Our Sad, Sad Times

The ghetto Jew didn't die out in Europe, it simply moved to Flatbush

I was talking to a student today in Touro during Business Management when this grown Jewish male informed me, without meaning to, that he has zero testosterone in his bloodstream. We were discussing the Israel rally last night where we were outshouted and outnumbered by the Arab counter protesters, and this kid said, with a completely straight face, that this humiliation was in fact a good thing. He said it proudly, like he just solved antisemitism. In his world, Jews must be passive and submissive to the goyim.

He explained that if we show any Jewish strength, if we dare act like an actual nation instead of a doormat, it will cause antisemitism. This is his theology: if Jews breathe too loudly, someone might get upset. Meanwhile the people yelling for our heads are already trying to kill us before breakfast, but in his mind it is our fault for not whispering quietly enough while we exist.

Then he went deeper into his self hatred philosophy. He said it was good that we were outshouted because if we had outshouted them, they would have wanted to kill us. As if these mobs need volume-based incentives to hate Jews. This is like saying, do not defend yourself from a mugger because he might get mad and hit you harder. Rookie level Stockholm Syndrome.

And then he dropped the line that sent me into orbit. He brought a moshul and cited rabbis who claim the Holocaust happened because Jews tried to rise up in German society. According to him, if the Jews had remained in the shadows, hiding like medieval peasants, none of that would have happened. This is what he actually believes. His big insight is that Jews died because they stood straight, not because evil existed.

This ideology is not humility, it is not Judaism, it is not frumkeit. It is the same broken, cowardly ghetto mindset our ancestors tried desperately to shake off for centuries. It takes everything noble about Jewish identity and stuffs it into a drawer because its adherents are too cowardly to admit they are pathetic nerds who fold the moment life stops handing out participation trophies. It is the theology of a victim who wants to stay a victim, and demands everyone else sit in the corner with him.

We need a backbone and Hashem should help us.