In my Jewish world the cultural aspects of Judaism played the major role over the religious or spiritual aspects. So graduating from cultural Jew to learning what it really means to be a Jew makes my journey, hers and the readership a beautiful meaningful read
Immensely researched, I love her ability to focus and spread out her journey into the Jewish way, via a summary style, the book touches on some of the most important values that Judaism offers. It never feels dry, boring or overwhelming, each chapter dealing with a different relevant topic. The segment that resonates with me most is her discussion on Dara Horn’s idea of Hanukkah antisemitism and Purim antisemitism, two of our significant holidays and how it affects Jews. Purim is about wiping out the Jews in a city in Persia and Hanukkah from the Roman occupation of Israel in pushing Jews to assimilate where some think there’s safety if we become more like the dominant, non-Jewish population where we live. Its definitely a crash course in Jewish history, antisemitism and anti-zionism.
No real surprise, Hurwitz is a talented author. She is Harvard educated and a former speech writer for VP Hillary Clinton and both the Obamas. She condensed a lot of information into clear and compelling language. If Hurwitz’s self-description of herself as some kind of avatar of generic liberal American Jews is accurate, it is very frightening because the stuff she didn’t know or understand is….everything.
The stuff she ‘discovered’ is mind-boggling, the very basics of Israel or Jewishness. This is a highly accomplished and educated person, clearly talented and thoughtful–almost doesn’t make sense, how she could not even realise how little she knew. Her ‘mea culpa’ is commendable but it is frightening to think how many people out there speaking on behalf of Jews, might be how she was, ignorant, yet believing, themselves to be authoritative.
I take issue with her affacement on highlighting the monstrousness of the Israeli government. There are over 349 footnotes that underpin her thinking.
Much of the foundation for antisemitism is universalism. Neither Islam or Christianity, nor Nationalist movements, nor Communism accept rejection of their dogmas. Dissent, a core Jewish tradition, is something non of them can tolerate. Early Christianity took a universal position: if Christianity was right, then Judaism had to be wrong. Judaism was defined in opposition to Christianity. Jews were identified as preternaturally powerful, depraved and conspiracy-minded. How else could they have persuaded the Romans to kill G-d’s Son?
Saint Augustine probably saved the Jews from eradication because he came up with a “Jewish Witness” doctrine which argued that forcing Jews to live in a subjugated condition would serve two important functions for Christianity. First, because Christian theology believed that the Old Testament contained prophesies about Christ, the continued existence of the Jews could prove that Christianity didn’t fabricate the Old Testament. The Jews would function as living witnesses.
Second, the Jews’ misery would be understood as a G-d inflicted punishment for the wrongs of Judaism. Despite Augustine’s prohibition of killing Jews, there were frequent massacres for more than a millennium after his death in 43 AD. Accusations of deicide, consuming blood of Christian children after killing them, spreading Bubonic Plague, etc. Martin Luther initially embraced Jews expecting them to convert to his reformed version of Christianity, but turned on them viciously when his embrace was declined.
By the end of the 15th century most Jews had fled Western Europe for Eastern Europe where they were also subjected to periodic pogroms. With the Enlightenment, economic opportunities and citizenship opened in Germany and France, but the old obsession with Jewish power, depravity and conspiracy only meant that religious-based antisemitism morphed into something more ‘scientific’: racial antisemitism which could not be accommodated by conversion.
Hurwitz elaborates on dozens of interesting ideas. Here’s three…firstly, the Purim antisemitism ( we must kill Jews in the way we the majority demand). The latter doesn’t seem like bigotry ( just denounce Zionism and we’ll accept you). Second, pre-modern Jews didn’t define themselves as practitioners of a religion called Judaism, instead seeing themselves as members of a nation with its own laws, culture, language, holidays and cultural practices.
The Enlightenment and emerging Nationalist-movements considered religious identity to be separate from National identity. Jews who would never have accepted Jesus as their saviour in pre-Enlightenment France had to accept this in order to be saved in post-revolutionary France.
This led to a movement to reform/transform Judaism from all-encompassing 24/7 identity that determined every aspect of daily life to more of a Christian-style religion.
Third, the new problem on campuses isn’t Jews, religion, race, culture, commitment to social justice or remembrance of the Holocaust. Its not individual Jews: its Jews as a nation. To gain acceptance all you have to do is renounce Zionism. This is a new iteration of Hanukkah antisemitism.
The author provides a concise history of Zionism and Israel. She vigorously debuts allegations that Zionism is a colonalist movement, this idea originated in the Soviet Union after the Six Day War, then the USSR launched a massive anti-zionist propaganda campaign in the Middle East. It was the Soviets that pushed the UN to adopt a resolution that equated Zionism with racism, colonialist, military and apartheid-promoting conspiratorial ideology.
They succeeded in rebranding a “movement for national self-determination” to a racist, fascist , Nazi-like, genocidal, imperialist, colonialist, militaristic ideology. Much of this language and thinking is echoed on campuses and progressive organisations around the world today.
This book is a deep- dive into the moral degradation that think-tanks are supporting, in the arts, and political and social forums.
