My new article on Linkedin “Time for Some Sobriety”

I received an email from a concerned mother who wrote the following, “Today, grownups, too, are insecure and fearful. How can we raise children to be confident? What can we rely on? Laws are broken, basic morals don’t exist, lies, pornography, and filth are everywhere, and everyone is angry and tormented by life.”

She is right, everything is corrupt today, morals do not exist, and pornography, filth, and lies are our daily reality. What she does not realize is that there have never been better times. We have always been corrupt; it is just much more overt today.

It may be frightening to watch, but the sobriety we must endure is an opportunity to break through the smog that has blinded us and clogged our hearts and minds. Now we can finally open ourselves to the true solution to all our problems.

Only when we feel we have no choice but to change will we agree to take the necessary steps. In the case of today’s societal depravity, the only solution is education toward consideration and mutual responsibility. It may seem impossible, but neither is persisting in the present situation, which is only getting worse, so we seem to have no other choice.

It must not be compulsory education, such as was practiced in Communist Russia. Education toward kindness and consideration must come from the realization that we have no other choice if we want a functioning society.

The first step in changing society for the better is the realization by a critical mass of people that the current situation cannot continue as it is. After that, people will become more attentive to a message of mutual consideration, kindness, and other ideas that require thinking positively about others.

Also, it is imperative that the process takes place on a social level and not on a personal level. One person alone cannot change one’s behavior for the better if the social environment is negative. But if an entire community decides to change, nothing will stop it.

There is no question that everyone will eventually realize that we need to change ourselves to improve the situation. The only question is how long it will take us to realize that we cannot help but work on ourselves. It may take a long time, with many hardships along the way, or it may be very quick if we realize that we cannot improve our lives unless we improve ourselves.

An educational process does not mean sitting in a class in front of a teacher or anything like that. “Education” means learning about human nature, about the interconnectedness of the world, and about how we all affect one another. As a result, we will realize that we should be careful not to harm one another because when we harm others, we harm ourselves. It is a learning process, but it should come alongside living our lives and changing as we go, gradually and mutually improving our relation toward others.

The first step toward a positive change, therefore, is awareness of our situation. The next step is to develop mutual consideration and finally mutual care for one another.
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My new article on Linkedin “Hanukkah Celebrates a Victory of a Civil War; Can There Be Another Today?”

Next week we will celebrate Hanukkah, the festival that celebrates the victory of the Jews over the Greeks. This is the story that we tell ourselves each year. It is not the truth. The truth is that the Greeks (actually, the Seleucid Empire) entered the war much later, when their allies, the Jewish Hellenists, were defeated by the Hasmoneans, who were fighting to keep the nation united. The Hellenists pleaded with their patron for help, but to no avail. The Hellenists lost, Jerusalem was liberated, and the Seleucid Empire left Judah in peace.

It is important to remember, however, that the rivals were both Jews and the war was mainly between them.

Just over two centuries later, Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were exiled from Judah. We like to tell ourselves that it was the Romans who destroyed the city and murdered the Jews, but again, that is not the case. The Romans killed many Jews, but not nearly as many and not nearly as savagely as the Jews killed each other. The war against the Romans was really another civil war, but it had disastrous consequences because the splintered nation had depleted its strength by fighting one another.

Today, people ask if a third civil war is possible in Israel. Most of them believe it cannot happen since we must have learned from our tragic past. I, for one, think we have not learned a thing. This is why I think another civil war in Israel is not unlikely.

We are more fractured today than at any time in history. We are divided between secular and religious, Left and Right, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, haves and have nots, and each election, we have dozens of parties vying for seats at the Knesset (Israeli parliament) to prove it.

In addition, we are surrounded by enemies who want to see the end of the Jewish state, and we are divided in our attitude toward them. For their part, our enemies are trying their best to divide us even more.

If this continues, it will not be long before we see the end of the Jewish state. Jews will happily immigrate from Israel and the Arabs will take over the country.

If we want to prevent another meltdown of a Jewish state, we need to start doing what we were meant to do in the first place: unite above our divisions.

We were not meant to love each other from the start. We could not. After all, our ancestors came from numerous tribes that were often sworn enemies, yet they formed a nation by embracing an ideology that hatred must not dictate our actions, that we must rise above it and forge bonds that are stronger than hate.

King Solomon, whose wisdom is celebrated to this day, said, “Hate stirs strife, and love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 10:12). This mode of work should have guided us in building the society in contemporary Israel, as well. Regrettably, we have allowed hate to take the driver’s seat. Is it any wonder that we are headed for an accident?

If we want Israel to exist, we must unite above all differences and declare that this is our calling – to be a beacon of unity for the world to see. Our only justification for being here, and our only source of strength, is our unity.

For more on the importance of Jewish unity, see my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Long and Winding Road (We Needn’t Take)”

We need to understand the uniqueness of the current state of humanity. All over the world, a new system is emerging. In this system, we are all connected, unwittingly, unwillingly and irreversibly. The system has always been there, but now the threads are pulling us closer and closer together until we can no longer ignore our interdependence, even though we hate the thought of it.

It is becoming apparent that all of creation is headed for interconnection, and those who resist it will lose. We are marching down a long, winding, and painful road when we could be taking a short, quick, and pleasant one. All we need in order to get on the desirable path is to embrace connection. If we reject it, we will remain on the current, painful path until we finally agree to connect.

The intensifying disasters and crises that seem to storm the world from all directions are the twists and turns on our path to connection. Each time we pull away from it, reality forces us to realize that we are dependent on each other and we had better act the part.

Look at the rising prices the world over; look at the soaring costs of transportation, the clusters of cargo ships packed outside ports for weeks waiting their turn to unload. Look at how we infect each other with new strains of Covid every few months. Look at how the shortage of silicon chips is crippling global production of everything from cars to computers and to home appliances. These are all unpleasant and unnecessary signs that we are all connected.

There is no real shortage of anything. There is enough food, enough goods, enough computer chips, enough oil, enough of everything to satisfy everyone. The only thing that is unsatisfied here is our ego, which derives its satisfaction from abusing others. To put others in distress, our egoism creates crises where none should have existed. We do not realize that because we are all connected, when we hurt others, we also hurt ourselves.

We need a new mindset. We must realize that in the emerging reality, countries and organizations that adapt to the requirement to connect will reap the rewards of their efforts, while those that refuse will be left behind.

Granted, it is a process. It will take time for us to truly change our thought patterns. However, we need not succeed right away to initiate the change. The very effort to reroute is enough to create a positive momentum that will put us on the right track toward a satisfied and content humanity. Refraining from exertion will keep us on the long, winding, and increasingly painful road until we bow to the dictates of reality and finally agree to connect.

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My new article on Linkedin “When the World Votes Unanimously Against You, It Is Time to Wake Up”

About ten days ago, the UN General Assembly voted 160-1 in favor of a draft resolution to renew funding for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine. Hidden within the six items of the resolution were clauses stating that “refugees [from 1948, including their children and children’s children] wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.” The resolution also states that “compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return.”

Following the vote, the draft was referred to what is known as the “Fourth Committee,” to formulate the resolution that will be submitted to the UN General Assembly on December 1 for a final vote. If the resolution is adopted, and it will be, it states that its “recommendations” are to be implemented by September 1, 2022. De facto, this means that the UN has decided to terminate the State of Israel as a Jewish state.

If there is anything good about this decision, it is that we can finally see how undesirable we are in the eyes of the world, and I always prefer the bitter truth to sweet lies. I think that in the near future, we will see the UN calling on all “residents” (a PC word for “Jews”) who are not indigenous to the region and moved to Israel over the past century and a half to return to their original countries. I am certain that the UN will even assist in their return, as this is what the world wants.

Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, I believe that our greatest concern and the key to saving the country is not the UN’s decision but our own opinion about it. It is bad enough that the world voted unanimously against us, but it is nothing compared to our real problem, that we tacitly agree with the UN. This is why we have not protested or plan to protest, why we have no plan to stop the final resolution, and no desire to bring the matter up for public discussion. Most Israelis do not even know the resolution exists.

No one will benefit from the abolition of the State of Israel. Before the State of Israel existed, we had two world wars in just over two decades. The State of Israel was established so that Jews could fulfill their historic role. Even if Israelis are unaware of this and the world has given up on Israel, the Jews will not be relieved of their calling.

We are a nation forged by unity above huge chasms, and we were designated to set an example to the world that such unity is possible. That is why the State of Israel was established soon after the most horrific display of hatred among nations in history, which ended in nuclear explosions. If Israel fails to live up to its vocation, what will stop the world from repeating that scenario?

If we justify our existence here by striving to unite as our ancestors did, above the huge chasms among us, we will not need to explain anything to anyone. On the contrary, the world will stop anyone who tries to disrupt our work toward unity.

Just as the world watches our every move and condemns us now that we are divided, it will watch our every move and praise us when we are united. This UN resolution is proof that the world wants none of the myriad things we have given it. It is time to give it what it really needs: the ability to unite. And the world will be able to unite only if we lead by example.

For more on the importance of Jewish unity, see my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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My new article on Linkedin “Consideration – The Buzzword that Will Mark the Change”

From east to west, the world is sinking into another wave of the coronavirus. Despite the vaccines and the booster shots, the future of the world seems bleak. Until we learn the lesson that the virus has come to teach us, we will not be rid of it. We have not changed our core values, the ones that inflicted on us the virus to begin with, so there is no reason for it to go away. Only once we change our attitude to every one and every thing around us will we see a relief in the contagion.

Why are prices soaring all of a sudden? There is nothing in it but wicked greed, an intention to make me richer and others poorer.

As for us, why are we so focused on shopping? What is it that we really need? Will another gadget make us happy people? If all it took to make us happy was buying another toy, we wouldn’t see more than 100,000 Americans dying of overdose in a single year, most of whom were young. We wouldn’t see so much violence, so much depression, so much hatred and division.

If we worked on these problems rather than burying our heads in the Amazon.com quicksand, we would feel so much better, and we also wouldn’t suffer from tenacious viruses. Just as the virus has taught us, we are interdependent. You can’t have healthy and content people in one place while people elsewhere feel miserable. Today, unless everyone is well, no one will be well. This is true not only of the virus, but of air, water, wealth, and every other aspect of life.

I measure progress or regression by the changes I see in people. Since I see no changes in them, I cannot say that we have made any progress, so there is no reason for the virus to leave. We are still as abusive toward each other as we were in 2019, and we are just as ruthless toward the environment as then. To paraphrase the words of Albert Einstein, stupidity is to do the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results. We all understand this except when it comes to our own behavior. As a result, millions have died and thousands more are dying each day for no other reason but our carelessness.

The world can provide for everyone abundantly; there is no shortage of anything; there is surplus! So why are people hungry, thirsty, sick, homeless? Why are they not getting decent education and decent health care? It is because we don’t care about each other.

It does not end with the basics in life. Look at the pervasive fundamentalism that has taken over society. We regard those who disagree with us as enemies of the public. When diversity of views becomes a crime, totalitarianism takes over and any means is legal to curb free thought.

We may not see the connection between diversity and mutual consideration and the virus, but the connection exists: It is our selfishness. We exploit everyone—people, animals, and all of nature. We feel that only we matter, and everything else should serve us or become extinct.

When that feeling becomes intense enough in a critical mass of people, it tears apart the system and everything collapses—from human society through the animal kingdom to the ground we stand on. Indeed, try to find one area where there is no crisis and you will fail.

The problem is the common cause—humankind. No highbrow speeches about equity and equality will change the fact that we hate each other. Until we realize that we are different and must nonetheless allow everyone to be who they are, we will not begin to change things for the better.

The buzzword that will mark the beginning of change is consideration. Until we learn to be considerate toward others, the world will not be considerate toward us.
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My new article on Linkedin “Likelihood of Second Holocaust Increases”

About two weeks ago, The Guardian published the results of a survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The survey found that “Just over half of Britons did not know that 6 million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that 2 million or fewer were killed, a new survey has found. The study also found that 67% of UK respondents wrongly believed that the government allowed all or some Jewish immigration, when in fact the British government shut the door to Jewish immigration at the outbreak of the war.” Even more disconcerting is the fact that “56% believe that something like the Holocaust could happen again today.”

Surveys conducted in other western countries found similar results. The writing is already on the wall; will we read it in time?

When we consider what is happening in Poland today, the soaring antisemitism in Germany, the rapid Islamization of France, Britain, and other countries, it is clear that soon, there will be no need to ask people their opinions about Jews. They will show their hatred very openly and very violently. If we could plead ignorance before and during World War II, we cannot plead it now when everything is caught on video, often in real time.

Nothing has changed over the past eighty years. Just as the most “enlightened” country struck the Jews then, the most “enlightened” countries are leading the campaign against us now. The deeper the world falls into crises—from viruses to inflation to international tensions, migration, fundamentalism, you name it—the more it blames the Jews. For now, it is happening under the guise of criticism of Israel, but we should not kid ourselves; it is pure, old-fashioned Jew-hatred, and it will end very badly, as it always has.

If we want to eliminate antisemitism, we must understand its root. All of the world’s problems stem from poor human relations. There are no problems other than our hatred for each other.

No animal hates another animal. The hunted are afraid of the hunters, but there is no hatred among them. In fact, it has been proven that were it not for the hunters, the hunted animals would not thrive in good health.

The world’s anger at the Jews is the result of the vocation of our nation. We were meant to set an example of unity. We were designated to demonstrate such sublime notions as “Love your neighbor as yourself” and mutual responsibility, which we have given to the world.

But we have failed the world. Our division is not only our problem. It is first and foremost the problem of the world because when we are divided, we are not an example of unity, but of division. As a result, conflicts break out all over the world and the nations blame them on the Jews. Instinctively, they feel that their conflicts are the fault of the Jews, even if they cannot rationalize it in words. Nevertheless, if you look at our history (see reference below), you will find that the world embraces us when we are united, and punishes us when we are divided.

Indeed, the Holocaust could reoccur. However, it is not because the world is growing hateful toward us once again, but because we are growing hateful toward each other to levels that the world cannot tolerate. Whatever efforts we make to curb antisemitism, they will fail unless we unite. If we unite, we will need no efforts to curb antisemitism; it will dissolve by itself.

For more on the importance of Jewish unity, see my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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My new article on Linkedin “Have We Given Up on Happiness?”

A student told me that a new report claims that the coronavirus is no longer the world’s no. 1 concern. Apparently, it is outperformed by poverty and unemployment. Besides those three, the world is worried, according to the report, about crime, education, climate change, and immigration. To me, humanity seems so confused and burned out that I don’t think it is concerned with anything anymore. And it is not that there are too many problems, but that there is no goal to achieve. If there are no goals, there are no aspirations; and if there are no aspirations, there is nothing to live for.

You might argue that everyone’s goal is to be happy, and this is true, of course. However, when we all have our own idea of happiness and only our own happiness in mind, we each go our own way and end up unhappy, burned out, and we eventually give up on happiness altogether.

Therefore, the first thing we need to define is what we regard as the most important thing in life and how we want to achieve it. Afterwards, we can determine what will help or hinder us in achieving the goal.

Our first task is to recognize that the whole world is interconnected, as demonstrated by the numerous global crises. Personal happiness that ignores the happiness of the rest of us is a prerogative we no longer have. Therefore, we must come to define happiness as the happiness of all people, or at least we should strive to do so. Only if we progress in this direction will we make real progress toward happiness, since it will have the support of the entire society.

Once we realize that this should be our goal, and start working toward it, things will improve not only for people, but for the entire planet. If we are convinced that we must look after the well-being of all people, then we must see that they do not suffer from pollution, that they have clean water and air, that they have sufficient energy and healthy food, and that their health, housing, and education are cared for. As a result, we will balance our use of resources and consume only what is necessary, out of consideration for everyone else’s well-being.

We will not need regulations and conferences to which world leaders fly in jets that pollute the atmosphere to make hollow speeches. We will regulate ourselves because of our awareness that our own happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else. In other words, we will achieve sustainability and build a happy life for ourselves if we focus not on preventing pollution and curbing emissions, but on mutual consideration and caring for each other. This is the only way we can find sustainability and happiness in today’s world.
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My new article on Linkedin “No Choice but to Start Monitoring Content”

With every passing day, the situation worsens. Violence is growing everywhere, people feel unsafe, depression is soaring, and deaths by overdose have reached inconceivable numbers because people have nowhere to run from the misery. During last year alone, more than 100,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose. Moreover, the total number of people who die because of drug abuse has doubled over the past five years. There is only one way to put a stop to it: start monitoring what we feed into people’s minds. Call it censorship, monitoring, regulation, or whatever, but the lack of control over the content that people consume causes them to act in ways that end up killing them.

Until a few centuries ago, child rearing was the sole responsibility of parents. Since the Industrial Revolution, schools began to develop and the state began to assume responsibility for children’s education, while the ability of parents to determine their children’s upbringing waned.

When mass-media began to develop in the 1950s, children began to receive much of their “education” from entertainment and news channels, and even schools began to lose control over education. The media penetrated our homes, reflecting whatever messages it chose to show young and susceptible children, as well as unsuspecting adults, and we began to be indoctrinated through “the tube,” as TVs were called then.

But since the beginning of the 2010s, when smartphones became ubiquitous, we have lost all control over what people of all ages consume. We do not know what our children are exposed to. Even the materials that we adults are exposed to influence us in ways we do not notice. We can only imagine what it does to the innocent and open minds of our children.

Whatever it is that they are absorbing, it is killing them. It makes them violent, depressed, apathetic, socially isolated, narcissistic, and suicidal. And it is claiming hundreds of thousands of mostly young people’s lives. Deaths of young people were the sole cause of the decline in life expectancy in the US before the arrival of the coronavirus, and the plague has only accelerated the deterioration. It is time to step up and intervene in order to reverse course.

I think that all content on social media, internet sites, TV channels, and the radio must be monitored with strict regulations about what is permissible and what is not. I am not speaking about political content, but about content that encourages violence, substance abuse, and narcissism. We, and especially children, learn by example. When they see negative and antisocial behavior, they become negative and antisocial people.

Parents cannot control what their children absorb from the media. They are busy working, often more than one job, struggling to sustain their families, and their children are left on their own for many hours. This is when they are most vulnerable because this is when they consume harmful content from the media.

Instead of the current content, the media should show content that promotes friendship, caring, and social-responsibility. If you think such content constitutes brainwashing, ask yourself whether the content we see now, with its extreme violence and adoration of egoism, does not constitute brainwashing.

It is understandable that we like this type of media. After all, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth,” the Bible tells us, and we know it’s true. So we naturally embrace protagonists that glorify themselves and we tend to adopt their values.

However, we have come to a point where our corrupt nature is so detrimental that we must find a way to restrain it. This is why we must nurture mutual consideration among people. I am not speaking about loving others, that would be too much to ask, but simply about basic consideration for every human being. Even if we achieve only this, it will be huge progress.

Currently, I want everyone to dance only to my tune. But since everyone wants this, too, and no one wants to dance to someone else’s tune, society is disintegrating. This is what we are seeing now. If we leave it at that, we are going to fall very low, very soon, and it will be impossible to stop it.
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My new article on Linkedin “Nowhere Left to Run”

In 1938, after Polish citizens perpetrated pogroms against Jews in Poland, the influential Jewish poet and songwriter Mordechai Gebirtig wrote a song warning Polish Jews of the impending danger. “Fire, brothers, fire! Our city is all on fire!” he wrote. He testified that he cried like a baby when he wrote those words. Even though the song became popular and the refrain was, “And you are holding back and do not lend a hand,” it did not help.

Like him, kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam [Ladder] Commentary on The Book of Zohar, foresaw the calamity. Being a resident of Warsaw, he warned the Jews there and tried to arrange for hundreds of Jewish families to come to Israel (then Palestine) and save themselves. Regrettably for the Jews, the leaders of the Warsaw community talked them out of the plan promising that no harm would come to them.

Last week, on the eve of Polish Independence Day, hundreds of protesters gathered in the Polish town of Kalisz and vowed to chase the enemies of the homeland to Israel, referring to the 3,500 Jews living in Poland today. They burned books, shouted “Death to the Jews!” and no one stopped them.

This is happening not only in Poland. Every day we hear of another demonstration against Jews in some place in the world. Jews are spat on in New York, beaten up in Belgium, their stores are daubed with neo-Nazi graffiti in Germany, they are murdered in France, and synagogues and cemeteries are desecrated around the world.

Unlike the days of the Third Reich, today everyone sees what is happening. In some cases, the attacks are broadcast live on social media. The one thing that has not changed is our complacency, our blindness to the truth that we are in the midst of an antisemitic wave that is growing like a snowball and that no one can or wants to stop.

We must not succumb to such obtuseness. We must acknowledge the (very) inconvenient truth: If Jews before World War II had somewhere to run, at least to some degree, today there is nowhere left to run. There is no safe haven for Jews.

The only refuge we have left is the bond between us. We must forge a bond so tight that it forms a shield against those who want our harm. Now is the time to return to our core values: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “as one man with one heart.”

There is a spiritual power in the bond between us. It is the bond that bound us together in ancient times. It has always been our protection; when we nurtured it among us, it melted the hatred of the nations toward us.

We are not an isolated nation. Our ancestors came from all over the Fertile Crescent, and the people who lived there eventually spread throughout the world. The Jewish nation holds within it representatives from all those nations, and that tiny, indistinguishable link connects us to every nation on Earth. Therefore, when we make peace among ourselves, the nations of the world respect us and make peace among themselves. On the other hand, when we are disunited, humanity spurns us and blames us for the fights that break out among them.

To help ourselves and help the world, we must stop running away and look at one another, the brothers we hate. We must rise above the animosity we feel for each other not because we want to, but because it is what the world needs, and the only thing that will make it stop persecuting the Jews.
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My new article on Linkedin “Why a Jewish President of France Would Be Bad for the Jews”

Eric Zemmour has been a French journalist and political commentator since 1986, when he began his career. He has always been considered an eloquent right wing thinker who presents his ideas calmly and logically, and with great conviction. No one thought of Zemmour as a politician, not until recently, when rumors that he would run for the presidency began to spread. Since then, his popularity has skyrocketed and from near anonymity, he became the leading candidate of the right, trailing incumbent president Emmanuel Macron by only seven percentage points. Since the French presidential elections are conducted in two rounds, and only the two leading candidates compete in the second round, the prospect of Zemmour becoming president is very real.

But Zemmour is not only a journalist, he is also Jewish. In a liberal society like France, we might think that a person’s religion is immaterial in politics. However, if you are Jewish, it is a different story. Zemmour himself does not make an issue of his Jewishness; he wants people to relate only to his views on France’s burning issues. However, in France—with its history of deeply rooted antisemitism and millions of migrants who have moved there over the past several decades, and to which Zemmour proposes a tough approach—Zemmour’s religion will clearly be an issue. In my eyes, France’s Jews have much to worry about as it is, but the last thing they need is a Jewish president, and they will do what they can to avoid it.

As a whole, it is not good for Jews to be political leaders in any country besides Israel. Jews are always under scrutiny, so a Jew as head of state will be many times more so. Nothing good will come from such attention. It will only intensify Jew-hatred and possibly accelerate the advancement of Islam in France.

Jews have a very particular calling. Until we realize it and present it to the world, we should not be in the forefront. We have no business fighting for principles and values that, however meritorious, have nothing to do with the correct conduct of the Jewish people. It will not help Jews, it will not help the world, and there is nothing in this whole campaign but the pride of a man who wants to be the leader of the French. It is simply unwise. Without intending to, Zemmour as president will be very bad for Jews—in France and elsewhere.

The only role that Jews should play in the world is that of fostering unity, solidarity, and mutual responsibility among all people. This is the true legacy of the Jewish people, the tenets of Judaism that the entire world admires, but which no one can realize. The Jews, as progenitors of these noble ideas, and who established their ancient society on them, must rebuild their union in order to set an example for the world. Then, after they reconnect “as one man with one heart,” they will have an asset that will earn them the appreciation of the world.

Jewish leadership is not done through power or authority, but by personal example. In antiquity, in times when we had a unified society worth learning from, we did not need to exert power in order to succeed. People came to Jerusalem to learn how we lived and implement our ways in their own countries.

For example, the book Sifrey Devarim writes that when Jews celebrated their unity during the festivals of pilgrimage, people from around the world would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

In those days of solidarity, Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, summoned seventy sages from Jerusalem to translate the Five Books of Moses into Greek, thereby creating the first translation of the Bible. But before he sent them off to translate, he sat with them and learned from them. According to Flavius Josephus, after two weeks of extensive learning he said “he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

Even notorious antisemites related to the ancient Jewish society as a role model. The infamously antisemitic car maker Henry Ford wrote in his composition The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems on paper, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

Succinctly, if Jews wish to contribute to the world, they should focus on their own unity. Out of all the contributions that Jews have given to the world, this is the only one that humanity really needs, and the only one that it appreciates.
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