Articles

As we approach the eighth month since the events of October 7th, we remain as a community in some measure paralyzed, distraught and uncertain by the unfolding story not only in Israel but also here in the Diaspora. In this setting, some of our institutional leaders are counseling us to move to the barricades as we face a hostile and unsafe environment.

As with all entrenched systems, the Jewish communal institutional model is resistant to change. Transitions often take decades to unfold. The events surrounding Oct. 7 and beyond require us to rethink the Jewish communal narrative, but the changes required must be more dramatic and direct than at any other time.

“Everything has changed since October 7” no longer merely represents a slogan. American Jews are experiencing a fundamental repositioning of not only how they see themselves but also how others perceive them.

While this conflict is being waged on the ground in Gaza, it is having a profound and fundamental impact on Jews in the United States. No doubt, the impact of this crisis on Jewish Americans has changed over the months since the 7th of October, creating various ripple effects on this community. A fundamental recalibration of the American Jewish experience is underway.

Many of my readers and former students have expressed frustration in the “depressing” manner in which I have interpreted current Jewish political news. Indeed, my messaging is often framed in a problematic context, sadly reflecting the state of Jewish and public affairs.

In so many ways, two articles have defined my take on the current realities. The themes in these publications speak to the deeper sense of anguish that we are feeling and seek to describe the “unsettled” character of the Jewish condition.

The planning for the current campus sit-ins has been in the works for months, by various American-based Palestinian groups, among others. The organizers took the anti-war movement playbook from the late 1960’s and adopted it for their use this spring. Among the groups behind these organizing efforts, Students for Justice in Palestine, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Within our Lifetime, as well as various Jewish groups, JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) and Indeed, allied community groups have endorsed, participated, and supported this initiative.

We awoke on Sunday morning to a new and clearly more dangerous Middle East. Despite being a long-standing enemy of the Jewish State, the missile attack on Israel by Iran, during the early morning hours of April 14th, would mark the first time that the Iranians have directly engaged militarily with Israel.

Several weeks ago, I had occasion to explore elsewhere three core political ideas, national conservatism, populism, and Christian Nationalism. In this essay, we want to consider several additional political models, post-modernism, critical race theory, and intersectionality. These three ideas are joined together by a shared criticism of the existing political scene.

There are various factors that are reshaping the American story, which has profound implications for America’s Jews.

George Packer seeks to capture these new realities, when he writes: “The large currents of the past generation—deindustrialization, the flattening of average wages, the financialization of the economy, income inequality, the growth of information technology, the flood of money into Washington, the rise of the political right—all had their origins in the late 70s.

The rise of national conservatism, the return to populist politics, and the presence of Christian Nationalism represent a set of political ideas that are challenging traditional beliefs and practices. Each of these movements will be significant to the 2024 election. Accordingly, it becomes important to understand the impetus and development of these ideas, in addition to how they are shaping this year’s campaign and the policy positions of particular candidates, as well as how they are attracting the attention of prospective voters. More directly, how do these three political tools impact America’s Jews?

We appear to have lost the fight against Jewish hatred. Is this the time to reexamine how we as a community have performed in our fight against antisemitism? By every standard of measurement, the assumptions we made and the strategies we employed do not appear to have been effective in this battle to defeat hate. It is therefore essential for our communal leaders to review the tools and strategies we employed in responding to such threats.