diaspora

Galut, return, and the meaning of leaving.

Tucker Targets Chabad

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Chabad is a diverse, complex, and trans-dimensional organization.

I have personally had great experiences with Chabad rabbis and families. I greatly respect their community building and social work, and I find their Torah to be very thought-provoking, even when I disagree with specific claims they may make or conclusions they may reach.

(For example, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was of the opinion that one could not fulfill an obligation to bless by concentrating and “saying” the words in one’s mind, while R Qafeh was of the opinion that not only could one do so but that this was an ideal way to handle a situation of doubt regarding obligation to bless.)

While my experience has been mostly positive with only a few counter examples, many people I know have had terrible overall experiences with Chabad. They have encountered prejudice, ignorance, and dogmatism in their interactions with Chabad rabbis and Chabadnikim in general. They find the Tanya’s statements seeming to suggest that God has parts or that Jews are essentially superior to gentiles, to be anathema. And they find the cult of personality turned messianic ideology turned idolatry, to be quite alarming. I understand the concerns of these people, and I think they need to be included in the intra-Jewish discussion of Chabad.

But Make No Mistake.

Tucker Carlson did not go after Chabad because of conflicts between foreign Chabad houses and native Sepharadi communities in South America and Western Europe, or because of philosophical criticism of the Tanya as it has been inter-generationally understood, or because he has issues with cults of personality or messianism.

To repeat: Tucker Carlson did not go after Chabad because they are a messianic movement. To be sure, as a Christian fundamentalist, Tucker believes that any messianism other than his own is idolatrous, but that’s not why he singled out Chabad.

In that exact connection, it’s worth noting that – when looking for a scapegoat for America’s involvement in this war (I literally heard a missile exploding in the background as I wrote that) – Tucker had a much riper target within Israeli society itself, the messianic ethno-nationalist ideology that, over the decades, has increasingly attracted so many right wing politicians and populists (who happen to also sit in the current government). If Tucker was truly concerned about a messianic movement in Israel dragging an unwilling USA into a foreign conflict – that’s where he’d take aim: Israeli messianists in political power coordinating a regional war with the White House.

~> Instead, Tucker Carlson targeted Chabad because they are among the most visible Jewish people across America. <~

Read that again. Slowly.

His audience is American right-wing Christians.

He is turning them against the Jewish people they can easily recognize (who put themselves out in the public eye as a matter of course) and telling them that those Jewish people – yes, the nice rabbi and rebbitzen from the Chabad house around the corner – are dangerous ideologues working with Israel to manipulate America and control the world.

This kind of propaganda is not new. We’ve seen it before. Many American Jewish people recognize it for what it is – but have not yet accepted where the train is headed (and accelerating fast). Many other American Jewish people unfortunately do not recognize the flashing signs of what’s coming and gleefully continue cheering the leopard on as it eats everyone else’s faces first.

Chabad is not perfect.

But they are precisely the targets Tucker et al choose because all American Jews are in their sights.

May Hashem guide and shield all of the holy flock in these dark times, may our cries and pleas for peace! protection! prosperity! be answered speedily, may the plans of Haman always be overturned and brought down upon his wicked head.

Atheistic Explanation of Jewish Survival

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Allahu Akbar. But also:

“A strong atheistic explanation has to work without invoking chosenness, providence, metaphysics, or teleology, while still accounting for the extraordinary empirical fact-pattern: a tiny, dispersed, repeatedly targeted ethnocultural group not only survives but regenerates political autonomy, cultural creativity, and demographic continuity over multiple millennia.

The best explanation in secular scholarship combines four interacting forces:

1. Covenantal Ethno-Textual Identity (Self-Reinforcing Structure)

From a secular standpoint, the “covenant” is not metaphysical but a uniquely durable cultural technology.

Key features:

– A portable constitution: Torah + halakha function like a constitution that does not depend on land or state structure.
– A text-centered identity: Identity is encoded in textual mastery, not political territory.
– A distributed, ritualized pedagogy: Every household is a micro-school; literacy is a norm.

Why this matters:
Most ancient peoples tied identity to local cults, temples, territorial kingship. Once displaced, they disappeared. Judaism reengineered identity into portable, duplicable, home-scaled institutions.

This is a sociological survival innovation, not a miracle.

2. Decentralized Communal Networks (Horizontal Resilience)

Jewish communities operated as non-state micro-polities: qehilloth, batté din, charitable systems, standardized rituals, and normative law.

Characteristics:

– Leaderless-by-design robustness: No single authority’s destruction could collapse the system.
– Rapid institutional reconstruction in diaspora: A minyan + a scroll = immediate restoration of structure.
– Highly networked long-distance trade and correspondence: This strengthened international solidarity and resource pooling.

Think of it as a resilient “fractal” system: every fragment regenerates the whole.

No divine design needed—just a uniquely adaptive communal architecture producing long-term continuity.

3. Strong Boundary Maintenance Paired with Permeability

From an atheist perspective, Jewish survival requires maintaining identity yet also allowing controlled integration.

Judaism manages this through:

– Clear endogamy norms → slows assimilation.
– Clear ritual boundaries → makes identity legible and persistent.
– Naturalization allowed but regulated → refreshes the population without dissolving coherence.
– High retention under persecution → increases internal solidarity.

Most groups collapse because either:

– identity becomes too loose (assimilates), or
– identity becomes too rigid (cannot replenish members).

Judaism found a rare equilibrium: cohesive but permeable.

4. Cultural Hyper-Adaptability Under Extreme Pressure

Historically measurable traits:

– Literacy rates far above surrounding populations.
– Economic niche flexibility (trade, finance, crafts, scholarship, administration).
– Mastery of local languages + maintenance of Hebrew/Judeo-languages.
– Continuous reinterpretation of law and tradition.
– Intellectual productivity disproportionate to population size.

None of these require divine intervention. They reflect long-term cultural selection pressures: groups that adapted survived; those that didn’t vanished.

Judaism is one of the rare cultures that evolved adaptive plasticity as a core identity trait.

The Emergence of the Jewish State

A secular analysis sees the Jewish state as emerging from:

– Zionist political ideology (a modern nationalism).
– European nationalism and decolonization patterns.
– Hebrew revival as a cultural modernist project.
– Global geopolitical shifts post-WWII.
– Exceptional diasporic resource networks supporting state-building.

The state of Israel, from this view, is not a miracle but the convergence of:

– a people that maintained identity & literacy for millennia
– modern nationalism and colonial retreat
– mass-mobilizing trauma
– global political opportunity windows
– extraordinary diaspora capital (intellectual, financial, relational)

The simplest atheistic explanation at the highest level:

Judaism as a cultural system was repeatedly tested by extreme pressures; the only communities that survived were those with traits that made survival possible. Those traits—literacy, law, communal solidarity, adaptability—compounded over time.

In other words, Judaism is a culturally selected system optimized for long-term endurance.

This does not reduce Jews to biology—it describes memetic, institutional, and cultural selection, not genetic superiority or mystical destiny.

A strong atheistic explanation combines:

1. Portable textual identity and law
2. Decentralized, regenerative communal structures
3. Cohesive-but-permeable boundaries
4. High cultural adaptability to hostile environments
5. Modern political opportunity windows
6. Cultural selection over millennia

None of these require supernatural claims. Yet together, they explain why Judaism—unlike most ancient civilizations—remains alive, coherent, creative, and politically reconstituted.”

Barukh Hashem, who has planted eternal life in our midst and gave us the Torah as a gift of love. Those who embraced and lived the Torah and its culture as a way of life, survived – if not them (genocide, after all), then their descendants. Those who didn’t, remain only as chapters and footnotes in history books.

עם ישראל חי

Israelite Studies

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Elephantine. Idumea. Himyar. Kaifeng.

Samaritans. Bené Anusím. Bene Israel. Beta Israel. Bene Menashe. Igbo. Qaraites. Amazighs. Palestinians.

Ashkenaz. Sepharad. Teiman. Paras.

Jewish Studies is an outdated discipline.

It’s time to get serious about Israelite Studies.

Igbo Israelites

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The Igbo culture always surprises me.

Today I learned that those Igbos that still pray according to the ways of Omenana, convene an additional service steeped in tradition (after they recite together the tephilloth that they have learned from Jewish sources) with the invocation: “Whom do Igbos serve?” “Yah!”

I don’t think we’re talking about a lost tribe of Israel that wandered en masse across Africa – but an Israelite nucleus that fled (northern?) Israel, migrated through Elephantine westward all the way to the Niger River Basin, where they naturalized/integrated with members of local communities and were supplemented by Jewish Berbers via Mali and Israelite/Jewish merchants from central and east Africa.

According to this theory, the nucleus diverged from Israel and the core community coalesced along the Niger River before the textual revolution of Ezra haSopher and his court in the (later!) Persian period.

Notably, unlike their Nigerian neighbors, the Igbo kept kashruth, family purity, inheritance laws, economic laws, the laws of to’eba and tuma, and male circumcision on the eighth day, just like Israelites.

Most importantly, the Igbos are unique in West Africa in preserving a form of “republicanism” that exhibits the same horizontality in socio-political organization that R José Faur z”l argued is central to Israelite society.

And according to this theory, and unlike their erstwhile Jewish cousins, the Igbos lost Hebrew, the text of the Tora, the Shabbath, the attachment to Israel, and their own history (beyond the popular tradition – “We are Israelites!”).

There remains so much research to be done in Israelite Studies, especially in Africa – anthropological studies, material culture cataloging, archival documentation, genetic sampling and classification.

We need to devote resources to developing a coherent and rigorous picture of Israelite history beyond the Jewish people, in Israel, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia.

What Mamdani Could Have Said

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“My dearly beloved fellow New Yorkers,

It’s an honor and privilege to not only be one of you but to fight for this opportunity to represent and lead you – all of you.

New York is a city that is strong because of its diversity, not just in terms of of culture – although we’ve been blessed with generations of immigrants who have helped make this city the unique mosaic of humanity that it is – but in terms of opinion.

New Yorkers pride themselves in taking an educated interest in the affairs of not just this dynamic city but of the whole world, including the countries from which many New Yorkers – or their parents, or their grandparents – proudly hail.

New Yorkers pride themselves in having passionate opinions and are never afraid to voice their opinions, even when in disagreement with the establishment, the consensus, or their neighbors.

This attitude creates an irreplaceable common culture of free inquiry, open discussion, and constructive criticism that permeates every project, every initiative, and every organization in this great city.

We would be fools not to recognize not just the necessity but the beauty of this diversity of opinion in making New York, our shared home, the unique treasure it is.

Right now, however, not all New Yorkers are feeling like New York is still their home.

Jewish New Yorkers in particular, who have lived and served in our community for centuries, are experiencing not just harassment but violence, tragically at the hands of their fellow New Yorkers, at unprecedented levels in New York history. Too many Jewish New Yorkers have personally been attacked by thugs hiding behind their personal opinions and political ideologies. In the name of criticizing the state of Israel – which, as you know, I’ll be the first to criticize but nevertheless millions of Jewish New Yorkers support for legitimate reasons that I’ll be the first to admit have nothing to do with Palestinians – synagogues, schools, and community centers have become targets for hate.

Here.

In New York City.

Our New York.

My friends, this situation – like so many other highly problematic aspects of the status quo – simply can’t be allowed to continue.

Vandalism, intimidation, harassment, assault, and all other forms of deplorable violence, even when disguised and justified as “political activism,” have no place in our city. Period.

The free and passionate expression of differences of opinion in our city depends on accepting this fact.

As mayor, it will be among my top priorities not only to implement policies that restore economic justice to a city struggling under the heavy burdens of rising costs, unemployment, and corporate monopolization, but that protect each and every community that comprises the beautifully diverse tapestry of our city – that make sure every New Yorker knows that they are not just safe but respected.

I want Jewish New Yorkers to know that I will work for them just as hard as I will work for every other New Yorker.

That their safety – their contribution, their presence – is valued just as much as every other New Yorker’s.

I want to invite all New Yorkers to join me in this mission – to make New York an affordable, safe home for all New Yorkers.

Together, we can make it happen.

Next question, please.”

– what Mamdani could have said 🤷

Jewish People as White

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The racing of Jewish people as “white” has a lot to do with developments in American racial politics over the course of the 20th century and little to do with contemporary or historical Jewish people.

In actuality, Jewish people are of West Asian descent and have since absorbed the genes of other human communities on every continent except Antarctica, to the point where we can legitimately be described as transcending the Western social construct of “race” entirely.

By the same token, it should go without saying that assimilated Jewish individuals who identify as “white” should probably learn more about the Jewish community’s historical relationship to, and subjection to discrimination and even violence under, the social regime of “whiteness.”

Fetishizing Exile

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Everyone’s entitled to their personal opinion but people who fetishize exile do not and can not represent the Jewish nation, in any serious context.

Whether in the faculty of Harvard, the administration of the Rabbanut, the opinion pages of major media outlets, or wherever else Jewish representation matters and has meaningful consequences for Jewish autonomy.

Living Under Unfair Conditions

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Being Jewish in an unredeemed world means living under essentially unfair conditions stacked against you, where you are the least understood yet the most well-known in the international room. Where a magnifying glass is held to your every deed solely because you insist on your difference, and where your own perspective is neither acknowledged nor relevant to onlookers whose own self-understanding is abysmal at best and who are subject to continuous mass indoctrination and conditioning programs throughout their daily lives. This is not a complaint: we have enough of those. It is a call to recognize the facts of life in the spiritual desert that is this world order, and to build a better world in spite of them.

מי לה’ אלי

I Prefer to Call Myself a Jew

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“My language is [American English]. My culture, my attainments are [North Eastern American]. I considered myself [American] intellectually, until I noticed the growth of anti-Semitic prejudice in [the United States]. Since that time, I consider myself no longer a[n American]. I prefer to call myself a Jew.”

Truth be told, I noticed the trend towards racist fascism almost two decades ago, and the historical bigotry upon which that trend is built has been known to me since my youth. Antisemitism found fertile ground in the old prejudices of the New World.

But I feel you, Siggy.

H/t Rivka Hellendall

It Can’t Happen Here

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I was concerned about the welfare of American Jewish communities when the level of antisemitism was holding at semi-random vandalism, physical assaults, and widespread bloodlibels about Israel. The people at the top occasionally repeated some of those bloodlibels, it’s true, but at least it was clear that they weren’t going to oversee the mass disenfranchisement of Jewish citizens anytime soon. That’s just not where the previous administration was holding at any point.

While it started with mass deportations of illegal migrants, it quickly grew to rescinding the legal status of immigrants, and now the POTUS and the party are talking about building concentration camps to hold tens of thousands of prisoners and the corporatists forcibly taking over the bureaucracy of the American government via its treasury and oversight departments are talking of deporting (sorry outsourcing) American citizens to foreign countries for internment. And it hasn’t even been two weeks.

But Jewish communities are safe, you say. They became white over the decades and were accepted by the tolerant folks who want to see competent white men in charge of everything. Their rights are safe in the emerging social order in the US of A. And on top of that, many Jewish Americans voted for POTUS and party! Surely POTUS and party would not turn their backs on them.

Oy. The same corporatists, by the way, who are now grabbing hold of the American government by its administrative b@ll$ with the full mandate of POTUS and party, have also been busy promoting white nationalist propaganda, sieg heiling at presidential events, and absolving German right-wing nationalists of the weight of the millions of souls their grandparents murdered in the Holocaust. They’ve been joking about the Holocaust and then handing the mic to neonazis. And the neonazis appreciate it: they’re looking forward to the dawn of a new age where their beliefs and ideas are not anathema to American society but normalized at every level, all the way to the top of the American government.

In such a situation, when analyzed from all angles – how could I not worry for the American Jewish communities???

“It can’t happen here.”

…

Here’s to me being entirely wrong and the new reign of POTUS and party ushering in an age of prosperity for all.

May I be so very, very wrong.

Cheers! 🍻