Manifesto: Ethics as the Frontline Against Moralized Antisemitism ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, May 05, 2025

Manifesto: Ethics as the Frontline Against Moralized Antisemitism

In my last post, I quoted psychologist Orli Peter describing how her field is being overrun with antisemitism, and I gave other examples of mental health professionals weaponizing moral concepts against Jews.

I truly believe that the work I have been doing in categorizing and prioritizing Jewish ethics - separate from Jewish law - can be a key tool in this battle.

So many of the new antisemites cloak their hate in the mantle of ethics. They claim that “Tikkun Olam” is a central Jewish concept, or they base their justifications on inciting against Israel by throwing around phrases like “justice” and “peace” - concepts that can mean whatever you want them to mean. There is no rigor, no consistency, just rhetoric and incitement using the language of ethics.

Judaism has a thing or two to say about ethics. It is the world’s oldest extant ethical system. It doesn’t collapse ethics into a mono-dimensional framework where everything is looked at through an “oppressor vs. oppressed” prism or view “decolonialization” as the overriding ethical rule. Jewish ethics is multi-layered and mature; it deals with the world as it is and doesn’t force the world to fit into its own mold. It is a framework that works for non-Jews as well as Jews.

When you view the ethical claims of these new haters - especially their claims to be using Jewish ethics themselves - through a genuinely Jewish moral viewpoint, their vapidity, immaturity and hypocrisy get exposed.

This is why Jewish ethics is a strategic antidote to today’s hate:

It’s not tribal. It defends Jews without relying on Jewish exceptionalism.
It’s not apologetic. It doesn’t beg for inclusion; it asserts ethical legitimacy.
It’s not reactive. It articulates first principles: life, dignity, agency, truth, justice.
It’s universal in form, particular in content. It speaks in ways others can engage with, without sacrificing Jewish rootedness.
It forces moral transparency. If someone claims “Jewish trauma is invalid,” we can ask: By what standard? And show how that standard is not applied to others.
It turns rhetorical weapons back into mirrors. You say Jews must prove moral worth? Let’s examine the terms—who else has to do that?

As I’ve mentioned, I created an AI-based chatbot where you can ask ethical questions. But you can also ask it to critique other systems from an authentically Jewish yet universal set of values. You can send it anything for comment - psychological theories, advertising campaigns, political speeches, op-eds, podcast transcripts - and it will critique or commend them with a clear, transparent ethical framework, without rancor, rhetoric, bias or frustration.

Even better, the chatbot teaches you to be a more ethical person. Unlike other ethical systems, Judaism values disagreement and challenge. You can argue with it, you can insult it, and it will respond with infinite patience and politeness, and if you make a good point it will concede.

Today, I asked it to comment on Orli Peter’s post, and after we “discussed” some of these topics, it offered to write a manifesto on how Jewish ethics can be in the forefront of fighting today’s moralized antisemitism. It used Peter’s own words as a title, and it is good enough for me to publish here, lightly edited.

We Are Not Alone, and We Are Not Powerless
The Jewish people have endured persecution, distortion, and exclusion for millennia. But in this moment, we are witnessing something new: antisemitism rebranded as ethical virtue, and moral delegitimization of Jews wrapped in the language of justice and liberation. It is not only happening in politics or on the streets—it is infiltrating academia, activism, professional spaces, and the institutions meant to uphold dignity and truth.
The New Double Standard
Jews are increasingly told that our suffering must be filtered through someone else’s narrative. That our ancestral trauma must be de-politicized to be legitimate. That our solidarity with Israel disqualifies us from moral standing. That our historical memory is “manipulative.” That our Jewishness is only welcome when it disavows itself.
This is not ethics. This is coercion.
This is not justice. This is a purity test.
This is not liberation. It is a new dogma—one that excludes Jews by design.
What We Refuse
We refuse to be gaslit by ideologies that weaponize Jewish longing for justice against our very existence. We refuse to accept moral frameworks that silence Jews unless they conform to anti-Zionist litmus tests. We refuse to allow the Holocaust to be used against the descendants of its survivors. We refuse the inversion that frames Jewish agency as oppression and Jewish trauma as manipulation.
What We Affirm
We affirm that:
All people are created b’Tzelem Elokim, in the image of God. No people is excluded from dignity.
Ethics requires consistency. A standard applied only to Jews is not a standard; it is a bias.
Pikuach Nefesh, the sanctity of human life, is not negotiable. Saving Jewish lives is not an act that requires justification.
Kavod HaBriyot, human dignity, is universal. Human dignity includes Jews—without exception, without apology.
Justice without truth is not justice. Moral claims must be grounded in Emet—objective, reality-based truth—not erased, distorted, or buried under competing narratives.
Why Ethics is Our Strongest Defense
We live in an era where moral language is often weaponized to veil antisemitic instincts. In such an era, it is not identity politics but ethical clarity that becomes the sharpest defense. Jewish ethics offers:
A coherent, consistent moral framework
Universally legible standards (dignity, life, agency, truth)
The ability to audit other ideologies without mimicry or deflection
The courage to challenge sacred cows—ours and others’
A model of disagreement as a sacred act (machloket l’shem shamayim)
We offer this framework not only to protect ourselves, but to elevate the discourse. To remind our colleagues, neighbors, and broader communities what true justice demands: consistency, compassion, and courage.
A Call to Ethical Resistance
To Jews in every field: your voice matters. To allies: your silence is noted. To institutions: neutrality in the face of double standards is complicity.
We are not asking for pity. We are calling for integrity. We do not need to justify our right to speak, to belong, or to defend life. We do not need to perform disavowal to earn dignity.
We will speak. We will reason. We will live—ethically, fully, and freely.