The Jewish People’s Middle Finger

We, the Jewish People, are the 'chutzpah' people. We have stood against the mightiest of empires and outlived them all. We will outlive these troubles too, and so can you.

photo: Igor Miske/Unsplash

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This is a guest essay written by Elise Ronan of the newsletter, “An Unimportant Woman.”

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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Synonyms for chutzpah abound in language.

The list is long.

You would think that a word that derived from the shtetl of the Pale of Settlement would not actually have such a robust and all encompassing meaning.

After all, the legacy of the ghetto is not one of power — but of survival.

Yet, that may actually be its magic. Chutzpah is not about a sassy, foul-mouthed, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners persona. It is about the survivors. Those who refused to be written off by history. Those who basically refused to die simply because the world decided they should.

So these survivors — these in-your-face, we-aren’t-going-anywhere people — came up with a word that described how they felt about their own existence. And, in all honesty, they wanted to give themselves kudos for remembering who they were and where they came from. They wanted to acknowledge the eons-old legacy of a People who simply decided that we are who we are.

Basically, chutzpah is the Jewish People’s way of giving the entire world the middle finger. Or more specifically: Babylon, Persia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Holy Roman Empire, Catholic Church, Byzantium, Islamic Empires, Nazis, Soviets, Arab Bloc, Islamists, unicause loons, ChiComs, and the Iranian Mullahs.

So, that is what chutzpah means. It is the word of a People who are not afraid to tell everyone to back off. And if you do not back off, we will back you off. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is not easy. There are times, like now, that it comes at a great cost.

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The right to live free is not always guaranteed and there is and has always been a price to pay for freedom. Not because the majority of the world does not want to run their own lives, but because evil abounds in a world where the megalomaniacal decide they have all the answers and only their answers are the ones allowed.

Unfortunately, there are also those who think that they can build a dome over their nation and the evil that exists outside the dome is not going to find a way in. That somehow their way of life will be unaffected by the mendacious creeping of fascist entitlement. That somehow, their right to a society which enshrines the rights of humankind will continue to exist in a dystopian world that is bogged down in sectarian violence and barbaric depravity. I call these people cowards.

Cowards because they are selfish and narcissistic. That, for some unbeknownst reason, they — and they alone — are entitled to live in a world of freedom while the rest of humanity suffers. Plus, they stupidly think that somehow this evil will not eventually come for them.

In living memory, we have experienced this world before, yet no one seems to remember the sacrifices that had to be made in order to save our way of life. We have allowed a revision of our history to make those who adhere to the Western belief of freedom portrayed as the “bad guys.” We have allowed those who despise freedom to turn the world upside-down so that Western society lauds those who burn babies alive in ovens and rape 12-year-olds to death.

These medieval butchers are now the heroes of the day in many Western capitals. Their acolytes parade weekly to celebrate their atrocities. They wrap themselves in the flags and accoutrements of mass murderers, wearing these symbols as if they were awarded accolades from the highest pillars of humanity.

You could say that it is all about antisemitism. For a part of this, you would be correct. How easy it was for the world to fall back into Middle Ages myth and mindset. It is beyond the pale how, within the blink of an eye, the West threw out the Age of Enlightenment and instead decided to embrace medieval blood libels. But it is not all about the Jews, for how do you explain the move to abandon Ukraine to the totalitarian forces of Putin’s Russia?

And how do you explain the “intellectuals” who tie themselves into knots to excuse the genocide taking place in Ukraine? How do you explain the Westerners who think that their problems would all be solved by simply ignoring the rest of the world? How is it possible that we have allowed ourselves to be so lulled into complacency? You cannot blame this all on the “Woke” movement, or Black Lives Matter, or the COVID aftermath. This has been decades in the making. We have allowed ourselves to think that nothing is worth fighting for, that our way of life is meaningless.

We have allowed a society of jealousy. We have pushed a world where we cannot teach competition, that to produce and create is seen as a bad thing, and to stand up for the righteous ideas of the U.S. First Amendment are somehow the epitome of evil. How dare we use words that make someone else uncomfortable! Such chutzpah, gall, audacity, nerve, temerity, arrogance, cheekiness…

(Luckily in the U.S. we have not started imprisoning people for saying the wrong thing on social media like they have in the United Kingdom, but given their way, these haters of the U.S. Constitution would love to do it here.)

The revolting aura of these people to decide that we should never get to defend our way of life is pervasive. They have decried who we are and what our society has accomplished. I, for one, have had enough. I am taking back the chutzpah of my ancestors.

We, the Jewish People, are the chutzpah people. We have stood against the mightiest of empires and outlived them all. We will outlive these troubles too. We know how our societies will be run. We have been doing it for thousands of years.

The question I pose to the rest of the world, though, is what kind of world do you want? What will your societies look like? And will it be worth it for your children to live in the future you allow to be created?

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I watch this series called “Lioness.” It is a good, old-fashioned, rah rah hurrah, kicka** show on American television. In the opening episode of the just-released second season, the daughter asked her mom, a CIA agent, why she does what she does. Her reply (and I paraphrase with all do respect to the writers):

“My grandfather told his father that he fought in World War Two because, as an immigrant, he had just learned English and was not interested in learning German or Japanese. I do what I do, so you do not have to learn Russian or Chinese.”

Then, in another scene, this same CIA agent, while recruiting someone for a mission, asked a serving army officer: “Do you love your country?” The army officer replied: “I am already serving my country.” The CIA officer responded: “Your country needs more.”

So I ask you this: Do you love your children? Do you love your country?

If your response is, “Of course!” then, in today’s world, both need more of you. Your country and your children need your chutzpah, without fear or favor.

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