My new article on Linkedin “What Intolerance Means for the Jews”

November 16 is the International Day for Tolerance. If I were asked to give a fitting title to 2020, I’d call it the year of intolerance. But I won’t, since I know that tomorrow we’ll be even more intolerant. Many people thought that the 2016 presidential election was the ugliest in history. As we can already see, it’s nothing compared to 2020. In 2024, can we even be certain there will be an election, much less an honest, free election?

At a time when all the world needs is tolerance and unity, Jews cannot engage in anything other than establishing and nurturing precisely those two values. Anything else that they do works against them, and if they can’t see it now, they will see it very soon. But if they wait until they see that their thinking was off course, it will be too late to avoid the heartbreak.
Judging by the fanaticism and vindictiveness shamelessly percolating into the surface, I don’t think that people even appreciate democracy anymore. All they want is for people to be like them, and if they aren’t, they shouldn’t exist.

The tensions between the two sides in America will only grow. No side will take abuse lying down. But this civil war will not end like the first one. In this one, there are Jews embroiled in all of this, and as it’s always happened when Jews are concerned, the parties will conclude that it’s all the Jews’ fault and unleash hell on them.

The Jews are supposed to be the unifying factor. It is the nation that coined the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “That which you hate, do not do to your neighbor.” Instead, Jews are among the leaders on the more extreme fringes, inciting and even calling for bloodshed almost explicitly. When blood is shed, they will be blamed for it and both sides will unite against them.

If the Jews are not uniting the world, the world doesn’t want them and regards them not only as superfluous, but as injurious. Admittedly, if Jews are inciting parties against each other, then the parties are right for hating them. At a time when all the world needs is tolerance and unity, Jews cannot engage in anything other than establishing and nurturing precisely those two values. Anything else that they do works against them, and if they can’t see it now, they will see it very soon. But if they wait until they see that their thinking was off course, it will be too late to avoid the heartbreak.

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New Life 459 – Solving The Problem Of Anti-Semitism
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Jews have the power to change themselves, the world, and all of reality for the better. They have the power to unite everything. The whole world needs the Jews to reveal the upper force as Abraham taught them to almost 4,000 years ago. The wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed now so that Jews can teach everyone how to connect above the human ego. This is a natural process that has to take place. Jews must lead all of humanity to be as one bundle. This is called being light unto the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 459 – Solving The Problem Of Anti-Semitism,” 11/25/14

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New Life 464 – Anti-Semitism Denial, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Israelis don’t feel that anti-Semitism exists and are insensitive to manifestations of anti-Semitism around the world. Today, there is hardly any connection between Israelis and Jews abroad. If there is any connection, it will gradually grow weaker. The level of anti-Semitism in the world today is similar to the level it was before WWII in Germany. We are stubborn and haven’t learned anything since then.

Nevertheless, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed in order to teach us that certain problems in Israel can only be solved by connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 464 – Anti-Semitism Denial, Part 2,” 12/2/14

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New Life 463 – Anti-Semitism Denial, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Anti-Semitism or, more precisely, the hatred of Jews stems from the root of the Jewish nation when Abraham gathered people together who wanted to reveal the upper force by adhering to the principle “love thy friend as thyself.” The love of others distinguishes us from all the other nations since the beginning of our history because we developed the method of connection. Many countries today deny the fact that they are anti-Semitic, but strong anti-Semitic movements rise in these countries nevertheless. Even the United Nations is greatly anti-Semitic, but claims that it isn’t.

Anti-Semitism will not disappear and eventually the whole world will be against Israel unless and until we fulfill our role by teaching the method of connection around the globe.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 463 – Anti-Semitism Denial, Part 1,” 12/2/14

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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Lesson Still to Be Learned from Kristallnacht”

Dozens of Jews were murdered, many more were publicly humiliated and sent to concentration camps; homes and businesses were destroyed and more than a thousand synagogues across Germany and Austria were torched—That was the tale of destruction left behind by the Nazis on Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” on November 9, 1938. On the 82nd anniversary of the day, it is crystal clear that history could repeat itself as the shadow of antisemitism and radicalism expands around the world.

A new series of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist attacks have shaken Europe in the last few days. The UK elevated its terror alert level to “severe” after the deadly attacks in France, in Paris and Nice days ago and most recently, in Vienna, Austria where four people were killed and 22 injured in shootings perpetrated in an area near several synagogues. Even if one believes that Jews were not specifically targeted in that attack, the peace and quiet the city offered to the Jewish community is over. In a rare statement, European Jewish leaders called for more “control and transparency” of the mosques across the continent—over what is being preached and where they get financing that could promote incitement to commit such acts of violence.

But radicalization is only one of the threats, albeit not a minor one. Antisemitism is generally on the rise in Europe and has been for a while as record-breaking cases of physical attacks and harassment are reported in major European cities. Anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiments created by extremist groups are nowadays not items of historical reference but a very current reality worldwide.

However, Jews predictably think everything will pass by. They are convinced that letters of condemnation to organizations or to governments will do the job. Wake up! It has not worked so far and never will. We still haven’t learned the lesson from the entire history of persecution toward Jews. The Jewish people resist accepting the fact that they are unwanted in Europe. As terrorism intensifies and social and economic problems worsen, Jews will be held to blame, as always happens. Many will want to conclude what Germany and Austria started more than eight decades ago, claiming “why must they live among us; we really suffer from all these people; we are in trouble and we have no choice but to finish them off.”

Great pressures upon European Jewry and the Jewish communities of the entire world are in store until Jews realize that they are at the epicenter of hatred for a reason. We need to learn that the world does not change, so we must. We must show humanity as a whole how to repair the breakage in the world—this is what is expected of Jews.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that Jews have a special role in the great human puzzle: “Israel’s purpose is to unite the entire world into one family,” writes Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. The mission of the people of Israel, according to the most renowned Kabbalist of the 20th Century, Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), is to serve as a conduit to transfer the system of positive connection to humanity so that it can recover balance and ease its pains. He wrote, “And when they do that, it is plain to see that with His work, all envy and hatred will be abolished from humanity” (“The Peace”).

However, in order for that to happen first Jews must unite. As long as this role is delayed, suffering on the personal and global scale will continue to intensify as a hard reminder of the role Jews need to fulfill. So let’s not forget that our lives depend on our good connection, as simple as that. As long as we present the impenetrable armor of unity to the world, no enemy will rise against us. Only then will we be able to relegate our painful past to the annals of history and turn over a new leaf to begin writing a sunny present and future.
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 11/5/20

According to a recently published survey by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), nearly 90 percent of US Jews are worried about rising antisemitism. As always with antisemitism, Jews don’t think they deserve it. At the same time, Jews are leading figures in pitting the parties against each other. Nobody likes warmongers, especially Jewish ones, since they are supposed to do the exact opposite—to bring sides together, to reconcile them. So unless Jews quickly reverse course, they will pay the same price that Jews have paid through the ages, if not worse.

The only thing that makes American Jewry Jewish today is customs, nothing more. It’s a culture based on fading traditions and a feeling of belonging to a community. But why does going to shul on Yom Kippur or donating to charity make one Jewish? They may create a sense of belonging, but they don’t promote what Jews were made to promote.

As just stated, Jews are supposed to bring the opposite of partisanship. They came from dispersed nations and peoples from all over the Fertile Crescent in antiquity and forged a nation by rising above their instinctive hatred and suspicion. They did that by lauding the value of unity, mutual responsibility, and love of others to such levels that they became more important than anything else, more important even than their instinctive hatred. Only when they achieved that, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they were declared a nation, and only then were instructed with being “a light unto nations.”

They were told to show the world how they united. They were instructed to set an example of uniting vicious enemies into the closest of people. But what do they do instead? They employ tactics in legal wizardry that help people cheat, bamboozle, and dupe their way to the top while portraying themselves as paragons of virtue, and the other side as demonic, immoral, and corrupt.

In my eyes, such people are not Jews. They have abandoned the core of Judaism, namely unity above hatred. Instead, they vilify in the name of war against corruption; deride in the name of exposing incompetence, and spread venomous hatred in the name of being “ethical.” In short, they are polarizing factors, warmongers, and deserve what warmongers deserve.

Of course, not all Jews are like that. Most, simply want to live their lives and not worry too much about anything. But tacitly agreeing to what their leaders do is bad enough these days. The Jews are seen as a collective and will be punished as such. It’s not my wish, it’s how things have always worked, and nothing will change that. The only way that Jews can change their dismal fate is if they, as a collective, reverse course and show how they reconcile their own divisions, set an example to American society, and this way help solidify it rather than divide it.

To conclude, Jews must show how they cultivate affection instead of rancor, kindness instead of malice. This is the purpose of their existence as a nation and as individuals. As of now, they’re nowhere near it.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why did anti-Semitism ‘switch sides’ politically in the US?“

In the U.S., anti-Semitism was commonly considered as emanating from the far-right, yet today, it is tilted more to the left. However, the phenomenon of anti-Semitism itself is beyond political affiliation, and in the future, I expect both sides to unify around their common hatred of Jews.

Today, American Jews are a lot more aware about the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S. However, the thought of an impending Holocaust is still mostly elusive. They still do not see that anti-Semitism could reach such levels where it can all overturn on them very severely. Indeed, leading up to the Holocaust in Europe, most Jews also disagreed that it could happen, denouncing and mocking those who, in advance of the Holocaust, warned of Jewish genocide.

The past decade served to normalize anti-Semitism in the U.S. as well as in other parts of the world, with regular accounts of anti-Semtitic vandalism, distribution of anti-Semitic flyers and posters, anti-Semitism entering various musicians’ songs and social media posts as well as artists’ artworks, anti-Semitic attractions at carnivals, as well as an increasing amount of people questioning the Holocaust’s occurrence and not knowing about the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. In addition, last year (2019) marked the previous decade’s yearly peak in the amount of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.

If last decade represented anti-Semitism increasingly seeping into the mainstream, then I expect anti-Semitism to become an all-out trend this decade. At the moment, both political sides still use the mainstream condemnation of anti-Semitism as a tool to blame each other for the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S., but the more their conflict intensifies together with more acceptance of the idea that Jews stand behind their polarization, then they could indeed reach a point of agreement to unite against the Jews.

This is also why American Jews can expect to see dropping support from the government, because if they can be scapegoated as the cause of the country’s problems, then it serves to shift half of the American population’s negative focus away from the government and onto the Jews. In such a state, since the Jews are vastly outnumbered in America, the idea of their ostracization would also become increasingly popular, until one morning it could very well become the reality of the day. History is rich with examples of leaders who capitalized on growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the public at times of various crises to direct the public’s negativity onto the Jews.

Also, while the horrid past experience of the Holocaust spurs many Jews today to combat anti-Semitism in many different ways like no other time in history, we can already clearly see how the increased efforts to counter anti-Semitism fall short of stopping the forceful anti-Semitic tide, which rapidly outpaces the numerous efforts to fight it.

In short, we need to see that a grave disaster lies ahead for American Jews. However, we also need to see that it can be stopped and even inverted into a positive, supportive and even loving attitude toward Jews, on one condition.

What is that condition?

It is that a dramatic shift in attitude toward Jews should be sought in no place other than the unification of the Jewish people. In other words, the disaster is laid out on a path that we walk without making any strides to change to a different and more unifying path. If we unite above our differences and divisions, then we will be a conduit for unity to spread to others. Then, when the public feels the increased happiness and other benefits that stem from Jewish unity, they will herald the Jews as those who initiated the process. If we fail to take any step toward our unification, then hatred will continue rising against us, and we can experience that hatred to erupt in a terrible way.

Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash.

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My new article on Linkedin “Is It Too Late for American Jewry?”

American Jews used to think that antisemitism in America existed only on the fringes of the Right. But currently, you find more of it in the mainstream Left. In all likelihood, however, the Left and the Right will unite around the one thing they have in common: hatred for Jews. American Jews are waking up, but by the time they realize that they are reliving the pre-Holocaust days, it just might be too late.

A recent AJC survey highlighted two points indicating that Jews are finally waking up from the illusion of safety. 1) “More than 93% of Democrats, 87% of independents, and 75% of Republicans say antisemitism infects the nation. At least 80% of Jews of all denominations … point to the uptick, as do at least 86% of Jews of all ages.” 2) 31% of American Jews “say they have tucked their Star of David pendant into their blouse, removed their kippot [yarmulke], and avoided publicly wearing, carrying, or displaying other things that might help people identify then [sic] as Jewish.” Additionally, “A quarter of respondents say they avoid certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their safety.”

Antisemitism has been creeping from the fringes to the mainstream in America for several years, but the pace has picked up in the last year or two, and I anticipate that after the election it will become “in vogue” to hate Jews. When that happens, progressives and liberals from the Left will suddenly find common ground with Neo Nazis from the Right, and everyone will agree that they do not need to fight among them since the Jews are the source of all their troubles, Jews are the ones setting them apart, and from here on they’ll know what to do.

If the Jews expect the government, any government, to protect them, they’ve got another thing coming. There is no political sense in supporting Jews: If they restrain antisemitism, then the half of the nation that’s lost the election will turn against the government. But if they can pin the nation’s troubles on the Jews, then what better way is there to unite the nation? This is the exact same ploy that Hitler and numerous rulers before him used in order to unite the nation and divert criticism from the government to a vulnerable minority that everyone hates and envies anyway. The Jews, once more, will become expendable.

Unlike Germany in the 1930s, American Jews, remembering the Holocaust, are very active in resisting antisemitism. They protest, establish defense organizations, and lobby on Capitol Hill. But none of it will help. American Jewry has come to symbolize capitalism in its worst form, where money is all that matters, and when you’ve got it, you “make the world go round.” As long as this is the image of Jews in America, they don’t stand a chance against antisemitism.

Jews should engage in one thing and one thing only: connecting with each other. They have to connect among themselves in order to be an example for the rest of the world. Jews have given the world the most important motto of all, the epitome of altruism: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if they don’t exercise it, or even try to move in that direction, the world has no need for them and it will opt to carry on without them.

I have been warning American Jews for nearly two decades that their fate would be horrible unless they united and became an example of solidarity. I have written two books about the consequences of disunity and its essential role to the people of Israel, Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism. I published hundreds of articles and essays, and given dozens of lectures, live and through the internet, throughout the US and Canada. Despite all the historical evidence I had presented, and despite all the quotes where I had shown that our sages throughout the centuries cautioned that unity is our only hope, hardly anyone listened, much less embraced unity as a solution to our problems.

Now, finally, American Jews accept that there is antisemitism, but they still refuse to believe that they have a solution to it. They think that antisemites can choose not to hate Jews, and don’t realize that it’s their hatred of each other that excites the world’s hatred of them. By the time they realize that all they need is not to hate each other, the world might be too engrossed in accusing Jews, too excited about the discovery of the cause of its troubles. I pray that I am wrong, though history, I’m afraid, is on my side.

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My new article on Linkedin “Jews Can Be the Key to American Unity”

Could anyone imagine the day would come when Jews in America would need to hide their religion and cultural background? In America—the land of freedom and endless opportunities, the melting pot where people from all walks of life could converge and coexist in mutual respect—as the Founding Fathers conceived it. How can we now come to terms with the fact that 24% of American Jews say they avoid wearing a Star of David pendant, kippah, and any other Jewish symbol in public out of concern for their safety? This is the disturbing reality revealed by the most recent survey on attitudes of American Jews about antisemitism. Food for serious thought.

“Deep anxiety among US Jews & lack of awareness among the general public about the severity of antisemitism in the US” is revealed in this year’s report conducted by the American Jewish Committee. The survey’s release coincides with the second anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. The still-bleeding wounds of hatred against Jews are evident in the ongoing attacks on college campuses and hate crimes committed across the country. In fact, nearly nine out of ten respondents believe that the cancer of antisemitism is a worrying problem in the US.

Would trying to avoid being identified as Jewish help us escape from being the target of antisemites? No, because the number of haters is bound to multiply. Divisiveness, clashes, and increasing hostility within American society are the breeding ground of a deep crisis at all levels. America is a very dynamic nation. The effects of the pandemic have damaged and destabilized the economy. Public health and social instability are only some of the concerns afflicting the American public. The mass media in the US is powerful and very influential in heating up the environment. All these elements combine to create an unstable situation in which people’s nerves are so frayed and circumstances so volatile that any issue could ignite the powder keg in the blink of an eye.

In such uncertain conditions, it is entirely feasible that we will see in the near future, unanimous agreement in the entire American population that Jews are to blame for the severe blows the nation may suffer in both the political arena and in the socioeconomic spectrum. Current trends indicate that street protests and pogroms may not be a rare occurrence. It seems less and less farfetched that a new Holocaust is looming on the horizon. I say this in all seriousness. Certainly, some may be in a state of denial, just as it was in Germany when the majority of Jews refused to believe the Final Solution was imminent.

How could another Holocaust be possible? History has taught us the hard way that when things go wrong in society, sooner rather than later, Jews will be blamed and persecuted. However, before the situation comes to this, Jews have the ability and opportunity to apply a special preventive treatment: to rise above all differences and unite. And this must take place regardless of any political preference or other consideration. Instead of allowing politics to divide us, we must come together in solidarity and cohesion. As it is written in the book Maor VaShemesh, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship within Israel, no calamity can come upon them.”

American Jews from all sides of the political scene have become so alienated from one another that each faction feels that the other behaves against the interests of the Jewish people and against our core values. Ironically, the greatest of Jewish values is unity above differences! It is famously stated as the greatest law of Torah, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The inability of Jews to rise above differences of opinion plainly shows how distanced we have become from our true heritage. This colossal lapse must be mended quickly not only because it is our true goal as a people, but because our error in oversight puts us in grave and immediate danger. We may have different political opinions, but we are all Jews, and for antisemites, that is enough.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that it is the historical purpose of Jews to demonstrate unity and to model corrected societal relations for others. We became a nation at the foot of Mount Sinai only after every person present accepted the condition of being “as one man with one heart.” Jews practiced the method that allowed them to rise above their differences and lived under principles of true equality and mutual concern. But then unfounded hatred and disunity arose causing the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Since then, we have forgotten that unless we are in brotherly love and unity, afflictions will continue to fall upon us until we remember and carry out our mission.

Today, as antisemitism increases yet again, Jews must finally provide the model of social cohesion that only we can. Our ancient calling has become so pressing and relevant in these precarious times that ignoring it will have horrendous consequences.

The threats towards Jews signal an imperative change that needs to happen, a change that Jews must initiate and play the decisive role in it. We must see that our true Jewish power, both to protect our communities and to contribute to the world, lies in our ability to unite above all differences, and that the wisdom of how to do this is more than a simple mechanism for fending off threats and safeguarding our people. It is deeply ingrained in our core values and heritage.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Satire of Antisemitism”

On Twitter and Facebook alone, a staggering 1.7 million antisemitic posts were made this year, said U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Elan Carr. That is no laughing matter. But what if we fight hate with satire like comedians try to do? Could that be an effective way to tackle conspiracy theories against Jews? I think, “Yes.” Regardless of whether it is done in a straightforward fashion or from the flip side, what matters most is to awaken the question of why the endless Jew-hatred exists, as an important step to solving the problem for good.

Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.

The coronavirus comes from “a place called Wuhan, which is in Israel” joked Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen on a popular US television show, and was reported in some media outlets. People certainly don’t take him seriously and it is clear that his intention isn’t to stir up provocation, but to use sarcasm as an effective way to disparage antisemitism. Why could this be a great strategy? Because we need a creative approach to address the increasing animosity against Jews around the world. It might help us to highlight this phenomenon bluntly and vociferously on social media where antisemitism crops up and spreads like a virus.

The world’s attention is currently focused on the other epidemic, Covid-19, which has upstaged Jew hatred slightly but not erased it from the playbill, as statistics show. As soon as the plague weakens, the voices of our enemies will intensify again, blaming Jews for the pandemic and other libels, as antisemites so openly do at every first opportunity and through any means at their disposal.

However, we waste our time trying to combat the haters head-on or by struggling to remove unwanted content. These actions will not help, nor do we have the immense power and resources it would take to eradicate the problem. As soon as the measures to eliminate antisemitic posts are implemented in one place, they rapidly reproduce like weeds in a field. Therefore, the only strategy that will bear fruit is to learn how to take the negativity thrown our way and contrast it with all the goodness expected from the Jewish people.

In fact, let’s take a step back and think about this clearly for a moment. When antisemites blame Jews for all the calamities in the world, they are actually pointing to Jews as the only force capable of causing change in the world, as the only people who have the power to solve any crisis humanity faces but who are failing to fulfill this goal.

That is a true statement—they are absolutely right. Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.
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