Backstroking on Lake Stupid

A joke goes:

Once upon a time there was a young Indian boy who lived next to a huge, icy lake.

He was lonely and sang Indian love songs across the lake.

One day, he heard the beautiful voice of a girl singing back to him. They sang back and forth and fell in love.

After a few years, and because he was so in love, and he wanted to see her, he jumped into the icy lake and swam towards her.

He drowned.

Ever since that time, they named the lake after him: LAKE STUPID.

Jew-hatred and anti-Israel attitudes and violence in America are exploding. Yes, over the centuries Jews have been persecuted, but the speed of the turn here in America is alarming. The Democrat Far-Left despises the Jews with a progressive, intersectional rationale, the Republican Far-Right promotes conspiracies and applies Hitler-era narratives, and the Muslim world hates Jews based on fundamental radical religious dogma.

At a time of rampant antisemitism, pro-Palestinian street and campus demonstrations chanting anti-Zionism curses, it feels like we are now living close to a very dangerous, very icy lake.

So, who are some of the American Jews splashing around in Lake Stupid?

The one third of New York City’s Jews who foolishly voted for Mamdani must be treading water in Lake Stupid. Already Mamdani celebrated Nakba Day and skipped the Israel Day parade. His choice for a liaison for the Jewish community is Reconstructionist Rabbi Miriam Grossman. In 2023, she proclaimed, “We will not let the rhetoric of so-called two sides distract or detract from the reality that one side has enacted a brutal military occupation, ongoing colonization, and decades of apartheid and disregard for Palestinian life, all of that with the backing of global superpowers and American tax dollars.”

Let’s make room in the water for Jews who support anti-Zionist organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders. Hiding behind progressive motives, these fraudulent organizations disadvantage Israel, and the unwary Jews naively help the bad guys.

Swimming in circles are the self-destructive Jews supporting organizations like J Street and Jewish Voice For peace. Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, just referred to liberal Jewish organization J-Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community.”

On blankets on the banks of the lake, you will find copies of The New York Times, the new Der Stürmer. The NYT is quick to publish anti-Jewish and anti-Israel lies. Recently, they gave opinion space to hater Nick Kristof for his recent “blood libel” column accusing Israel of mass rape of Arab prisoners.

Lake Stupid swimming is perfect for apathetic American Jews who have vacationed at dozens of exotic locales across the seven continents but have never been to Israel. By not seeing their people’s ancestral home, they will plead ignorance unable to bear witness to it not being an apartheid state. They would see Palestinians participating in Israel’s vibrant life. Had they trekked there, they would have noticed that the width of Israel at her narrowest, is less than the drive from their home to their nearest Starbucks. They might even take pride in rubbing shoulders on a bus with the young, patriotic IDF soldiers.

Swimming doggie paddle style are the uninformed Jews who don’t protest the incredible anti-Israel bias of the United Nations. More than 50% of UN human rights resolutions target Israel, and counties like China, Russia, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Congo and Somalia get far less attention. During the post October 7th war in Gaza, UNRWA was found to provide material support to Hamas terrorists.

The uncommitted American Jews will only dip their toes into the cold water. They are too quick to apply double standards to Israel. Between chilly squeals, we hear silly questions about Gazan civilian casualties in Gaza. These Jews of course did not attend courses in urban warfare while attending West Point Military Academy. They will not probe why the noisy progressive #MeToo movement targeting sexual abuse grew silent about the horrific October 7th crimes perpetrated against Israeli women.

There are some who just can’t swim and must use flippers and flotation aids. We can guess that these are unaffiliated Jews and those too assimilated to advocate on behalf of their fellow Jews or for Israel. They have not shared with their children pride in Judaism’s four-thousand-year heritage, not shared the knowledge needed to navigate a hostile world and not provided the character to rebut the lies. They may have settled on calling themselves “cultural” Jews. They will be the first to go under the waves.

In the shallow end of the lake is Jewish Senator Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader. He did not reign in the hateful rhetoric from his fellow senators of whom 40 (five were Jewish: Sanders, Slotkin, Schiff, Wyden, Ossoff) of 47 who voted with another backstabbing Jew Bernie Sanders to withhold funding for besieged Israel. If Chuck flounders, we can hope it is remembered that he has not fulfilled on his promise to be Israel’s “shomer” or guardian. Nobody should throw him a life preserver.

Leaders of many large Jewish organizations are bobbing about in Lake Stupid. They have largely failed in seeing the big picture, they have not launched bold and proud campaigns, and they have not stepped out of their comfort zones to find solutions. The Alphabet soup of organizations in charge of the billions of their donated dollars, resist the pressures of social and political influences. They have not acted in the best interest of their Jewish constituencies.

In their corner offices, did they spend too much time on flavor-of-the-month issues like BLM, the Women’s March, climate change or save the whales? Did they criticize President Obama’s dangerous JCPOA or Biden’s reluctance to go all out to help Israel during the Gaza War? Despite their largely Democrat constituency, did they have the courage to adequately praise President Trump for his unabashedly pro-Israel and anti-antisemitism support?

The Lake Stupid joke’s punchline comes from an abrupt turn in the focus. Its premise of young, innocent love sets you up, and then darkly and ironically jars you with the harsh reality of “stupid” recklessness.

The danger of apathetic, distracted, assimilated Jews is an old story. Jews in Germany misdiagnosed what was happening to them in the 1930s. It is what the German historian Joachim Fest pointed out in his memoir Not I, when talking about complacent pre-war Berlin Jews. He warned, “They lost their instinct for danger that had preserved them through the ages.”

American Jews have had a relatively good run here in America-a Golden Age as some have called it. It is high time for Jews to get serious and to face the emergency at hand.