I agree that most efforts to fight antisemitism do more harm than good. I also agree that living a good Jewish life is the best way to fight antisemitism. But what does a good Jewish life look like? The Jewish nation was founded thousands of years ago on two central principles, the supremacy of God and the truth of His covenant. These are the principles that have sustained us as a people and a nation for all these centuries. Our relationship with the Almighty has always been our most powerful asset. We cannot succeed as a people by rebelling against God or casting off his commandments. Rather, to live a full Jewish life, we must accept His authority and dedicate our lives to His service as we swore to do on Mount Sinai. We must fear Him more than we fear our enemies, and trust Him more than we trust our friends. When we cleanse ourselves to the point of making it possible for Him to once again dwell among us, we will have no trouble disposing of our enemies.
Whoever wrote this article needs to be told ' You do not have a clue', to understand anti semitism you do not interview Jews but non-Jews. Make a some attempt to learn what 'rattles-them'. What they object to, hate or dislike. Why not recruit three 2 man teams from 3 foreign nations, and three teams of Americans, Canadian and Australians and send all six teams out asking people why do you hate us? Have some bottom line questions such as 'Do you like and speak to your neighbours, What do you hate about your neighbours, What do you think about immigrants and immigration, Which nations do you admire the most and why? ' With regards to skin colour, eye and hair colour and clothing worn by others what do you hate or admire? If your children were having a birthday party would you invite or bar children from certain groups or religious beliefs. What religion are you and do you truly believe in a God, Jesus, Heaven and Earth, the so called After life, or consider it a load of bunkum. RW Leeds, England.
This is brilliant. We don’t need more Holocaust museums. Being told that everyone hates you only leads to self hate, and to neutral parties being infected by this hate. Once at Temple a class of 10 year olds was asked to draw a picture on Judaism for their class. Someone drew a child in a concentration camp, Is this what we want our children to think of as their Jewish heritage?
There are children here in my home town, Melbourne, suffering from anti-Semitic bullying in their schools. They have bravely taken the government to court. How could they possibly NOT oppose horrible anti-Semitic bullying they encountered continually at school? How would this New Jew rhetoric possibly help them? They are actually the New Jews, the ones with the courage to stand up for their fights and confront anti-Semtism,
This is so true. Every minority is doing and has done this. Blacks, Gays, Trans etc and is working ie: same sex marriage, who would have ever expected that
I agree with....fighting antisemitism with official definitions and using the shoah as a club against antisemitism doesn't work, and may be making things worse.
I disagree with... the idea that empowered Jews, Jews living more authentically at Jews, etc. is an effective way to fight antisemitism. I'm pretty sure that at least a couple million of the six million were fully empowered Jews living very rich Jewish lives. I don't believe that mattered a bit when the antisemites came. I believe these second of these two sentences - "When we strengthen Jewish empowerment, we will strengthen our Jewish identity, which will strengthen our image in the world. This, in turn, will greatly diminish the effects and anguish of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment." - is nothing more than a fantasy.
I believe what works is...ridicule. When the GDL drops leaflets, gather them up, take a media crew and drop them on the front lawns of GDL leaders (their identities and locations are well known.) When antisemites parade in front of a synagogue, put on clown suits and mingle among them.
Ironically Martin, those who oppose LGBTQ rights and inclusion often tend to be the same people who exhibit anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior, but I guess we'll need to agree to disagree on this subject.
I don't really see it as ironic. Those who see the public acceptance and approval of LGBT behavior as undermining the moral foundations of society, and see Jews as some of the leading proponents of this acceptance, will likely feel hostility to Jews in general, especially when the LGBT-supporting Jews claim to speak for all Jews in the name of Judaism itself.
I think that Joshua Hoffman is on to something. How we empower mass numbers of Jews to live their "best Jewish lives" is another matter, but it's certainly what we should be doing. HOWEVER, there's a second ingredient to fighting anti-Semitism that nobody's talking about anymore. It's reactivating the Jewish communities of the Diaspora to actively engage in social justice movements with our non-Jewish allies (Blacks, Christians, Muslims, ethnic and religious minorities and others). When we fight and march -- as proud Jews -- alongside others who share our social and political values, we create enormous goodwill for Judaism and the Jewish people. It's worked before and it's what we should be doing again. Along with living our "best Jewish lives", building social justice alliances with our friends and neighbors can be a powerful force to advancing Proto-Semitism and combating Anti-Semitism. More powerful in my opinion than all the anti-Anti-Semitism ads that money can buy.
I think the reverse is true. Jewish participation in "social justice" movements is one of the leading CAUSES of anti-Semitism. Many people see this as an attempt by a small minority to force their views on the large majority which does not share these views and considers them a threat to its own way of life. For example, waging militant campaigns to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism, and presenting this normalization as a "Jewish value" (even though Jewish law explicitly forbids these practices) gives enormous ammunition to anti-Semites.
I agree that most efforts to fight antisemitism do more harm than good. I also agree that living a good Jewish life is the best way to fight antisemitism. But what does a good Jewish life look like? The Jewish nation was founded thousands of years ago on two central principles, the supremacy of God and the truth of His covenant. These are the principles that have sustained us as a people and a nation for all these centuries. Our relationship with the Almighty has always been our most powerful asset. We cannot succeed as a people by rebelling against God or casting off his commandments. Rather, to live a full Jewish life, we must accept His authority and dedicate our lives to His service as we swore to do on Mount Sinai. We must fear Him more than we fear our enemies, and trust Him more than we trust our friends. When we cleanse ourselves to the point of making it possible for Him to once again dwell among us, we will have no trouble disposing of our enemies.
Whoever wrote this article needs to be told ' You do not have a clue', to understand anti semitism you do not interview Jews but non-Jews. Make a some attempt to learn what 'rattles-them'. What they object to, hate or dislike. Why not recruit three 2 man teams from 3 foreign nations, and three teams of Americans, Canadian and Australians and send all six teams out asking people why do you hate us? Have some bottom line questions such as 'Do you like and speak to your neighbours, What do you hate about your neighbours, What do you think about immigrants and immigration, Which nations do you admire the most and why? ' With regards to skin colour, eye and hair colour and clothing worn by others what do you hate or admire? If your children were having a birthday party would you invite or bar children from certain groups or religious beliefs. What religion are you and do you truly believe in a God, Jesus, Heaven and Earth, the so called After life, or consider it a load of bunkum. RW Leeds, England.
This is brilliant. We don’t need more Holocaust museums. Being told that everyone hates you only leads to self hate, and to neutral parties being infected by this hate. Once at Temple a class of 10 year olds was asked to draw a picture on Judaism for their class. Someone drew a child in a concentration camp, Is this what we want our children to think of as their Jewish heritage?
There are children here in my home town, Melbourne, suffering from anti-Semitic bullying in their schools. They have bravely taken the government to court. How could they possibly NOT oppose horrible anti-Semitic bullying they encountered continually at school? How would this New Jew rhetoric possibly help them? They are actually the New Jews, the ones with the courage to stand up for their fights and confront anti-Semtism,
This is so true. Every minority is doing and has done this. Blacks, Gays, Trans etc and is working ie: same sex marriage, who would have ever expected that
I agree with....fighting antisemitism with official definitions and using the shoah as a club against antisemitism doesn't work, and may be making things worse.
I disagree with... the idea that empowered Jews, Jews living more authentically at Jews, etc. is an effective way to fight antisemitism. I'm pretty sure that at least a couple million of the six million were fully empowered Jews living very rich Jewish lives. I don't believe that mattered a bit when the antisemites came. I believe these second of these two sentences - "When we strengthen Jewish empowerment, we will strengthen our Jewish identity, which will strengthen our image in the world. This, in turn, will greatly diminish the effects and anguish of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment." - is nothing more than a fantasy.
I believe what works is...ridicule. When the GDL drops leaflets, gather them up, take a media crew and drop them on the front lawns of GDL leaders (their identities and locations are well known.) When antisemites parade in front of a synagogue, put on clown suits and mingle among them.
Ironically Martin, those who oppose LGBTQ rights and inclusion often tend to be the same people who exhibit anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior, but I guess we'll need to agree to disagree on this subject.
I don't really see it as ironic. Those who see the public acceptance and approval of LGBT behavior as undermining the moral foundations of society, and see Jews as some of the leading proponents of this acceptance, will likely feel hostility to Jews in general, especially when the LGBT-supporting Jews claim to speak for all Jews in the name of Judaism itself.
I think that Joshua Hoffman is on to something. How we empower mass numbers of Jews to live their "best Jewish lives" is another matter, but it's certainly what we should be doing. HOWEVER, there's a second ingredient to fighting anti-Semitism that nobody's talking about anymore. It's reactivating the Jewish communities of the Diaspora to actively engage in social justice movements with our non-Jewish allies (Blacks, Christians, Muslims, ethnic and religious minorities and others). When we fight and march -- as proud Jews -- alongside others who share our social and political values, we create enormous goodwill for Judaism and the Jewish people. It's worked before and it's what we should be doing again. Along with living our "best Jewish lives", building social justice alliances with our friends and neighbors can be a powerful force to advancing Proto-Semitism and combating Anti-Semitism. More powerful in my opinion than all the anti-Anti-Semitism ads that money can buy.
I think the reverse is true. Jewish participation in "social justice" movements is one of the leading CAUSES of anti-Semitism. Many people see this as an attempt by a small minority to force their views on the large majority which does not share these views and considers them a threat to its own way of life. For example, waging militant campaigns to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism, and presenting this normalization as a "Jewish value" (even though Jewish law explicitly forbids these practices) gives enormous ammunition to anti-Semites.