Thanks Michelle! I am not generally a fan of culture war discourse (i.e., the kind of discourse that raises the temp as opposed to lowering it) but in this speech I felt he really did something quite special. Shabbat Shalom!
I think it’s a worthwhile speech regardless of whether one agrees/disagrees with him on other issues precisely bc of what you say - this type of leadership is increasingly rare!! Shabbat Shalom!
I feel like this is an uncommon case of the right message but definitely the wrong messenger, considering especially Shapiro's consistent choices for association, be they political or otherwise. I give Shapiro zero pass until if ever he makes better choices for those with whom he associates and collaborates.
That's a great point Dr. Bitton no doubt, in the spirit of Judah as related to the parsha, though of course as you stated, Ben Shapiro is not Judah. I have to disagree beyond only in this example, for I feel that EVEN when somebody carries forward the right message, in either actual or apparent contrition of their own accord depending on how others see the situation, I would prefer to give and amplify the voices of those sharing the same or similar messaging, BUT only AFTER leading by example with better actions and choices. Maybe Shapiro will be on a better road of sorts now, it's up to him, but I am certainly not one ever waiting and hoping when there are many others already well on the right and better course who are not being heard as much and have similar messaging. In my view, they should have the stage more, and it's up to Shapiro to either make changes or not in the meantime, rather than giving him the stage beyond his core political audience too often, which is amplified all the more in our social media times.
Please - just call me Mijal! Interesting - this goes back to the core issue of moral pragmatism vs. moral purism and what lines we draw. In this case, for me - having followed what I think of as the civil war on the right and the rise of antisemitism there, I was v happy someone of Shapiro's platform spoke up in this way. (i.e., if figures who have become obsolete in the right spoke up like this it wouldn't have helped). But I totally hear your point and I guess it goes to the heart of the tortured calculations we're all making right now. Shabbat Shalom!
Agreed Mijal and Shabbat Shalom - hopefully it's just a matter of time, too long already for those who feel like me, before perhaps Shapiro can get to a better place for some of the rest of us as well. The fewer or the lesser degree of these "tortured calculations" within with regards to those who have the stage all the more, the better!
I do not know much about Shapiros actions and choices that make you feel this way about him. I genuinely want to know, if you are willing to explain, what the issue is.
Hey Michele -for me it’s not that I’m against specific views ben has but more that he has been a key player in the culture war fueled polarization in our country. Ie I’m ok w him having diff views than me say, on abortion (on the spectrum, I’m more pro choice than he is) and want his views to have place in our discourse. But he was one of the earliest adopters of the kind of public persona that blames all the problems of our country on one side vs the other- in his case, on the left. As a centrist and someone v concerned about toxic polarization I think this was bad. He’s on course not the only player to have done this but I think the proof is in the pudding -ie he’s helped someone like Candace Owens achieve international renown precisely bc she was so good at outrage politics. He’s cut ties with her when she went too far but I’m sympathetic to the arguments that say that he’s played a role in getting us to where we are now in terms of our broken discourse. Either way, I am genuinely grateful and admiring of how he’s been waging war on the right against its most extremism elements and pray he will win!
Thank you Mijal for taking the time to clarify. I do not look too deeply into all the players in the arena precisely because of all the rhetoric extremism and polarization. A lot of noise out there but hoping we can all find our way to middle ground at some point. Shabbat shalom!
What precisely is so bad about Ben Shapiro’s association? I suppose y’all gleefully associated yourselves with the left, pretending that was in and of itself virtuous, until the very same left’ betrayal became so gross and apparent that you can no longer deny it. Some of us had the courage to walk away a long time ago when the writing was on the wall and we got cancelled and isolated for it. Let’s just be clear. Yes, there is jew hatred on the right, but the right is talking about it and fighting back against it. Whereas your beloved left has gaslighted you, swept the jew hatred under the rug, invited it and cowed you into silence. There are literally two democrats who spoke out. One is Senator Fetterman and the other one is Rep. Ritchie Torres. Literally no one else will. Not even the Jews in Congress. Let’s not pretend that there is virtue in that. We all saw what happened in the U.S. since October 7 and every day since. Y’all enabled this with your complacency. And even now you gotta denounce Ben Shapiro. Yall need to get over your TDS.
Excellent post and summary of the modern and ancient. On a personal note, I didn't know about the pre-2023 antizionist movement and anti-Israel movement. (Ok. yes, I was in the dark.) I did think maybe a few were Jew-haters but I wasn't sure and I made excuses for them, like I gas light myself as they gas light people into doing.
But 2023, all of what we faced was clear. We could no longer pretend the hate movement on the LW team or RW team didn't exist. Our former allies betrayed us. Degraded our moral courage. In fact, reversed the moral courage and the crimes against humanity and did what they do... lie, libel, incite violence against Jews.
I did a book club on the Butcher's Tale (By Helmut Walser Smith which describes the onset of a pogrom in medieval Germany and despite the specificity of that pogrom's MO, it describes the dynamics of every pogrom ever since, including the antizionist pogroms.
So the key in that MO was to find the "simpleton Jews" to help incite while the media lit the match and incited more. The book was on a murder. But it became the murder of many Jews. These movements whether in the Torah or modern capture the fear, betrayal, and then the idea of jumping in and saving the Jewish people even though every aspect of one's life has perished.
Your article reminds me of that. Shapiros life will change. Just like mine has from the day I continued to stick with Jews and Israelis against the friendships and associations of my past. Sorry Ilhan, I'm "that Jew" that won't march with your liars and inciters. I am "That Jew" who knows it would have been easier to be an antizionist Jew but my red line was the fact that I won't help terrorists and I chose to take off my blindfolds regarding my former associations. I may not have Shapiros status and many of us don't but we do face the circles and let the chips fall where they may. If I perish alone, so be it...
This means a lot—thank you for taking the time to write it so thoughtfully!
What you describe—the moment when excuses stop working, when clarity replaces self-gaslighting, and when choosing solidarity suddenly costs real relationships—is exactly the human terrain I was trying to name. That decision to stay with Jews and Israelis even when it’s isolating is a form of moral courage, whether or not it comes with a public platform.
I’m especially struck by your line about The Butcher’s Tale and the role of “useful Jews” in the dynamics of pogroms. That pattern—betrayal framed as virtue, cruelty dressed up as righteousness—keeps repeating, and seeing it clearly is painful but necessary.
Thank you for reading so generously and for sharing your own reckoning here. It takes real strength to say “I won’t march with liars,” and to accept the cost. I’m grateful you added your voice to this conversation. Shabbat Shalom!
Thank you for your additional thoughts and for your generous praise too! I definitely lack eloquence and clarity in my writing style, but I hoped I was still understandable.
I don't know if you read the Butcher's Tale (Helmut-Smith) but during the investigation, the narrator describes the police were offering a reward and kept upping the financial reward for --the narrator's quote--"the simpleton Jew"--but I think nowadays, they call them "useful idiots" or as you politely said, "useful Jews--antizionist/anti-Zionist Jews".
I want to steer the conversation a little bit back to your previous post where you discussed about antizionist anti-Israel Jewish leaders and followers. They would come into this discussion as the "useful Jews or simpleton Jews" and might also think about intent vs stupid and useful. I heard recently The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh was selling Peter Beinart's anti-Israel book in their gift shop. That means both the main Jewish protector museum either wittingly or unwittingly selling the latest hate movement against the Jewish people. (How many other Holocaust or Jewish-focused museums and educational institutions sell the antizionist hate movement, too, and in their gift shops?)
Peter Beinart is intentionally spreading libels and hatred against the Jewish people.
Thus, in a sense, both are leaders of the hate movement which is causing global pogroms. I'm tying this back to your article because leaders whether Shapiro or Jewish Institutions or Beinart (and LW antizionist Jews) are faced with this parsha too. They have framed betrayal as virtue but what about the institutions who either intentionally or not intentionally provide the best-selling Jew-hating book by a fake righteous liar for terrorist regimes?
Again, on a personal note, those leaders have negatively affected Jews who I know as well as non-Jews who have followed Bernie, Beinart, & other antizionist Jews, but when the Holocaust museum sells that book and that Jewish antizionist influencer(s) and Beinart spreads that "G" lie?!? What other 'simpleton or useful' money making Jewish orgs are dipping into sharing the antizionist haters blogs, books, and music? Shouldn't the Holocaust museum have moral clarity?
So I'm back at your post where you categorize the attacks from Jews but I am back at this post where you wedded the ancient lies and estrangements to the modern ones and where red lines are.
Judaism teaches time and time again that "no" opens as many possibilities as "yes". If we are to find moral clarity we must have red lines.
Actually red lines are much more than moral clarity. They are a necessary muscle for living an upright life.
Without red lines, giving in to our repeated unaccountable failures or dishonesties, big or small, and providing cowardly responses , diminishes our souls and weaken our ability to grow and learn and stand for matters that have value. But an intuitive or even reflexive "no" that leads to defining what is not acceptable and why, is an important upstream voice when so many are swimming in mindless and often heartless schools of thought downstream.
Judah's ability to draw his red line with his history made his courage stand out even more.
Same for Ben Shapiro. I hope it's a muscle Ben Shapiro continues to use.
Excellent. Shapiro is a man of integrity. Has never shown anything but standing by his convictions.
Thanks Michelle! I am not generally a fan of culture war discourse (i.e., the kind of discourse that raises the temp as opposed to lowering it) but in this speech I felt he really did something quite special. Shabbat Shalom!
brilliant, as usual. I can barely listen to him but I’ll heed your advice and listen. Leadership is rare these days especially at a national level.
I think it’s a worthwhile speech regardless of whether one agrees/disagrees with him on other issues precisely bc of what you say - this type of leadership is increasingly rare!! Shabbat Shalom!
Excellent piece, and I had an inside look at the women’s march I gotta share with ya.
Appreciated the [For our Wondering Jews podcast last week, Noam and I recorded a fun, thoughtful conversation on modesty in Judaism]. So needed.
Never a fan of Ben’s but on this he is right.
I feel like this is an uncommon case of the right message but definitely the wrong messenger, considering especially Shapiro's consistent choices for association, be they political or otherwise. I give Shapiro zero pass until if ever he makes better choices for those with whom he associates and collaborates.
Interesting - don't you feel that precisely because of his past (very bad - agreed!) choices, he's the right messenger?
That's a great point Dr. Bitton no doubt, in the spirit of Judah as related to the parsha, though of course as you stated, Ben Shapiro is not Judah. I have to disagree beyond only in this example, for I feel that EVEN when somebody carries forward the right message, in either actual or apparent contrition of their own accord depending on how others see the situation, I would prefer to give and amplify the voices of those sharing the same or similar messaging, BUT only AFTER leading by example with better actions and choices. Maybe Shapiro will be on a better road of sorts now, it's up to him, but I am certainly not one ever waiting and hoping when there are many others already well on the right and better course who are not being heard as much and have similar messaging. In my view, they should have the stage more, and it's up to Shapiro to either make changes or not in the meantime, rather than giving him the stage beyond his core political audience too often, which is amplified all the more in our social media times.
Please - just call me Mijal! Interesting - this goes back to the core issue of moral pragmatism vs. moral purism and what lines we draw. In this case, for me - having followed what I think of as the civil war on the right and the rise of antisemitism there, I was v happy someone of Shapiro's platform spoke up in this way. (i.e., if figures who have become obsolete in the right spoke up like this it wouldn't have helped). But I totally hear your point and I guess it goes to the heart of the tortured calculations we're all making right now. Shabbat Shalom!
Agreed Mijal and Shabbat Shalom - hopefully it's just a matter of time, too long already for those who feel like me, before perhaps Shapiro can get to a better place for some of the rest of us as well. The fewer or the lesser degree of these "tortured calculations" within with regards to those who have the stage all the more, the better!
I do not know much about Shapiros actions and choices that make you feel this way about him. I genuinely want to know, if you are willing to explain, what the issue is.
Hey Michele -for me it’s not that I’m against specific views ben has but more that he has been a key player in the culture war fueled polarization in our country. Ie I’m ok w him having diff views than me say, on abortion (on the spectrum, I’m more pro choice than he is) and want his views to have place in our discourse. But he was one of the earliest adopters of the kind of public persona that blames all the problems of our country on one side vs the other- in his case, on the left. As a centrist and someone v concerned about toxic polarization I think this was bad. He’s on course not the only player to have done this but I think the proof is in the pudding -ie he’s helped someone like Candace Owens achieve international renown precisely bc she was so good at outrage politics. He’s cut ties with her when she went too far but I’m sympathetic to the arguments that say that he’s played a role in getting us to where we are now in terms of our broken discourse. Either way, I am genuinely grateful and admiring of how he’s been waging war on the right against its most extremism elements and pray he will win!
Thank you Mijal for taking the time to clarify. I do not look too deeply into all the players in the arena precisely because of all the rhetoric extremism and polarization. A lot of noise out there but hoping we can all find our way to middle ground at some point. Shabbat shalom!
What precisely is so bad about Ben Shapiro’s association? I suppose y’all gleefully associated yourselves with the left, pretending that was in and of itself virtuous, until the very same left’ betrayal became so gross and apparent that you can no longer deny it. Some of us had the courage to walk away a long time ago when the writing was on the wall and we got cancelled and isolated for it. Let’s just be clear. Yes, there is jew hatred on the right, but the right is talking about it and fighting back against it. Whereas your beloved left has gaslighted you, swept the jew hatred under the rug, invited it and cowed you into silence. There are literally two democrats who spoke out. One is Senator Fetterman and the other one is Rep. Ritchie Torres. Literally no one else will. Not even the Jews in Congress. Let’s not pretend that there is virtue in that. We all saw what happened in the U.S. since October 7 and every day since. Y’all enabled this with your complacency. And even now you gotta denounce Ben Shapiro. Yall need to get over your TDS.
Who does he associate with that is questionable and who are you to question this association with such indignation?
Ben Shapiro superhero
Excellent post and summary of the modern and ancient. On a personal note, I didn't know about the pre-2023 antizionist movement and anti-Israel movement. (Ok. yes, I was in the dark.) I did think maybe a few were Jew-haters but I wasn't sure and I made excuses for them, like I gas light myself as they gas light people into doing.
But 2023, all of what we faced was clear. We could no longer pretend the hate movement on the LW team or RW team didn't exist. Our former allies betrayed us. Degraded our moral courage. In fact, reversed the moral courage and the crimes against humanity and did what they do... lie, libel, incite violence against Jews.
I did a book club on the Butcher's Tale (By Helmut Walser Smith which describes the onset of a pogrom in medieval Germany and despite the specificity of that pogrom's MO, it describes the dynamics of every pogrom ever since, including the antizionist pogroms.
So the key in that MO was to find the "simpleton Jews" to help incite while the media lit the match and incited more. The book was on a murder. But it became the murder of many Jews. These movements whether in the Torah or modern capture the fear, betrayal, and then the idea of jumping in and saving the Jewish people even though every aspect of one's life has perished.
Your article reminds me of that. Shapiros life will change. Just like mine has from the day I continued to stick with Jews and Israelis against the friendships and associations of my past. Sorry Ilhan, I'm "that Jew" that won't march with your liars and inciters. I am "That Jew" who knows it would have been easier to be an antizionist Jew but my red line was the fact that I won't help terrorists and I chose to take off my blindfolds regarding my former associations. I may not have Shapiros status and many of us don't but we do face the circles and let the chips fall where they may. If I perish alone, so be it...
This means a lot—thank you for taking the time to write it so thoughtfully!
What you describe—the moment when excuses stop working, when clarity replaces self-gaslighting, and when choosing solidarity suddenly costs real relationships—is exactly the human terrain I was trying to name. That decision to stay with Jews and Israelis even when it’s isolating is a form of moral courage, whether or not it comes with a public platform.
I’m especially struck by your line about The Butcher’s Tale and the role of “useful Jews” in the dynamics of pogroms. That pattern—betrayal framed as virtue, cruelty dressed up as righteousness—keeps repeating, and seeing it clearly is painful but necessary.
Thank you for reading so generously and for sharing your own reckoning here. It takes real strength to say “I won’t march with liars,” and to accept the cost. I’m grateful you added your voice to this conversation. Shabbat Shalom!
It's FRIDAY! (I forgot the day!!!!! (again!!!) Shabbat Shalom!
Thank you for your additional thoughts and for your generous praise too! I definitely lack eloquence and clarity in my writing style, but I hoped I was still understandable.
I don't know if you read the Butcher's Tale (Helmut-Smith) but during the investigation, the narrator describes the police were offering a reward and kept upping the financial reward for --the narrator's quote--"the simpleton Jew"--but I think nowadays, they call them "useful idiots" or as you politely said, "useful Jews--antizionist/anti-Zionist Jews".
I want to steer the conversation a little bit back to your previous post where you discussed about antizionist anti-Israel Jewish leaders and followers. They would come into this discussion as the "useful Jews or simpleton Jews" and might also think about intent vs stupid and useful. I heard recently The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh was selling Peter Beinart's anti-Israel book in their gift shop. That means both the main Jewish protector museum either wittingly or unwittingly selling the latest hate movement against the Jewish people. (How many other Holocaust or Jewish-focused museums and educational institutions sell the antizionist hate movement, too, and in their gift shops?)
Peter Beinart is intentionally spreading libels and hatred against the Jewish people.
Thus, in a sense, both are leaders of the hate movement which is causing global pogroms. I'm tying this back to your article because leaders whether Shapiro or Jewish Institutions or Beinart (and LW antizionist Jews) are faced with this parsha too. They have framed betrayal as virtue but what about the institutions who either intentionally or not intentionally provide the best-selling Jew-hating book by a fake righteous liar for terrorist regimes?
Again, on a personal note, those leaders have negatively affected Jews who I know as well as non-Jews who have followed Bernie, Beinart, & other antizionist Jews, but when the Holocaust museum sells that book and that Jewish antizionist influencer(s) and Beinart spreads that "G" lie?!? What other 'simpleton or useful' money making Jewish orgs are dipping into sharing the antizionist haters blogs, books, and music? Shouldn't the Holocaust museum have moral clarity?
So I'm back at your post where you categorize the attacks from Jews but I am back at this post where you wedded the ancient lies and estrangements to the modern ones and where red lines are.
שבת שלום
Shabbat Shalom!
Beautiful Mijal.
Judaism teaches time and time again that "no" opens as many possibilities as "yes". If we are to find moral clarity we must have red lines.
Actually red lines are much more than moral clarity. They are a necessary muscle for living an upright life.
Without red lines, giving in to our repeated unaccountable failures or dishonesties, big or small, and providing cowardly responses , diminishes our souls and weaken our ability to grow and learn and stand for matters that have value. But an intuitive or even reflexive "no" that leads to defining what is not acceptable and why, is an important upstream voice when so many are swimming in mindless and often heartless schools of thought downstream.
Judah's ability to draw his red line with his history made his courage stand out even more.
Same for Ben Shapiro. I hope it's a muscle Ben Shapiro continues to use.
And wow we need those red lines more than ever