The Pope, the President, and What Judaism Says About AI
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Holocaust education is not an effective response to contemporary antisemitism. Here’s what is.
Dave Portnoy sold the company he founded, Barstool Sports, for $500 million, and bought it back a few years later for $1. Millions follow him on social media and watch his daily pizza reviews around the country.
Portnoy is Jewish and has on occasion displayed his Judaism, like when he celebrated the defeat of an MMA fighter who had praised Hitler by putting on a yarmulka and waving an Israeli flag in the front row of the match. Soon after October 7, he spoke out in support of Israel and has since then publicly defended Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself.
Nothing has made Portnoy as outspoken about his Jewishness or aggressively stand up for the Jewish people like the antisemitic incident that happened at his Philadelphia bar a couple of weeks ago.
Customers who order bottle service are offered customizable letter boards, which they can ask staff members to arrange with messages of their choice. A student or two from Temple University who visited the bar asked staff members to arrange the letters on his sign into an antisemitic message, including an expletive directed at the Jewish people. The incident was a staff breakdown and, more importantly, an expression of hate.
Portnoy took to his social media to communicate his outrage. “I’ve been shaking I’ve been so mad. I’m gonna make it my life mission to ruin these people, like I’m coming for your throat.”
But a few hours later he posted another video saying he had reconsidered his approach, and instead had decided to send the young men responsible for the hate speech on a tour of Auschwitz to learn about the impact of hate.
He explained:
"My initial reaction was like I'm going to burn these people to the ground, their families, everything, and it's like you know what? Maybe that's not the best course of action. Maybe I can use this as a teaching moment, and like before, people just are like the Jews or any group, and the hate, let's try to like turn a hideous incident into maybe a learning experience, as cliche and very unlike me. But I talked to both the culprits, who I know are super involved in it, talked to the families. I'm sending these kids to Auschwitz. They've agreed to go, that's of course, the Holocaust concentration camps…and hopefully learn something. And maybe like their lives aren't ruined, and they think twice, and more importantly, other people like see it's not just like words you're throwing around. So to me, that's a fair outcome of this event."
Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick applauded Portnoy for addressing the “horrific display of hate” and using it as an opportunity to educate about anti-Jewish violence, saying, “Antisemitism needs to be identified, called out, and crushed.”
A few days later, Portnoy gave an update saying he had “revoked” the trip to Poland because at least one of the people involved "is no longer taking responsibility" for the sign.
Though he didn’t end up sending the perpetrators to tour Auschwitz, the strategy of responding to antisemitism by sending antisemites for a Holocaust education is nothing new. In 2006, Mel Gibson spewed antisemitic remarks during a DUI arrest. Gibson met with Jewish leaders and visited the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. In 2014, two British teenagers vandalized a synagogue with antisemitic graffiti. As part of their community service, they were sent to visit Auschwitz. In 2018, Nick Conrad released a controversial music video titled "Hang White People", which contained antisemitic undertones. A French court ordered him to visit the Holocaust Memorial in Paris as part of a court ruling.
While Portnoy should be commended for speaking up loudly and proudly, something we need to see a lot more of, I question the effectiveness of Holocaust education as a response to contemporary antisemitism.
Dara Horn, the author of “People Love Dead Jews,” thinks not. In her article, “Is Holocaust Education Making Antisemitism Worse? Using dead Jews as symbols isn’t helping living ones,” she writes: “I have come to the disturbing conclusion that Holocaust education is incapable of addressing contemporary antisemitism. In fact, in the total absence of any education about Jews alive today, teaching about the Holocaust might even be making antisemitism worse.”
She writes:
“The Holocaust educators I met across America were all obsessed with building empathy, a quality that relies on finding commonalities between ourselves and others. But I wondered if a more effective way to address antisemitism might lie in cultivating a completely different quality, one that happens to be the key to education itself: curiosity. Why use Jews as a means to teach people that we’re all the same, when the demand that Jews be just like their neighbors is exactly what embedded the mental virus of antisemitism in the Western mind in the first place? Why not instead encourage inquiry about the diversity, to borrow a de rigueur word, of the human experience?”
This article was published in May of 2023, five months before the most murderous day of Jews since the Holocaust, and I fear her thesis has only been strengthened. Teaching only about the Holocaust without teaching about the Jewish people, Jewish values and ideals, Jewish contributions to the world, Jewish culture and practice only focuses on Jews as victims. But today’s antisemite learns about the Holocaust and sees the Jewish people as the committer of a current genocide instead of the victim, as perpetrating a Holocaust instead of experiencing one.
Teaching only about the Holocaust without teaching about the Jewish people, Jewish values and ideals, and Jewish contributions to the world only focuses on Jews as victims.
Another famous Jew has been targeted with hate for his Judaism, but he has responded in a very different way. Michael Rapaport is an award-winning actor, comedian and podcaster. Since October 7 he has not only visited Israel countless times, he has relentlessly dedicated his online influence to advocating for Israel and the Jewish people.
Asked about how October 7 impacted him, he said, "My Judaism has changed 100%. I am more in tune with it. I'm more proud, I'm more aware, I'm more educated. I'm more proactive in every single way possible and I'm really glad about that."
Asked how his belief in God has changed, he answered: "I believe in God in a different way. I celebrate and understand Him in a different way. I think we have nothing but faith. You have to have faith. That's been one of the good things that has come from this last year for me personally."
Michael now wraps tefillin and says about it, “Every single time is a blessing, every single time is a mitzvah.”
Our response to acts of antisemitism must be more Jewish pride, more Jewish practice, stronger Jewish identity, increased observance.
Yes, we must confront antisemites, hold them accountable, throw the book at them and, when possible, seek to reform them. Educating may be a first step, but it cannot be the whole strategy. The answer is to not focus on their education, like Dave Portnoy did, but to focus on ours, as Michael Rapaport is. Our response to acts of antisemitism must be more Jewish pride, more Jewish practice, stronger Jewish identity, increased Torah observance.
Rather than reward the hateful hoodlums with a trip to Poland, Portnoy should announce he is going to Israel. He should put on a Magen Dovid necklace if not a yarmulka, hang a mezuzah on his home and office, engage his Judaism and Jewish learning in a meaningful way.
When doing one of his famous pizza reviews, before he takes a bite and gives a score, Portnoy proudly announces “one bite, everyone knows the rules.” But he doesn’t take just one bite, he takes several and when the pizza tastes particularly good, he can’t help himself from finishing the whole slice.
Describing a relationship with God, King David (Psalms 34:9) taught, “Taste and you will see that God is good.” You can’t just listen, read about or think about God, you must engage, taste, act and then you’ll see with clarity a life of meaning, purpose and eternity.
Instead of focusing on educating others, educate yourself, your children and Jews all around us to be living richly proud and practicing Jewish lives.
Start with one thing. Just one bite of a mitzvah and you will want more and more.
Jews fought back in the Holocaust by practicing they Judaism and/ or fighting back like the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during Passover, before the death of the holy ones that went for Kiddush Hashem the sang " I believe the Moshiach will come" also Victor Frankl was not a victim he came up with his thesis and purpose to life in Auschwitz-Birneau, most Holocaust Survivors( obm) that got out of concentration camps and other bad places build a life and had descendants, and open businesses and some even stayed religious, and had a lot of faith, because they survived by many miracles, and also recently on October 7, 2023, Jews should be proud who they are not consider themselves victims, the descendants of Holocaust Survivors( obm) served in the Israeli military system
Very good article. There are so many misconceptions about the Jewish people in general. I don't know how we can combat ignorance and hatred except one person, or group at a time. I empathize with the person who commented that her family/children experienced snobbery from other Jews. When we lived in Atlanta, I had nothing in common with most of the Jewish women there in their everyday life. I had to work. Many of the old established women had servants.
I highly recommend Dara Horn's book "People Love Dead Jews". It's a real eye opener.
I agree with the fact that we should teach Jewish value, not just victimization during the Holocaust.
I read after October 7, 2023 most Jews are starting to embrace their Judaism, because their so called friends turned out to be big anti semites, so Jews turn to other Jews and Jewish places of worship, and Shabbat dinners, and anything Jewish to connect to their heritage
I think this is an over generalization. I am a convert. My non-Jewish family and friends have been very supportive. There have been rallies in the Washington DC, where I live, with non-Jews as well as Jews in attendance.
Meanwhile, we continue our Orthodox practice and Jewish friendships.
Great!
Why did Jews ever think it was a good idea to teach about Jews as nothing more than victims? When every other group (women, blacks, "minorities" ad infinitum) were insisting that their presence be acknowledged in general education, Jews were silent except to give their voices to the demands of these other groups. Personally, whenever I proposed that national groups - i.e the ADL, Hadassah- make this a focus - they were singularly uninterested.
Great article! Yes, "taste and see that the Lord is good," as the Psalmist says.
The adults who are practicing this extreme antisemitism are members of a group that is supporting them and giving them a sense of purpose in their lives.the groups meet regularly and give out freebies and an agenda and even a list of what to chant . Having this financial support and emotional support is not something that is going to respond to curricular education or even courses in ethics. No, personally I can't say what would trigger a glimmer of doubt in their minds but I do feel the only way they MIGHT change is through personal experience. Who is going to develop,supply and pay for that experience is also something I don't know. Honest men have become thieves and perhaps a thief has become an honest man but not from any external lecture, pressure,book etc .
Re: The term woke. Imo it has been grossly misused. A much more accurate adjective would be to say someone is benighted. If I woke you up, you are ostensibly alert and awake. If you are benighted, then you are in a state of being unaware. So many self hating Jews are extremely benighted!
'Woke' is not to be conflated with 'awake'. They are not the same, so your analogy doesn't really work.
Analyze the forms of the word. If I woke you up then you ARE awake. Now think of the adjectives benighted and oblivious. The latter terms are MUCH more descriptive IMO. Wouldn't a self hating Jew fit the criteria for being benighted and oblivious?
Holocaust education for non-Jews is ineffective on many levels. It is also mostly factually wrong, as it is usually implemented by academic elites who represent leftist values and materially benefit from their ideology and highly selective narrative. Quite a different experience of the Soviet Jewry, the majority of whom were murdered by the local population, is being ignored, as it does not fit the woke narrative that they try to sell. In addition to religious texts, Jews should read the great Sholom-Aleichem and many other Jewish writers. Learn our real history to understand that Antisemitism is not curable and fighting it with sterile education is at best counterproductive. Instead, we should concentrate on providing religious and non-religious education to the Jewish youth.
Very good point about the Soviet Jews. Feels like I'm recovering from hypocritical leftist values and how twisted "woke" has become. But are we targets because we are commanded to be separate from the goyim? Would teaching the public about Jewish values increase their compassion? Or just make it worse because we don't believe in jesus or alla?
Sorry to say but religious education isn't enough. My kids went to Jewish day school for their education and the rich snobby Jews looked down at them and ostracized them. What good are Jewish values if not put into action?
Well said, Shozhie! Thank you for making this important point!
I have often felt the sting of 'otherness' too at shul, because we are not so well off as other attendees and were made to feel as outsiders/not like them. Why did our religious institutions become merely 'country clubs' for the advantaged to look down their noses at congregants who are struggling financially?
Religious education for all Jews is so important, but lack of inclusiveness in our own houses of worship defeats this purpose quite roundly. How can Jewish children feel any kind of pride in their heritage and religion if he or she feels humiliated, being sneered at by pretentious elitists, while attending Jewish learning?
I'd say that fighting anti-semitism must begin in our own houses.
You people are fools for staying in America where you cannot be fully Jewish - even amongst your own kind! Get out and come home to our ONLY homeland, Israel, where all of us belong, as fast as you can!
Not everyone is in a position to make Aliyah, so please refrain from name calling. Also, the previous poster spoke about disrespect from within, which can happen among any religious group. With that said, I was very much at home during my all too brief visit to Israel and am planning another trip there asap/
My children had similar experiences with some kids in day schools.
More Jewish education for our youth is, indeed, vital, but along with that they must also learn physical self-defense and offense, and an attitude and outlook on life that says "no one is going to denigrate me any more in any way for being a Jew - at your own physical peril!" The Jew-haters need to be deathly afraid of us. THAT is what works!
Exactly right. If the cost of attacking Jews becomes too high, (risk of getting physically hurt) then the attacks will become much less.
There's something that both types of education is missing ... which is the crux of the issue. Antisemites don't believe they have an unacceptable hate for an innocent (of all charges) people group. Rather they believe that they're fighting for a good cause .. the eradication of evil. Down the line of Church history (and later seeping into Islam) people were taught that the Jews are evil, and that they worship Satan - due to a twisting of NT texts to cause them to come to that conclusion during the second century and later (from the so-called Church Fathers). If we don't educate ALL people on HOW this development of "replacement theology" ocurred, and the inherent evil of the Jews was taught, then antisemites will continue to believe they're doing the world a favor by fighting evil Jews.
It's hard to imagine that Holocaust education is as effective and even worthwhile as it is held up to be. While it isn't useless or futile, it's clear that it isn't as successful as people of good will might believe. Indeed, it might be the cause of some of the anti-Semitism that has been so increasing out of control. After all, if the evil of victimization of a single group is so effectively made, it's an easier jump to seeing with all the propaganda available to concluding that Israel is a "bad actor" for victimizing the "Palestinians". American Jews, for example, virtually all of whom have inarguably been exposed to Holocaust education in larger part are more sympathetic and even supportive of the "Palestinians" and their supporters even in the face of Oct.7th.
I agree that moving to Israel is a powerful way to connect to
one's Judaism. But
To put a blanket label on diaspora Jews as "self-haters" is unfair and disregards the reality than many of them are simply misguided and uninformed. . As the Rabbi mentions, it's sad that so many don't get exposed to Jewish practice and history, and a meaningful response to the insidious narrative that sees Palestinians as victims. One of the worst things you can do to a Jew is say that he/she is self-hating, which probably isn't going to strengthen their Jewish identity and prevent them learning about a more truthful perspective on what Judaism is really about.
Dave Portnoy is a celebrity who is speaking out. A rarity these days. Thank you so much Dave!! We need more of this not less. antisemitism needs to be attacked from all fronts, and a guy like DP carries so much more weight.
That he is sticking up for his Jewish heritage he should be commended. If he did not approach the situation as you would like well atleast he approached the situation. If you look further on what he is doing One Bite Mitzvahs all the time. The Jewish community should be praising him for all he has done 🍕
No one is discounting his contributions, but this article makes the irrefutable point that the best, most significant changes occur inwardly. because in the final analysis, the one we can really change most effectively is ourselves.
I think it was Rav Salanter, zt"l, who said that in his youth he aimed to change the world, in middle age he settled for his community, but as an elderly man he realized that he could only change himself.
Likewise, as Jews, we need to live according to our creed, and only then will others be unable to deny the truth about the Jewish way of life.
With all due respect , I feel I need to point out , that , what David Portnoy ‘s reaction ( of trying to send the culprits to become confronted with the …echoes of the Holocaust to effect their totally ignorant conditions ) was ;his reaction,
and I feel ,one can not demand an other ‘s reaction on anyone , than their very own , arising from their very individual depth ….
His reaction was dictated by his soul and I feel it is wrong to somehow devalue it ,
Perhaps his “ function “ was to facilitate the turning of another person from the side of Amalek to become an ally of our people …
Amalek cannot be turned, that's the point.
King Saul lost his kingdom because he left a trace of Amelak, and then then King David took over, that is why there was a Haman in Persia, and Mordecai and Esther were ancestors of King Saul and that is when the Purim story took place, and anyone that has a burning hatred against Jews they must stem from Amelak
Mordecai and Esther were descendants, not ancestors, of King Saul. They were in Persia as a result of the Babylonian exile that followed the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. That Temple was built by King Solomon, King David's son.
WELL SAID AND TRUE.
I just started reading Dara Horn's book and I love it. For a loong time I have wanted a kosher kitchen but my husband has been resistant to change. I am not giving up. (Changes come very slowly in my household!) My goal is for every Jewish person to feel comfortable eating anything I cook/bake. I also appreciate what Michael Rappaport has done!
You go girl!
Thank you!