As Jewish as a Ham Sandwich

A fascinating debate broke out online last week over a question that sounds semantic but is actually profound. Though it wasn’t framed this way, to me, the question being debated was essentially: is there a difference between being a Jew and being Jewish?

It began when comedian Hannah Einbinder expressed views sharply critical of Israel (not for the first time). Ben Shapiro responded, “Hannah Einbinder is about as Jewish as a ham sandwich.” He added, “If you believe that these people represent Jews or Judaism, then you believe Madonna represents Catholics or Catholicism.”

When someone, whether a celebrity or grassroots activist, invokes the “as a Jew” card to lend credibility to an argument or position that he regards as anti-Jewish, Ben’s response on several occasions has essentially been: Don’t use your Jewish identity to validate an argument that is antithetical to Judaism or harmful to the Jewish people.

Don’t use your Jewish identity to validate an argument that is antithetical to Judaism or harmful to the Jewish people.

Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone of Chabad.org pushed back. “There are many ways to criticize bad arguments,” he wrote. “Saying people who are indeed Jewish are about as Jewish as a ham sandwich is simply not it.”

Shapiro responded: “Wrong. Using the mantle of Jewishness, something Einbinder and company demonstrate zero actual commitment to, in order to promote anti-Judaic insanity is fundamentally un-Jewish and ought to be called out as such.”

Then Rabbi Shais Taub joined the fray. “Torah is the final arbiter of all matters, including Jewish status,” he wrote. “You cannot revoke someone’s Jewishness even if you believe they are using that very status to advance ideas that are to the detriment of the Jewish people.” Rather than push such Jews away, he argued, we should devote ourselves to bringing our brothers and sisters back into the fold.

So who is right? When a Jew invokes “as a Jew” while advancing ideas we believe are deeply damaging to Judaism, Israel, or the Jewish people, do we say, “You’re about as Jewish as a ham sandwich”? Or is a Jew a Jew now and forever, and our responsibility is always to love them, embrace them, and try to bring them closer?

The answer may be both.

Always a Jew

The Talmud in Sanhedrin famously describes the sin of Achan, who disobeyed God’s command not to take from the spoils of Jericho, with the words, “even though a Jew has sinned, he remains a Jew.” Even though Achan committed a transgression that harmed the Jewish people, his essential identity remained unchanged.

Once you are a Jew, you are a Jew forever, even if you’re a convert to Judaism. There is no reverse conversion.

As the Talmud teaches, “You are children of Hashem your God”, even if you act at times like terrible children, you remain God’s child.

This viewpoint supports the approach of Rabbis Lightstone and Taub. A Jew is a Jew, always a child of God.

Acting Jewishly

But Ben Shapiro also makes a valid, different point. When it comes to Jewish identity, God decides who is a Jew. And a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. But if someone deliberately removes himself from the Jewish people and works against them, the Sages recognize that those choices can affect the privileges he or she enjoys and how we relate to him or her.

Maimonides describes one who separates himself from the Jewish community in startling language: even though he has committed no transgressions, but he separates himself from the Jewish people and doesn’t feel their pain or view their enemies as his enemies, then he conducts himself “as though he is not one of them.” That is itself a profound religious failure and it impacts his place in the community in this world and his very entrance to the next one.

We need to be careful here. Criticizing Israel or its government and leaders, or advocating for Palestinians does not make someone an enemy of the Jewish people. There is plenty about Israel and about the Jewish community that can legitimately be criticized. But there is a difference between criticizing policies and leveling blood libels against the Jewish state. There is a difference between advocating for another people and actively undermining the safety and security of your own, a clear distinction between disagreement and disassociation.

And that brings us back to Ben Shapiro’s ham sandwich. Perhaps what the conversation is missing is distinguishing between the noun Jew and the adjective Jewish. Jew is an identity. A Jew you are forever. Even if you espouse ideas as non-kosher as a ham sandwich, you remain a Jew. Only God determines Jewish identity, and no tweet, political position, or personal rebellion can undo it.

But are your ideas Jewish? Are your actions Jewish? Are you behaving Jewishly? Are you a representative of the Jewish people? That is a different question. In that sense, Ben’s formulation can be understood differently, and to me is compelling. He was not, to me, saying that such a person is no longer a Jew. He was saying that invoking “as a Jew” does not magically make an argument Jewish. You can be a Jew while espousing profoundly un-Jewish ideas.

Indeed, when espousing un-Jewish and anti-Jewish ideas with the introduction “as a Jew,” it is particularly dangerous and damaging. Historically, apostate Jews often walked away and disavowed their Jewish identity. They sought to assimilate, integrate, and erase their status as Jews. Today, by contrast, some of the most vociferous voices leveling false accusations against Israel have abandoned the basic criteria for being viewed as part of the Jewish people, all while prominently waving the “as a Jew” card.

The Pig Says, “Look, I’m Kosher!”

In that sense, perhaps the ham sandwich metaphor is particularly fitting. The Sages describe the pig as stretching out its split hooves, as if to announce, “Look, I am kosher,” while concealing the fact that it does not chew its cud and is therefore not kosher at all. The pig is a symbol not merely of what is forbidden, but of the hypocrisy of publicly displaying the credential that suggests legitimacy while behaving in a way that contradicts it.

There is something similarly troubling about invoking one’s Jewish identity not as a source of responsibility to the Jewish people, but as a credential to lend greater legitimacy to those who attack them. The repeated declaration “as a Jew” can become the outstretched hoof, holding up Jewish identity precisely while advancing ideas profoundly at odds with Jewish solidarity and responsibility.

We don't give up on another Jew, but being born a Jew does not make everything one says a Jewish position.

So yes, a Jew is a Jew. We don't give up on another Jew because God doesn't give up on another Jew. We should reach out, invite, educate, inspire, put on tefillin together, share a Shabbos table, and try to awaken the Jewish soul that remains present no matter how deeply buried.

But being born a Jew does not make everything one says a Jewish position. Invoking “as a Jew” does not give Torah credibility to an idea. Jewish identity is unconditional but living Jewishly is not. A Jew is never a treif piece of ham but an idea, even if said by a Jew, can be and sometimes it is necessary to point that out, protest and set the record straight.

You can never stop being a Jew. But you can certainly stop acting very Jewish. And perhaps this is a question we should ask ourselves as we approach Rosh Hashanah: God has already decided that we are His children. Nothing can change that. The question we have to answer is: How Jewishly are we choosing to live?