A ‘House Divided’ — can it stand?
Spies, Scouts . . . or just we canaries, caged and suffocating in a darkened coal mine?
also here today: Should American Jews Abandon Elite Universities? — A Campus Conundrum or a counterpoint: “You Jews can never leave . . .”
but first…
a House Divided — can it stand? (is it a house of cards or is it ‘a fall on one’s own petard’?)
To a soon-to-be, former representative to the United States House of Representatives, Mr. Bowman: What begins with words, rarely ends with words,
— sometimes it ends just with ‘downfall.’
Here I am reminded of Haman in The Book of Esther . . . not because he is a member of a Jew-baiting black and brown community. Leaving one to wonder if perhaps it is because of inner demons, or internal fears that there are Jews scattered among us and yet are ‘living apart’ and appearing to control the world, Much of these articulated positions have led to Haman’s outward plans, all of which led to his public and private downfall, — which ultimately culminated in his being hung on a petard of his own making.
All that being said, in reviewing history, it does look a little as if it remains a ‘best practice(s)’ to blame the Jews.
“Mr. Bowman, who is Black, openly campaigned as the candidate of the working class, progressives and people of color. He called Mr. Latimer, who is white, a candidate for the wealthy suburban class. And he alienated many Jewish voters with harsh criticism of Israel and comments like one suggesting “the Jews” in his district had intentionally chosen to live apart from other people.”
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Perhaps Rep. Bowman has leaned in on a page from the Book of Esther 3: 8 . . .
Estehr 3:8 / Haman then said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people, they dwell alone, yet scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them.
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר הָמָן֙ לַמֶּ֣לֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵר֔וֹשׁ יֶשְׁנ֣וֹ עַם־אֶחָ֗ד מְפֻזָּ֤ר וּמְפֹרָד֙ בֵּ֣ין הָֽעַמִּ֔ים בְּכֹ֖ל מְדִינ֣וֹת מַלְכוּתֶ֑ךָ וְדָתֵיהֶ֞ם שֹׁנ֣וֹת מִכׇּל־עָ֗ם וְאֶת־דָּתֵ֤י הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ אֵינָ֣ם עֹשִׂ֔ים וְלַמֶּ֥לֶךְ אֵין־שֹׁוֶ֖ה לְהַנִּיחָֽם׃
אִם־עַל־הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ ט֔וֹב יִכָּתֵ֖ב לְאַבְּדָ֑ם וַעֲשֶׂ֨רֶת אֲלָפִ֜ים כִּכַּר־כֶּ֗סֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל֙ עַל־יְדֵי֙ עֹשֵׂ֣י הַמְּלָאכָ֔ה לְהָבִ֖יא אֶל־גִּנְזֵ֥י הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃
If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.”
וַיָּ֧סַר הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ אֶת־טַבַּעְתּ֖וֹ מֵעַ֣ל יָד֑וֹ וַֽיִּתְּנָ֗הּ לְהָמָ֧ן בֶּֽן־הַמְּדָ֛תָא הָאֲגָגִ֖י צֹרֵ֥ר הַיְּהוּדִֽים׃
Thereupon the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of the Jews.
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ לְהָמָ֔ן הַכֶּ֖סֶף נָת֣וּן לָ֑ךְ וְהָעָ֕ם לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת בּ֖וֹ כַּטּ֥וֹב בְּעֵינֶֽיךָ׃
And the king said, “The money and the people are yours to do with as you see fit.”
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American Academia . . . .
The question now arises, is it time to withdraw from ‘certain places’ in which we no longer feel welcome, or even safe?
OPINION / NYT / Op Ed / June 25th 2024
BRET STEPHENS
Should American Jews Abandon Elite Universities? A Campus Conundrum:
The New York Times’ Bret Stephens considers the source of anti-Israel organizing at elite American universities — and what Jewish students, parents and alumni can do in response. “But the real problem lies with some of the main convictions and currents of today’s academia: intersectionality, critical theory, post-colonialism, ethnic studies and other concepts that may not seem antisemitic on their face but tend to politicize classrooms and cast Jews as privileged and oppressive. … Not even the most determined university president is going to clean out the rot — at least not without getting rid of the entrenched academic departments and tenured faculty members who support it. That could take decades. In the meantime, Jews have a history of parting company with institutions that mistreated them, like white-shoe law firms and commercial banks. In so many cases, they went on to create better institutions that operated on principles of intellectual merit and fair play — including many of the universities that have since stumbled.”
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Here, a counter thought . . .
As a current reminder, when Jews were not welcome or even allowed on or at elite American College Campuses, in Country Club memberships, Social and Housing Communities, or welcomed in fields of academia, science, and business . . . in turn they found other places and elevated them to levels unparalleled in American Historical Development — or they founded their own.
And these places long thrived well until the Jewish students, along with Jewish professionals and Jews in general were received and accepted into the folds of American society. Perhaps we are at the same crossroads of American Jewish History today . . .
Julia Jassey thinks it is better to take it on than to depart . . . . both positions entail merit as we now find ourselves in an overwhelmingly difficult ‘era of decision’ — An American and Jewish decision.
“Jewish on Campus” co-founder and CEO Julia Jassey thinks abandoning American Universities is not the answer and shares her approach for making social media an asset for Jewish students.
Sapir VOLUME THIRTEEN SPRING 2024
You Can Graduate Any Time You Like, but You Can Never Leave
Leaving elite institutions isn’t the way to solve the campus crisis by JULIA JASSEY
Excerpt: Jewish students at Columbia might be experiencing one of the most hostile antisemitic campus environments in America. But we don’t change it by leaving — not when we can arm ourselves with tools to force it to improve. While it might seem that Jewish students are more isolated than ever, I see a steely generation full of the resolve that the American Jewish community sorely needs, now and in the future. They’re standing tall in a fight from which they know there is no place to run.
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Note: Golda Meir when confronting Henry Kissinger threatening her with military abandonment, isolation, and sanctions: summoned up her memories of being a three-year-old little girl in Kishnev, “When the pogromists would come down the street, looking for Jews to kill, and we would be huddling with our mother and father under our beds or in cellars behind boarded up windows and doors, isolated, cold, with no one to help us, let along save us . . . .
Golda Meir then says; “I am not that little girl anymore.”
and for our understanding in our group gatherings, neither are we . . .
Given the realities of this world in which we find ourselves today, there is nowhere to run to, anymore. There is nowhere to hide, and although we all live in many lands, we have all learned painfully that we have but one land, an ancestral homeland now with sovereignty. I am reminded of Yehuda HaLevi thinking out loud, “Although I dwell beneath these western pines, my heart still beats with that of Jerusalem,”
Which we now understand as reunited, rebuilt, and once again, under Jewish sovereignty.
