Q: There is a growing initiative in the US for Christians students to advocate for Israel on campus. Why does it seem like the Jewish students are not advocating themselves?
-anonymous

If you see a group of dignified suit clad men walking down the streets of Paris wearing awkwardly positioned Yankee caps, it is a safe bet that they are Orthodox Jews. The universal warning meted out to Jews in France is not to display any outward signs of Judaism for fear of vicious and unprovoked attacks which have been commonplace in the many places throughout Europe. Logic would dictate that the comfort level of wearing a kippah, or yarmulke (skullcap), is an accurate yardstick for anti-Semitic sentiment, and orders to refrain from publicly expressing ones Judaism is cause to be concerned about the future of Jews in that country. By that standard of measurement, it is time for American Jews to be concerned; if not yet in the entire country, then for now at least on college campuses.

Universities throughout America are the fastest growing hotbeds of anti-Semitism in the country. While the traditional outright Jew hatred is out of style and politically incorrect, the new mask with which this old hatred has disguised itself is hatred of the Jewish state which is no less vitriolic and venomous. These haters are zealous, energized, and equipped with sound-bites full of hypocritical indictments, perverse distortions, and twisted lies. Many religious Jews on campuses throughout America are throwing up their hands and putting on their baseball caps as well. “They are just not up for the fight” one student explained. Considering that the students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, the hate spewing forth from the lunchrooms to the classrooms of U.S. universities may very well be the harbinger of a bleak future for American Jewry.

Our rabbis explain that we should not view the difficulties and challenges in our lives as punishments, but rather as a perfectly tailored education explaining “a person is measured in the manner that he measures others. Samson pursued the desire of his eyes and therefore lost his eyes at the hands of the Philistines; Absalom was haughty about his hair and was therefore hung by his hair…”[Tractate Sotah 8:b]. King Solomon explains in Proverbs that “a fool doesn’t desire understanding” and it is therefore incumbent upon us to search for this elusive understanding and discern how this fermenting plague of hatred which we face in American academia is for our growth and benefit.

The fact that liberal academics are at the forefront of these attacks should raise some eyebrows. Universities, colleges, and establishments of higher education should theoretically be bastions of free thought and exchange of ideas, yet it is from these very institutions that the loudest boycotts and most hateful sentiments emanate. Liberalism supposedly stands for individual rights and equality of opportunity, yet these progressive “liberals” vilify Israel, one of the most liberal democracies in the world, in favor of governments which not only prohibit women from voting but routinely condone honor killings and legalize the violent abuse of those unfortunate ladies who lose track of time and burn supper. Freedom of anything is unheard of in these countries, and many of these liberals would be killed the minute they stepped foot in these countries for which they march. Adding insult to injury, American Jewry has historically been overwhelmingly liberal, and many of the honest would even confess theologically liberal, as their liberalism often replaces their Judaism as the religion of choice. As we have so often seen throughout history, it is with the very idols that we have created that G-d disciplines us, revealing their inherent emptiness and futility as well as what he desires of us.

What is most telling, however, is the strategy of the assault. The main attack is not about roadblocks or separation barriers but Israel’s very right to exist. The beauty of the attack on the fundamental legitimacy of the Jewish state is that we are being forced to articulate a defense. The majority of advocacy training which the relatively few students with the will to fight receive exclusively defends Israel’s establishment with secular political explanations involving various United Nations resolutions and international treaties. Nearly 60 years down the road however, these defenses not only don’t assuage the attacks, but they don’t even satisfy the Jewish students themselves. Crediting Harry Truman and the United Nations with the rebirth of the Jewish State after two thousand years of exile elicits lukewarm interest in these Jewish student which is dwarfed by the vicious fervor of their adversaries causing them to sit this fight out, taking the kippah off and putting the patriotic school cap on.

Students are starting to realize that while these secular defenses are valid, they are nonetheless incomplete. Unfortunately, no one is coming to their aid and giving them the education and understanding for which they so clearly thirst. If Jewish students don’t understand that Israel is their historical homeland, their Biblical birthright, and an integral part of their Jewish identity, then the battle is lost. If Jewish students don’t understand that their right to the Land of Israel is based on the Torah then we are destined for defeat. The preeminent Biblical commentator, Rashi, explains that the Torah begins with the creation of the world in order to establish G-d’s ownership and his right to bestow the Land of Israel to the Jewish people according to his will. If the students don’t know whether they believe this themselves, then it is time to investigate the existence of G-d and the veracity of the claim that the Torah is divine. It is these questions that we are supposed to be asking, and we should be unrelenting in our pursuit of their truthful answers.

The Jewish people are charged with the task of being a “light unto the nations”. This does not merely mean we should invent vaccines and technology, but that we should provide morality, truth, and an awareness of G-d to the world. The prophet Havakuk declares that “the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem’s glory, as the waters cover the seabed.”(2:14) With perfect divine justice, the void that we have left by not fulfilling our role as teachers of truth to the world has been filled by professors shamelessly teaching lies.

Only when we pursue our right to Israel to its logical conclusion can we possibly understand why G-d has used this mechanism to discipline us. In perfect divine justice, the reaction that the almighty has to Only when we fulfill our role as teachers There is no reason to allow these “liberal” haters to dictate the language and terms of the debate – we must penetrate to the very root of the matter and teach them why Israel is truly ours. Only then can we proudly defend our homeland and fulfill our mission as the Jewish People. Only then will the baseball hats come off.

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