This is my reaction to Alan’s post “Ehud Neor’s Call to Action.” He built his piece around a note that I posted, itself a comment to a piece by Stephen Schecter who said, among other things:
Stop tooting our horns so much. It's cements a superiority complex that fuels anti-semitism. An implicit smugness that we are better. We need to stop viewing our neighbors as less than, which we would simply be in denial in saying did not have cruel reflections in Israeli society.
You might think that Israel has a problem with "blacks" like the US, but you would be wrong. Ethiopian Jews did not arrive to Israel in slave ships. They were brought as a group, at great expense. How does a society prepare for such an influx? There were no precedents. The prudent thing to do would have been to first formulate a "five-year plan," then put it to numerous votes, and then to bring them over slowly, at a tempo healthy for them and healthy for the country. But what is there to do? They were under a growing threat, so Israel did what Israel has done since its founding. First, bring the Jews home. Then, sort things out. It takes a generation or two for the absorption process to run its full course, and along the way there are injustices and prejudices, and maybe for the Ethiopians it will take another generation, but the process will run its course, and their integration will be complete.
Well, that can be argued. Has the "don't stir up trouble with the goyim" approach helped? In the true sense of being "a light unto the nations," the Jews are servants of the nations. If you provide water to someone dying of thirst in the desert, you are not "tooting your own horn," you are treating them at least as an equal, deserving of acts of kindness.
I'm sympathetic to your concern, fellow Alan. We should always walk humbly with our G*d. But here's what I realized rather late in life: the root of anti-Semitism -- all the way back to Abraham -- was the simple suggestion that there might be a better way. The problem is that no one wants to hear that their way is not as good as someone else's way. The genius of Genesis is that Abraham knows this. That's why he leaves home. There's no way he could stay put and insist that his way was preferable to the lives his neighbors were living. And he was never gonna convince them, in part because Abraham didn't know enough to convince anyone of anything. He just had.. a hunch. Enough of a hunch to pack up and hit the road.
Four thousand years later, we have a similar problem: How do you persuade people there's a better way than the cliff they're about to drive off? The Jewish answer: by example. "Be the change you want to see in the world." That's the voice of G*d at Sinai.
What fascinates me is that the central insight of Jewish scripture -- that we live inside a Story, a divine drama that Abe kicked into gear -- is now a given for billions of people. Who are the disciples of this narrative view of human history? Who tries to construct meaning with narrative tools? Jews. Christians. Muslims. Mormons. Marxists. Nazis. White supremacists. Black separatists. Moonies. Psychotherapists. Children of the Enlightenment. The Dalai Lama (see: https://outofbabel.substack.com/p/exile-narrative-and-the-dalai-lama.) The list goes on and on.
But your point is well taken. Jews are sitting on spiritual, existential, and historic dynamite... so it's best to move slowly so it all doesn't blow up beneath us.
I’m with the ‘dose of occasional antisemitism to remind us of who we are…’ As I agree with settling for it being a ‘mission of God’—as I think you phrased it—the scriptures tell us that when the ten men [obviously the N 10 tribes called House of Joseph, clearly identifying as gentile brothers of Judah] grab hold of the tallit of a Jew asking to be taught, the tooting of the shofar is a positive as I see it. [We are not hated for being self exalting but quietly carrying The Law yet trying to fit in. Even secular, a Jew is hated because of what else?] So much so that Isaiah tells us that the rogue leader of the 10 tribes will stop harassing Judah and Judah will stop being poked in the eye by TV evangelicals, and both will come together to fight the enemy (described as the men of the East…who’s quietly buying America’s farms and who is an axis against Israel…yeah…) and together help bring redemption. Put the shofar to your lips, brothers.
Whoa!! I knew you were writing a response, Ehud, but I wasn't expecting this! ... Thanks for an extraordinarily thoughtful post, and for not completely skewering me. I might even say that your conclusion was downright generous. It's almost as if our exchanges here might be opening some new doors (?). ...
I need some time to process all this. And to read more about Simon Rawidowicz.
P.S. I'm from Lexington, not Newton. A lesser man might say: "If Ehud can't get the basics right, how can we trust anything else he writes??" Good thing I'm not a lesser man. :-)
My take is that the anti-Semitism upsurge in the U.S. is largely due to two things. First, rich Islamic states have been pumping money into the universities whose radicalized students are funded to produce their protests. Much of what you see is astroturf, which begs imitating actors. Second, the Jewish population seems very divided about the issue themselves, half or more of whom vote for Democratic political actors whose policies are patently anti-Semitic. In my day-to-day life I haven't heard any anti-Semitic sentiments. I do live in rural Ohio.
Can of worms!
Stop tooting our horns so much. It's cements a superiority complex that fuels anti-semitism. An implicit smugness that we are better. We need to stop viewing our neighbors as less than, which we would simply be in denial in saying did not have cruel reflections in Israeli society.
Ugh
You might think that Israel has a problem with "blacks" like the US, but you would be wrong. Ethiopian Jews did not arrive to Israel in slave ships. They were brought as a group, at great expense. How does a society prepare for such an influx? There were no precedents. The prudent thing to do would have been to first formulate a "five-year plan," then put it to numerous votes, and then to bring them over slowly, at a tempo healthy for them and healthy for the country. But what is there to do? They were under a growing threat, so Israel did what Israel has done since its founding. First, bring the Jews home. Then, sort things out. It takes a generation or two for the absorption process to run its full course, and along the way there are injustices and prejudices, and maybe for the Ethiopians it will take another generation, but the process will run its course, and their integration will be complete.
Well, that can be argued. Has the "don't stir up trouble with the goyim" approach helped? In the true sense of being "a light unto the nations," the Jews are servants of the nations. If you provide water to someone dying of thirst in the desert, you are not "tooting your own horn," you are treating them at least as an equal, deserving of acts of kindness.
I'm sympathetic to your concern, fellow Alan. We should always walk humbly with our G*d. But here's what I realized rather late in life: the root of anti-Semitism -- all the way back to Abraham -- was the simple suggestion that there might be a better way. The problem is that no one wants to hear that their way is not as good as someone else's way. The genius of Genesis is that Abraham knows this. That's why he leaves home. There's no way he could stay put and insist that his way was preferable to the lives his neighbors were living. And he was never gonna convince them, in part because Abraham didn't know enough to convince anyone of anything. He just had.. a hunch. Enough of a hunch to pack up and hit the road.
Four thousand years later, we have a similar problem: How do you persuade people there's a better way than the cliff they're about to drive off? The Jewish answer: by example. "Be the change you want to see in the world." That's the voice of G*d at Sinai.
What fascinates me is that the central insight of Jewish scripture -- that we live inside a Story, a divine drama that Abe kicked into gear -- is now a given for billions of people. Who are the disciples of this narrative view of human history? Who tries to construct meaning with narrative tools? Jews. Christians. Muslims. Mormons. Marxists. Nazis. White supremacists. Black separatists. Moonies. Psychotherapists. Children of the Enlightenment. The Dalai Lama (see: https://outofbabel.substack.com/p/exile-narrative-and-the-dalai-lama.) The list goes on and on.
But your point is well taken. Jews are sitting on spiritual, existential, and historic dynamite... so it's best to move slowly so it all doesn't blow up beneath us.
I’m with the ‘dose of occasional antisemitism to remind us of who we are…’ As I agree with settling for it being a ‘mission of God’—as I think you phrased it—the scriptures tell us that when the ten men [obviously the N 10 tribes called House of Joseph, clearly identifying as gentile brothers of Judah] grab hold of the tallit of a Jew asking to be taught, the tooting of the shofar is a positive as I see it. [We are not hated for being self exalting but quietly carrying The Law yet trying to fit in. Even secular, a Jew is hated because of what else?] So much so that Isaiah tells us that the rogue leader of the 10 tribes will stop harassing Judah and Judah will stop being poked in the eye by TV evangelicals, and both will come together to fight the enemy (described as the men of the East…who’s quietly buying America’s farms and who is an axis against Israel…yeah…) and together help bring redemption. Put the shofar to your lips, brothers.
Whoa!! I knew you were writing a response, Ehud, but I wasn't expecting this! ... Thanks for an extraordinarily thoughtful post, and for not completely skewering me. I might even say that your conclusion was downright generous. It's almost as if our exchanges here might be opening some new doors (?). ...
I need some time to process all this. And to read more about Simon Rawidowicz.
P.S. I'm from Lexington, not Newton. A lesser man might say: "If Ehud can't get the basics right, how can we trust anything else he writes??" Good thing I'm not a lesser man. :-)
More to come...
Still close to Waltham. Anyway, it's a psycho-slip: my father grew up in Newton.
Your psycho-slip was surprising close to the mark: My parents moved to Lexington one month before I was born. They moved from... Newton.
Crazy. Just crazy.
Find myself always agreeing with Stephen Schecter.
My take is that the anti-Semitism upsurge in the U.S. is largely due to two things. First, rich Islamic states have been pumping money into the universities whose radicalized students are funded to produce their protests. Much of what you see is astroturf, which begs imitating actors. Second, the Jewish population seems very divided about the issue themselves, half or more of whom vote for Democratic political actors whose policies are patently anti-Semitic. In my day-to-day life I haven't heard any anti-Semitic sentiments. I do live in rural Ohio.
Excellent points.
More Jews stayed in Egypt than entered " the promised land." More Jews stayed in Persia when King Cyrus let them rebuild the Temple.
This time will be different.