What the hell? North American Jewry is losing its way – or already has

What the hell happened to American (and Canadian) Jews?

I grew up in a small town outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We had one synagogue. I struggled with my religious upbringing – at times, I could care less about kosher/shabbat and at others I went all in. I participated in the Conservative youth movements – USY, Camp Ramah in the summers. I loved those experiences. I was the president of my Jewish student’s union at university. We protested. We had debates with the Muslim Student’s union. We stood up. So, my question is quite simply – what the hell?

Since the war, the racists came out to play. They could not be clearer – they do not just hate Israel. They hate Jews. They are making our people scared. Firebombing schools, graffiti and vandalizing synagogues, marching through Jewish neighborhoods. Our kids do not want to identify as Jews on most campuses today.

People are taking off their kippahs, taking down their mezuzahs, tucking in their Magen David chains. Not all – I have seen some notable examples of our brothers and sisters standing up. Mostly the younger ones or the much older. But the middle? Same with our co-religionists. There was a headline recently in The Times of Israel – 10 leading US Jewish groups denounce Trump’s campus crackdown. Who are those leading US Jewish groups? Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, National Council of Jewish Women, etc. Really? They said that Trump’s campus crackdown makes Jews less safe. Really? What the hell? Have they been to a campus? The American Conference of Cantors? Don’t they have kids on campuses somewhere? How is it OK that they must walk through checkpoints of people screaming at them as Nazis, river to the sea, genocide, every trope in the book? And when you have the leader of the US pulling federal funding until these administrators get things under control, these groups condemn it?

Western Jewry has lost its way. When Scott Jennings (the right-wing non-Jewish guy on CNN) is more concerned about Jewish student’s safety then Rabbi Jay Michaelson (who’s radical left-wing agenda should have never let him on TV in the first place) then we have a problem. We have always had Jews who tried to play the other side. There were 10 million Jews in Egypt and only 2 million chose to go with G-d and Moses – 8 million preferred to be slaves. There were Jews who converted to Christianity or Islam under threat throughout the last 1000+ years and then fought against their former brethren. There were capos in the camps, who did horrible things just like their Nazi taskmasters. So, I guess I should not be surprised. We have Jews, and not just a small number, who hate Trump so much that they would rather condemn his actions than thank him for trying to get rabid antisemitism off campuses. Or at least not have the government fund it.

None of this should require context – like those leaders of universities answered last year. This is pure Jew hatred. If a group stood up and blocked black, gay, Muslim, or any other groups from entering class, made them afraid to be who they were, they would be shut down in a heartbeat. And these left-wing, armchair Jewish wannabes are telling the non-Jewish world: “It’s OK, we hate Trump too. He’s dangerous. Elon Musk made a Seig Heil.” Etc.

I am not surprised with the amount of Jew-haters out there – they’ve always been in the background. Waiting for the right time to show their colors. And they have. But what is a bit surprising is the number of Jews – well-off, educated, more accurately spoiled – who side with the Jew-haters. Not outright of course. They don’t agree with the chanting or the firebombing, but if Trump tries to help –that’s too much. How quickly we forget our history. We tried to assimilate in every culture we’ve existed in for centuries. At the very best, we’ve been tolerated. And now, having had a long, mostly positive experience in the liberal democratic west, we think this time is different. It’s not. There were Jews who tried to explain to the Nazis that they served in WWI and fought for Germany – didn’t matter. Many of the kidnapped, raped, tortured poor souls who were victims of the October 7th pogroms were peace loving, helpers of the Palestinian “civilians” and their cause. The woman who took people from Gaza into Israel for medical appointments was specifically targeted and killed.

The brown shirts in the ’20s and early ’30s started in Germany at the universities. Shouting down Jews, preventing them from going to class, teaching, being part of society. They made being Jewish a societal pariah. Today just replace that with Zionist. You can’t walk through an ivy league university and many other places in the world with a kippah on, let alone a symbol of pride for Israel without harassment or violence.

First, we need to stop being our own worst enemy. We need to stop pretending like there is a legitimate “other side” to the story. We need to be proud Jews who actually give a crap about our future as a people. But I guess that’s the issue. What have these and many other left-wing, “liberal”, woke organizations done in the last number of decades? Raised money, built JCC’s, dedicated buildings. What didn’t they do? Educate Jews on their own history. Arm young Jews with enough knowledge so they can fight back on campus. Organize Jews in every city and town so they can feel secure, make sure the police do their job, hold politicians accountable. Have a massive PR campaign to combat the propaganda being spewed out 24 hours a day by the lying “other side”.

Not all, but of the roughly 7 million Jews in North America, my bet is that more than half of them identify as part of either Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, unaffiliated Jews. And we have done them no service over the last 50 + years in telling them that doing a little is fine. Do what you can. Accept all viewpoints. 50 years from now, we will lose all those Jews to assimilation – if we’re lucky. If we are not, we could find ourselves repeating the worst parts of our history. Think destruction of the Temple, exile, pogrom, forced conversion, real ethnic cleansing and genocide. All that is on the table. Know what can prevent that? Going back to our roots. Explore authentic Judaism. See what it means to actually keep shabbat, keep kosher, celebrate the holidays.

Here’s a hint: no one does it perfectly, and there is always room for doing it better and in a more fulfilling way. Know what else can help stop that horrible repetition of history? Israel. Go visit. Consider sending your kid there for a gap year, or for university. Make aliyah. Listen to the Jew-haters when they say “Go back to where you came from”. Israel! And as for those self-hating Jews, who fall over backwards to apologize for Israel and hate anyone who tries to help? When the time comes and the “other side” comes for them, there will be room for them too. We have a home, we have a country. It’s open to everyone.