OCTOBER 3 • 2024 | 7
J
N
Levi Strauss invented a jean
company in 1853 that Beyoncé
just wrote a banger about.
So, if Jewish people provide
so much good and progress in
the world, why are we eternally
demonized and persecuted?
In Mark Twain’s 1899 essay
“Concerning the Jews,” he
deduces that through centuries of
economic exclusion “… the one
tool which the law was not able
to take from him [the Jew]— his
brain — have made that tool
singularly competent” and others
were “unable to compete with the
average Jew.”
David Wolpe, emeritus rabbi
of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles
and a scholar on antisemitism,
states that “Jews committed the
unforgivable act of introducing
conscience to the world … for
most of human history up to
Sinai, what the gods cared about
was how you treated them … The
Ten Commandments said God
cares about how you treat each
other. And that call to conscience
means a call to sin and guilt.”
Or maybe the answer is
analogous to Lord Voldemort’s
contempt of Harry Potter. As
Dumbledore explains to Harry,
“If there is one thing Voldemort
cannot understand, it is love. He
didn’t realize that love as powerful
as your mother’s for you leaves
its own mark … It was agony
to touch a person marked by
something so good.”
Sometimes, amid the whiplash
of antisemitism, we become
disoriented to the fact that this
hate is not about us. The Jewish
people have been, and will
always be, a mirror reflecting
the jealousy, self-loathing and
bitterness in the souls of man.
Oct. 7 was my painful
orientation to this Jewish legacy.
We are a nation destined to
confront the worst of humanity
and, in turn, understand the
ultimate blessing of peace.
Is this what it means to be
God’s “chosen people?” To receive
the highest highs and lowest lows?
To be the intergenerational model
of joy and grief? To, as Wolpe
noted, be the eternal conscience
of human morality? If there’s any
proof of this, one must look to
arguably the most evil human
being in history: Adolf Hitler.
An ounce of Jewish blood was
a threat he could not tolerate.
He said, “Conscience is a Jewish
invention,” and he spent his life
trying to destroy it by any means
necessary.
So, if consciousness is the
liberator of the human mind
and murdering the Jews is the
annihilation of consciousness,
then destroying the Jews is the
intentional destruction of self-
awareness. If the Jews are gone,
the ability to know oneself is
compromised. Objective reality
would be subject to endless
manipulation, and the inversion
of truth would be sacrosanct.
Progress and freedom would
cease to exist. Kindness and love
would lose their meaning. Good
would disappear, and the light
that guides nations would be
extinguished.
If you destroy the Jews, you
destroy yourself. If you destroy
the Jews, you destroy the world.
Daphna Shull is a writer, visual artist, musi-
cian and photographer who works as the
creative producer for The Braid.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024
6:00PM STROLLING DINNER
7:30PM PROGRAM
Location to be provided upon registration
To register, please scan or visit
www.fidf.org/2024fidfminightofsolidarity/
For more information, please contact
michigan@fidf.org or 248.926.4110
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2024 NIGHT OF
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