Jew vs. Jew
On the real lessons of the Hanukkah story.
On Friday July 16, I moved across the country and into a Moishe House, one of a network of communal Jewish houses in cities including Boston, New York, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh. On Thursday, July 22, my two roommates asked me to move out. What could possibly have gone that wrong in less than a week?
On my sixth day, I attended my first Moishe House event. Toward the end of the evening, a couple of people, including my roommate Michelle (because of the unpleasant story I am about to tell, I am changing the names of all who are involved) and her boyfriend, invited me to a bar. Michelle’s boyfriend drove me to the bar, while Michelle and her friend drove separately. As we were driving, he asked what I did for work. I replied that I work in digital technology for a defense contractor.
He replied that my employer “killed lots of people”, and that I only thought highly of the company “because they paid your bills.” Shocked, I replied that my view of the company was motivated by reasons other than my paycheck, namely my belief in the need for American leadership on the global stage.
As a Jew and a political conservative who grew in Massachusetts, I am very used to being in the minority. But my family’s Shabbat dinner table taught me the value of voicing my opinions respectfully and engaging others in good faith. No one ever made me feel that I didn’t belong because I had a different view.
What I encountered in the Moishe House was not the Jewish vibe I grew up with. At the bar that night, the group spent hours interrogating me. There was no conversation. No discussion. No back and forth. When I explained that I am politically conservative, someone responded, “On purpose?”
The next evening, my roommates sat me down in our living room and demanded that I move out. They explained that when they agreed to accept me as a roommate, they did not know I was politically conservative. Michelle said that she felt “unsafe” around me, and that she would not be able to take her birth control or bring her queer friends around me. My other roommate, Sarah, said that she did not think to ask about my political views because I was the first young conservative she had ever met. They both repeatedly said that my political views made them “uncomfortable.”
In an email later that week, Sarah wrote me: “If you cannot unequivocally say that you are anti-racist and support gay rights and women’s reproductive health and prison reform and defunding the police, among other important platforms, then we have an irreconcilable differences that would not lead to a harmonious living environment.” She continued: “I implore you to look inside yourself [and] consider why your viewpoints make us so uncomfortable.”
The Jewish community is not immune from the growing censoriousness of American political culture. While Jewish tradition treasures discussion and debate, my ordeal suggests that the Moishe House does not tolerate any deviation from left-wing orthodoxy, or at the very least is not willing to support someone who does. The Jewish community these days purports to prize “inclusion” above all else. But if my experience is any indication, inclusion does not include people who are judged to have the wrong political views.
I have never lived in a Moishe House, but I have experienced similar in Synagogues before.
Then there is this comment:
I am a conservative Jew and I worry once this idiocy called wokeness comes crumbling down (and it will) the Jews are going to be blamed for stoking some of the zealotry and be blamed for dividing the country. It will be easy for the Right and the Left to find a common scapegoat to blame once the dust settles and people demand a reckoning.
Cynical and prominent Jews like Soros, Schumer, Nadler, Jeff Zucker and Adam Schiff (who are equally despised by the Right and the radical left) are playing with fire and potentially creating a very precarious situation for the rest of us Jews. There are of course as many conservative Jewish voices, but they’re rarely aired by the mass media. And there is a perception among most Americans that all Jews are leftists. This is a bad situation and conservative Jews need to find a way to speak out more forcefully. Judaism should not be conflated with Progressivism like many American Jews seems to do.
I felt that one deep in my soul.
I have stated many, many times before just how much I hate Leftist Jews.
I am grossed out every time I see some radical, purple-haired, Leftist, with a Socialist rose emoji, and weird pronouns in their bio also identify as Jewish.
I have begun to wonder just how many straight, normal, healthy, functional Jews are left in American society.
I have come to believe that American Jewery is the victim of its own success.
Academic and financial achievement that is a hallmark of Ashkenazi Jewish culture was the product of discrimination. When Jews were forbidden from owning land, a movement intended to keep us poor in agrarian societies, we developed skills as artisans, craftsmen, traders, bankers, etc. We got a jump start on the knowledge economy.
In America, that tradition has made us successful.
Unfortunately, it has resulted in two generations of Jews who have become the indulgent, pampered, sophists that become radical Leftists.
They reject everything Jewish about themselves to become Progressives, confusing the Talmud for the Communist Manifesto.
And I agree with the comment so much it hurts.
I am terrified of the position that puts Jews in. The Left always turns on the Jews. There is no safety in assimilating with them. On the other hand, Progressives are the most public face of American Jewery, feeding the antisemitism of the (Alt) Right.
And just to make matters worse, this has caused a breakdown in Jewish unity. Leftist Jews are more than happy to feed us Conservative Jews to the Leftist crocodile, not realizing that won’t satiate its hunger.
“If you cannot unequivocally say that you are anti-racist and support gay rights and women’s reproductive health…”
OK, so far, I do not personally know any conservative that disagrees with any o that. Want to be gay, fine, go ahead. Want to take birth control, fine, go ahead. Ignore race, fine. (OK, abortion could be a sticky point, but that was not mentioned).
However, you lost me at:
“… and prison reform and defunding the police, among other important platforms, then we have an irreconcilable differences that would not lead to a harmonious living environment.”
It is not enough to live and let live. Nope, in order to be accepted by the left you have to go overboard. It’s not enough to fight against racism and police brutality. You have to destroy the police and let violent criminals out of prison early.
And, for some reason, the left always accuses the right of being the haters.
“Women’s reproductive health” is usually code for “abortion.”
Code is a good choice of word.
Abortion is the OPPOSITE of health care. What is more healthy than a woman carrying a child to term? Doing so is a clear indicator that the woman is healthy, well at least her reproductive system is healthy.
Abortion is deliberately and knowingly stopping a healthy human process. Calling it health is opposite speak.
“Anti-racist” doesn’t mean “ignore race”. These days, it means “consider race first and foremost, so long as you hate whites”.
It’s kind of funny, I distinctly remember pointing out in a conversation with friends, 25 years or so ago, that programs like “Affirmative Action” allow discrimination against whites under the guise of “racial equality”. I said that’s basically “reverse racism”. (Yes, I used that exact phrase over two decades ago.)
One friend rightly corrected me: “Do you know what ‘reverse racism’ is? Racism.”
I’ve seen “reverse racism” and “anti-racism” used pretty much interchangeably in modern times, but my friend’s observation is just as valid now as it was then.
“Do you know what ‘reverse racism’ and ‘anti-racism’ are? Racism.“
Archer, that was the opposing argument in the 1970s when the brain trust in D.C. decided a pilot program to promote enlisted men to officers based on their skin color. Colin Powell was in that group.
No surprise that the Dept. of Ed. jumped on that bandwagon. It spread like wildfire through the fedgov. No surprise that here we are.
Rick,
Someone fed you some bum dope about Colin Powell.
Colin Powell “participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958.”
“Captain Powell served a tour in Vietnam as a South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) advisor from 1962 to 1963. While on patrol in a Viet Cong-held area, he was wounded by stepping on a punji stake.[30] The large infection made it difficult for him to walk, and caused his foot to swell for a short time, shortening his first tour.”
“Powell returned to Vietnam as a major in 1968, serving as assistant chief of staff of operations for the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell
By 1973, the US Army was riffing (reduction in force) soldiers and officers out of the service.
CBMTTek;
” (OK, abortion could be a sticky point, but that was not mentioned). ”
Yes it was.
“women’s reproductive health” is code for ‘Abortion on demand’.
If you’ve always thought it only meant access to contraceptives, you were always wrong.
“I have begun to wonder just how many straight, normal, healthy, functional Jews are left in American society.”
The fallacy of misleading vividness is this age’s primary fault. The press doesn’t promote the normal; Twitter doesn’t promote the concerns of the average person; you don’t hear about the college students just trying to get a decent education.
You’re purposefully being shown only the malcontents and oddballs.
Oh it’s already happening. In some MeWe groups I’m in there is from time to time some assholes spreading memes or articles claiming “the juice” are responsible for CRT, wokeness, etc.
These are of course only a handful of people BUT the seed is there.
In other news: https://www.kark.com/news/local-news/arkansas-begins-chanukah-with-lighting-of-states-largest-menorah/
And part of this comes back to the “If you don’t like it, build your own” and “If you did it it would be ok too.”
(That last isn’t quite what I want to say, but words are hard this morning)
My lady and I were talking about Antifa this morning and how Andy is reporting their comms blowing up with “We have to be armed, that Kyle ruling means that the evil white supremacists will shoot first and claim self-defense and and and…”
My lady replied with “But they are thinking ahead. If self-defense is made illegal then they won’t be able to use self-defense themselves.”
My immediate thoughtful response was “What the F are you talking about?”
The problem turned out to be that she was looking at a balanced world. A world were the left is out doing violence to cities, buildings, and people and the right are doing the same.
Therefore, in her mind, it was quite reasonable for the left to be concerned with having to defend themselves from some right leaning mob attacking them.
The problem is, it just doesn’t happen.
Yes, it would be an equal sort of situation, but the situation doesn’t happen.
“It’s ok for a POC to call another POC the N word, just like it is ok for a white person to call another white person a Cracker.”
Uh, we don’t do that, so it’s not a reasonable comparison.
“it’s not ok to shoot BLM/Antifa protesters. We don’t shoot conservatives protesting.”
Uh, you do, we have it on video. And when conservatives gather to protest, there isn’t looting and arson and graffiti going on.
It isn’t the same as a false equivalence, it is just that the conservative side just doesn’t do the things that the left says we do.
If conservatives did what the fascist left accuses us of, there wouldn’t be any fascist leftists left alive.
What EN2 SS said, plus:
The Left has turned psychological projection into an art form and way of life. They assume that anything they would do, we would do, and so they rush to do it to us first.
Ergo: Any accusation from the Left, is also a confession.
Something comes to mind: “communal” is the same root as “communist”, and in the Jewish context is reminiscent of kibbutzim — which are socialist constructs.
In other words, it isn’t surprising that you’d find far leftist leaning towards outright communist politics in a “communal house”.
Therefore: my snap impression is that you are not trying to describe “false equivalence”, what you are describing is slander, and lying.
False equivalence seems to me to contain some grain of non malevolence.
“Michelle said that she felt “unsafe” around me, and that she would not be able to take her birth control or bring her queer friends around me.”
What the actual fuck? Someone who’s been there a full week (ok, 6 days) and has not given any overt indication of their political views, but now you can’t even take your birth control with them in the house? How the hell is that even supposed to make sense?
That’s right up there with Arizona State students wanting Kyle R. expelled because they don’t feel safe on campus. Even though he’s attending 100% remotely.
Progressive Liberals are mentally ill.
They weaponized pathos.
They also want him expelled despite him not doing anything wrong. No school rules or policies violated, not even any attendance issues so far as we know.
There are no grounds for expulsion, but they want it done anyway. They don’t see the precedent that sets, or how that double-edged sword could turn on them.
They also don’t see — and have never seen — the mile-wide gap between “feeling safe” and “being safe”. As you said, Kyle R. is attending 100% remotely, he’s not on campus at all — and even if he was there’s no reason to believe he’s dangerous — yet they feel “not safe on campus” because he’s enrolled.
News flash: Feelings are not facts. That they subjectively feel something about Kyle R.’s enrollment that defies objective fact, says more about them than it does about Kyle R.
Progressive Liberals are mentally ill.
I’d go a step further and say, Progressive Liberalism is a mental illness. Symptoms include an inability to separate emotional feeling from fact, an inability to separate truth from falsity, and an inability to leave others alone. We joke that they live in their own little world (“I wonder what color the sky is on their planet. LOL!”), but in a lot of ways, in their own minds, they really do.
Call me cynical, but these days when an obvious “Progressive” identifies themselves as Jewish, I read it with as much weight as a slightly-olive-complexioned person “identifying” as “Black” or “BIPOC”.
They claim to be Jewish, but they don’t read the Torah or Talmud, they don’t go to synagogue, they don’t celebrate Rosh Hashanah or Hanukkah or any other holy day, and they certainly don’t adhere to God’s commandments or law.
And “Never Again,” instead of meaning, “We’ll never allow ourselves to be marginalized and helpless again,” means more along the lines of, “Next time, we’ll be the ones marginalizing.”
(Sometimes I think half of them believe the Holocaust didn’t happen, and half of what’s left think the European Jews deserved it.)
In short: Their “Jewish identity” is just another box on the “intersectional victimhood” BINGO card.
It makes me sad. Too many people no longer accept that is possible to love your neighbor, be good and kind to one another, live peaceably, and bring reason into discussions when you have different beliefs. There are many of us who are still able to love and appreciate those whose deeply held deeply-held beliefs differ from ours. Don’t lose faith in humanity over those ridiculous people who are not.
Most people get along just fine.
I am blessed to have married into a family that loves to debate. My wife’s family debates all things. They can get pretty heated — if you weren’t prepared for it, you’d swear they were fighting at every gathering — but in reality it’s more like a game. Nothing but love, no hard feelings at the end.
What’s truly interesting about this is, my father-in-law is enormously intelligent and well-read, and for the sake of the debate game he will sometimes take the polar-opposite position from what he actually believes and argue from that position — rather effectively, if I may say so — just so both sides are fairly covered.
Now, I know his beliefs, and I know they’re pretty much the polar-opposite of mine (we joke that we vote just to cancel each other’s vote), but I’ve heard him argue in favor of my beliefs during the game, and do it as well as or better than I can. It’s crazy … again, if you’re not prepared for it.
But even with as far disparate as our beliefs are, we still gather, enjoy each others’ company, and part ways with no problems.
Because that’s what most people do. We recognize the time spent together with family and friends is more important than winning an argument or forcing our beliefs on everyone else.
Judaism is a fundamental religion. I say fundamental because the essential aspect of the faith is the history of its people and the values that brought them out of every travail they have endured.
What strikes me about the article is that these people who rejected their conservative fellow Jew are intentionally ignoring that simple fact that adherence to a core philosophy has been the strength that has kept their faith and therefore their people alive to this day.
Those who abandon their traditional beliefs are intentionally walking away from their combined strengths and their best hope to a continued future. Liberalism does its best to convince those who accept their positions that the past is irrelevant and to be honest that is a huge lie.
If you look to the past you can see our pending future. Tyrants gain control by degrees and once a sufficient number of citizens sign onto their agenda they then run rampant over the rest of the population. Tyrants also serve their own interests first and always. The people are relegated to servant like roles and are fed scraps from the tables of the privileged elite. The movements in motion in the US today are the actions of pending tyranny. Don’t forget that.
The leftists are almost certainly not religious, except for their Marxism.
First thought: Liberalism and “Progressivism” seek to sow division and discord; they cannot stand against a united citizenry.
Second thought, RE: the history of the Jewish people: I find it fascinating (in a “look at the monkeys who stumbled upon nuclear weapons” kind of way) that the Torah is full of examples of the Hebrews either: a. turning away from God and getting divinely spanked (often by being forced into slavery for several generations), or b. following God’s laws and prevailing over their enemies against otherwise-impossible odds.
All those examples, and yet the Leftist Jews are still turning away from God and His laws. They are begging for a divine intervention … and they’ll get it, and just like the Hebrews of old, they’ll be shocked — shocked! — when it happens.
Everyone knows Commandment that says, “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Most read that to mean “Don’t use the Lord’s name as a curse,” but I personally believe that identifying yourself as one of God’s people (“Taking the Lord’s name…”) while not adhering to God’s commandments and laws (“… in vain”) also counts.
(To be fair, I can point that last bit to Leftist Christians, too, who can be just as bad as Leftist Jews.)
An outsider looking in, I ask, Why do Jews who do not keep the tenets of Judiasm continue to identify themselves as Jews?
I suppose that in a culture dominated by Jews, there are benefits to keeping the identity. The schools and universities, the employment opportunities, the cultural acceptance, yet not the allegiance to G-d. These would be the Pharisees of our time.
I do know well several persons of Jewish heritage. But they do not ‘wear it’ because they do not practice the faith.
Acceptance of those things which G-d said are abominations; who can say that is pleasing and honoring and obedient to G-d.
The people like ‘Michelle’ and ‘Sarah’ in this story are not beholden to G-d, therefore they actively embrace sin.
I understand and am empathetic to the hurt of being turned on (kicked out by here roommates), there may even be a sense of betrayal. Yet the sooner she shakes the dust from her sandals, the better for her well being and her faith.
These Leftist Jews cling to the Jewish identity because they need a racial identity other than white. They forget that other Leftists don’t consider Jews to be an oppressed minority worthy of POC status. This is what identity politics does, it ruins people.
To the Left, racial identity is simply a political or economic concept. Asians make up something like 7% of the population, but they aren’t a minority because, like the Ashkenazi Jews you mentioned, they are too smart and successful. Black conservatives aren’t “really” black. A “white Hispanic” appears to be a Hispanic person they don’t like or who breaks their narrative. Aspiring to an identity they approve of is fruitless, because eventually, you will do or say something to make you the enemy. Either that, or you become a puppet.
I think it is right to be gravely concerned of what is likely once the religion of Woke comes crashing down. After all, for ages it has been a global sport to kick the Jew.
However, I wonder if perhaps the Jew have not done this to themselves. To that extent, I can and do say the very same about the evangelical Christian.
IF (a very big word) the Jews (and the Christians) were to be true to their faith (instead of wearing it as like some kind of membership with economic benefits; you know, like Costco) then would these groups not be positioned to take the blame. I will go further to say that IF the Jews and the Christians had remained obedient to their faiths, we would likely not be where we are now; Woke would not exist.
You’re not the first person I’ve seen to point out that America currently has abandoned God’s law and is now standing in His judgment, and the only way out is to re-discover and cling to God’s Word. I for one cannot find fault in that argument.
Also, see my above comment about the Commandment, “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Most people take that to mean to not use the Lord’s name as a curse or swear word, but I believe it’s more than that. To call yourself a Jew or a Christian is to name yourself one of God’s people — to “take the Lord’s name,” similar to how a wife will take her husband’s name to identify herself with her new family.
But to do so while not following His Commandments and laws, is to “take the Lord’s name in vain,” just as bad (or worse) than using it as a curse.
These leftist Jews are going to cause no end of trouble for real Jews. They’re poking a stick at a monster who won’t differentiate who is a leftist and who isn’t. They’ll keep it up until the actual practicing Jews end up paying their tab.
The other monster they poke a stick at is the race monster. I see posts all the time where ‘Jews’ proclaim that team whitey should be punished for this or that imagined offence. Once they wake that beast, it won’t care that they’re Jews. They’re white and that will be all that counts.
I don’t know how many Jews I’ve met that are atheist, but its more than a few. I don’t get that. If you aren’t one of God’s chosen ones, and you won’t be if you aren’t a believer, than I think you lose that claim.
Schrodinger’s race.
We’re too white to get the POC benefits for the race identitarian Left.
We’re not white enough for the alt-Right White Supremacists.
And yes, I agree with everything you said.