Why Don't People Respect the Jews?

Respect is earned through strength, not demanded in a whiney voice

I was in Brooklyn the other day, circling for parking like everyone else, and I finally spot a spot where the sign says I’m allowed to park… in fifteen minutes, so that meant some waiting in the car. So I pull in, put the car in park, and figure what better way to wait then listen to some good Jewish music. If I’m listening to Jewish music, I’m not doing it politely through rolled-up windows like a hostage. I’m sharing it; that’s the whole point.

So I do what any normal, unapologetic Jew should do. I roll the windows down, crank the bass, and blast some real Jewish music. Not the sad-boy acoustic stuff people only pretend to like when they want to sound deep, I mean actual Yiddishkeit with a pulse. I mean actual Yiddishkeit. Shwekey’s Am Yisrael. Subwoofer shaking the car, windows down. Let the block enjoy it.

Now, there is a certain type of Jew, you know the species, who would have panic-attacked on the spot. The YU guy whose entire personality is apologizing for taking up space. Or the hardcore yeshivish guy who thinks the biggest chillul Hashem in the world is a Jew being seen by a non-Jew. Their brains short-circuit: “If the goyim hear your music they’ll hate us forever oh no oh no antisemitism oh no.” These people live in a permanent shtetl mindset. They think Jewish identity is radioactive and must be hidden in cloistered BMG.

Anyway, back to reality. As soon as the music starts, the people on the block start vibing. Not Jews, locals. Brooklyn types. They look in, hear the beat, and they start dancing. I’m not exaggerating, full-on dancing. Pulling moves to a song screaming Am Yisrael lo mifached, Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. They knew it was Jewish music. They knew I was Jewish. And they loved it.

Guess who they respected more in that moment. Me, the guy who clearly respects himself? Or the terrified YU guy who is unsure why he is Jewish or even what Judaism means? Y’know, the archetype who spends his whole life trying not to be noticed, as if invisibility is the highest middah a Jew can reach.

People don’t respect weakness, they respect confidence. They respect people who own what they are and are proud of their culture. Everyone else blasts their culture proudly and nobody calls it a chillul Hashem. But a Jew does it and suddenly the ADL PR team is in for some overtime.

I switched the song to Ani Ma’amin and they kept dancing. When I got out of the car they gave me that nod men give to someone who isn’t playacting confidence but actually has it.

For thousands of years, Jews were forced into ghettos and trained to be scared of their own shadows. The Lubavitcher Rebbe shattered that garbage mentality. He put mitzvah tanks in the street, blasting Jewish music so loud you could hear it from the tother side of Manhattan. And predictably, the same fragile crowd complained. Too loud, too public, too unapologetically Jewish. They’re going to hate us. Spoiler: they didn’t. The only people who hated it were the ones who were already embarrassed to be Jewish in the first place.

If you want respect, start by acting like someone who deserves it. Jews who hide create antisemitism while Jews who stand tall smash it.