honors values that are not yours.\u00a0 The Israeli situation is even more complicated by the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.\u00a0 Israeli Jews would do well to respect the country\u2019s Arab citizens\u2019 non-participation in this particularly Jewish aspect of Israeli life.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like other non-believers, If I happen to find myself in a place where people are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, I leave out the line \u201cunder God.\u201d So when Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran refused to sing the Israeli national anthem, \u201cHatikvah,\u201d I fully understood.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t make a scene.\u00a0 He simply refrained from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-israel"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Sing Or Not To Sing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like other non-believers, If I happen to find myself in a place where people are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, I leave out the line \u201cunder God.\u201d So\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/to-sing-or-not-to-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Sing Or Not To Sing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like other non-believers, If I happen to find myself in a place where people are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, I leave out the line \u201cunder God.\u201d So\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/to-sing-or-not-to-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-12T18:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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