For the Honor of Self-Love

“What are our schools doing to prepare kids to combat antisemitism?” is a question I am often asked.

Antisemitism has become quite the obsession lately. Robert Kraft’s “Blue Square” Superbowl ad implored our allies to defend our honor. Bret Stephens delivered a masterful oration on the State of World Jewry, where he powerfully repeated the refrain that we Jews have “the honor of being hated.” Be it despots, campus lemmings, influencers, “out and out haters and sly enablers,” and “perfidious, hypocritical, deranged,” critics across the political spectrum, “we have the honor of being hated” by those who single out Jews and Israel for blame and moral blight hold inevitable hatred of Jews, Stephens argues. As a result, Jew hatred and violence against Jews has spiked. And yet, Stephens recommends, we should wear that very hatred as a badge of honor.

As a teacher in my DNA and in my soul, and as a global advocate for investing in high quality, purpose-filled Jewish education, I must state the obvious: the true honor of being a Jew grows out of self-knowledge and self-love.

When our survival instinct ignites the fight or flight response in the collective Jewish amygdala, let us remember that every day, Jewish educators teach the true honor of being a Jew. Why?

For the honor of knowing why we were put on this earth.

For the honor of writing our own Jewish story, rather than have others write it for us.

For the honor of inheriting and interpreting wise-hearted Judaism.

For the honor of insisting on curiosity and confidence over cynicism and self-doubt.

For the honor of emunah, the faith that invites us to open our hearts to the hidden wisdom being revealed in the universe.

For the honor of a community that shows up and cares.

For the honor of arguing for the sake of heaven.

For the honor of a toolbox of traditions for the joy and despair of real life.

For the honor of membership in a people with a history that stretches back millennia and wraps around the entire globe, incorporating multitudes of ethnic, linguistic and cultural expressions.

For the honor of ancestors and generations.

For the honor of memory.

For the honor of being resilient. For the honor of being here to tell the story.

This is why Jewish learning is essential. This is why Jewish educators are the essential workers of Jewish life and of our global society. When the world is threatened by those who traffic in lies, conspiracy theories and hatred; when our information system circuits are overloaded with simplified narratives that ignore history and invent reality, we have to know for ourselves who we truly are. We need to hand our children the pen and co-author our own Jewish story together.

It’s not about convincing the world to love us. It’s about knowing why we should love ourselves.

There is a reason why every mezuzah that adorns every Jewish building, Jewish home and Jewish room contains the verse “and you shall teach your children.” Honoring our parents is one of the top five Biblical commandments. And we honor our children back by gifting them Jewish learning. This linking of generations through teaching and learning is an honor and a mitzvah, an obligation. The very first word of that paragraph on the tiny scrolls on every Jewish doorpost around the world is “V’ahavta,” meaning, “and you shall love.” Every Jew, religious or secular, can claim that love. It’s not a romantic love; it’s the love of commitment, of caring, of responsibility, of belief.

For the honor of being Jewish.