Now if we, as the Jewish People, took a breather from our usual reactionary posture and defensive stance, then instead of responding to the rapidly burgeoning posse of Holocaust deniers with our usual “it did too happen”, we could take a step back and ask why, indeed, they have chosen such a crusade. Out of all potential assaults on the Jewish people, why is Holocaust denial so popular and what are the perpetrators trying to accomplish? Perhaps we would take note that the first place that Israeli politicians bring foreign diplomats is Yad Vashem – the official holocaust museum of the State of Israel. They bring these dignitaries into the Children’s Memorial Hall and show them shoes, toys and hair taken from the million and a half children murdered in cold blood. They show them the rampant anti-Semitic propaganda inundating Germany and much of Europe before the Holocaust, and demonstrate the near wholesale abandonment of the Jews to the genocidal Nazi regime by nearly the entire world. The message is these diplomats is loud and clear: “When the Jewish People don’t have a state, this is what happens to us!”
As legitimate a statement as that may be, if we base our right and legitimacy to the Land of Israel on this claim, which all too often is the implicit message, we are essentially making our own bed. Our reliance on the Holocaust as our claim to Israel is arguably the very incentive motivating these revisionists to deny it altogether, for their denial of the Holocaust is merely a means to the end of undermining the very legitimacy of the State of Israel and destroying the Jewish people. They are declaring with an ever increasing international consensus, “The Holocaust did not happen. And even if your lie were true, the Palestinians weren’t responsible for it. So now what’s your claim?”

There are many Jews who would then proceed to champion international resolutions from the League of Nations or the United Nations in order to justify our right to our land. This, of course, leaves us vulnerable to a new and improved international resolution repealing that right – an all too realistic prospect in today’s world. As we face lies and deceit from every direction, the anti-Semitic blood libels of the past have been replaced with the anti-Israel blood libels of today. All the attacks, however, share a single, critical, common denominator – in one way or another they undermine the very right for the State of Israel to exist.
This vilifying of the most humane and progressively liberal democracy in the Middle East should enflame anyone with even a modicum of respect for justice. The scope and vitriol of the aggression against our tiny state, however, is so overwhelming that most Jews cope by subconsciously fleeing into a comforting world of self-delusion and denial. Perhaps they conclude that because the criticism is so universal and comprehensive, it must be justified. Or even that our mere existence as a separate people somehow provokes and even justifies this hate. Many even join the fray, using their own Judaism as a shield to imperviously legitimize this hateful anti-Semitic sentiment, grasping on to the spurious logic that committing such national perfidy would guarantee them personal safety and immunity in the event of future anti-Semitic inflammations. There have always been such self hating Jews and an explication of their pathology far exceeds the scope of this essay.

Nonetheless, there are those brave warriors who do muster the courage to defend Israel. Usually they choose an accusation to defend, select a strategy to defend it, and found a non-profit to implement the campaign. Yet while their hearts may be in the right place and their courage laudable, this defensive approach is at best slowing the tide, and at worst adding fuel to the fire. Most would concur, however, that with all of the hate monitoring ADL’s and politician buying AIPAC’s of the world, the threat we are facing is far from neutralized.

The solution to this great problem facing the Jewish people is humbling in its simplicity. The only way to fight lies is with truth. The only cure for darkness is light. We can no longer fight this war using their language and abiding by their rules. We must dictate the terms of the discussion and ensure that our arguments remain purged of all equivocation, relativism, and pandering. Our sages teach us that all that happens in the world happens for the sake of Israel, and hence this lethal predicament is not merely an impediment we have to overcome but rather the perfect opportunity to finally fulfill our role as a light unto the nations. When seen through the prism of meticulous divine orchestration, we would realize that these attacks perfectly set the stage and align the global spotlights on our tiny country, and all we need to do is step up, clear our throats, and follow the very first directive of our most revered Torah commentator, Rashi. He prophetically explains that the Bible started not with the first commandment but rather the creation of the world, so when the nations question the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel, we can respond and say “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One. He created it and He gave it to the one found proper in His eyes.”
How long will it take for us to see that all other claims are deconstructed, refuted, and ignored. All other approaches have failed. As counterintuitive as it may seem, the Biblical claim is the only one that the world will respect and is our only chance of survival. Making such a claim would inevitably spark the “G-d debate” both within the Jewish world and without. As a nation, we would be forced to ask ourselves some very challenging questions regarding our identity, our purpose, and our G-d.

Now it is clear that this direct, bold, and unapologetic approach to the international community would be as controversial as it is revolutionary. The difference between success and failure would be in its implementation. On a recent radio show, we were honored to host a former US ambassador, whom I consider a personal mentor and friend, Alan Keyes. He made an observation that struck me as truth and has affected my perspective on affecting change ever since. He said that too often people try to preach to the other side, aiming to win over their hearts and convert their way of thinking. He said that the real way to change the world is, ironically, to preach to the choir. To create as broad and inclusive an ideological base as possible, mobilize and empower those within the camp, and with the proper encouragement, leadership, and empowerment, victory is within reach. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Jews in Israel, and around the world, that believe in G-d and that the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel is based His Torah. With the proper curriculum, systematized guidance and training, these teachings about the existence of G-d, the truth of Judaism and the Torah, and our right to the Land of Israel could proliferate throughout the world. This would not merely diffuse and redirect the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, but it would shift global consciousness with fundamental and historic implications.
Each Jew, however, needs to assess his own position in life, the tools at his disposal, and see how he can influence both his individual community and the world at large. On a personal level, many people have asked why we bother teaching the Christian world when there are so many unaffiliated Jews out there who have never been exposed to their own Jewish heritage. In the beginning, the truthful answer would have simply been “because they were the only ones that wanted to listen to us”, yet the answer now would be very different. By making waves in the non-Jewish world, we were able to serendipitously impact the Jewish world in a much more profound ways than if we have appealed to them directly to begin with. Unfortunately, many unaffiliated and secular American Jews are embarrassed by Orthodox Judaism and consider it antiquated and tribalistic. Although they don’t consciously adopt the faith of the Christian world, many rely on progressive Christian leaders forinspiration and spirituality. By including the Non-Jewish world in our outreach, we have seen that many Jews are more curious, open, and at the very least aware that there are Jews making a lot of noise in the world at large and they want to hear what it is all about.

While the application of this strategic shift would manifest in radically different ways with different people, my personal application of this philosophy has taken most recently taken the form of a television show called “Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem”. The purpose of the show is to project a positive and inspiring message out of Israel to the world. We bring exciting musicians, entertainers, and thinkers together to empower Jews throughout the world to stand tall and share their own Judaism, sharing their love for Hashem and inspiring the world with their Torah. Our goal is to provide a platform to project the truth, depth and beauty of both the spiritual giants of Jerusalem and the layman on the street. By sharing the G-d consciousness and enlightenment that is unique to Jerusalem, our hope is that others will feel emboldened and empowered to share their deepest held faith in Hashem with their friends, families, communities, and by extension, with the entire world.

Yad Vashem need not go out of business. It will just have to shift both context and position. Foreign diplomats will still see it – but it will be their last stop rather than their first. They will first get a sampling of some of the illustrious yeshivot of Jerusalem and be invited for interactive classes about G-d, Torah, and truth. They will encounter the luminaries of Israel – our great spiritual leaders who will take them on a journey throughout the Land which will touch both their eyes and their hearts. They will see the countless gemachs and charity programs for which the Jewish people are both unique and famous, bringing both inspiration and guidance back to their countries concerning man’s love and obligations towards his fellow man. They will have an all encompassing encounter with Jewish life, from the rituals and commandments, to the culture and relationships. Then, and only then, will they go to Yad Vashem and see what happens to a Jewish People exiled from their Land and their G-d. They will reluctantly depart the most elevating experience of their lives understanding that only in the Israel can the Jewish people fulfill their role and spread their light, and that is why G-d gave it to them and no one else.

Hashem is the ultimate hasbarah, we just need to do our part as his PR agents. How fortunate are we to have such a high profile client?

Unfortunately there are many worthy contenders that could legitimately qualify for such a coveted title of “the greatest problem facing the Jewish People,” but if I was forced to commit to one, it would be the universal attack on the State of Israel. Ranging from the threat of physical annihilation by a now-nuclear Iran which enjoys either the proactive support or passively complicit cooperation of the majority of the world, to the ideological and principled undermining of the country by the same cast of characters, the magnitude and scale of danger to our small country is unprecedented. A dissolution of the Jewish state either through war or politics would mean certain demise for the Jewish people, and unfortunately our enemies seem to understand this better than most Jews do. Not only does Israel harbor more Jews than any other country in the world and provide a vital refuge for the millions of others, but She is the undisputed center of Torah learning and spirituality for a battered and demoralized people.
In the global arena of public opinion, the most brutal and totalitarian of regimes, which routinely murder and torture their own people, hypocritically condemn us for those very crimes. In a charade so ridiculous that it borders on parody, Ahmadinejaad, the paradigm of a genocidal dictator, spews vitriolic hatred calling for the destruction of the Jewish State in his key note address at the Durban conference against racism. The oppressive and tyrannical Libya comically chairs the UN council on human rights, which has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than are passed against the rest of the world combined including the infamous Darfur, China, or any of the other evil regimes, each of which could very well author “The Idiots guide to perpetrating human rights violations”.

Now if we, as the Jewish People, took a breather from our usual reactionary posture and defensive stance, then instead of responding to the rapidly burgeoning posse of Holocaust deniers with our usual “it did too happen”, we could take a step back and ask why, indeed, they have chosen such a crusade. Out of all potential assaults on the Jewish people, why is Holocaust denial so popular and what are the perpetrators trying to accomplish? Perhaps we would take note that the first place that Israeli politicians bring foreign diplomats is Yad Vashem – the official holocaust museum of the State of Israel. They bring these dignitaries into the Children’s Memorial Hall and show them shoes, toys and hair taken from the million and a half children murdered in cold blood. They show them the rampant anti-Semitic propaganda inundating Germany and much of Europe before the Holocaust, and demonstrate the near wholesale abandonment of the Jews to the genocidal Nazi regime by nearly the entire world. The message is these diplomats is loud and clear: “When the Jewish People don’t have a state, this is what happens to us!”
As legitimate a statement as that may be, if we base our right and legitimacy to the Land of Israel on this claim, which all too often is the implicit message, we are essentially making our own bed. Our reliance on the Holocaust as our claim to Israel is arguably the very incentive motivating these revisionists to deny it altogether, for their denial of the Holocaust is merely a means to the end of undermining the very legitimacy of the State of Israel and destroying the Jewish people. They are declaring with an ever increasing international consensus, “The Holocaust did not happen. And even if your lie were true, the Palestinians weren’t responsible for it. So now what’s your claim?”

There are many Jews who would then proceed to champion international resolutions from the League of Nations or the United Nations in order to justify our right to our land. This, of course, leaves us vulnerable to a new and improved international resolution repealing that right – an all too realistic prospect in today’s world. As we face lies and deceit from every direction, the anti-Semitic blood libels of the past have been replaced with the anti-Israel blood libels of today. All the attacks, however, share a single, critical, common denominator – in one way or another they undermine the very right for the State of Israel to exist.
This vilifying of the most humane and progressively liberal democracy in the Middle East should enflame anyone with even a modicum of respect for justice. The scope and vitriol of the aggression against our tiny state, however, is so overwhelming that most Jews cope by subconsciously fleeing into a comforting world of self-delusion and denial. Perhaps they conclude that because the criticism is so universal and comprehensive, it must be justified. Or even that our mere existence as a separate people somehow provokes and even justifies this hate. Many even join the fray, using their own Judaism as a shield to imperviously legitimize this hateful anti-Semitic sentiment, grasping on to the spurious logic that committing such national perfidy would guarantee them personal safety and immunity in the event of future anti-Semitic inflammations. There have always been such self hating Jews and an explication of their pathology far exceeds the scope of this essay.

Nonetheless, there are those brave warriors who do muster the courage to defend Israel. Usually they choose an accusation to defend, select a strategy to defend it, and found a non-profit to implement the campaign. Yet while their hearts may be in the right place and their courage laudable, this defensive approach is at best slowing the tide, and at worst adding fuel to the fire. Most would concur, however, that with all of the hate monitoring ADL’s and politician buying AIPAC’s of the world, the threat we are facing is far from neutralized.

The solution to this great problem facing the Jewish people is humbling in its simplicity. The only way to fight lies is with truth. The only cure for darkness is light. We can no longer fight this war using their language and abiding by their rules. We must dictate the terms of the discussion and ensure that our arguments remain purged of all equivocation, relativism, and pandering. Our sages teach us that all that happens in the world happens for the sake of Israel, and hence this lethal predicament is not merely an impediment we have to overcome but rather the perfect opportunity to finally fulfill our role as a light unto the nations. When seen through the prism of meticulous divine orchestration, we would realize that these attacks perfectly set the stage and align the global spotlights on our tiny country, and all we need to do is step up, clear our throats, and follow the very first directive of our most revered Torah commentator, Rashi. He prophetically explains that the Bible started not with the first commandment but rather the creation of the world, so when the nations question the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel, we can respond and say “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One. He created it and He gave it to the one found proper in His eyes.”
How long will it take for us to see that all other claims are deconstructed, refuted, and ignored. All other approaches have failed. As counterintuitive as it may seem, the Biblical claim is the only one that the world will respect and is our only chance of survival. Making such a claim would inevitably spark the “G-d debate” both within the Jewish world and without. As a nation, we would be forced to ask ourselves some very challenging questions regarding our identity, our purpose, and our G-d.

Now it is clear that this direct, bold, and unapologetic approach to the international community would be as controversial as it is revolutionary. The difference between success and failure would be in its implementation. On a recent radio show, we were honored to host a former US ambassador, whom I consider a personal mentor and friend, Alan Keyes. He made an observation that struck me as truth and has affected my perspective on affecting change ever since. He said that too often people try to preach to the other side, aiming to win over their hearts and convert their way of thinking. He said that the real way to change the world is, ironically, to preach to the choir. To create as broad and inclusive an ideological base as possible, mobilize and empower those within the camp, and with the proper encouragement, leadership, and empowerment, victory is within reach. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Jews in Israel, and around the world, that believe in G-d and that the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel is based His Torah. With the proper curriculum, systematized guidance and training, these teachings about the existence of G-d, the truth of Judaism and the Torah, and our right to the Land of Israel could proliferate throughout the world. This would not merely diffuse and redirect the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, but it would shift global consciousness with fundamental and historic implications.
Each Jew, however, needs to assess his own position in life, the tools at his disposal, and see how he can influence both his individual community and the world at large. On a personal level, many people have asked why we bother teaching the Christian world when there are so many unaffiliated Jews out there who have never been exposed to their own Jewish heritage. In the beginning, the truthful answer would have simply been “because they were the only ones that wanted to listen to us”, yet the answer now would be very different. By making waves in the non-Jewish world, we were able to serendipitously impact the Jewish world in a much more profound ways than if we have appealed to them directly to begin with. Unfortunately, many unaffiliated and secular American Jews are embarrassed by Orthodox Judaism and consider it antiquated and tribalistic. Although they don’t consciously adopt the faith of the Christian world, many rely on progressive Christian leaders forinspiration and spirituality. By including the Non-Jewish world in our outreach, we have seen that many Jews are more curious, open, and at the very least aware that there are Jews making a lot of noise in the world at large and they want to hear what it is all about.

While the application of this strategic shift would manifest in radically different ways with different people, my personal application of this philosophy has taken most recently taken the form of a television show called “Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem”. The purpose of the show is to project a positive and inspiring message out of Israel to the world. We bring exciting musicians, entertainers, and thinkers together to empower Jews throughout the world to stand tall and share their own Judaism, sharing their love for Hashem and inspiring the world with their Torah. Our goal is to provide a platform to project the truth, depth and beauty of both the spiritual giants of Jerusalem and the layman on the street. By sharing the G-d consciousness and enlightenment that is unique to Jerusalem, our hope is that others will feel emboldened and empowered to share their deepest held faith in Hashem with their friends, families, communities, and by extension, with the entire world.

Yad Vashem need not go out of business. It will just have to shift both context and position. Foreign diplomats will still see it – but it will be their last stop rather than their first. They will first get a sampling of some of the illustrious yeshivot of Jerusalem and be invited for interactive classes about G-d, Torah, and truth. They will encounter the luminaries of Israel – our great spiritual leaders who will take them on a journey throughout the Land which will touch both their eyes and their hearts. They will see the countless gemachs and charity programs for which the Jewish people are both unique and famous, bringing both inspiration and guidance back to their countries concerning man’s love and obligations towards his fellow man. They will have an all encompassing encounter with Jewish life, from the rituals and commandments, to the culture and relationships. Then, and only then, will they go to Yad Vashem and see what happens to a Jewish People exiled from their Land and their G-d. They will reluctantly depart the most elevating experience of their lives understanding that only in the Israel can the Jewish people fulfill their role and spread their light, and that is why G-d gave it to them and no one else.

Hashem is the ultimate hasbarah, we just need to do our part as his PR agents. How fortunate are we to have such a high profile client?