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The Problem With ‘As a Jew’
A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Nothing triggers a collective sense of repugnance like the sentence that starts with the words, “As a Jew.”
Regardless of one’s particular brand of Judaism or political affiliation, we have developed a Pavlovian reflex every time we hear those dreaded three words. If someone feels the need to qualify their unsolicited opinion with a heritage claim, it is quite likely that what will follow will be a diatribe of unimaginable bile and self loathing.
Over the past two years, we have been subjected to a barrage of this abuse. This phrase has become a moral shield, a rhetorical weapon, and a dime-store claim to authority. This empty prejudice disclaimer is as vacuous as it is vapid. They presume that this will somehow immunize them when in reality it exposes their cowardice and cheap attempts at using their Judaism as an alibi.
In America this has become politically endemic. While the Jewish community should have been proud of our Jewish representatives in government, we have grown accustomed to them using their “as a Jew” card at every politically expedient opportunity.
Obviously, there is a whole slew of influencers, journalists, and even comedians, who firmly believe that those three magic words, are a “get out of racist jail free card.”
Being a “Jew,” however, doesn’t make you an expert on Israel if you know absolutely nothing about what is happening there.
In fact, when these vapid celebrities claim to have a reasoned opinion on Gaza because they are Jewish, they prove that Israel is seen as a representative of the Jewish people. And they prove that when antisemites claim to only hate “Zionists,” this is nothing more than a convenient lie.
We rightly take offense when an antisemitic polemic is prefaced with “some of my best friends are Jewish,” but somehow the insolence is far more stinging when it comes from someone Jewish (or someone who was born Jewish, but does not identify with being Jewish anymore).
This is not a new phenomenon. In fact, there is a checkered history of Jews desperate for acceptance into gentile society, abandoning their own.
As an example, in Paris 1240, a former yeshiva student, Nicholas Donin, encouraged King Louis IX, to put the Talmud on trial. He argued to the King that as a Jew, he was personally aware of inconsistencies that contradicted and blasphemed New Testament scriptures. The result was dire for the Jewish community.
It happened again in 1263 in Barcelona, when Pablo Christiani — another former Jew — convinced King James I of Aragon of a similar fallacious premise, which resulted in a public debate with the Ramban (Nachmanides). Again, the results for the Jewish community were catastrophic and the Ramban ended up exiled, despite his victory in the debate.
This was a fairly regular pattern in our European history and continued straight through the Enlightenment era.
Karl Marx, another famous “As a Jew,” authored the famous “On the Jewish Question,” which equated Jewishness with material greed. Same story with a secular gloss — repudiation disguised as virtue. The list goes on and on.
To complicate matters further, Judaism today spans an incredibly broad, fragmented, and diverse spectrum and there is little agreement within the tent as to an actual definition of membership.
Ironically for the first time in our history, we have people clamoring to substantiate the most tenuous of claims to Jewish heritage.
Take the current Prime Minister of England, Keir Starmer. Before last year’s general election, in an effort to cleanse the stench of antisemitism that clung firmly to the Labor Party, he surprisingly discovered his “Jewish roots.”
Fast forward little more than a year and he is hugging Mahmoud Abbas on the steps of Downing Street, threatening to arrest the democratically elected leader of Israel and recognizing a Palestinian state. This virtue signaling “As a Jew” Prime Minister set the tone and tempo for the open displays of antisemitism that are now a feature of British Jewish life.
Once upon a time, to speak “As a Jew” was to shoulder the weight of history, and to defend the vulnerable even when it lacked popularity.
What this crowd is lacking today, is another essential Jewish virtue: pride. Jewish pride is a defining factor of our survival and is the antidote to this epidemic of pseudo moral vanity that has rampaged public life.
Jewish identity is not determined by your grandparents, but by your grandkids. It is easy to declare that you are Jewish, but it is far more difficult to actually walk the walk. Being Jewish means a lot of things to a lot of people, but ultimately it boils down to bearing the weight of our history, enduring the ostracism in the present, and ensuring the continuity of our values for the future.
You can be antisemitic and be Jewish. If you have absolutely no knowledge about what’s happening in the Middle East, it doesn’t matter that you start a sentence with, “As a Jew.”
The world will always tell Jews to start every sentence with an apology. Our task is to end every one with pride.
Philip Gross is a Manhattan-born, London-based business executive and writer. He explores issues of Jewish identity, faith, and contemporary society through the lens of both American and British experience.
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Ilhan Omar Poses for Photo With Swedish MP Wearing Garment Depicting Erasure of Israel
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference with activists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2023. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) has come under fire after being spotted posing for a photo with Malcolm Jallow, a virulently anti-Israel member of the Swedish parliament.
The picture, which was posted on Jallow’s Instagram page on Sunday, showed the controversial Swedish politician posing alongside Omar and anti-Israel political pundit Medhi Hasan. Jallow draped a stole around his shoulders depicting the complete erasure of the state of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state.
“Spending these days with so many inspiring leaders from around the world — including two of the most inspiring and courageous voices of our time, Congresswoman @ilhanmn Omar and international journalist @mehdirhasan — has been like reigniting an inner flame. I feel recharged with energy, hope, and determination,” Jallow wrote on Instagram.
Jallow has an extensive history of attacking Israel and promoting antisemitic conspiracy tropes. For example, he has “liked” a comment on social media that accused Jewish organizations of participating in freemasonry, fueling a false conspiracy theory that claims a secret coalition of Jews and Freemasons is working to control the world.
The Gambian-born lawmaker also lambasted Sweden for its supposed complicitly in a “genocide” in Gaza and stated in another social media post that Europe “betrayed” the Palestinian enclave by “financing the bombs” and “legitimizing the apartheid & the occupation.” He further appeared to threaten Swedish civilians who support Israel, writing, “To every ordinary citizen who waved the flag of the oppressor & laughed while Gaza burned, We will not forget you. We know your names. We save your statements. We screenshot your posts.”
He also seemed to threaten legal action against Swedish citizens who publicly demonstrate support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hanas.
“And one day, whether in courtrooms of law or the court of history, In this life or the hereafter, you will be held to account,” Jallow posted. “That is not a threat. That is a promise to the people of Gaza.”
“Why is the Swedish government complicit in Israel’s acts of genocide against the Palestinian people?” he added on Instagram.
Jallow has also criticized Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for taking certain measures to combat antisemitism, arguing that such actions endanger the country’s Muslim population.
“The Swedish Prime Minister’s statement that antisemitism holds a ‘special status’ and is worse than anti-Muslim propaganda is deeply problematic and dangerous. It not only diminishes the severity of hatred against Muslims but also normalizes the growing Islamophobia in Sweden,” Jallow wrote in an official statement last year.
“Ranking hate and prioritizing one group’s suffering over another is not only ignorant and offensive — it undermines our collective struggle against all forms of intolerance and discrimination,” he continued.
Sweden has reported a notable increase in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, prompting alarm within both the Jewish community and governmental bodies.
According to a report released by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA) last year, hate crimes motivated by antisemitism in the country surged in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. The BRA found that police registered 110 complaints between the Hamas invasion and Dec. 31 in 2023, compared to just 24 incidents the prior year.
While Jews constitute a small fraction of Sweden’s population, they have represented a disproportionately high share of religious-hate-crime victims. In 2020, for example, antisemitic incidents made up about 27 percent of all religion-based hate crimes documented by police despite Jews making up only 0.1 percent of the population, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Omar for years has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the US Congress, calling on Washington to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state.
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Groundbreaking analysis of Hitler’s DNA shows no Jewish ancestry — but finds a genetic disorder
Adolf Hitler had a sexual disorder that made it more likely for him to have a micro-penis, according to the first-ever analysis of his DNA. He also did not have the Jewish ancestors that some have claimed he had.
The analysis is being revealed in detail in “Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator,” a new documentary premiering Saturday night in the United Kingdom. The documentary looks at the researchers who decided to tackle the genetic makeup of one of history’s greatest villains, as well as what they learned — and cannot learn — from his DNA.
They found that he had Kallman syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by incomplete puberty, according to an exclusive report published Wednesday in the Times of London. They also found that he had genes making him more likely to have autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though they cautioned that the DNA alone is not sufficient to deliver a diagnosis.
Among those quoted in the documentary is the prominent British Jewish psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen (father of actor Sacha). “Behavior is never 100% genetic,” he said in the Times report. “Associating Hitler’s extreme cruelty with people with these diagnoses risks stigmatizing them, especially when the vast majority of people with these diagnoses are neither violent nor cruel, and many are the opposite.”
The analysis, conducted by a team led by a prominent British geneticist, is more definitive on the subject of Hitler’s possible Jewish ancestry. Rumors about such a background were prevalent during Hitler’s rise: In one notable example, a newspaper aligned with the Austrian chancellor who the following year would be assassinated by Nazis in 1933 challenged German authorities to disprove his Jewish ties.
And the rumors have endured: In 2022, Russia’s foreign minister repeated the claim that Hitler had Jewish ancestry to rebuff criticism that Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine, that it needed to be “denazified,” was undermined by the fact that Ukraine’s president is Jewish.
But while previous analyses of the DNA of Hitler’s relatives suggested that he may have had some genetic links to groups that he sought to destroy, including Jews, the new analysis, on Hitler’s own DNA, shows only Austrian German ancestry.
The analysis is based on a swatch of fabric stained with blood that a U.S. soldier cut from the couch upon which Hitler shot himself. The researchers were able to confirm without a doubt that the blood came from Hitler by comparing the DNA found in it to DNA previously confirmed to have come from one of his relatives.
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The post Groundbreaking analysis of Hitler’s DNA shows no Jewish ancestry — but finds a genetic disorder appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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German Authorities Arrest Another Suspected Hamas Operative Amid Growing Terror Threat to Jews in Europe
Supporters of Hamas gather in Berlin. Photo: Reuters/M. Golejewski
As concern mounts over a potential surge in Hamas-linked attacks in Europe, German authorities have arrested another suspected member of the Palestinian terrorist group accused of acquiring firearms and ammunition to target Jewish communities.
On Tuesday, local police arrested Lebanese-born Borhan El-K, a suspected Hamas operative, after he crossed into Germany from the Czech Republic — part of an ongoing probe into the Islamist group’s network and operations across the continent.
The German federal prosecutor’s office confirmed the suspect obtained an automatic rifle, eight Glock pistols, and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in the country before handing the weapons to Wael FM, another suspected member of the terrorist group, in Berlin.
Local law enforcement arrested Lebanese-born Wael FM last month, along with two other German citizens, Adeb Al G and Ahmad I.
Prosecutors believe the three men acted as foreign operatives for Hamas and procured firearms and ammunition intended for attacks on Israeli and Jewish institutions in Germany.
Hamas, long supported by the Iranian regime as well as Qatar and Turkey, is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and several other Western countries, including the United States.
Earlier this month, Mohammed A, another alleged member of the Palestinian terrorist group, was arrested in London at the request of German police. He is accused of taking five handguns and ammunition from Abed Al G before moving them to Vienna for storage.
Last week, Vienna authorities uncovered a hidden arsenal linked to Hamas, reportedly intended for “potential terrorist attacks in Europe” targeting Jewish communities.
The Austrian government confirmed that the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN) has been conducting an internationally coordinated investigation into a global terrorist network with ties to the Islamist group.
During the investigation, Austrian authorities uncovered evidence suggesting that this group had brought weapons into the country for potential terrorist attacks in Europe.
For its part, Hamas issued a statement denying any connection to the criminal network, calling the allegations of its involvement “baseless.”
However, experts have warned that Hamas has expanded its terrorist operations beyond the Middle East, exploiting a well-established network of weapons caches, criminal alliances, and covert infrastructure quietly built across Europe over the years.
Last month, West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center released a study detailing how Hamas leaders in Lebanon have been directing operatives to establish “foreign operator” cells across Europe, collaborating with organized crime networks to acquire weapons and target Jewish communities abroad.
In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin, in what prosecutors described as the first court case against terrorists of the Islamist group in Germany.