Rudy Giuliani, Jews Are Not Getting Over It

This week Noelle Dunphy, Rudy Giuliani’s former associate, filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court, accusing him of sexual harassment and making antisemitic and racist remarks. She claims Giuliani said, “Jews want to go through their freaking Passover all the time, man oh man. Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago.”

His alleged rant might apply not only to Passover, but to many pivotal Jewish holidays, traditions and observances: Hey Jews, you’re commemorating events that happened over three thousand years ago. Get over it!

Of course, we have no idea if Giuliani made these comments, but in any case it raises an interesting point, something I’ve been thinking about as Israelis and Jews around the globe celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem 56 years ago. Throughout the millennia of exile and persecution, from the crusades to the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust, Jews have placed the memory of Jerusalem in the forefront of their mind.

For thousands of years Jews declare at the end of that pesky Passover Seder that seems to upset Giuliani: Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem!

For millennia, Jews have been obsessed with Jerusalem. Why the fixation on the past? Why don’t Jews “get over it”?

When Jews pray three times a day, wherever they are in the world they turn to face Jerusalem. In the central prayer, the Amidah, recited thrice daily, Jews pray for the ingathering of the exiles and the return to Jerusalem where the Holy Temple will be rebuilt.

This yearning to return is mentioned any time a Jew eats bread and recites Grace after Meals. At the height of one’s personal joy, when a couple stands under the chuppah, their entire life ahead of them, it is customary to break a glass and say, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning” (Psalms 137:5). Despite your intense happiness, don’t forget that Jerusalem is not fully rebuilt; it’s as if the heart of the nation is on life support.

And to top it all off, for three weeks of every year, leading up to Tisha B’Av, the Jewish People take on increasingly severe customs of mourning and cry over the destruction of the Holy Temple that happened thousands of years ago.

For millennia, Jews have been obsessed with Jerusalem. Why the fixation on the past? Why don’t Jews “get over it”?

Because Jews are not living in the past – they are creating the future.

The Never-Ending Story

Every speaker or influencer knows how hard it is to keep people’s undivided attention for three minutes. How do you do it for three thousand years?

This is one of the big challenges facing the Jewish People. Starting with Abraham, the first forefather who entered a covenantal relationship with God, continuing through the Exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, where we received our marching orders to be a beacon of light and hope in the world, spreading wisdom and values from the epicenter in Jerusalem, Jews have been writing an epic story that stretches over the course of history.

How do you ensure that generations throughout the millennia don’t lose the plot, remain steadfast to the Jewish mission and continue to write the next chapter of this unfolding story?

Jews are surrounded with touchstones and markers that remind them of their purpose and ultimate direction.

Through periods of exile and unimaginable persecution, the Jewish People have borne a collective memory, forging into the future while remembering its national destiny. Jews have surrounded themselves with touchstones and markers that remind them of their purpose and direction, and practices that ensure the next generation is clued into the story and given the tools to write the next chapter.

Passover is the time dedicated to crystalizing the story of the Jewish People and passing it on to the next generation, so that they pick up the baton and continue with the next leg of the nation’s journey. The vision of Jerusalem as the heart and soul of the Jewish People, where they can palpably connect to the Divine and recalibrate, is hardwired into the Jews’ collective GPS system. Before Waze, Jews in the far-flung corners of the world had their home destination -- their true north -- programmed. Face East, envision Jerusalem, affirm your ultimate destination as you weave the next chapter in this unfolding historical tapestry.

Some Jews have lost the plot, discarding the 1000-page novel they view as a chore to read. But remarkably, the Jewish nation as a whole still remembers, forging ahead with an unwavering sense of purpose, embracing their role as co-authors of a narrative that transcends time, part of a tapestry that encompasses the past, shapes the present, and promises a future filled with hope and meaning.

So Mr. Giuliani, in case you're wondering, that’s why Jews refuse to get over it.