I am afraid that it may be too late for American Jews. If the aftermath of October 7, with hostages' posters defaced and Hamas flags carried in the streets , was not a wake-up call, this grotesque resolution will be excused, forgotten, or minimized. Jews in the USSR initially supported the regime that ended up murdering them because it was based on the ideas of '"social justice". Nothing seems to have changed in a hundred years.
I’m afraid it’s too late. Of my many liberal reform and unaffiliated Jewish friends, it’s the Jews themselves, and Israelis in particular, that need the reckoning. We’ve alienated ourselves by being aggressive, and heartless warriors on the world stage. This is just a natural reaction to our lost sense of morals.
Thanks for your comment, Shelley Zeitlin. Are you suggesting that fighting back is immoral? I think this comment requires a more elaborate development to be persuasive, if you don't mind my saying so. Let me suggest two lines of thought that I think you need to address. One is to answer the question: If someone is coming to kill my wife, children, and grandchildren, would it be moral to be anything but aggressive in preventing that by killing them first? Two is to address the copious evidence out there that the military actions of the IDF in preventing civilian losses are without precedent in their comprehensiveness. You can check out the writing of West Point professor John Spencer on this. I will be happy to continue this discussion with you because I am curious how you arrived at your impression.
Please forgive me. My writing in this case was horribly unclear and inadvertently expressed quite the opposite of my own view.
What I meant to convey to you and your readers was the ideas expressed by my own liberal, reform and unaffiliated friends. (The ideas I mentioned are definitely not my own. In fact, like so many others, my view of the world, Jews, Israel, politics, etc., have deeply harmed my personal relationships with lifelong friends.) Nevertheless, I've listened to them harp on fantasies that Israelis are at fault, heartless and aggressive. They express over and over that Jews/Israelis/Bibi only have themselves to blame for our decline in public opinion, that it's all an effect of our own immoral behaviors.
I hope I've clarified this. I feel awful for creating this confusion. I will also write to another response from another of your readers. I owe her an apology as well.
I am a liberal and unaffiliated Jew and I do not need any reckoning for supporting the war against Hamas that raped, murdered, and mutilated Jews with the savagery that Nazis would be ashamed of. I have not lost my morals in wanting to defend myself, my family, and my country. You have, if you excuse the attempted genocide of our people.
I hope you will forgive me for my inability in this instance to express myself. My unclear writing caused you and the author (and who knows how many others) to get the near opposite meaning of what I wanted to convey. (I also wrote him an apology. Please see it too if you'd like.)
To you specifically, I absolutely did not mean to disparage you; neither you or others whether liberal, unaffiliated, reform, or any other Jew or non-Jew. I referred in my comment exclusively to my own friends with whom I've had much discourse on a wide range of topics over the years. These conversations, by the way, in the past 5-10 years have created extremely challenging conditions for our life long friendships. This was exacerbated greatly since October, 2023. (I hope you aren't having similar experiences within your circles.)
Hi Shelley, sorry if I sounded too combative. I don’t know you, so I used your comment as a springboard to express my own point of view. This is what happens in SM exchanges, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, I believe. Substack is for ideas and opinions, not feelings. But I certainly did not intend to hurt your feelings in any way. I can understand why your friendships with progressive American Jews are fraying. So are mine. Again, I apologize if I sounded too harsh. I could have posted the same comment with no reference to yours.
Hey!!!! Absolutely no feelings were hurt in the production of this movie! Nor did you come across as combative or harsh! Not at all. And, feel free to express. Especially on the topic of fraying relationships. I find this particularly disturbing in the landscape of the past few years. Right or wrong, I place the reason for this squarely on "progressive shallowness" on so many fronts. (Ooops! I hope i didn't again say something off-color.) My oldest friends just can't entertain that a different opinion might even exist without getting red-in-the-face angry. For you, as a "liberal and unaffiliated Jew," I'm guessing it's even tougher. Thoughts?
Thanks! As an immigrant and an academic, I am used to dealing with people from different backgrounds and with different opinions. My problem with many American Jews is that they would rather not engage in a debate or even a civilized discussion but would pout or simply ghost you. And "progressive shallowness" is a very mild way to describe close-mindedness and frankly, ignorance of many on the left. I especially encounter this in the academy, which is very sad for me, as I dedicated most of my life to this institution.
"NEA just threw down a challenge to American Jews that can be couched in a question. Will America’s Jews get to work on the grassroots level to make bigoted teachers pay a price for voting in favor of their bigotry?"
The answer is no. America's non-Orthodox Jews will do nothing sufficient.
We will continue to try to prove that we are "allies" to people who view us as inherently guilty.
J. Crohn, You realize, don't you, that you are saying this about the 80% or so of American Jews who are non-Orthodox? That's a lot of Jews to condemn in one harsh sentence. Maybe give this another moment to think through.
I'm well aware of the percentages. Your question asked about Jews working on a grassroots level to make bigoted teachers pay the price for their bigotry. Unless "the price" is a mild scolding, I simply do not see that happening.
For one thing, the bigots and their broader ideology are firmly entrenched. We make small gains against them at the local level, and organizations like End Jew Hatred raise awareness nationally and score wins piecemeal, but it's not enough. The bigots resurge.
For another thing, the 80% are overwhelmingly still entranced by the idea that progressivism is liberal. They believe (incorrectly) that its latest incarnation strives to bring about civil rights, which of course we all support, and many Jews in the US believe we should make sacrifices for that greater good. Moreover, as long as the current administration remains in office, it will provide a perfect foil for progressive bigots and gullible liberals. Shuls, which would otherwise be the natural locus for organizing against the takeover of public institutions by antisemites, are largely incapable of organizing that fight because in liberal communities, they are often on the wrong side of it.
Labor unions are not particularly accountable organizations. Who's going to force them to keep to issues that affect their members and stop wading into political matters?
A minority of Jews will fight the antisemitism boiling at the heart of the progressive power structure, but most will look away and just try to get by.
I also hope I'm wrong. And in fact there may yet be hope, although it won't be coming from Jews alone.
I am informed by the head of our local teachers' union (who is not Jewish) that the vote on this measure was exceedingly close and NEA's executive committee still needs to vote on whether to pass it. I have no idea who the executive committee consists of so can't assess the odds, but it's possible effective pressure can be brought to bear. But again, it won't be Jews alone who achieved this.
I gave this a like, not because I like the reality that you point to, but because this painful diagnosis has much evidence to support it. Still, there is leadership out there that can rise to the occasion, although not necessarily in the major bureaucracies of the Jewish community.
I am afraid that it may be too late for American Jews. If the aftermath of October 7, with hostages' posters defaced and Hamas flags carried in the streets , was not a wake-up call, this grotesque resolution will be excused, forgotten, or minimized. Jews in the USSR initially supported the regime that ended up murdering them because it was based on the ideas of '"social justice". Nothing seems to have changed in a hundred years.
I’m afraid it’s too late. Of my many liberal reform and unaffiliated Jewish friends, it’s the Jews themselves, and Israelis in particular, that need the reckoning. We’ve alienated ourselves by being aggressive, and heartless warriors on the world stage. This is just a natural reaction to our lost sense of morals.
Thanks for your comment, Shelley Zeitlin. Are you suggesting that fighting back is immoral? I think this comment requires a more elaborate development to be persuasive, if you don't mind my saying so. Let me suggest two lines of thought that I think you need to address. One is to answer the question: If someone is coming to kill my wife, children, and grandchildren, would it be moral to be anything but aggressive in preventing that by killing them first? Two is to address the copious evidence out there that the military actions of the IDF in preventing civilian losses are without precedent in their comprehensiveness. You can check out the writing of West Point professor John Spencer on this. I will be happy to continue this discussion with you because I am curious how you arrived at your impression.
Good day. Hope all's well with you always.
Please forgive me. My writing in this case was horribly unclear and inadvertently expressed quite the opposite of my own view.
What I meant to convey to you and your readers was the ideas expressed by my own liberal, reform and unaffiliated friends. (The ideas I mentioned are definitely not my own. In fact, like so many others, my view of the world, Jews, Israel, politics, etc., have deeply harmed my personal relationships with lifelong friends.) Nevertheless, I've listened to them harp on fantasies that Israelis are at fault, heartless and aggressive. They express over and over that Jews/Israelis/Bibi only have themselves to blame for our decline in public opinion, that it's all an effect of our own immoral behaviors.
I hope I've clarified this. I feel awful for creating this confusion. I will also write to another response from another of your readers. I owe her an apology as well.
I am a liberal and unaffiliated Jew and I do not need any reckoning for supporting the war against Hamas that raped, murdered, and mutilated Jews with the savagery that Nazis would be ashamed of. I have not lost my morals in wanting to defend myself, my family, and my country. You have, if you excuse the attempted genocide of our people.
Hi Elana.
I hope you will forgive me for my inability in this instance to express myself. My unclear writing caused you and the author (and who knows how many others) to get the near opposite meaning of what I wanted to convey. (I also wrote him an apology. Please see it too if you'd like.)
To you specifically, I absolutely did not mean to disparage you; neither you or others whether liberal, unaffiliated, reform, or any other Jew or non-Jew. I referred in my comment exclusively to my own friends with whom I've had much discourse on a wide range of topics over the years. These conversations, by the way, in the past 5-10 years have created extremely challenging conditions for our life long friendships. This was exacerbated greatly since October, 2023. (I hope you aren't having similar experiences within your circles.)
I hope I've clarified. Please let me know.
Hi Shelley, sorry if I sounded too combative. I don’t know you, so I used your comment as a springboard to express my own point of view. This is what happens in SM exchanges, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, I believe. Substack is for ideas and opinions, not feelings. But I certainly did not intend to hurt your feelings in any way. I can understand why your friendships with progressive American Jews are fraying. So are mine. Again, I apologize if I sounded too harsh. I could have posted the same comment with no reference to yours.
Hey!!!! Absolutely no feelings were hurt in the production of this movie! Nor did you come across as combative or harsh! Not at all. And, feel free to express. Especially on the topic of fraying relationships. I find this particularly disturbing in the landscape of the past few years. Right or wrong, I place the reason for this squarely on "progressive shallowness" on so many fronts. (Ooops! I hope i didn't again say something off-color.) My oldest friends just can't entertain that a different opinion might even exist without getting red-in-the-face angry. For you, as a "liberal and unaffiliated Jew," I'm guessing it's even tougher. Thoughts?
Thanks! As an immigrant and an academic, I am used to dealing with people from different backgrounds and with different opinions. My problem with many American Jews is that they would rather not engage in a debate or even a civilized discussion but would pout or simply ghost you. And "progressive shallowness" is a very mild way to describe close-mindedness and frankly, ignorance of many on the left. I especially encounter this in the academy, which is very sad for me, as I dedicated most of my life to this institution.
I have to admit that this subject makes me want to throw up.
Is it just me, or does the NEA- like Canada’s teachers’ unions- unwittingly provide another argument in favour of home schooling nearly every day?
"NEA just threw down a challenge to American Jews that can be couched in a question. Will America’s Jews get to work on the grassroots level to make bigoted teachers pay a price for voting in favor of their bigotry?"
The answer is no. America's non-Orthodox Jews will do nothing sufficient.
We will continue to try to prove that we are "allies" to people who view us as inherently guilty.
J. Crohn, You realize, don't you, that you are saying this about the 80% or so of American Jews who are non-Orthodox? That's a lot of Jews to condemn in one harsh sentence. Maybe give this another moment to think through.
I'm well aware of the percentages. Your question asked about Jews working on a grassroots level to make bigoted teachers pay the price for their bigotry. Unless "the price" is a mild scolding, I simply do not see that happening.
For one thing, the bigots and their broader ideology are firmly entrenched. We make small gains against them at the local level, and organizations like End Jew Hatred raise awareness nationally and score wins piecemeal, but it's not enough. The bigots resurge.
For another thing, the 80% are overwhelmingly still entranced by the idea that progressivism is liberal. They believe (incorrectly) that its latest incarnation strives to bring about civil rights, which of course we all support, and many Jews in the US believe we should make sacrifices for that greater good. Moreover, as long as the current administration remains in office, it will provide a perfect foil for progressive bigots and gullible liberals. Shuls, which would otherwise be the natural locus for organizing against the takeover of public institutions by antisemites, are largely incapable of organizing that fight because in liberal communities, they are often on the wrong side of it.
Labor unions are not particularly accountable organizations. Who's going to force them to keep to issues that affect their members and stop wading into political matters?
A minority of Jews will fight the antisemitism boiling at the heart of the progressive power structure, but most will look away and just try to get by.
Thank you J. Crohn. Much for me to think about here. I hope that you underestimate the capacity of the “Jews in the pews” to rise to the occassion.
I also hope I'm wrong. And in fact there may yet be hope, although it won't be coming from Jews alone.
I am informed by the head of our local teachers' union (who is not Jewish) that the vote on this measure was exceedingly close and NEA's executive committee still needs to vote on whether to pass it. I have no idea who the executive committee consists of so can't assess the odds, but it's possible effective pressure can be brought to bear. But again, it won't be Jews alone who achieved this.
I gave this a like, not because I like the reality that you point to, but because this painful diagnosis has much evidence to support it. Still, there is leadership out there that can rise to the occasion, although not necessarily in the major bureaucracies of the Jewish community.