Seth Mandel: Rules for Jews
Unlike most voters, American Jews apparently do not get to choose which policies or government actions they support based on political principles. There’s a list, you see, of Special Obligations. Jews must do this or that, because as Jews we have a special obligation to everyone except ourselves.Schama: Toxic spread of antisemitism in popular culture is weaponising hate
This Law of Special Obligations is on full display in a New York Times article on the pro-Hamas crackdowns on college campuses.
The Times article itself was inevitable. Any time a politician or government does something ostensibly “for the Jews,” the Times will assign a reporter to write a story on how “the Jewish community is divided” over that thing. If kosher Chinese food were to fall like manna from the heavens, the New York Times would write a story titled “U.S. Jews Are Divided Over Free Chinese Food.” If the Times were around during the Exodus from ancient Egypt, it would publish an article titled “Schism Within Jewish Community Over Freedom From Slavery.” If the Purim story were to happen today, we’d get “How Haman’s Humiliation Has Become Fraught For Many Jews.”
The current version is “Trump’s Fight Against Antisemitism Has Become Fraught for Many Jews,” though another Times article about this topic used the “schism” framing, and a third used “divide” in the headline.
The point is not that it’s unusual for Jews to have varying opinions on the same issue—that’s the norm. Instead, what jumps out from the Times piece and others like it is the idea that Jews don’t get to choose. Like Hebrew National hot dogs, we answer to a higher authority apparently. Unlike Hebrew National hot dogs, the higher authority being referenced isn’t God.
It turns out that, like Judaism itself, Jewish political opinion-forming entails many rules. As far as I can tell, here are the main ones.
From the Times: “‘Find me a moment in history when Jews anywhere benefited from a mix of rampant nationalism and repression,’ wrote the journalist Matt Bai in a Washington Post opinion piece on Tuesday. ‘You’ll be looking awhile.’”
You’ve heard, no doubt, the refrain that “Jews are the canary in the coalmine.” It’s true: When Jews are systematically mistreated, others will likely be in for some pain in the near future. But here we have the inverse: Jews are not the canaries but the miners who are saved by the selfless sacrifice of the precious yellow birds.
Hence we have a new rule: Jews are the coalminers in the coalmine. (How’s that for an image.) If something is happening to someone else, that thing will also happen to the Jews. It’s the corollary of: If something is happening to the Jews, that thing will also happen to others. (Sensing a pattern here.)
On to the next rule. The Times writes: “‘Anytime you put Jews in the middle on an issue, it’s not good for the Jews,’ said Jonathan Jacoby of the Nexus Project, a progressive Jewish group that has been searching for a way to combat antisemitism without suppressing political debate. ‘That’s a classic antisemitic position that antisemites like to put Jews. So they can be scapegoated.’”
The British historian Sir Simon Schama has spoken out about the “toxic” spread of antisemitism in popular culture since 7 October 2023.Uri Kurlianchik: Six Lessons from the Holocaust According to Menachem Begin
He said that the rise of anti-Jewish hatred was “extremely upsetting” before the events of that day, but that the hatred had now spread like an “infection”.
Sir Simon described the “trivialisation and debasement” of Holocaust memory by controversial public figures with vast social media followings.
He singled out disgraced rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, for the design of his latest album which he said was “nothing more than an enormous swastika”; and the billionaire Elon Musk for doing the “heil salute twice in a public setting”.
The remarks were part of a keynote lecture that Sir Simon delivered at the Contemporary Antisemitism London 2025 conference at the JW3 centre this week. It came days before the screening of his latest film, Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz, which airs on BBC2 on 7 April.
Despite having written extensively about Jewish history and the holocaust, Sir Simon — who was born two weeks after the liberation of Auschwitz — had never previously visited the Nazi death camp.
“It’s when you see this really horrifying transfusion of this toxin into popular culture, when it’s coupled with data from the Anti-Defamation League and the Claims Conference that it’s the younger generation … who are least likely to be familiar with the Holocaust and are most likely to dismiss its magnitude, that really if you happen to be in a position to get to make the kind of film that I have, that you want to grab that opportunity,” he said.
The documentary sees Sir Simon travel to mass killing sites in Lithuania, the home of his mother’s family, and to the Netherlands — a nation famed for its long history of tolerance — to reveal how deep-rooted prejudice was weaponised across the continent to turn people against their Jewish neighbours.
Speaking at JW3, he said that he feels the Holocaust memory “has, in a way, been reduced to Anne Frank on the one hand and Auschwitz on the other”. He explained this by saying he believes the memory of the Holocaust has been de-Judaised and made more palatable for a broad audience.
His film, he said, was an attempt to “reanimate Jewish presence” and “resist the temptation to dilute, to moderate, to universalise”.
In 1978, former Israeli Prime Minister Begin wrote down what he considered were the most important lessons of the Holocaust. These lessons are as important today as they were 45 years ago.
First, if the enemy of the Jews says that he has in his heart, in his blood, an ambition to destroy the Jews - do not underestimate him, do not mock him. Do not doubt him. Take his ambition seriously, treat his words with all the severity inherent in them. Deprive him of the power to destroy you. Prepare every day for the day. Never again say: it is not serious.
Second, never again ask: what will the world say? Know this: the world will never have mercy for slaughtered Jews but the world will always have respect for fighting Jews.
Third, keep a weapon. Study it and sanctify it wherever you dwell. It is the weapon of holiness. A weapon of life, honor, freedom. Never abandon it and never throw it away. We believe in the vision of the end of days, yes, but who knows when it will come? Meanwhile, as long as there is a weapon in the hands of even one enemy of the Jews, a people that has been slaughtered and butchered throughout the generations… keep your weapons.
Fourth, the Torah, in order to preserve it, demands that safeguards be placed around it. The same is true for the people of the Torah. The first safeguard is Jewish dignity. The seeds of Jewish destruction lie in passively enabling the enemy to humiliate us. Only when the enemy succeeds in turning the spirit of the Jew into dust and ashes in life, can he turn the Jew into dust and ashes in death. During the Holocaust it was after the enemy had humiliated the Jews, trampled them, divided them, deceived them, afflicted them, drove brother against brother, only then could he lead them to the gates of Auschwitz. Therefore, at all times and whatever the cost, safeguard the dignity and honor of the Jewish people.









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