The religious/conservative Jewish community – that is, the Jewish community that is not owned by the progressive liberal left the likes of which include any Jew in the Obama or Clinton cabinet or any Jew who supports Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or any of the members of the obnoxious “squad” or anyone who thinks that Judaism is a “pro-choice” religion as the late Rabbi Balfour Brickner proclaimed - has been under attack of late, mainly from the far left.
In Georgia, the Reverend Warnock in the past has proclaimed that Israel is an apartheid state akin to South Africa. The very assimilated actress Natalie Portman, who was born in Israel, has had no problem doing ads in favor of Warnock. Apparently, his support of abortion rights for any baby at any stage of gestation, trumps his overt anti-Semitism. Being a Leftist means supporting anti-Semites.
This is the assimilated world that forms the ethos of the Portmans of the world: one in which the 20th Century Holocaust is “no big deal” and is comparable to chickens being devoured by humans: in fact, eating meat is comparable to killing Jewish children! Portman – like many liberals – is also tragically pro- abortion. Portman has no problem with PETA’s infamous “The Holocaust on your Plate” campaign. Portman attempts to hide her own discomfort with Judaism and her self-hatred under her having been born Jewish.
Enter Channukah! Channukah has of late been denigrated by assimilated Jews, and of course, by the New York Times which routinely publishes articles from writers who are technically not even Jewish (including one by a woman born to a Catholic mother and Jewish father and raised as Unitarian). These writers object to the fact that the Maccabees were actually true to Judaism unlike the Hellenized Jews who had no problem with pigs being sacrificed in the Temple! They lament the fact that the “sophisticated” Hellenized Jews lost although they exist today in the form of Natalie Portman, Michael David Lukas and the obnoxious Sarah Prager, author of “Saying Goodbye to Hanukkah”. The fact that attacks on Jewish people in the USA – particularly on Orthodox Jews in NYC - have spiked dramatically especially during Jewish holidays, means nothing to them. In 2019, the community of Monsey was violently attacked by a man with a machete. No comment from Natalie Portman. Or from Charles Schumer who is hiding from the mob.
Where are our Maccabees? The so-called “organized” Jewish community rallies around the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – including the about to be former congressman Max Rose who represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn – as well as around the vicious Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and the wolf in sheep’s clothing Jon Ossoff who assures us that Warnock did not really mean the hateful things that he has been saying for years.
Our Maccabees are those who will stand up to Establishment Jews and will assert that Tikkun Olam, or “healing the world” is not a suicide pact. Are there enough left to make a difference?
Alice Lemos, JLL contributor.
