Evidence strongly suggests that the usual characters are behind much of the funding for the pro-Hamas campus mayhem. One question that might arise is why are “Jewish” organizations on the receiving end of these monies?
A recent report from Breitbart suggests that the funding for the highly-coordinated and violent campus sit-ins are funded by the likes of Soros, Rockefeller, Gates, and Nick Pritzker of Hyatt fame. That is no surprise. Anyone who follows the Davos echo chamber knows that many of the wealthy on the left wish to completely upend Western society. They want you to eat bugs, fly less, give up on nitrogen fertilizers, wear a mask all of the time, and say goodbye to your air conditioner and gas-powered car. In short, they want you to be miserable. Their funding of campus chaos and antisemitic protests is par for the course.
What might be a little more surprising are the recipients of the left’s money. The Breitbart report claims that Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow both received monies and actively participated in organizing the mayhem at Columbia and elsewhere. IfNotNow is based on a famous saying of the Talmudic sage Hillel, who asked, “If not now, then when?” One might be surprised that Jews are organizing campus protests that not only ask for the destruction of the state of Israel and the violent end to its Jewish citizens but have thrown their lot with students and professional agitators who routinely demand the death of all Jews. Why would Jews join forces with people who want them dead?
Over a decade ago, I met an FBI agent here in Israel. He was working on a bunch of terror cases in which American citizens were injured or killed. Our case was on his radar and we met to discuss the details. Years passed and he left the Bureau. Every now and then, he would ask me why American Jews vote so overwhelmingly Democratic. When you have a person like Donald Trump who always expressed his affection for Jews and Israelis, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, stood with Israel, and even had a daughter who converted to Judaism, how is it that the Jews would vote 70% for Joe Biden? I have often noted similar comments to my writings on this website. Readers correctly note that Jews for decades have voted—not in the higher numbers of say blacks, but still—strongly Democratic. And the question is why.
Jews, like any religious or ethnic group, are not monolithic. Thomas Sowell and Barack Obama are both black, but they hold vastly different views on social and economic issues. Pew surveys of Jews in America find that the size of Jewish groups in descending order are unaffiliated, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Orthodox may be the smallest group but it is the only one that is growing in size in the US. Also, it is strongly Republican, generally giving over 90% support to Donald Trump in his previous runs for president. But what of Reform and Conservative Jews—why are they so pro-left, to the point where they will help fund and organize protests that to some extent ask for their own destruction? While a Reform rabbi clearly warned the Democrats not to take the Jewish vote for granted, there will always be those on the hard left who hate Israel and actively wish for its demise, though the country is filled with millions of Jews. The question again is why?
If you ask different Jews what Judaism is, you will get quite different answers. Orthodox Jews see an unbroken history from the times of Abraham through the days of Moses and King David to the present. When we ate matzah on Passover two weeks ago, we were doing exactly the same act that Jews have done for over 3,300 years. Judaism for an Orthodox Jew revolves around Torah observance and the keeping of the commandments or “mitzvot.” Everything else is secondary, and thus you can find orthodox Jews who are Zionists while others are opposed to the existence of the state of Israel. Each group will claim that their position is based on a proper understanding of the Torah and God’s will.
As you move to Reform and Conservative Judaism, the centrality of Torah and commandments is less prominent. An Orthodox Jew would not drive to synagogue on the Sabbath or eat at a non-kosher restaurant. A non-religious Jew or one associated with the more modern strains of the faith may very well do both. As God and Torah became less central, something had to replace it. And for many, it was the idea of “tikun olam,” which in Hebrew literally means making the world better. I have read of Reform communities that send people and resources to the southern border to help illegal immigrants. To get them to send money to the many poor in Israel would probably seem to them like a strange idea. When the Torah is not in the middle, the strong bond between Jews, especially those who have never met or do not think alike, is generally weakened.
So when one looks at the Jewish organizations that since 10/7 have organized protests against Israel, he realizes that those involved see their association with the left and its ideas and rules as being stronger than their affiliation with other Jews and certainly the state of Israel.
In the past, a burning issue for the Jewish people was, “Who is a Jew?” What conditions of birth or conversion would confer upon a person the status of being Jewish? Today, maybe the most critical question is, “What is a Jew?” Can people participate and support activities directed against other Jews and still be considered “Jewish?” While they will be religiously Jewish in person, their hatred of their brethren and their throwing their lot with those who wish to spill Jewish blood only goes to show that their leftist ideology—nurtured at home, possibly in the synagogue, and certainly at school—trumps their Judaism. Any act that is directed against Jews or a state filled with them is an act not based on Jewish concepts but rather on leftist ideology. There is nothing Jewish about wanting the state of Israel destroyed or its citizens murdered.
One can be a Jew while his actions are not Jewish. Those who support, finance, lock arms and rejoice with those who spill Jewish blood are putting their Judaism in a deep back seat after their left-leaning ideology. There is nothing Jewish in supporting a terrorist organization or wishing ill on the state of Israel or its citizens. It is my hope that many American Jews will vote Republican this November after they realize that their former party and its growing progressive wing want them dead. People can change. The residents of Be’eri and Kfar Aza here in Israel who lost so many residents were once super lefties and today speak far to the right of even the Netanyahu government. It is my hope that those Jews who have thrown their lot with the terrorists will wise up and realize that their new friends plan to kill them last.