‘As a Jew' Jews—Shut Up!

For a people with an earned reputation for academic excellence and street seichel, Jews nowadays are establishing an entirely different tribal stereotype: a people chock-full of morons; a confederacy of Jewish stupidity. Perhaps wisdom is still there, but it's being misdirected, aimed not at moral clarity but superficial cachet; self-directed not toward noble deeds and Nobel Prizes but social acceptance and abject surrender. Either way, it's not a good look and can lead to disastrous consequences. Vocal self-hating outliers are serving as unofficial spokesmen, aiding and abetting in the resurrection of pernicious Jewish stereotypes—all for their own narcissistic benefit. Have they learned absolutely nothing from the entirety of Jewish history: pariah status everywhere, first to be expelled, massacred in every epoch? Let's start with the most mindboggling doozy of all—the words of a Jewish Democratic state attorney general demonstrating what tikkun olam looks like on crack! Dana Nessel was addressing Michigan's Democratic Jewish Caucus, where she was being honored for choosing not to attend the state's Democratic Convention because she knew she would be pelted by antisemites—from her own party! So, she proved her moral mettle by invoking Queen Esther of Persia: 'We have a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival.' What did she say? Yes, you heard right: A Jewish elected official took the stage at a room full of Jews and told them to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the people who despise them. She urged Michigan's Jews to 'sacrifice the comfort, safety and security and even the very future of our own people in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity. . .. What good is defending the historic homeland of our ancestors and demanding that candidates acknowledge its right to exist if the planet upon which it rests is no longer inhabitable?' Finally, she patronized Jewish Democrats by telling them that Republicans are 'focused on transgender girls playing JV volleyball' and not on the important stuff, like 'wealth inequality and artificial intelligence.' Where to begin with this bonehead? First, Queen Esther is most certainly not your inspiration if you believe she was prepared to silence herself and accept the sacrifice of the Jewish people. That's what Jewish Democrats have been doing for years now. But it was not the modus operandi of the Jewish Queen of Persia, who took great risks to persuade the king to spare her people and punish their enemy, instead. The Persian Queen chose her people over her self-interest and didn't ask them to embrace collective suicide. Send Nessel back to Hebrew School and keep her out of public office. She is a tragic example of Reform Judaism's obsession with social justice over Jewish survival. She has breathlessly adopted the New Testament's tribal workout of 'turning the other cheek,' rhetorically asking: 'What would Jesus—the original revisionist Jew—do?' We've been here many times before. During the Enlightenment, Jews were emancipated on the condition that they trade in their Jewish particularity for full European integration. The Dreyfus Affair and the Holocaust eventually put the lie to those illusory guarantees. During the Stalinist days of the Soviet Union, Jews were told that if there was any hope of ushering in a worldly utopia, they must ignore the antisemitic purges, erase all tribal commitments, and march in solidarity with the proletariat. Now Jewish political leaders are reciting the very same suicidal script! Which people, exactly, do Sanders, Schumer, Schiff, Slotkin, Ossoff and Raskin belong to? Surely not the Jewish people. In Nessel's case, she was apparently riding sidecar beside the number one ranked Jew-hater in all of Michigan—Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. He addressed the Jewish Caucus, too, apologizing for an unforgivable snafu earlier in the campaign when he minimized, and justified, an Islamist attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, by stating: 'Hurt people hurt people.' The assailant, apparently, was related to Hezbollah commanders who the IDF had just killed. El-Sayed addressed Jewish Michiganers by lamenting, 'To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I'm really sorry.' That's not an apology. El-Sayed blamed Jews for being overly sensitive, as if he was merely delivering the right message but innocently, at the wrong moment. Yet another example of one of today's widely accepted slippery tactics in passing the buck: insert 'context' to override the content of what was actually said. El-Sayed then crossed the line into extreme Jewish pandering: declaring the 'value of tikkun olam, to repair the world.' Give me a break. Say what you actually mean, El-Sayed: 'To 'repair the world,' bring on the next Caliphate!' The flippancy with words these days is truly atrocious. There is no shame in self-deception if it serves to manipulate the unwary. Taking advantage of public ignorance, Islamists invoke tikkun olam. 'Scholars' misapply 'genocide' to describe 'casualties of war' in asymmetric warzones where terrorists deploy children as shields. The LGBTQ community proudly marches to 'Queers for Palestine.' Feminists wear hijabs. Progressives ceaselessly make reference to a mythical Palestine as if such a nation had ever once existed. And my new favorite: Self-hating, nominally affiliated Jews condemning the Jewish state, and global Jewry, by foreshadowing their false accusations with the preamble, 'Speaking as a Jew, . . .' Under whose authority are they speaking? Have they ever been to Israel? Have they, or anyone they know, ever been victims of murderous antisemitism? Have they read widely and traveled broadly to Jewish communities in distress? The 'speaking as a Jew' Jews should not be speaking for anyone—especially not their people. They are not authorized spokespersons. The task was never delegated to them. They would be the last to be chosen. Their self-absorbed narcissism is dangerous to Jews and should be of no interest to any sensitive, rational, clear-thinking person. It's time for real Jews to drown out the treachery of those taking liberties without true entitlements. And repeat after me: 'As a Jew, Israel, like every other nation, has the right to protect its people from indiscriminate rocket fire and beheadings, its girls from mass rapes, its infants from being torched in ovens, and its elderly from being taken hostage. In fighting wars it does not initiate, Israel should be expected to defend itself with all military means available, especially when its methods do not violate the laws of armed combat and are not disproportionate under international humanitarian law. The words 'genocide,' 'mass starvation,' and 'human rights violations' apply to its enemies, and not to the Jewish state.' Say that, and you'll be speaking, undeniably, as a Jew. Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is a contributing writer for White Rose magazine. His most recent book is titled, 'Beyond Proportionality: Israel's Just War in Gaza.'