Embrace Your Jewish Identity

In light of the tragic massacre of Jews in Australia—people who were simply celebrating the first night of Hanukkah together as a Jewish community—it is imperative for Jews to answer one fundamental question:

How can a people so small in number, with a land so small in size, absorb such a vast share of the world’s hatred, condemnation, and obsession?

The Jewish people make up less than 0.2% of the world’s population yet face a level of attention and hostility unmatched by any other nation or group in history. Over half of all United Nations General Assembly resolutions condemning countries have been directed at one state: Israel. No other nation—no matter how large, powerful, violent, or oppressive—comes close to this level of scrutiny.

There is one explanation that accounts for this phenomenon, one that many Jews are uncomfortable articulating: The Jewish people are not insignificant. They are profoundly significant.

The People in the World’s Book

Consider the most widely distributed book in human history: the Bible. Over 100 million copies are sold each year, translated into more than 700 languages, read and revered by billions across continents and cultures.

If you were to open a Bible—roughly 1,200 pages long—how many of those pages are Jewish?

The Jews are not merely the people of the book, they are the people in the book.

Approximately 900 pages, or three-quarters of the book, consist of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings: the history, laws, theology, poetry, and moral vision of the Jewish people. Only about 300 pages are later additions. And even those pages contain hundreds of direct references back to the original Jewish text.

The Jews are not merely the people of the book, they are the people in the book.

The story of the Jewish People is embedded in the moral and spiritual consciousness of humanity through the most influential text ever written.

An Uncomfortable Asymmetry

There is one striking point of agreement between Christianity and Islam, faiths that together account for nearly two billion people worldwide. They both affirm that God gave the Jewish People the Torah at Mount Sinai, revealed the Ten Commandments to them, and entrusted them with a mission to become a blessing to humanity. Both religions accept the promise to Abraham of a land and a destiny, affirming the Jewish People were chosen to be a light unto nations.

Christianity and Islam are built on top of the Jewish story. Judaism did not emerge alongside them as an equal sibling. The Jewish people existed as a nation 1,300 years before Christianity and 1,900 years before Islam.

For Jews, Christianity and Islam are historically irrelevant to their existence. For Christians and Muslims, Judaism is indispensable.

That asymmetry matters.

History’s Longest-Standing Nation

When the nations of the world gather at the United Nations and obsessively condemn Israel, Jews are tempted to ask: Why us?

But consider what they are actually looking at.

They are looking at a people who survived slavery in Egypt and emerged as a nation; who received a moral constitution at Sinai that reshaped human ethics; who withstood the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires; who revolted against Rome, the superpower of the ancient world; who endured two thousand years of exile, persecution, forced conversions, massacres, and expulsions; and who were told repeatedly—by both Christian and Muslim worlds—that their return to history was impossible.

And yet the Jews returned.

Against every prediction, against every historical precedent, the Jewish People returned to their ancestral land as a sovereign nation.

Against every prediction, against every historical precedent, the Jewish People returned to their ancestral land as a sovereign nation. Jews have been around longer than most of the nations of the United Nations combined.

The Real Reason for the Obsession

Israel is not condemned because it is weak and small. Israel is condemned because it refuses to disappear.

The Jewish People represent an uncomfortable truth to the world: that history is not random, that identity persists, and that moral claims endure. A tiny nation can outlive empires, ideologies, and civilizations.

That is why the attention is disproportionate. That is why the hatred is irrational. And that is why the obsession never fades.

Responding to Tragedy

Hanukkah reminds us that Jewish survival has never depended on numbers or power, but on the courage to stand firm in our identity.

The most potent response to Jew hatred is increasing Jewish pride and understanding. It is time to double down on becoming informed Jews who passionately care about being Jewish and joyfully live that identity with confidence and purpose.

The entire world has been reading about the Jewish people for millennia, while so many Jews have never opened the book that tells the story of the Jewish People.

Here’s a simple step. Whether you are observant or not, pick up a Torah, the Five Books of Moses, and start reading. Learn about your people, your history, and your spiritual legacy.

The entire world has been reading about the Jewish people for millennia, while so many Jews have never opened the book that tells the story of the Jewish People.

Empires rose to erase what Jews represent. Jewish hatred is not going away. But history does not belong to empires. It belongs to ideas—and to the people entrusted with them.

Hanukkah teaches this lesson with precision. It was not Jewish power that defeated the Greek empire. It was Jewish light. And you are this generation’s torchbearer.