What Does It Mean To Be A Good Jew?

The simplest way to say it, is that a Good Jew is one who has developed the willingness to introspect on the question of what causes antisemitism, and has begun the process of authentically searching for, and listening to, the answer.

A Good Jew:

1. Recognizes that the Jewish People is not superior to other peoples, and has no right to rule over the nations, nor to forcefully exterminate the worship of other gods and goddesses – regardless of what the Torah or other scriptures may say.
2. Recognizes that the commandments in the Jewish religion do not supersede human rights and other laws of basic decency and morality, nor the law of the land.
3. Recognizes that it is rational for Gentiles to suspect a Jewish person’s national loyalty to be split between the Host Nation and the Jewish People, and doesn’t begrudge Gentiles this rational induction.
4. Respects the integrity of the native culture of the Host Nation, and refrains from trying to alter or re-engineer it.
5. Recognizes that 100 Jewish lives are equal in value to 100 Gentile lives. And that includes Palestinian lives.
6. Recognizes that it’s never a crime to dispute an account of History – regardless of how sure everyone else feels that it’s accurate.
7. Recognizes that conflicts tend to have two sides – and thus, while the nations have indeed committed violence upon the Jewish populations they host, the violence went both ways – and seeks to learn what those ways were, and to understand the other side of the history – the role that Jewry has played in generating the conflicts it keeps getting into. This process is called collective introspection, and it is not a sin… not even for Jewish people.
8. Welcomes the offer of dialogue from Gentiles and other Jews who express concern about problematic Jewish ideologies and collective behavior patterns, in a genuine effort to heal the relationship between Jewry and the rest of Humanity; and even takes the initiative to reach out to Gentiles, as well as to other Jews, to have this dialogue; and at the bare minimum, refrains from the temptation to shame or suppress or censor this dialogue among other people.

A good Jew is one who has woken up from the spell, who has healed themselves from the wicked ideological and behavioral malady that brings Jewry perennially into conflict with its host nations.

No it’s not, and no I’m not. I’m helping the Jewish People survive, and it’s you who are keeping us perpetually perched on the precarious precipice of persecution, by suppressing the ability of our People to collectively engage in a crucial character virtue called introspection.

The world needs to see us displaying introspection and humility now, today, while we appear strong and in control – not after. They need to see our People contrite and remorseful about the crimes it has collectively committed, in Gaza and elsewhere, *before* the force of justice brings Israel to account.

That’s because contrition is meaningless from a conquered villain, whose self-interest is directly correlated with appearing contrite.

Contrition is only meaningful from someone who perceives themselves to be “winning” – because only then does it come from a place of genuine moral character, rather than simple self-interest.

The nations of the world need to see that there are Jews who are capable of this, who have the virtues of humility and introspection, and the capacity for reasoned dialogue and the admission of mistakes, *before* the hammer comes down for what Israel has done to Gaza.

Ironically, this very argument is actually an appeal to self-interest. I did not fail to notice that.

But I’m only making it thus because that’s the only way to reach some people – particularly those who have lost touch with their moral compass, as anyone surely has who is still attempting to justify the IDF’s bombing of schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings, and reducing an entire city to dust. Such people are thinking with the reptile brain only, and can only be reached by an appeal to self-interest.

Really, the message should be: Do this because it’s right. Because the things Israel is doing are horrific atrocities, and they must stop because they must stop – regardless of whether it curries goodwill towards Jews or not.

All I’m asking Jews is to become Good.

Not an unreasonable request.

For a start, please admit that it’s wrong to bomb schools.

Say “Ok, bombing schools is wrong, and the IDF is wrong for doing it, and I condemn it.”

That would be a great first step.

“Bombing schools = bad.”

Not really a big ask, there.

Try that out, and see.

If every Jew becomes a Good Jew, you won’t have to do that, because there will be no more hatred of us in the first place.

Wrong. They can still hate us long after we’re gone. You still hate Hitler and his party, and they’re long gone. You still hate Haman and the Agagites, from the Book of Esther. You hate Pharaoh and the Old Kingdom Egyptians – you hate at least 20 tribes of ancient Canaanites. It’s very possible to hate extinct peoples. So even if Jews are nothing but history, the history books will still hate us, and the people will still too.

The ONLY way to end hatred of Jews, is to heal the relationship between Jewry and the rest of Humanity, through a process of collective introspection by Jews, and open dialogue with Gentiles about the role Jews have played in the conflicts between our peoples.

You won’t be swallowed up by your enemies, because you wouldn’t have enemies.

Wrong. There are only 20 million Jews in the world. Compare that to 9 billion Gentiles. We can’t fight them all. And you know it.

He already let our capital be sacked and our temple destroyed and our nation scattered.

Twice.

If God is on your side, then he’ll protect you even if you don’t have an IDF or an Israel – so you don’t need either of those.

You’re forgetting something.

“Oh, and continuous cash flow from Germany and a never-ending supply of weapons from the United States, and mercenary services on-demand from American aircraft carriers. But yea, with those extra little patches, we can defeat all of our enemies!”

Let’s roll with that for a second.

What if Jews actually do manage to keep annihilating (and manipulating America into annihilating) everyone who hates us?

Well, every person we annihilate is going to make his family hate us, and every family we annihilate will make their neighbors hate us, and every neighborhood we annihilate will make a city hate us, and every city we annihilate will make a nation hate us, and every nation we annihilate will make other nations consider us a dangerous cancer eating away at the body of civilization, and take steps to protect themselves accordingly…

We’ll have to keep annihilating everyone and everything, until there are no humans left in the world except for Jews.

Are you willing to do that?

Are enough Jews willing to do that?

If we are, then the world would actually be rational and well within its rights to annihilate our people preemptively. In self-defense. The world has a right to self-defense, doesn’t it?

It’s really simple: If the way Jewry intends to finally achieve its permanent state of safety and security is to exterminate all the Gentiles off the face of the Earth, then the Gentiles have a right to exterminate us first. You’re making the antisemites’ argument for them.

And anyway, “conquering the world” isn’t that easy to do. Can we do that, even if we want to? 

Are we capable of subjugating the whole world, militarily, even with the rapidly deteriorating and increasingly embarrassing American empire doing our bidding?

Can we even convince America to do it? To fight the whole planet for us? Will Americans go along with that?

And if they don’t, can the IDF do it alone? Defeat the whole planet?

“What. You don’t think we can?”

Um. No.

Not unless our people really do control the world. Do you believe we control the banks, the media, the corporations, the governments, the armies? I mean, that’s the only real way you could be confident that 20 million of us can take on 9 billion of them. So do you know something you’re not letting on?

“What?!? No! We Jews don’t control the world! Those are conspiracy theories!”

Then why are you so confident that you can keep solving all your problems with violence, and keep making more and more enemies without consequences?

“Huh? I don’t understand.”

You’ve got to pick one of the following options. Either:

(A): Jews don’t have to worry about healing relationships or any of that Kumbaya sissy stuff, and we can instead just bomb and pager-bomb and propagandize our way through every conflict, until every nation is broken like pottery, and we’ll get away with it because we really do own most of the major institutions of most of the important countries in the world, just like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion says we do… and we can pull the strings from the shadows to engineer any outcome we want…

or…

(B): That’s a made-up conspiracy theory, and Jews don’t control the world, and 20 million of us can’t take on 9 billion of them, and that’s why we better start being fucking nice to people, and displaying a capacity to engage in the crucial character virtue of introspection, before we turn the whole planet against us in our callous wickedness and hubris.

So pick one of those.

Tough one, huh?

I’ll let you sit with it for a while.

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The only way to end hatred of Jews, for good, is for Jewish people to heal the relationship between Jewry and the Nations… by becoming Good Jews.

If you’re ready to do that and want to learn how, then scroll to the top of the page.

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