As much as anything else, diaspora Jews must internalize that there is no distinction between Israeli Jews and them. That support for Israel is a mandatory aspect of being a Jew and that no Jew should ever make common cause with our enemies. Ever. Criticism must remain in house. External solidarity mandatory. And any Jew that refuses to do this has exommunicated themselves from the Jewish people.
No. One is blaming an individual for the wrongdoing of a nation. The other is saying it is necessary to care. As an American I care about this country and its people. I am not responsible if.the United States commits a wrongful act. Individual Israelis aren't collectively responsible nor ade diaspora Jews if Israel does something wrong.
But if support for Israel is mandatory whether Israel is right or wrong, and you include this in your definition of what it means to be Jewish, it sounds awfully close to assuming some kind of accountability.
Imagine a German in 1943 saying “I support my country and hope Germany wins the war. That doesn't mean I support all individual actions of the German state.”
Fine, he is not personally responsible for some decisions, but if he says being German ubiquitously means supporting Germany regardless and wanting Germany to win the war and prevail despite some individual actions one might not agree with.. You see where this is going?
Well now the truth comes out. You must hate Israel and believe the lies against it. You make a comparison to Nazi Germany which is grotesque. Israel is a just country fighting a just war of survival. Individual wrongdoing does not change this fact nor does it implicate anyone but the specific perpetrator and Disapora Jews should think of themselves AS Israelis in that sense and stand by the just Jewish state. Your analogy is bullshit.
I'm just a Gentile who supports Israel. But, I think a strong case can be made that HaShem expects the Diaspora to move home—while they're still able to do so..
Believe me. A LOT of us Jews are starting to think the same thing. And record numbers, particularly from England, France, Canada, Australia are already moving home.
I stand proudly as a Zionist and Jewish American. Everyone knows that about me. I am not naive. This country took in my beloved grandparents. My family prospered in America. We were all originally welcomed here by George Washington. I truly believe “this too shall pass” about this very upsetting time of anti semitism. We have good people in America who are our allies. We must stay strong and positive, just like our brothers and sisters in Israel.
I’m glad to hear that, but Micah fourth chapter talks about the Jews return to Zion. I think the persecution of Jews is going to worse before Messiah returns.
I don't live my life according to biblical prophecies. As the old Talmudic saying goes, if you are planting a tree and someone says the Messiah is here, finish planting the tree then go greet the Messiah. I don't expect to greet the Messiah.
No one knows the hour the Messiah will return, but we will all go to the Messiah when we die. I don’t live my life in preparation to meet the Messiah on earth, but I know we all meet Him on the last day.
Wait, wait, wait. I thought people wanted all those Israeli “colonists” to leave the Near East and move elsewhere. Now when they do, they’re harassed? Where do people want them to go exactly?
They want them to disappear, disavow Judaism, disavow their heritage, convert (to Islam or Christianity, depending on who is doing the hating that day), or better yet--die, be gone forever, the Final Solution.
What the author observes about the increasing virulent hostility to Israel and Israelis at home and abroad is accurate. Also correct is his noting how it is spilling over into Israelis abroad. Because he no longer lives outside Israel, he does not yet see how Jews living outside Israel are increasingly being subjected to verbal and physical acts of Jew hatred. It is a case of Deutschland 1930s revisitatus.
Absolutely. For us in America, taking a few minutes to look up where and when Israelis are performing, lecturing, etc. and support them is our responsibility. We need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Joshua, another very good article. But honestly, what can I say except: welcome to the diaspora.
What Israelis are increasingly experiencing abroad is what Jews in the diaspora have been feeling more and more every day — attacks, intimidation, hostility, exclusion, and growing social pressure across Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
And that is why I always reject the idea that Jews outside Israel somehow have no real stake or voice regarding what happens in Israel. That is simply not true. We are all affected together because, in the end, the people screaming at Israelis abroad are usually not attacking them because they are “Israeli.” They are attacking them because they are Jews.
And likewise, Jews in the diaspora are not being targeted because they are Israeli. They are being targeted because they are Jews.
That is the uncomfortable reality October 7th exposed so clearly: whether in Tel Aviv, Toronto, Paris, London, Sydney, or New York, we are increasingly tied together by the same hostility, the same accusations, the same ideological attacks, and the same attempts at collective stigmatization.
And once we fully recognize that shared reality, then we also have to recognize that we need shared solidarity, shared strategy, and shared defense as well.
Did you read Dara Horn's 'People Love Dead Jews?' After that, she did an article for the Atlantic on Holocaust Education and I heard her speak about her research. And the scariest things she said -- and this was before 10/7, was that the way we've done Holocaust Education doesn't work. And she gave a bunch of reasons that are important but what she said that I personally found the most telling is that in observing children leaving after their field trips, what they were reciting was the antisemitic tropes they had just learned -- in her opinion, if I understood it, it wasn't because they found them naturally attractive, but because that is what stood out the most in their memories.
Look at something as simple as “Nakba.” One word. Emotionally powerful. Instantly recognizable globally. Meanwhile, the day commemorating the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries has some long bureaucratic title nobody remembers. That’s part of the problem right there. We still communicate like committees and institutions while the other side communicates emotionally, symbolically, and psychologically.
Even my own simple thought was: why not call our catastrophe “Churbin” — the Hebrew word for catastrophe. Simple, one word. Little things matter in propaganda and cultural warfare.
Instead, we have bloated Jewish bureaucracies with little accountability, little accessibility, endless conferences, endless statements, endless fundraising, and very little coherent strategy. Ordinary Jews cannot even identify who is responsible for what. There’s no direct leadership structure people can access, pressure, challenge, or organize through effectively.
And until that changes, we will continue reacting while the other side shapes the emotional narrative first.
Yes. In my synagogue, we can't even talk to each other because we have no training or infrastructure or leadership to help show us how. I had to go to an online zoom in a much larger city where a Rabbi was trying to make it possible for us to support each other.
And she originally thought that she might need multiple groups -- like liberal compared to conservative to pull it off. Turns out the only people interested in doing it were liberal. I don't know how I personally would have survived without that weekly group.
I agree with you, we have all these institutions and no one has found real ways to help us challenge the narrative.
And while we may understand more of the reality of the world Israel lives in, being made to feel like diaspora Jews should either 1. Be in Israel or 2. Be able to do what Israel itself hasn't been able to do and be responsible for explaining it to ordinary people. That isn't reality.
The reason it is different for Israelis living in Israel is because the Diaspora has no idea what it is like living in a teensy state surrounded by hostiles enemies with missiles pointed at that teensy state the size of Delaware, and running several times a day and all night into bomb shelters with your babies. They are on the front line of fighting Jew hate and taking the blows for the only safe place any of us can run if--or, rather WHEN--the world goes insane again and starts expelling or slaughtering their Jews. They know the raw truth of what is happening and why it is happening, and they have no choice; it's survival. For these reasons, Israelis don't want to get much blow-back from Jews who are not living in Israel and experiencing reality, not theory.
The uncomfortable reality October 7 exposed clearly was that Netanyahu and the IDF sat on their hands and let it happen for 6 hours as if they had something to benefit from it. Maybe a pretext for a war so Netanyahu would't go down.
In a sane world the opposite should have happened. October 7 should have resulted in increasing support and solidarity with Israel in the west and should have permanently delegitimized the "palestinan" cause. The treatment of Israelis is a damning indictment of the west not of Israel. The west is in its death throes and deservedly so.
What kind of pathetic losers follow around a singer or run onto a stage in protest or pick a fight with a basketball player, gather outside businesses in protest for nothing other than their Israeli nationality? Why this sick, psychotic obsession and hatred of Israel? What exactly has Israel done to provoke them into such a rage other than defend itself after their people were massacred, raped, mutilated and kidnapped? Apparently Jewish self-defense and survival offend many people. Too fucking bad. These losers should get a life and achieve something other than expressing resentment, hatred and hostility towards Jews for achieving and succeeding.
Have Russian nationals or ethnic Russians been treated with hostility and hatred since Russia's invasion of Ukraine? No. Have any hockey players picked fights with Russian players in the NHL simply because of their nationality? No.
Turning against the Jewish people is always the first sign of a civilization being in a death spiral.
"October 7th and its aftermath shattered that illusion. The attack by Hamas did not merely target Israelis physically. It unleashed a global social permission structure not again Israeli policies or the Israeli government, but against all Israelis everywhere. I’m talking about Israeli athletes, musicians, proofessors, chefs, artists, filmmakers, executives, business owners, speakers, students, and everyday civilians. The old fantasy that there was a neat line separating “anti-Zionism” from hostility toward actual Israelis has collapsed in public view".
Everyone should read Jeremiah 16:14-17. Hashem is clear - He says He will bring us Jews back home to Israel. He will send "hunters and fishers" to accomplish this. The anti-Semitic attacks in the exile are the hunters. Nefesh b' Nefesh and other such organizations are the fishers. It can't be more clear- the exile has ended and it's time to move to Israel. Though there are hunters here as well, at least we have the IDF to fight them. The more Jews that live here, the stronger we are. Come home to Israel.
no less a saint than Cate Blanchette has used her privilege to boldly and courageously speak out against Israel's ongoiing 78 year genocide of teh Paleestinians an ancient people as attested to by the Palestine Philharmonic , the Palestine post, currency reading Palestine and Visit Palestine posters. The courage it takes to speak out against world Zionism is so amazing....it fills my heart to the brim.....the ongoing 78 year genocide or "nakba"....when will the world finally stops its SILENCE as Kristof writes in the NY Times.....yes since the resistance of Oct. 7, the SILENCE is deafening....how can I live as Sally rooney tells us without daily committing myself to a free palestine from river to sea...from Neapolis to Beth Lechem from Yershalayim to Yavneh....river to sea. we don't want no 48! right seth rogan? right mamaloschen patinkin?
As much as anything else, diaspora Jews must internalize that there is no distinction between Israeli Jews and them. That support for Israel is a mandatory aspect of being a Jew and that no Jew should ever make common cause with our enemies. Ever. Criticism must remain in house. External solidarity mandatory. And any Jew that refuses to do this has exommunicated themselves from the Jewish people.
Doesn't that kind of clash with the definition of antisemitism relating to apportioning accountability to all Jews for the actions of Israel?
No.
It is antisemitism to apportion accountability to all Jews for the actions of Israel.
Isn't it a contradiction then when you say support for Israel is a mandatory aspect of being a Jew?
No. One is blaming an individual for the wrongdoing of a nation. The other is saying it is necessary to care. As an American I care about this country and its people. I am not responsible if.the United States commits a wrongful act. Individual Israelis aren't collectively responsible nor ade diaspora Jews if Israel does something wrong.
But if support for Israel is mandatory whether Israel is right or wrong, and you include this in your definition of what it means to be Jewish, it sounds awfully close to assuming some kind of accountability.
Imagine a German in 1943 saying “I support my country and hope Germany wins the war. That doesn't mean I support all individual actions of the German state.”
Fine, he is not personally responsible for some decisions, but if he says being German ubiquitously means supporting Germany regardless and wanting Germany to win the war and prevail despite some individual actions one might not agree with.. You see where this is going?
Well now the truth comes out. You must hate Israel and believe the lies against it. You make a comparison to Nazi Germany which is grotesque. Israel is a just country fighting a just war of survival. Individual wrongdoing does not change this fact nor does it implicate anyone but the specific perpetrator and Disapora Jews should think of themselves AS Israelis in that sense and stand by the just Jewish state. Your analogy is bullshit.
This dreadful situation is anathema!
I always support Israelis and will continue to do so with passion
I'm just a Gentile who supports Israel. But, I think a strong case can be made that HaShem expects the Diaspora to move home—while they're still able to do so..
Believe me. A LOT of us Jews are starting to think the same thing. And record numbers, particularly from England, France, Canada, Australia are already moving home.
I would expect The Father to bless that move. I suspect He can protect you better there.
I agree.
I support Jews everywhere, and pray for them to return to Israel, soon.
I love Israel and support it with all my being. But I am an American and I love this country. I have no intention of going anywhere.
I stand proudly as a Zionist and Jewish American. Everyone knows that about me. I am not naive. This country took in my beloved grandparents. My family prospered in America. We were all originally welcomed here by George Washington. I truly believe “this too shall pass” about this very upsetting time of anti semitism. We have good people in America who are our allies. We must stay strong and positive, just like our brothers and sisters in Israel.
I’m glad to hear that, but Micah fourth chapter talks about the Jews return to Zion. I think the persecution of Jews is going to worse before Messiah returns.
I don't live my life according to biblical prophecies. As the old Talmudic saying goes, if you are planting a tree and someone says the Messiah is here, finish planting the tree then go greet the Messiah. I don't expect to greet the Messiah.
No one knows the hour the Messiah will return, but we will all go to the Messiah when we die. I don’t live my life in preparation to meet the Messiah on earth, but I know we all meet Him on the last day.
You seem to lack an understanding of what the Messiah is.
Then please educate me.
Wait, wait, wait. I thought people wanted all those Israeli “colonists” to leave the Near East and move elsewhere. Now when they do, they’re harassed? Where do people want them to go exactly?
They want them to disappear, disavow Judaism, disavow their heritage, convert (to Islam or Christianity, depending on who is doing the hating that day), or better yet--die, be gone forever, the Final Solution.
What the author observes about the increasing virulent hostility to Israel and Israelis at home and abroad is accurate. Also correct is his noting how it is spilling over into Israelis abroad. Because he no longer lives outside Israel, he does not yet see how Jews living outside Israel are increasingly being subjected to verbal and physical acts of Jew hatred. It is a case of Deutschland 1930s revisitatus.
It cannot carry "social cost", because if it would, the alleged "sociality" woulda been a-social.
Absolutely. For us in America, taking a few minutes to look up where and when Israelis are performing, lecturing, etc. and support them is our responsibility. We need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Joshua, another very good article. But honestly, what can I say except: welcome to the diaspora.
What Israelis are increasingly experiencing abroad is what Jews in the diaspora have been feeling more and more every day — attacks, intimidation, hostility, exclusion, and growing social pressure across Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
And that is why I always reject the idea that Jews outside Israel somehow have no real stake or voice regarding what happens in Israel. That is simply not true. We are all affected together because, in the end, the people screaming at Israelis abroad are usually not attacking them because they are “Israeli.” They are attacking them because they are Jews.
And likewise, Jews in the diaspora are not being targeted because they are Israeli. They are being targeted because they are Jews.
That is the uncomfortable reality October 7th exposed so clearly: whether in Tel Aviv, Toronto, Paris, London, Sydney, or New York, we are increasingly tied together by the same hostility, the same accusations, the same ideological attacks, and the same attempts at collective stigmatization.
And once we fully recognize that shared reality, then we also have to recognize that we need shared solidarity, shared strategy, and shared defense as well.
Thank you. I was going to say the same thing. Israelis need to understand that it isn't just Israelis being targeted. It is all of us.
Never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. It really is frightening, the extent of the antisemitism and the violence.
Did you read Dara Horn's 'People Love Dead Jews?' After that, she did an article for the Atlantic on Holocaust Education and I heard her speak about her research. And the scariest things she said -- and this was before 10/7, was that the way we've done Holocaust Education doesn't work. And she gave a bunch of reasons that are important but what she said that I personally found the most telling is that in observing children leaving after their field trips, what they were reciting was the antisemitic tropes they had just learned -- in her opinion, if I understood it, it wasn't because they found them naturally attractive, but because that is what stood out the most in their memories.
Look at something as simple as “Nakba.” One word. Emotionally powerful. Instantly recognizable globally. Meanwhile, the day commemorating the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries has some long bureaucratic title nobody remembers. That’s part of the problem right there. We still communicate like committees and institutions while the other side communicates emotionally, symbolically, and psychologically.
Even my own simple thought was: why not call our catastrophe “Churbin” — the Hebrew word for catastrophe. Simple, one word. Little things matter in propaganda and cultural warfare.
Instead, we have bloated Jewish bureaucracies with little accountability, little accessibility, endless conferences, endless statements, endless fundraising, and very little coherent strategy. Ordinary Jews cannot even identify who is responsible for what. There’s no direct leadership structure people can access, pressure, challenge, or organize through effectively.
And until that changes, we will continue reacting while the other side shapes the emotional narrative first.
Yes. In my synagogue, we can't even talk to each other because we have no training or infrastructure or leadership to help show us how. I had to go to an online zoom in a much larger city where a Rabbi was trying to make it possible for us to support each other.
And she originally thought that she might need multiple groups -- like liberal compared to conservative to pull it off. Turns out the only people interested in doing it were liberal. I don't know how I personally would have survived without that weekly group.
I agree with you, we have all these institutions and no one has found real ways to help us challenge the narrative.
And while we may understand more of the reality of the world Israel lives in, being made to feel like diaspora Jews should either 1. Be in Israel or 2. Be able to do what Israel itself hasn't been able to do and be responsible for explaining it to ordinary people. That isn't reality.
The reason it is different for Israelis living in Israel is because the Diaspora has no idea what it is like living in a teensy state surrounded by hostiles enemies with missiles pointed at that teensy state the size of Delaware, and running several times a day and all night into bomb shelters with your babies. They are on the front line of fighting Jew hate and taking the blows for the only safe place any of us can run if--or, rather WHEN--the world goes insane again and starts expelling or slaughtering their Jews. They know the raw truth of what is happening and why it is happening, and they have no choice; it's survival. For these reasons, Israelis don't want to get much blow-back from Jews who are not living in Israel and experiencing reality, not theory.
Agree completely.
The uncomfortable reality October 7 exposed clearly was that Netanyahu and the IDF sat on their hands and let it happen for 6 hours as if they had something to benefit from it. Maybe a pretext for a war so Netanyahu would't go down.
https://youtu.be/fLbH9yvn6z0?si=uFnSjzZz1GAdUfKC
you are a troll who just wants to believe the worst about Israel. Go away,
In a sane world the opposite should have happened. October 7 should have resulted in increasing support and solidarity with Israel in the west and should have permanently delegitimized the "palestinan" cause. The treatment of Israelis is a damning indictment of the west not of Israel. The west is in its death throes and deservedly so.
What kind of pathetic losers follow around a singer or run onto a stage in protest or pick a fight with a basketball player, gather outside businesses in protest for nothing other than their Israeli nationality? Why this sick, psychotic obsession and hatred of Israel? What exactly has Israel done to provoke them into such a rage other than defend itself after their people were massacred, raped, mutilated and kidnapped? Apparently Jewish self-defense and survival offend many people. Too fucking bad. These losers should get a life and achieve something other than expressing resentment, hatred and hostility towards Jews for achieving and succeeding.
Have Russian nationals or ethnic Russians been treated with hostility and hatred since Russia's invasion of Ukraine? No. Have any hockey players picked fights with Russian players in the NHL simply because of their nationality? No.
Turning against the Jewish people is always the first sign of a civilization being in a death spiral.
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"October 7th and its aftermath shattered that illusion. The attack by Hamas did not merely target Israelis physically. It unleashed a global social permission structure not again Israeli policies or the Israeli government, but against all Israelis everywhere. I’m talking about Israeli athletes, musicians, proofessors, chefs, artists, filmmakers, executives, business owners, speakers, students, and everyday civilians. The old fantasy that there was a neat line separating “anti-Zionism” from hostility toward actual Israelis has collapsed in public view".
Exactly!
Everyone should read Jeremiah 16:14-17. Hashem is clear - He says He will bring us Jews back home to Israel. He will send "hunters and fishers" to accomplish this. The anti-Semitic attacks in the exile are the hunters. Nefesh b' Nefesh and other such organizations are the fishers. It can't be more clear- the exile has ended and it's time to move to Israel. Though there are hunters here as well, at least we have the IDF to fight them. The more Jews that live here, the stronger we are. Come home to Israel.
no less a saint than Cate Blanchette has used her privilege to boldly and courageously speak out against Israel's ongoiing 78 year genocide of teh Paleestinians an ancient people as attested to by the Palestine Philharmonic , the Palestine post, currency reading Palestine and Visit Palestine posters. The courage it takes to speak out against world Zionism is so amazing....it fills my heart to the brim.....the ongoing 78 year genocide or "nakba"....when will the world finally stops its SILENCE as Kristof writes in the NY Times.....yes since the resistance of Oct. 7, the SILENCE is deafening....how can I live as Sally rooney tells us without daily committing myself to a free palestine from river to sea...from Neapolis to Beth Lechem from Yershalayim to Yavneh....river to sea. we don't want no 48! right seth rogan? right mamaloschen patinkin?
A punch in the teeth helps focus.