Shabbat night dinner is a magical time. Jews the world over join together with family and friends to sit around the Shabbat table, to talk, to enjoy each other’s company. Flickering Shabbat candles, prayers over wine, the wafting scent of challah, and a resplendent meal all serve as backdrop for informal forums on Jewish life.
If you are serious about Judaism, regardless of your level of religious observance, Shabbat dinner is important to you.
Ever since October 7, almost every Friday night, conversations between Diaspora Jews have centered on that day. On the massacre, on Hamas, on the war. And then, on the aftermath. On the plague of attacks against Jews in the United States and around the world. The focus is on the safety and the dangers of living as Jews in the Diaspora.
No serious Jew, certainly in America, is oblivious to the change wrought upon the lives of Jews in America since October 7. And just as certainly, no American Jew is without opinion on this matter.
The issues are so dominant and the conversation around the table often reaches such a high pitch that the host, sometimes even a guest, simply out of frustration and a need to calm nerves, asks for someone to share a word about the weekly Torah portion. While once the centerpiece of Friday night discussions around the Shabbat table, thoughts, discussions and debates on the weekly Torah portion have now become a tension breaker.
Inevitably, part and parcel of Friday night table talk is the genesis of Jew-hatred of circa 2024. Many reasons – some rational and reasoned, others scarily irrational – are given. By and large, whether as host or guest, I sit back and listen intently in the hope of gleaning insight and even anecdotes, interjecting only to lend historical perspective.
Then, almost on cue, someone around the table asserts that “If only Israel had or had not” done this or that (fill in the blank) “we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
And that’s when I formally enter the conversation. As politely as I can, I explain that what I have just heard from someone sitting at a Shabbat table, is the exact point of view of the Jew hater.
The nature of a Jew hater
Jew haters blame Israel. Always. The Jew hater believes that Israel is the root cause of evil. And statements like the one just spoken are an articulation of the medieval canard of Jew-hatred. Blame the victim.
Jew-hatred has been blamed on Jews for millennia. It is wrong, I point out, to even open the door to that issue. Jews do not cause Jew-hatred! And then, I redirect the conversation toward the history of Zionism.
I truly believe that the safest place for Jews to be, even after October 7, is the Jewish State. In Israel, Jews are responsible for their own safety and security. In Israel, Jews are not dependent on others. In Israel, Jews are not afraid to be Jewish.
One of the original Zionist thinkers, Dr. Leo Pinsker saw the hatred of Jews as a sickness. The world, in his assessment, was struck by a phobia of Jews. And in the late 1800’s, Pinsker, a medical doctor by profession, coined the term: “Judeophobia.”
According to Pinsker’s analysis, there was no cure for Judeophobia. The only answer was to excise the Jews from the host environment of Jew haters. The only answer was to create a Jewish state.
Several years later, Theodor Herzl came to a similar conclusion regarding the problem of antisemitism.
All original Zionist philosophers observed that the main problem of Jews living in the Diaspora was antisemitism. And all concluded that the solution to that problem was to leave the Diaspora and create a Jewish home.
Plus ça a change: Over the past weeks, more and more people have confided to me that they are planning on buying property in Israel. They are not moving yet – just buying. When they next visit, they want to stay in their own home and come more and more often until it really feels like home.
Wanting to feel at home, in Israel, in their own home – having a safe haven was exactly the objective of the original Zionist thinkers.
Others have told me that their parents always had an “escape bag” packed with essentials. It was their just-in-case bag. Just in case they needed to run, once again, as they had in Europe. But this time, they would be prepared.
Those Shabbat table conversations have confirmed that Jews in the United States are afraid. Not fearful for themselves, fearful for their children and grandchildren. They fear for the next generation. And they have packed their own just-in-case bags.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his new "TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS." Read his latest book, Thugs. He maintains The Micah Report.