“וּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ”

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.”

Pirkei Avot 2:5

This is something I’ve been meaning to talk about in detail for some time now, but things have been busy, and I wanted to do the topic justice. While I do intend to talk about this more in the future, thanks to an article by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, I’m going to touch on this important topic now.

It’s been extremely frustrating for me the past year or so, as a Jew, seeing how the vast majority of my Jewish friends and acquaintances have been acting regarding political developments (primarily, but not only, in regard to U.S. politics.) That is of course because they are, with a few fortunate exceptions, all very much on the left. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen a Jewish person go on about how Trump is Hitler, or about how Neo-Nazis are going to kill them, or something in that vein, I’d be able to pay my editor and cover artist with it. I consider myself very lucky that I do have a small group of level-headed Jews to talk to online, as well as a few close friends and family who are on the same general wavelength. Without them, I don’t know how I’d manage.

The fact of the matter is that the right is not our enemy, the left is. It is the left that is trying its hardest to delegitimize Israel, promoting BDS, and tries to push us into a suicidal “peace” deal. Yes, there are some Neo-Nazis out there, but they are extremely few in number, and the vast majority of the alt-right is not broadly antisemitic; their anger is with leftist Jews who push agendas that they oppose, and with Republican/conservative Jews who espouse neo-con ideas and oppose white nationalism in Europe and the US while supporting a Jewish ethnostate in Israel. They also often take issue with Jewish over-representation in certain areas, such as the media and Hollywood (though those Jews are almost exclusively left-wing.) Rabbi Pruzansky puts it well in his article, making the point that is obvious to those of us with eyes and the capability to look at things rationally and objectively. The Left is full of people who hate us, and our state. Groups like Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Occupy Wall Street, and others, have been, and are, extremely hostile toward Israel and Jews. They hold “palestinian” flags at their marches, support people like Linda Sarsour, want our state to become an Arab one, even if they don’t always say this aloud. We saw not too long ago, Jewish groups banned from a “slutwalk” or something degenerate like that because they had imagery of the Israeli flag (mixed, of course, with the leftist agenda symbols.) And, unlike the tiny group on neo-Nazis, these leftist groups have largely been legitimized, and are becoming the status quo. And there are far, far more people who openly and tacitly support them.

As the rabbi writes, American Jews are fixated on the irrelevant Nazi boogeyman, and completely ignoring the real and growing threats to their survival, which, in addition to the political left, include intermarriage and assimilation (and Jews that fall prey to those almost always end up being in the forefront of the radical leftist movements, which only further antagonizes the growing Right, which is finally fighting back (I use the term fighting in a metaphoric, not literal sense.)

I don’t want this to go too long, and I want to let Rabbi Pruzansky’s article stand for itself, but I will say two things. The exile is coming to an end, whether Jews in American and other places besides Israel know it or not. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that the Jewish community in America is in the midst of a decline that it will not come out of. It will be years, if not decades, before it finally does end, but it will happen, as more and more Jews are lost to assimilation and intermarriage, and many of the best, brightest, and forward-thinking Jews return to our homeland. There’s a Jewish thought that G-d, when he decides it’s time for us to go home, first starts by giving us subtle hints, and making it easy. Today, it’s easier than ever to make aliyah. Not that there are no challenges, and not that there aren’t problems, both political and social here (we in the Zehut Party are working on fixing those), but this is where we belong. There is a reason the Israeli reaction to Trump, current events in America, and figures such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, are markedly different than those of American Jews. We have a better understanding of the true threats to us in today’s world, and if American Jewry continues to pull away from us, it will be to their own detriment. We would love to build up our homeland with you, but if you do not come, we will push on without you, and we may not be able to help you when you need it. It’s harsh, but true. Kahane knew it, and many more of us know it today.

Second, I want to publicly, and proudly, express my strong support for Rabbi Pruzansky, one of the very few rabbis to speak the truths that they know most of their fellow Jews do not want to hear. He has weathered extreme backlash for stating these truths, but has not backed down. We need more people like him. And if he happens to read this post, I want him to know that there are more of us that support him than it may seem. Many, understandably, are scared to do so (even I, being open here and on Twitter and Gab, do not loudly proclaim all of my views everywhere because I know what could result), but I would rather be true to myself, and not hide what I think out of fear. When I inevitably get hit with backlash, I will not enjoy it, but I will endure. It can be done, and more of us need to do so. In just over three months, I will be joining the Israeli Defense Forces, where I will be helping to physically protect my people. With this post, and more to come eventually, I help protect us in a different arena.

Jews, acknowledge your true enemies, before it is too late, and remove the galut/victim mentality from yourselves. We were once a warrior people; with the re-establishment of the State of Israel, we started to reclaim that aspect of ourselves ,but we have a long way to go–and we must press on, before it is too late for many of us.

Rabbi Pruzansky’s original post: Our Enemies