Category: Writing

If you want to understand the Jewish people, please read this…

A Modern Jewish Response adapted from the original work by Joshua Hoffman

You say we run the banks. You say we control Hollywood. You say we dominate the media. You say we have too much influence, too much power, too much pride. But you never ask how — or why. So, let me tell you.

We were banned from owning land, so we learned to live by our minds. We were blocked from trade guilds and professions, so we became merchants, scholars, doctors, and lawyers.

Our commitment to education didn’t come from privilege — it came from necessity. From exclusion. From survival. When we were barred from universities, we built our own yeshivot. The Torah became our moral anchor. The Talmud, our intellectual training ground. When we were mocked for being “bookish,” we made knowledge our defense. The insult became our armor.

In medieval Europe, Christians were forbidden by the Church to lend money with interest. But kings still needed loans, and someone had to do the collecting. So they turned to the Jews — already despised, already othered. We became moneylenders not by ambition, but by force. Then we were hated for it.

In America, we were shut out of “respectable” jobs. So we went west and helped invent Hollywood — not to brainwash, but to dream. To tell stories. To make magic.

When Ivy League schools capped Jewish admissions, we founded Brandeis. When hospitals wouldn’t hire Jewish doctors, we built Cedars-Sinai. When law firms closed their doors, we opened Skadden and.Wachtell. We weren’t trying to dominate — we were just trying to live.

We were expelled from Spain. Massacred in Poland. Hanged in Iran. Lynched in Georgia. Bombed in Germany. And yet, we survived. We learned. We remembered.

In 1948, the world watched as nearly a million Jews were expelled or fled from Arab lands. Their homes, businesses, and synagogues were seized or burned. There were no refugee camps, no UN agencies, no worldwide calls for justice. No “right of return” for the Jews of Baghdad, Aleppo, Tripoli.

You say we’re tribal. But we tried to integrate. We changed our names. Straightened our curls. Abandoned our faith. But every time we tried to disappear, you reminded us who we were. So, we turned inward. We leaned on each other. Built synagogues when yours were closed to us. Built hospitals when we weren’t welcomed in yours. Built advocacy groups to defend ourselves when no one else would.

And when no country would have us — we built our own.

Then Came October 7, 2023

You say you hate Israel because of its policies. Because of land. Because of borders. But on October 7, 2023, Hamas didn’t target soldiers. They didn’t storm checkpoints or military outposts. They raped women. They beheaded babies. They burned families alive. They slaughtered civilians in their homes, bomb shelters, and at a music festival. It was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And as our dead lay unburied, the world didn’t mourn with us — it rallied against us.

College students held “Glory to the Martyrs” signs. Protesters waved swastikas in Sydney. “Gas the

Jews” was graffitied in Berlin. Jewish students were barricaded inside libraries in New York. MIT students were blocked from class. At Harvard, they were told to remove their Stars of David for safety. All while our hostages were still bleeding in tunnels.

So, no — this isn’t about borders. You hated us before 1948. Before the State of Israel existed. Before a single border was drawn.

What you hate is that the Jew now has power. A flag. A standing army. A government. A home. You preferred us weak. Wandering. Apologizing. Dependent on your pity or permission to live.

Israel Is Not a Gift. It Is a Necessity.

We didn’t colonize the land — we returned to it. Jews have lived in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias for over 3,000 years. We prayed toward Zion for centuries. We spoke Hebrew while the world told us to forget.

We made the desert bloom. We drained swamps, planted forests, revived a lost language. We welcomed Holocaust survivors, Russian refuseniks, and Ethiopian Jews airlifted from famine.

We built a nation while surrounded by enemies, embargoed by the world, and haunted by the ashes of Auschwitz. Israel was not built because of the Holocaust. It was built because of 2,000 years of exile, genocide, and betrayal — and it is the only insurance policy against the next one.

Never Again is not a slogan. It’s the Iron Dome. It’s the F-35. It’s the 18-year-old girl in olive green standing guard so toddlers in Sderot can sleep.

Why the Double Standard?

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the world cried out. Blue and yellow flags adorned every profile. Weapons, refugee aid, solidarity — all rightly offered. But when Hamas burned Israeli children alive, we were told to “de-escalate.” When we defend our cities, we’re called monsters. When we bury our dead, you protest our grief. Why?

Peace Is Possible. We’ve Tried.

You say Jews are foreigners in the Middle East. But the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan disagree. The Abraham Accords proved peace isn’t just possible — it’s real.

Israel sends aid to Syrian earthquake victims. Arab doctors and lawmakers serve in the Israeli Knesset.

We seek coexistence. You chant “From the river to the sea.” We chose life. You chant death.

So yes — Israel is strong now. And thank God for that. Because a powerless Jew is a dead Jew. And history taught us: no king, no pope, no president will save us.

We don’t want to dominate. We just want to live. Freely. Proudly. Unapologetically.

You don’t have to like us. You don’t have to agree with us. But never again will you decide whether we’re allowed to exist.

Best Wishes, Art

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