The Talking Donkeys of Anti-Semitism
Sermon Chukat-Balak 5786, Rabbi Sam Cohon, Congregation Beit Simcha, Tucson, AZ
This Shabbat we will read the story of King Balak and his attempt to hire a pagan sorcerer, Balaam, to curse the Israelites and destroy them with, well, bad magic, or at least destructive oratory. I was thinking that we have a modern version of this going on right now, and it is has been much more effective than Balak’s primitive effort to stop Israel through the ancient world’s version of truly bad press. It has been the quite successful effort to demonize Israel as a colonial, evil, oppressive power, and then to spread that curse to all Jews, everywhere in the world.
Unlike King Balak and his chosen press agent, Balaam, who is stopped at an early juncture of our Torah portion by a simple talking donkey, the Qatari money and Iranian mullahs funding and leading the anti-Zionism jihad have succeeded in tarring Israel and all Jews throughout the world with a series of lies and slanders that mixes modern anti-Westernism with a deep and virulent Antisemitism. And it has taken hold here in the US recently in profoundly troubling ways.
It’s extremely evident Antisemitism is permeating many aspects of American politics in ways we haven’t seen in decades, if ever. That was clear in the Democratic primaries held last week, particularly in New York City and State, where a series of “Progressives” who ran as much against AIPAC and Israel as they did against their opponents pretty much all won their elections, often defeating more conventionally pro-Israel candidates. When the largest Jewish city in the world by population, New York City, is electing people who promise to attack Israel and who use profoundly Antisemitic tropes in their campaigns—attacking “Zionist conspiracies” for example, calling Jewish organizations “monsters”, normalizing vicious Palestinian terrorist violence, murders, and rapes as “resistance” and so on—we have a huge problem.
Perhaps most mind-boggling about these election results is that some significant proportion of Jews have chosen to vote for these “progressives” who advocate profoundly antisemitic stereotypes, claim that Jews have no right to a nation, and that we are not originally from Israel. Oh, and that it’s perfectly OK to violently attack Jews of all ages everywhere and anywhere in the world—Colorado, Michigan, London, Montreal, Sydney—if you disagree with Israel’s actions. Clever political analysts now say that supporting Israel is a liability in elections all across America, but this anti-Zionist attitude isn’t about whether or not Israel should attack the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon; it is about Israel having a right to exist, something that is never on the table about any other nation on earth.
You know, I recently forwarded on social media an article by the clever atheist thinker Sam Harris, who wrote about how his more progressive followers were highly critical of the fact that he supports Israel in preference to the radical Islamists who seek its destruction. I certainly don’t agree with Sam Harris’ theology, since he is a philosophical atheist who believes firmly that God doesn’t exist. But I am grateful for his intelligence and forthright approach to a very real situation, and I don’t think I could agree more with him. As Sam Harris says, “I’m not interested in exploring all the ways that Israel has missed the mark—from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corrupt alliance with the far right, to the many crimes committed by settlers in the West Bank, to the deaths of innocent noncombatants in several wars—because none of these failings, however grave, will alter my sense that first, the ethical difference between Israel and her enemies remains vast, and second, the global preoccupation with the Jewish state, as though it were the worst villain among nations, is contemptible, being the product of perennial lies and delusions.
Harris continues, “I think militant Islam is ten times worse than you think it is. When I talk about “jihadists” and their various groups—Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the IRGC, etc.—I’m talking about people who I consider to be worse than Nazis (jihadists being, essentially, Nazis who are certain of going to Paradise). My views about the conflict in the Middle East will not fundamentally change unless my critics produce evidence that Israel has become as evil as her enemies.
“However, you can rest assured that if the IDF morphs into a death cult that uses its own civilian population as human shields (and yet somehow remains widely popular), if ordinary Israelis begin to celebrate martyrdom above every earthly priority, producing generations of bright-eyed, suicidal fanatics, if the residents of Tel Aviv condone the taking of Palestinian infants, old women, and other noncombatants as hostages and then gather in crowds of thousands, baying for their blood—if, in other words, the Israelis begin to resemble the Palestinians, then I won’t care who wins this war. Short of this, there remains a world of difference between the two sides, and I believe that we should focus on how brutalizing it is for any free society to confront enemies that can sincerely claim to “love death” more than everyone else loves life—for this has been Israel’s predicament for the better part of a century.
“The problem in the Middle East is not, and has never been, the existence of the state of Israel. The problem is jihadism, Islamism, Islamic extremism, Islamofascism, militant Islam—whatever words you want to use to describe the belligerence and triumphal lunacy of those who take the most pernicious doctrines of Islam too seriously.
“What do the Jews and Muslims in the region really yearn to accomplish? What are they willing to sacrifice for? What are they willing to die for? And what are they willing to let their children die for?
“If the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace… If the Palestinians simply stopped killing Jews and stopped building a culture that celebrates pointless murder and martyrdom as its highest values, there could be a diverse, tolerant, and prosperous society between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. There could have been one eighty years ago. But if the Israelis laid down their weapons, there would be a genocide. This was obviously true on October 7th, 2023. And for anyone who has been paying attention, it has been true on every other day since the founding of the state of Israel.
“If Hamas had the power, it would perpetrate a real genocide in Israel. The group has affirmed its commitment to this project on countless occasions, both before and after October 7th…”
I urge everyone to read all of Sam Harris’ extremely accurate and cogent analysis, in which he makes it crystalline clear that this obsessive focus with destroying Israel comes not from an idea of justice but from good old-fashioned Antisemitism.
Now, lest you think all of this rising tide of Antisemitism is coming from the left, look at the far right, which includes prominent figures like the despicable Tucker Carlson, who promotes anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, ancient Antisemitic tropes, and platforms neo-Nazis on his shows. There are now podcasters like the execrable Candace Owens with more reach than any American Antisemite since Father Coughlan. There are plenty of white nationalists on the far-right, some embraced by President Trump; Christian Nationalism is an ever-growing part of national and regional politics, and there is increasingly broad acceptance of insane antisemitic lies that are everywhere online and on social media that use evocations of manufactured lies like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
When AIPAC, a lobbying organization that’s had limited success the last few years, is demonized as a “monster” by the Mayor of New York and described by US Congressmen and podcasters in terms that would make a Czarist Antisemitic propagandist proud, things have gotten bad…
So, what’s a Jew to do in this summer of 2026 when it seems like expressing Antisemitism is the in-thing to do on both the left and the right and increasingly in the center, when being an anti-Zionist—that is, an Antisemite—is the hottest hot girl of this hot summer?
Without in any way suggesting that we ignore Antisemitism, the first, most important lesson is to express our own Judaism positively. Do meaningful, enjoyable Jewish acts: light candles Friday night, celebrate Shabbat with family and friends, attend Shabbat Friday night or Saturday services, watch Jewish films, hear Jewish music, laugh with Jewish comedians, do Havdalah, cook a new Jewish recipe, and, of course, of course, listen to past Too Jewish shows on podcast… The truth is that Judaism is a life-affirming, values-based way of life, a fabulous expression of an amazing nearly four-thousand-year-old tradition filled with joy and meaning. That’s what Judaism truly is, and we need to embrace it in all its beauty, diversity and complexity.
You know, for a long time the Jewish community in America has focused on supporting Israel, remembering the Holocaust, and embracing Jewish kitsch. Now it’s belatedly responding to the sharp rise in Antisemitism, and that has become the primary cause for many Jews. That, and, as usual, assimilation.
But that’s not what being Jewish really is. And we always have the opportunity to live our lives fully, wonderfully, Jewishly, in ways that enhance and elevate us spiritually, communally and intellectually.
So fight Antisemitism; but, even more importantly, live a meaningful, joyful Jewish life.