Hitler was right to fear the Jews.
“Judaism is a living protest against the herd instinct. Ours is the dissenting voice in the conversation of humankind.”
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This is an edited excerpt from the new book, “Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Jew: Learning to Love the Lessons of Jew-Hatred” — written by Raphael Shore, an acclaimed filmmaker and author.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Beginning with Abraham, a spiritual revolution emerged that introduced a radically new outlook into the world.
This revolution was so successful that 3,700 years later, one of the most powerful nations on Earth — Germany — launched a campaign of genocide to try and eradicate it.
Hitler looked around, and with fear and disgust, saw that much of the modern world had embraced the ideas brought forth by Abraham and the revelation at Sinai. These Jewish teachings introduced values that are now taken for granted in the modern West:
Classic Western liberalism
The rejection of “might makes right”
Belief in human dignity and the sanctity of life
Advocacy for the oppressed and downtrodden
Universal education
Social welfare to aid the sick and needy
Tolerance, anti-racism, peace, and a vision to end war
When these ideals were first introduced, they were revolutionary — and they faced fierce resistance. It is no coincidence that one of the freest countries in history, the United States, has a verse from the Hebrew Bible inscribed on its Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”1
It is also no coincidence that the United Nations, the institution tasked with maintaining world peace, takes its vision from the Jewish prophet Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”2
But it took thousands of years for humanity to arrive at the belief that “all men are created equal.” And every step of that journey has been met with resistance. The pushback against these moral advances is called antisemitism.
In his novel, “The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.,” literary critic and philosopher George Steiner imagines a chilling scenario: Hitler has survived the war and is hiding in Argentina. He’s eventually captured by Jewish Nazi hunters who put him on trial in the jungle.
There, Steiner gives Hitler a chance to explain himself — and his words are haunting: “You call me a tyrant, an enslaver. What tyranny, what enslavement has been more oppressive, has branded the skin and soul of man more deeply than the sick fantasies of the Jew? You are not God-killers, but God-makers. And that is infinitely worse. The Jew invented conscience and left man a guilty serf.”
In Steiner’s fictional trial, Hitler’s “defense” confirms the real reason for his war against the Jews: He believed they had imposed morality on the world — and he saw that as a form of slavery.
The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi, reflecting on the biblical war between the Jews and the Midianites, explains that those who fight the Jewish People are simultaneously fighting God. This understanding brings new light to God’s promise to Abraham: “Those who bless you will be blessed, and he who curses you will be cursed. All the nations will be blessed through you.”3
This isn’t just a mystical promise; it’s a practical truth. Societies that embrace Jewish values (like liberty, justice, and compassion) tend to become free, open, and tolerant. Those that reject these values often become repressive and undemocratic.
Abraham’s discovery set him apart from the entire world. The Midrash4 famously says: “The whole world was on one side (ever), and Abraham was on the other.” From this moment on, he was known as HaIvri (“the Hebrew”) which literally means, “the one on the other side.”
And this has been the essence of being Jewish ever since. Throughout history, Jews have challenged the status quo; stood as outsiders; and been seen as different, despised, ridiculed, and persecuted.
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it so beautifully: “Judaism is a living protest against the herd instinct. Ours is the dissenting voice in the conversation of humankind.”
The essence of Purim is the story of reversal. It’s a Jewish holiday of costumed masquerades and festive drinking “Ad d’Lo Yada” — until one can no longer distinguish between Haman5 and Mordechai.
It commemorates a genocidal plot that was turned upside down, transforming Purim into a day of “sorrow to rejoicing, and mourning into a holiday.”6
Reversal (strength becoming weakness, weakness turning into strength, the victim emerging triumphant while the villain is trapped by his own scheme) is not just a Purim theme. It’s a fundamental Jewish idea. It permeates the entire Jewish story.
The survival and profound influence of the Jewish People over thousands of years — despite persecution and hatred unparalleled in human history — reverses the natural order:
The Nazis believed that nothing is mightier than nature.
The Jews insisted that God is above nature, and that He created humanity to rise above its physical instincts and historical determinism.
To Hitler, this idea (that “man conquers nature”) was a Jewish trick. But that “trick” proved, once again, to be a reversal of natural law. When God lifted Abraham above the stars, He showed that his descendants would not be subject to the normal rules of history. The 19th-century commentator Malbim explained: “Abraham’s descendants will shine like the stars, be eternal like the stars, and yet exist above the stars — not bound by earthly cause and effect.”
United States founding father Alexander Hamilton marveled: “The progress of the Jews... is entirely out of the ordinary course of human affairs. Is it not then a fair conclusion that the cause also is an extraordinary one — in other words, that it is the effect of some great providential plan?”
Indeed, Jewish history is a series of reversals: a small, despised people whose revolutionary beliefs ultimately shape global civilization.
The Nazis began the 1940s on top of the world. Five years later, they fell as thoroughly as Haman. Even Hitler sensed this mystery: “Destiny, perhaps for reasons unknown to us poor mortals... desired the final victory of this little nation.”
Hence, the Jewish People are the Burning Bush7 that will not be consumed:
3,300 years ago: Egypt enslaved the Jews for over 200 years. The Jews emerged with the Torah, sharing a message of freedom and justice with the world.
2,500 years ago: Persia declared genocide. The Jews survived and rebuilt the Second Temple in Israel.
2,200 years ago: Greece outlawed the Torah and Judaism. A ragtag Jewish army defeated them and won independence.
2,000 years ago: Rome destroyed Jerusalem, killed over a million Jews, and exiled the rest. They expected it to be the end of Jewish history. It wasn’t.
1,300 years of Christian Europe: Pogroms, inquisitions, ghettos, and forced conversions tried to crush the Jews. Instead, the Jews adapted, survived, and built spiritual kingdoms in exile.
1,400 years under Islam: Jews lived as dhimmis (Arabic for second-class citizens), subject to restrictions and persecution.
100 years ago: Russian Communists declared Judaism obsolete and Zionism illegal. By the 1990s, one million Soviet Jews moved to Israel, helping build the Start-Up Nation.
90 years ago: Hitler launched the Final Solution. He created a genocidal superpower, but the 1,000-Year Reich fell. The Jews rose again and reestablished the State of Israel.
After World War II: The Arab and Islamic world, Nazi Germany’s last allies, continued the war. After the 1948 War of Independence failed to destroy Israel, the campaign shifted to terror, wars, boycotts, and delegitimization. Still, the Jews prevailed, building the only democracy in the Middle East.
Mark Twain wondered: What is the secret?
“All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” he asked in 1899.
The Dalai Lama also searched for the Jewish secret to survival. We now know it. Hitler knew it too. In 1941, after revealing it to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler asked him to: “Lock it in the uttermost depths of his heart.” He told him: “This was the decisive struggle... ideologically it was a battle between National Socialism and the Jews.”
World War II was a last-ditch battle, a final attempt by a crumbling ideology to preserve its power. As early as 1922, Hitler made the stakes clear in a speech: “Here too, there can be no compromise — there are only two possibilities: either the victory of the Aryan, or the annihilation of the Aryan and the victory of the Jew.”
The Nazis understood: This was not just a war for land or power. It was a war over worldviews. And they believed that the Jewish worldview was winning.
Leviticus 25:10
Isaiah 2:4
Genesis 12:3
Ancient commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures, attached to the biblical text
Haman is the villain of the Purim story in the Book of Esther, a high-ranking Persian official who plotted to annihilate the Jews, but was ultimately defeated by Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai.
Esther 9:22
The burning bush is a significant event described in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, specifically in Exodus 3:1-14. It’s a story about Moses, who is tending his father-in-law’s sheep, when he sees a bush burning with fire, yet not being consumed. God then speaks to Moses from within the bush, calling him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Great essay. I have long thought that God uses the Jews to keep showing and reminding humanity the difference between good and evil, and the endless struggle between the two forces. Well, that has been the best way I could describe my thoughts and feelings on the matter. This essay did a much much better job of describing them.
This piece is wonderful and so inspiring. It is a fact that Hitler was obsessed with the Jews and their history. You have survived for thousands of years. You will continue to survive. Never doubt that!