I see the argument that rather than fighting antisemitism American Jews should focus on strengthening Jewish identity and education. Maybe, but this education needs to foreground the enmity represented by the genocide libel as a peg to hang the study of Jewish knowledge on.
@shtetlite Young Jews need to learn, along with Torah and Talmud, about proportionality in warfare and civilian-combatant ratios--in the context of Jewish thinking about warfare. They need to be taught to dismiss and dismantle lies about them in real time, and to have access to legal and
@shtetlite other resources in doing so. This needs to be framed not in terms of "everyone is against us" but, rather, the simply fact that enmity will continue, in ebbs and flows. All this is a way of re-engaging Jewish tradition, not simplistically politicizing it. Maybe Maimonides's
@shtetlite Letter to Yemen needs to be central to the curriculum. And when has Jewish life not been political, not engaged in negotiating power structures. And--young Jews must be set against the left. Only if recourse to law overrides violence can Jews live, and the left destroys law.
@shtetlite It's considered pretty important and offers a very subtle argument for how to live under and accommodate oppressive conditions without surrendering your dignity or the fundamentals of the faith--he gets very clear about where you have to draw the line, even if it costs you.
@shtetlite You can't go wrong with the Rambam
@shtetlite I dont remember whether he has a chapter on not releasing law enforcement and intelligence documents indiscriminately to the general public.