I’m grateful for the work of Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. To bring the vital message to #StandUpToJewishHate” to more than 100 million Super Bowl viewers is admirable. But now that the Super Bowl is over, and the 30-second commercial has passed, Jewish philanthropists need to look seriously at the sort of long-term investments that have always proven to be the most effective in combating antisemitism: Jewish knowledge, Jewish content, and deeper Jewish life.
Several years ago, after the synagogue massacre at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation, Bari Weiss wrote an insightful essay (“To Fight Anti-Semitism Be a Proud Jew,” The New York Times, September 2019) arguing correctly that the most productive response to a rise in antisemitism is to build a Jewish life with sufficient depth and meaning as to “lead Jews to a Judaism capable of lighting a fire in every Jewish soul.”
At this very moment, four months into the Israel-Hamas War, at a moment of American Jewish disillusionment with those previously seen as allies, and with the increasingly hostile environment on our college campuses, there may be a greater desire for Jewish content than there has been in many decades. Earlier in our experience, rises in antisemitism and marginalization have raised Jewish consciousness around their identity and sparked a renaissance of Jewish learning.
One such example from the previous century is the Bucherei des Schocken Verlag (Library of the Schocken Verlag), a series of books on Jewish life and literature, published in Germany from 1933-1939 and available by subscription. Its 83 volumes encompass Bible, Rabbinic literature, medieval and modern poetry, history, mysticism, philosophy, and more.
The first volume, a translation of Isaiah’s prophecies of comfort by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, was published six months after Nazi book burnings in Berlin. The last volume, by the philosopher Hermann Cohen, was printed in the late months of 1939. This renaissance of Jewish identity and learning in the face of unparalleled antisemitism is both inspiring and noteworthy.
The United States today certainly isn’t Germany in the 1930s. However, in Weiss’s words, if “our best strategy is to build, without shame, a Judaism and a Jewish people and a Jewish state that are not only safe and resilient but also generative, humane, joyful and life-affirming,” then it will require reclaiming and embracing the texts and ideas that have sustained and nourished us through the ages.
Prioritizing knowledge over faithfulness
Leon Wieseltier, in his bold 2011 article, (“Language, Identity, and the Scandal of American Jewry,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Volume 86, Nos. 1/2, Winter/Spring 2011), distinguished between two instruments of Jewish identity: conviction and competence. To an American Jewish community marked by significant intellectual capacity matched with skepticism, Wieseltier correctly posited: “I have no doubt that the future of Jewish culture in America will be determined more by Jewish competence than by Jewish conviction…” He argued for prioritizing knowledge over faithfulness. “If we cannot make sure that we will be followed by believing Jews, we certainly can be sure that we will be followed by competent Jews… Ignorance, I think, is much more damaging than heresy.”
Now, more than ever, we need a Torah-intoxicated liberal Judaism in America that is able to apply Jewish texts and ideas to the most pressing issues of our day. These texts hold the key to the values we affirm, the types of communities we seek to build, and provide a particularly Jewish basis for our politics and practices.
Moreover, the ethos of the beit midrash is rooted in an embrace of constructive disagreement, a value sought today by all Americans.
There are successful models of the work to revive and amplify the beit midrash in contemporary Jewish life. I am proud that the mission of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies is exclusively focused on this, alongside other organizations such as Hadar and Svara. Each, in distinctive ways, lifts the centrality of texts and ideas. Thankfully, today there are also diverse delivery systems and new technology that can make Jewish learning more accessible and inexpensive for all. Sefaria, the Jewish Learning Collaborative; the recently opened Lehrhaus in Boston; and many others do this quite well.
In his moonshot for universal American Jewish literacy in 20 years, Andres Spokoiny argues for a “Birthright Judaism” that includes destination retreats and built-in incentivizations such as day school, and camp discounts for those adults who complete 100 hours of study. Let us bring to the table more ideas, our best minds, and our most committed funders.
This moment too, in which we are experiencing a rise in antisemitism in the US, holds the possibility of fueling a Jewish cultural revival.
Let us think of the 30-second Super Bowl commercial on antisemitism as the kickoff of sorts to a longer, sustained drive down the field. Advancing the ability to read our classic texts, articulate our distinctive ideas, and make Jewish content available to all, is the place to begin. The long-term security and well-being of the American Jewish community will be ensured by investing in institutions and initiatives that build Jewish lives of depth and meaning.
The writer is president of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.