welcome to Rosh hashanah 2024 edition
Editorial
Shanah Tovah!
In this edition of Shalom Magazine, we are excited to welcome many new contributors who have brought fresh perspectives and showcased the diversity of our community. I am deeply grateful to individuals from around the world who took time from their busy schedules to write articles that resonate with our readers.
The concept of kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba’zeh — the idea that each Jew is responsible for one another — cannot be taken for granted. Regardless of where you stand on the current conflict, we all witnessed the world’s unified outrage following the brutal killing of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
In this communal responsibility, we feel the sorrow as if these victims were our own family members. This is the key takeaway from these challenging times in Jewish history: we will not be divided, we will not abandon our traditions, and we will not be afraid to support our Jewish homeland while proudly upholding our Jewish identity.
Right now, there is a prevailing sense of abandonment within our community. In Israel, hundreds of thousands are protesting in the streets, screaming that the country’s leadership is not doing enough to protect its citizens and prioritize the safe return of the hostages. Around the world, Jewish students feel their schools are failing to shield them from harassment. Jews in the US are struggling to see meaningful action from community leaders and face mixed messages from politicians when dealing with antisemitism.
This is the time to shine light and dispel the darkness. The Jewish month of Elul, a time for connecting with G-d and seeking forgiveness, is the perfect moment to do so.
I hope the words in this edition inspire you to connect your soul with the lessons of Jewish history, and may we all be blessed with peace.
Wishing you a joyous and meaningful Jewish New Year.
Shirley Nigri Farber - Publisher
Exclusive Altruism – Prolonging the Conflict
Shalom Magazine Rosh Hashanah 2024
By Benny Hirschel
The quote from Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” captures the irony of organizations that end up betraying their own ideals.
NGOs and UN-related institutions, for example, have historically displayed virulent anti-Israel rhetoric and bias in their actions. From Day One of the October 7 war, however, hypocrisy has become the norm, with extreme global outrage regarding treatment of the Palestinians unmatched in earlier and even larger conflicts.
These humanitarians have stopped heeding their main principle, “Do no harm.” Where Effective Altruists try to do the largest amount of good for the many, modern humanitarians have frequently become “Exclusive Altruists” – only portraying concern for some. It appears that during this conflict, humanitarians the world over have undeniably shown little or no concern for Israelis or Jews.
Israel is a young country that operates within a complex arena. Still, Israel has imperfectly tried to further peace. Israel also tries to stay ethical in war, even with a barbaric opponent with stated genocidal intentions. The intense criticism Israel receives has left many Israelis and Jews across the world feeling isolated, baffled and betrayed.
Why does Israel, the most liberal country in the Middle East, get such disproportionate rebuke? Is this due to antisemitism or other factors? Below are seven thoughts, which represent a combination of rational and irrational factors, that seem to influence this new phenomenon: care for the oppressed cloaked in carelessness for some: Zionists/Israelis (A/K/A Jews).
Caveat: This writing in no way seeks to minimize the deaths of innocent people in this conflict.
News and Information
Journalistic Overexposure
Garbage in, garbage out. The media’s overexposure of Israel blurs the picture for outside observers. Israel’s constant presence in the news is due to its historic nature and influenced by geopolitical and religious interests. The extensive coverage of Israel often brushes over the complexities and challenges Israel faces, which are primarily fueled by Iranian terror funding and radical Islam. Sometimes it comes from lack of information and/or lack of context.
Reliable Disinformation – Third Party “Independent” Verification
Humanitarians primarily rely on data from entities that have long proven unreliable at best. This creates a snowball of disinformation for Exclusive Altruists to use as a reputable sounding source (e.g., Gaza Health ministry/UNRWA “teachers.") Similarly with regard to donor aid, there is a tendency among aid organizations to rely on others to perform the “dirty work,” where proper oversight is often lacking.
Donations frequently pass through intermediaries that pledge not to support terrorism. The effectiveness of such pledges is questionable, as the lack of rigorous cross-checks ensures that terrorists can easily exploit foreign donations.
The Subconscious/Psychology
Underdog Perception and Scapegoating of Israel
The “underdog perception” also plays a significant role. Many individuals blindly support the underdog and avoid answering pertinent questions. This sympathy from NGOs and well-meaning individuals has led to long-term dependency on aid, as seen in Gaza, where the population has become reliant on international assistance.
While the suffering of innocent Palestinians is undeniable, blaming Israel for their hardships ignores the role of their own (elected!) leaders in ignoring an Egyptian border, Gazan territory, and the UN-confirmed Israel's right to exist and right of self defense.
Mental Biases – Empty Vessels Sound the Loudest
Pro-Hamas protestors frequently exhibit a lack of historic and factual knowledge of the conflict. The combination of politics, disinformation, language barriers and our mental biases makes the conflict complicated to understand.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the psychological phenomenon where people with limited knowledge tend to overestimate their understanding. In the age of the internet, where everyone has access to information but not necessarily the skills to interpret it correctly, it is easy to believe one has attained sufficient knowledge of the subject.
Philosophical Pragmatism
Calculated Choice of Victims
In moral philosophy, the “trolley problem” describes conflicting choices – for instance, when steering a train-trolley into one of two groups of people. Similarly, in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, aid organizations may rationalize supporting Palestinians living in dire conditions, even when this support might indirectly harm Israelis, as in the case of the UNRWA-funded educators who turned out to be terrorists.
Ten thousand poor Gazan deaths by bombs is surely worse than a few thousand Israelis/Zionists/Jews that have an army? This recalls similar outrage about German civilian deaths in WWII that was never publicized, for an undefined reason.
Economic Pragmatism
Humanitarian Aid “Spray and Pray”
Humanitarian aid organizations, too, are not immune to these biases. In some cases, the sheer scale of their operations leads to a “size effect,” where thorough due diligence is sacrificed for efficiency. Aid is often distributed without robust assessments, especially in complex regions like Gaza, where intermediary companies handle the distribution. This approach, sometimes dubbed "spray and pray," can result in aid inadvertently supporting corrupt governments or terrorist organizations like Hamas, which controls much of Gaza and actively promotes violence against Israel.
Aid Justifies the Means
Machiavelli’s principle “the end justifies the means” also seems to be applied by the humanitarian sector during this war. Aid organizations will sometimes simplify their messaging in order to rally support and secure donations, therefore portray conflicts in black-and-white terms.
This oversimplification leads to biased actions that prioritize the organization’s relevance over accurately assessing the damage that aid causes. Israel is thus careless about civilians' lives, whereas Hamas’ continued rockets directly aimed at exclusive civilian areas for years are not mentioned, or scarcely condemned.
NGOs and UN (-related) Institutions need to be Reformed
For some Exclusive Altruists, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For the majority, cynical Effective Altruists, lofty sounding terms like Human Rights, aid and International Law simply provide cover for antisemitism. Their singular focus and simplified version of the conflict is unique, their lack of interest in discerning the required questions in the face of real consequences to Israelis and Jews cannot be explained. In effect, it becomes appeasement of radical Islam/terrorism. The result is to the detriment of Israelis and innocent Palestinians alike.
At a national level, Western nations try to retain cohesion in their own society and geopolitics by feigning even-handedness. Other, small, often-autocratic nations have hijacked global NGOs to cover up their own internal failings.
To truly adhere to humanitarian principles, aid organizations must move beyond simplistic virtue signaling. This finger-pointing at Israel – often in a forced effort to show even-handedness - ultimately prolongs the conflict and harms the Palestinians that Exclusive Altruists claim to care about.
The writer, who uses a pseudonym, is a “Wondering European Jew” who has lived in four countries across three continents and now calls Tel Aviv home. To read more about him, visit https://bennyhirschel.substack.com/p/exclusive-altruism-refined
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Not All Saints or All Sinners
By Elizabeth Samson
Heading into Fall of 2024, the weight of last year’s Jewish holiday season looms large before us, and as of this writing, it is almost a year since the terrorist attacks of October 7, perpetrated on Simchat Torah, the day in which we celebrate, dance and sing with the Torah, the embodiment of the Jewish people’s covenant with G-d.
This monumental time for our community coincides with one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in modern memory – former Republican President Donald Trump, arguably one the most polarizing figures in American political history, against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, a veteran politician who some say has yet to really define herself.
As we stand on the precipice of one of the greatest existential threats to Israel and the Jewish people, amid unbridled and rising antisemitism both at home and abroad, the American Jewish community is looking to the Republican and Democratic parties to see who will best pick up the mantle of our cause.
With the latest news on September 1 that six hostages had been found dead, murdered only three days before being rescued by the Israel Defense Forces, there is barely anything we can say to each other that we don't already feel and know. And as for the rest of the world, it's like the Jewish people are collectively screaming into the wind and one wonders if we have made any progress at all in rallying the powers that be to our struggle.
But the parties and their candidates who seek the highest office in the land know they need to listen – if they want our support and our votes. While this may seem cynically transactional, it is the nature of the beast. The time given to the cause of Israel at this year’s Republican and Democratic National Conventions is a reflection of that understanding.
The participation of the families of hostages at both conventions demonstrated an appreciation for the platform as an unparalleled opportunity to obtain nationwide coverage of the horror endured by their loved ones at the hands of Hamas in Gaza, as well as a chance for each party to demonstrate its support for Israel and the plight of the Israeli victims of terror.
A large swath of pro-Israel, Zionist leaning American Jews have supported Trump in the past, and especially in the wake of October 7, their efforts have been renewed with verbal daggers being thrown at Harris and the Biden Administration regarding its failure to assist Israel in obtaining a deal to release all the hostages and to secure Israeli territory and its borders.
Criticism of the Democrats also includes accusations of being overly sympathetic to the American Muslim community in the aftermath of October 7, a demographic that the Republicans are not actively courting. And although the Republicans tout themselves as the party of strength that unequivocally supports Israel, and which criticizes the Democrats for their alleged ambiguity in its support, there is enough doubt to go around.
The parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra addressed the Republican convention on July 17, saying that Trump called them “right after the attack when Omer was taken captive” and that they know Trump “stands with our American hostages.” Their devastating plea was heard throughout the world and the crowd at the convention filled the air with chants of “bring them home” – the rallying cry for releasing all the hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
The show of solidarity, though meaningful, must also be viewed in the context of the larger picture of who else was allowed to speak. Despite the mudslinging at the Democrats and accusations of a weak allegiance to Israel and American Jews, the Republicans’ hands are hardly clean.
In what the New York Times called “a tricky two-step,” the Republican Convention on July 15 featured North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson who has a documented history of antisemitic comments and who has called the Holocaust “hogwash,” questioning the number of 6 million Jewish dead during WWII. Another highlighted guest on July 15 was conservative youth leader Charlie Kirk, who has a long history of flagrantly antisemitic statements, and whose organization Turning Point USA has profiled and promoted Candace Owens, a notorious purveyor of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and racial prejudice. “Turning Point” hosted a rally for Donald Trump which he attended on August 23, an event in which many of the other guest speakers were antisemitic bedfellows as well.
While those in the Jewish community may choose to turn a blind eye to these facts so long as Trump also proclaims unequivocal support for Israel, the cognitive dissonance required to separate the two can make one’s head spin.
Although they may not be courting anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Muslims who deny the tragedy of October 7, Trump and the Republicans are enthusiastically courting the antisemitic “everyone else” who can get them votes based on isolationism and fearmongering, and who, as has been reported in the New York Times, also propagate the “‘white replacement’ theory that Jews were orchestrating the dilution of white power by allegedly encouraging mass immigration.”
On August 21, the Democratic National Convention hosted the parents of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered shortly before his rescue by the IDF on September 1. The plea of Hersh’s parents, Jon and Rachel, to the Democratic party, the American people, and the world was nothing short of heartbreaking and many in the audience were visibly moved to tears.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have consistently and unwaveringly expressed their support for Israel’s war against Hamas, and in Vice President Harris’s acceptance speech of the Democratic party nomination on August 22, she stated “The people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7.” But the inclusion of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, also the first Muslim elected to Congress, may have been a very quiet dog whistle to the leftist, pro-Palestinian elements in the Democratic party such as Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Ellison’s speech fell short of criticizing Israel, but his past associations with the Nation of Islam and the antisemite Louis Farrakhan may not be quickly forgotten, as he echoed the Democratic party line of both needing a cease-fire in Gaza – often advocated without acknowledgement of the need to sustain Israeli security - and to bring the hostages home.
Harris’ mention of Israel in her speech was an outlier at the convention, as Ellison and many other speakers did not mention Israel by name since those in Democratic party leadership understand that the party’s Muslim constituency and others harbor sensitivity to the plight of Palestinians, oftentimes without regard for the suffering of Israelis. And many support terror-designated Hamas who are the leadership in Gaza, the perpetrators of the October 7 assault, and the root cause of suffering all around.
Just as the Democrats could have selected anyone but Ellison, the Republicans could have chosen any number of people to speak other than the unapologetically antisemitic Richardson and Kirk. The Republican and Democratic National Conventions are their parties most visible podiums during a presidential election year, and this year was no different. Those chosen to speak were carefully vetted and focus group tested to determine whether their presentations would evince the response and influence the parties were seeking. When it comes to support for Israel and the Jewish people, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are all saints or all sinners.
In the lead-up to the November presidential election, we must have balance in our approach to hearing the candidates – both Harris and Trump – and listen carefully to what they are saying, who they support, who supports them, and examine who they are as people, in order to determine what they truly believe.
And, as we head into the Jewish holiday season and this important moment of reflection, meditation, and prayer, as Americans we must pray for guidance in making the choice as to who would best lead this country, fight antisemitism and ensure Israel’s survival through the next four years.
Elizabeth Samson is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Queens College-CUNY, a Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. She is an international lawyer who holds a J.D from Fordham Law School and an LL.M. in International & European Law from the University of Amsterdam. Samson has authored several publications on topics of comparative international law and humanitarian law and her writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and the New York Post.
A Time for Repentance, a Time for Forgiveness
By Rabbi Jonathan Hausman
How are we supposed to repent, and from whom will we get forgiveness? Can only G-d forgive our misdoings, our sins? Does forgiveness from fellow humans count at all?
Jewish people all over the world will enter the holiest time of year, in Hebrew known as Yamim Nora’im, The Days of Awe, in October. This time begins on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. That is a day on which we celebrate G-d’s creation of the world. We pray that the New Year will be good and sweet for everyone.
Yet, there is a further depth to the day. It is also known as the Day of Judgment, for our tradition teaches that on Rosh Hashanah, G-d judges our actions of the past year. Indeed, we are taught that our fate is written in the Book of Life. In one sense, our fate seems determined.
However, it is not. During the days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we are supposed to approach anyone to whom we have done something wrong, repent and ask forgiveness.
If we expect G-d to forgive our sins and our wrong actions on Yom Kippur, we are required to make peace with our fellow humans.
Indeed, the Talmud, the 1,800-year-old elaboration of Jewish law, states the following: “For sins between man and G-d, Yom Kippur atones, but for sins between a man and his fellow, Yom Kippur does not atone, until he makes peace with his fellow.”
The implication is clear. G-d will forgive you for not keeping the Shabbat, or for not keeping kosher or even for not worshiping G-d. These are sins against G-d. But, G-d will not forgive wrongdoing against another human, unless you make peace with that person, and ask them for forgiveness.
This confirms the Jewish emphasis on how we conduct our relations with each other. In answer to the question of what is the first thing G-d asks you when you appear for judgment after death, the Talmud states it is “Did you deal with integrity (with your fellow humans)?”
According to this teaching, G-d does not even bother to ask if you have faith in G-d. G-d is not egotistical. All of the questions are focused on the quality and goodness of the life you lived. Your relationship with other people is what truly matters to G-d, not belief in particular theology.
The process we are supposed to follow during these days, which comes to a conclusion as we pray on Yom Kippur, is called teshuvah. The common translation is “repentance,” but the literal meaning is “returning.” By asking forgiveness for wrongdoings to fellow humans you are, according to Jewish tradition, returning to G-d.
The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is clear about our obligations to fellow humans, seen in so many of G-d’s commandments. These obviously include sins such as murder and theft, but a great example of our obligations to each other are found in Exodus 23:1 through 10. These commandments include: not lying, not being a false witness, making sure you leave some of what you grow for the poor, orphan and widow, you should even assist your enemy, and you should not oppress the alien living among you, as we need to remember we were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Judaism teaches we cannot sin against another person and think that G-d will somehow forgive us. We must reach out and make peace with that person in order to change our fate that G-d is considering on Rosh Hashanah.
The process of doing teshuvah, of repairing human relationships, is so important to G-d that one of our ancient rabbis taught, “Great is teshuvah, for on account of one individual who did it, the entire world is forgiven.” As none of us can know if we are the person G-d considers to have done repentance with the greatest sincerity, all of us must partake in the process.
May we embrace each other in warm relationships as we enter this special time of year.
Rabbi Jonathan Hausman serves Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton. www.atorah.org
The Great Media Shift Around Us
By Steven Schimmel
It has become increasingly difficult to keep from being inundated by the rising tide of anti-Israel activism. Ever more aggressively exaggerated, wholly-invented claims about war-crimes purportedly being committed by Israel are being broadcast incessantly.
It seems as though every week we are bombarded by some new and awful lie, and it’s gotten worse each month since Oct. 7.
During the Summer Olympics in July, the claim was that Israel had killed over 300 would-be Palestinian Olympic athletes. This is all in addition to the persistent claim that Israel is seeking to expel, starve, or murder all of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, which is claimed to be the reason why, according to these anti-Zionist conspiracy theorists – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu purposely allowed the Oct. 7 attack to happen. They also emphatically deny that systematic sexual assault was committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 and that no babies were beheaded (or they say maybe a few, but certainly not 40).
Anti-Zionists claim that it was Israel that killed many of the 1200 victims of the attack, and they justify Hamas’ actions by stating that many of the Israeli victims had served in the IDF, so it’s not as if Hamas killed civilians. But even more dangerous is the escalated effort to undermine the legitimacy of Israel.
Many of these voices go far beyond the scope of criticism of the war – they criticize the very notion of the State of Israel. All of this is so blatantly antisemitic, so obviously steeped in conspiracy theory, so deeply entwined with historic blood libels and pseudo-history that it is actually a challenge to confront these remarks in any serious way – and yet we so desperately need to.
The examples above, and many more like them and worse, are what the world hears and sees on social media. This is what our kids are exposed to both online and on campus; inexplicably, this is what political activists and even elected officials are promoting.
Even right here in Worcester, just look at the social media pages of some of our city councilors. It is unacceptable. For every post that I or some other pro-Israel voice attempts to confront with rationality and facts, there are an exponential number of those who yell back at us and shout us down.
This past spring, a speaker at Worcester State University who was visiting to recount his experiences as an IDF first responder during Oct. 7 was aggressively shouted down, and his presentation was halted twice for fire alarms pulled to stop him from speaking. The voices promoting these anti-Israel narratives also aren’t just crass online trolls and aren’t only people who pull fire alarms.
More often, the most ardent anti-Israel leaders are otherwise respected people who parrot propaganda from social media accounts that look like news sources that operate in sophisticated ways that exemplify how psychology and propaganda work most effectively.
Over the last 20 years I’ve watched how we moved from condemning mainstream media’s coverage of Israel to the realization that the mainstream media has been replaced by far more sinister social media sources, purposefully destructive outlets that reach a more vulnerable audience more effectively. Ze’ev Jabotinsky toured Europe in the years preceding the Holocaust warning that the Jewish communities were atop a volcano about to blow.
We must take seriously the threat we are facing or we too will find ourselves atop a volcano. The next generation, those in college and high-school right now are being bombarded by anti-Israel narratives, and many of the political voices they respect and listen to are the kind of people who actively promote lies about Israel.
We must condemn those who engage in this action and behavior; we must stand up for ourselves now and with a strong voice. The war in Gaza will eventually come to a conclusion, but I fear that the impact of the exposure to this propaganda will be felt for a long time.
Steven Schimmel is the Executive Director of Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. This article expresses his opinion not of the Federation.