The Surprising Reason that American Jews Hide Their Identity

A recent American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey has discovered that while slightly more than half of American Jewish millennials feel that Israel is very or somewhat important to them, nearly a quarter said that antisemitism has caused them to hide their identity. The survey also showed that more than a quarter of American Jewish millennials approve of distancing themselves from Israel “to better fit in among friends,” and a little more than a quarter said that the anti-Israel climate in the US is making them “rethink their own commitment to Israel.”

While slightly more than half of American Jewish millennials feel that Israel is very or somewhat important to them, nearly a quarter said that antisemitism has caused them to hide their identity.

These “disturbing trends within the U.S. Jewish community’s younger cohort,” as the survey referred to them, will gain momentum and overtake American Jewry unless we Jews, and especially in Israel, know our place and role in the world. If we recognize why we are here in Israel, the whole world will recognize it, too, and respect us. If we do not, the whole world, world Jewry included, will condemn us and exclude us from the family of nations.

The fact that it has been nearly four millennia since the founding of our nation and the assumption of our role to be a light to nations does not mean that we have been relieved of our duty. We became a nation by espousing and fighting for unity above all our divisions. Because we succeeded, we were ordered to set an example to the world. That order has never been revoked, and the “anti-Israel climate,” as the AJC survey calls it, is the result of our negligence in carrying out our duty.

The formal establishment of the State of Israel, through the November 29, 1947 vote in the League of Nations (the precursor of the United Nations), was a precedent. It was, and still is the only case in history where the world’s nations debate, vote, and agree on creating a new state. But if the vote that went so well in 1947 were to be taken now, no one would vote in favor of establishing a Jewish state. After seventy-five years of negligence and contempt for our only duty—to exert to unite above our divisions—the world has lost its patience with us, hence the anti-Israel climate.

If you look at our history, and I have written two books about it (links below), you will find that all our major catastrophes were preceded by prolonged periods of division and internal hatred. Our sages in antiquity did not blame foreign enemies for our downfalls and exiles, but corruption and division that emerged from within.

They do not blame Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, for the destruction of the First Temple and the expulsion of the Jews from the land of Israel. Rather, they blame our own corruption and bloodshed, particularly among the Jewish leadership of the time.

Likewise, our sages do not blame Titus, the Roman general who later became emperor, for destroying Jerusalem and the Second Temple, and expelling the Jews. Instead, they pin it on baseless hatred among us, Jews. Our sages assumed responsibility for our woes, the complete opposite of today’s approach, which depicts us as helpless victims, when in fact we could have opted to unite in the face of adversity but failed to do so.

Today, as it happened every time in our past, Israel will not win the approval of the world until it raises the value of unity above all other values. Regardless of political opinions, culture, origin, tradition, or education, unity among Jews must be the prime value in the Israeli society. Otherwise, everyone will turn against us, as is happening now, including Jews around the world—either in order to protect themselves, or because they, too, will feel that Israel is not a country they can or want to sympathize with. They may find other justifications for distancing themselves from the Jewish state, but the real motive will be the division, partisanship, and hatred among the Jews in Israel.

Until we return to our core values of love of others, mutual responsibility, and connection above all differences, we will not have the approval of the nations to live in Israel and maintain a Jewish state here. We will continue to be pariahs in Israel, and pariahs in the world. If, however, we reassume our duty, everyone will accept us, respect us, and justify our presence here. We will not need to fight for our national survival since we will have no enemies, not even the Arabs. In such a situation, world Jewry will rally behind us and strengthen our unity even more, and we will truly be a model of unity, a light unto nations.

For more on the linkage between Jewish division and its impact on Jewish history, see my books 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 as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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No Safe Place for Jews, Unless We Create It

As the State of Israel marked Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), thousands of Muslims gathered at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and chanted slogans calling for the massacre of Jews. It raises the harsh question of whether Israel can still be considered a shelter for Jews at a time when multiple reports find record-high numbers of antisemitic incidents globally.

An estimated 150,000 Muslim worshipers took part in mass prayers on the Temple Mount by the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on May 1. Some used the occasion to march and shout “Khyber, Khyber al-Yahud”—a call for the annihilation of Jews, like the mass murder that occurred in the Khyber battle of 629 CE.

It is bitterly ironic that this happens after decades of immense efforts to curb antisemitism following the Holocaust, and in Jerusalem no less, the capital of the Jewish state, the same state conceived as the homeland and safe haven for those escaping hatred and persecution for no other reason than being Jews.?

This should remind us that it’s useless to look for a place where there are no Jew haters because we will find no such place, including Israel. Instead, we should be looking for the way to transform the hatred between Jews into love, and to build a common place of connection between us. By doing so, all the evil and rejection against us from the nations of the world and from our neighbors would be replaced by good. ?

We need to understand that if not for the hatred of the nations of the world towards us, we would have ceased to be a distinct people long ago. That is to say Jews, the smallest of minorities, and the most prominent, would have vanished among the nations. Unfortunately, we behave like brothers primarily in times of trouble. Only when pressured by hatred against us are we forced to be close to each other.

This is so because, according to our roots, we were not founded on the common denominators of residential area, family relations, origin or color, but as a conglomeration of different peoples. Therefore, there is no natural inclination and closeness between us; we need to work on it consciously. No less important, we must not wait for others to compel us.

As Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam warned back in 1940 in his writings, “Even the little we have left of the national love is not instilled in us positively, as it is in all the nations. Rather, it exists within us on a negative basis: It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers.” And added, “Its measure of warmth suffices only to an ephemeral excitement, but without the power and strength with which we can be rebuilt as a nation that carries itself. This is because a union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union.”

We have no alternative but to rise above our differences and unite. The phenomenon of antisemitism is revealed in the world as a natural response to remind the people of Israel why it exists in the world. Our only option and shield for defending ourselves against hatred is the implementation of our role as “a light unto the nations,” which can only be achieved through our unity. Plain and simple—only to the extent that we connect with one another above the rejection and hatred between us will we be able to enjoy peace and quiet.

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What If We Rewind the Clock?

The University of Cambridge magazine announced that Cambridge researchers have found a way “to rewind the clock on human skin cells by 30 years.” The body of the story is slightly less promising, explaining that the researchers were able “to partly restore the function of older cells, as well as renew the biological age,” and that “in experiments that simulated a skin wound, the partially rejuvenated cells showed signs of behaving more like youthful cells.” Although the researchers believe that “the findings could eventually revolutionise regenerative medicine,” I am not so certain. Moreover, even if they do, it will go against nature, and clashing with nature is never advisable.

Being able to rejuvenate our cells means that we will continue to live in perpetual fear of death and suffering. It confines us to our ego and keeps us jailed in our bodies. Being able to connect with all of reality on the spiritual level means that we have risen above our egos and broken through the partitions that make us feel apart.

Regenerating cells could help with some injuries or medical problems, but it will not work for the whole body. We will not be able to make ourselves thirty years younger, and any attempt to do so will bring upon us malfunctions and diseases that will prevent us from achieving it.

Besides, I would not want to perform such a procedure on myself because I do not believe that starting over is such a great idea. We may think that the experiences we have gained over the years will help us if we are young again, but they will not; we will not be any wiser.

Our bodies are not meant to live forever. They are here to serve as vehicles for achieving much more than physical existence. Real life exists not in the confines of the body, but in the connections between people, connections on every level: body (which we already have), mind (of which we have some), and spirit (of which we have none).

Because spiritual life is about connections between people’s hearts, where their desires and aspirations become intertwined and they feel each other without words, they are not confined by bodies or time. They do not need to rewind the clock because there is no clock to begin with.

Being able to rejuvenate our cells means that we will continue to live in perpetual fear of death and suffering. It confines us to our ego and keeps us jailed in our bodies. Being able to connect with all of reality on the spiritual level means that we have risen above our egos and broken through the partitions that make us feel apart.

For such a person, physical time is meaningless. Instead, there is an eternal flow of desires and feelings that continuously form new connections and new experiences.

To rise to that level, we need to invert our focus from catering to our egos to nurturing and improving our connections with others. If we work on it with likeminded people, we will be able to gradually lift these connections to a level where the body becomes meaningless and people begin to feel one another regardless of location or physical presence.

Once we achieve it with one person, we can replicate it with everyone and everything; we discover a part of reality to which we have not been privy. At that time, we rise above time. It turns out that surprisingly, the key to achieving immortality is not in biology, but in our connections with each other.?