Courage
It couldn't come at a better time
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just one step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
As the new year begins for the Jewish community with a lump in our collective throats, I say we declare that the theme of this year will be courage.
The last few months - what indeed feels like the last few years - have of course been trying on our community. It is not just the fallout from the 10/7 massacre that has pushed us to our emotional and moral limits, but indeed the trends of the last few years that have challenged a lot of what we internalize as Jews.
Tough to be a Jew
Though it hardly needs to be said, it’s tough to be a Jew.
About 15 years ago, I was fortunate to take a tour of the beautiful Nairobi Synagogue, in Kenya’s capital. It is a building that was first built in 1903, when the Uganda Plan was suddenly launched following the Kishinev Pogrom of that same year. Yes, there is a fascinating Jewish history in Nairobi.
Giving me a tour of the grounds was a local Kenyan named Harrison. He showed me the sanctuary, the banquet hall, the gardens, and even the mikveh. At the end of the tour, remarking to him about how much he seemed to know about Judaism, I asked whether he himself had ever considered becoming Jewish.
He leaned against the nearby palm tree, smiled, and remarked that it was very difficult to be Jewish, almost too-difficult, “like trying to cut down this palm tree with a razor blade.” Astute, and that’s the attitude of an outsider looking in.
For those of us insiders, we know the difficulty. Of course, we have much of which to be proud. We have outlasted world empires, and come from a strong lineage. We punch above our weight, we succeed, nay thrive, and we have changed the world.
But it is nevertheless tough being Jewish. Though I’d argue that we are often at our best when we are feeling that toughness, that persecution, I would also argue that it is at those times when it behooves us to demonstrate courage. We must be brave, bold, and courageous, and as we enter the new year, there are several ways to do so.
Be Difficult
Sadly, there is a tendency these days to take the path of least resistance. This is very much the case broadly speaking in society, where there is a need for immediacy, and for people to share their opinions on social media. Given that the mob will sometimes jump all over you if you express an opinion that is deemed unpopular or counter-cultural, many will just go along with the majority, lest they be cancelled. This does not, and cannot work for us.
It is imperative that we as Jews be difficult.
There’s a story about a young Margaret Thatcher who at the time was a research chemist. She applied for a job, and after several rounds of interviews, noticed the evaluation handwritten at the top of the interviewer’s notes. The comment said, “This young woman has much too strong a personality to work here.” Did she take this as criticism, or praise? Well, history would state that the Iron Lady considered it the latter.
I say that as Canadian Jews in 2024, let’s be difficult. Let’s make sure that the police do not get a pass when they direct coffee to anti-Israel/antisemitic protestors, and thus appear to be at least tacitly supporting their disruptive behaviour. Let’s be difficult when someone says in innocent conversation, “Well, of course there were many Jews killed on 10/7 but it doesn’t excuse what Israel has been doing in Gaza since.” Push back. Hamas is to blame. It is their fault, not ours. Let’s be difficult when the media tries to pass off anti-Israel criticism as a mere mistake, when we know that they likely meant it from the start.
It is certainly easy, emotionally, after several months of feeling persecuted in our own country, to take the path of least resistance. To not pick a fight with everyone who makes a stupid comment, or to give people the benefit of the doubt. But the last several months have exposed our critics and our enemies. We know what people think about us, and what they are willing to tolerate in terms of antisemitism. We cannot abide by this. We must not. There is no more benefit of the doubt to be given.
Being difficult, is being courageous.
Stand Your Ground
Standing your ground obviously goes hand in hand with being difficult. We should be difficult, and give push back, and we should remain constant in our position in support of our community, and in terms of Israel.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that, “When we straighten our backs, we might be beaten - but we can’t be ridden.” Ryan Holiday writes, “We cannot tolerate abuse, constraints, or injustice. We can’t hide from our problems. We can only step to them. Submission is no cure. Nor can we expect outrages to magically go away on their own.”
As the mobs on our streets attack our institutions, and are increasingly blatant in their antisemitism, protesting in Jewish neighbourhoods, no longer pretending that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, we must stand our ground. We must not cede one inch to their ridiculous lies.
Further, as the genocide lie continues to be thrown around, as the new blood libel against Israel and the Jewish community, we must similarly stand our ground and state in no uncertain terms: the only attempted genocide being perpetrated in Israel and the Palestinian Territories is the attempt by Hamas to kill the Jews. Israel is not committing genocide, but if Hamas had their way, they would have killed every last Jewish man, woman and child they could get their hands on. This is standing one’s ground. Former Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella said it well in the Globe and Mail.
We must not, and cannot, cede one inch in such arguments. There is no moral equivalency between the pro-Israel and anti-Israel sides. There is only right and wrong, and we must straighten our backs and confidently aver our support for our community.
Standing our ground, is being courageous.
Own It
There is a story in Menachem Begin lore about a face-off in 1982 with a senator named Joe Biden.
At a closed meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the 39 year old American Senator was haranguing the 68 year old Israeli Prime Minister about the War then-raging in Lebanon. Pointing his finger and banging the table, Senator Biden shouted that Israel risked losing US military aid because its actions against the PLO in Lebanon were eroding America’s faith in its Middle East ally.
Begin’s response is the stuff of legends:
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles. I’m not a Jew with trembling knees.” He continued, “I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers...nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles.”
We must be unapologetic in our Judaism, and in our Zionism. In the support for our own, and in our support for Israel. Our community can only thrive when we each take responsibility for each other, and own our courage.
We also cannot afford to be silent. Our enemies are blatant in their hatred of our community. We must thus also be abundantly clear in our pride. Wear your ID tag showing your support for those hostages in Gaza. Sign petitions using your name. Do not use pseudonyms or anonymous accounts when posting support for Israel. Be blatant, be loud, be proud, and own it. That is what makes one courageous. That is what ensures that any step we take, we do not do so with trembling knees.
Courage is Contagious
Andrew Jackson once said that “One man with courage makes a majority.”
The most important word in that sentence there is “makes” - in that one person demonstrating courage will inspire others to do the same, thus hopefully creating a courageous majority.
You do not have to be the most well-versed in how our community operates, the most knowledgeable about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, or the most popular person in town to make a difference. You just have to be courageous in your own way for that idea to spread. Once that courage is publicized, those exposed will similarly feel empowered, and inspired, to take their own stand - to let courage be the dominant theme of 2024.
There is much that our community, in Toronto, in Canada, in Israel, and in the broader Diaspora, has done in the last several months, that has demonstrated courage. By noticing what others have done, we too can draw inspiration and make sure that we do not lose steam, nor lose sight of what we are fighting for.
Let us have the courage of those 300,000 Israelis who, when war broke out in early October, immediately returned home to take up arms to defend their country.
Let us have the courage of those hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers currently serving on the front lines in Gaza and in Northern Israel, or behind the scenes at military HQ, who wake up each morning and dedicate their lives to defending the Jewish State.
Let us have the courage of those families in Israel, waiting and praying for word from their family members still held hostage in Gaza. And let us have the courage of those hostages, who still remain in Gaza, patiently waiting for almost 100 days now, for their salvation.
Let us have the courage of Rimon Kirsht, hailed for giving her Hamas captor a death stare upon her release, showing that she was not a Jew with trembling knees. Or the courage of Mia Schem, and countless other hostages who emerged from Gaza, psychologically and physically bruised and beaten, vowing to defeat their captors.
Let us have the courage of the South African Jewish community, fighting tooth and nail against their own government’s atrocious ties to Hamas and their bringing a claim to the International Court of Justice citing Israel’s alleged “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Let us have the courage of every Jewish or pro-Jewish/Israel politician who has used their platform to speak up in support of Israel, even if it goes against the beliefs of their base, knowing that they may be jeopardizing their future or their job.
Let us have the courage of those lawyers who have brought lawsuits and class actions against educational and other institutions, in an effort to not only seek damages for blatant antisemitism, but in an effort to provoke serious change and improvement for the Jewish future at those institutions.
Let us have the courage of all those students on campuses facing unprecedented hatred from mobs who seek to redefine not only the notion of liberalism, but even the basic definition of words like colonialism, white-supremacy, and antisemitism.
Let us have the courage of every Jewish employee who has spoken out against their employer’s anti-Israel position, risking their job and livelihood, making sure that they take a stand for what they believe in.
Let us have the courage of every parent who has spoken to their child in the last few months about what is going on in Israel, about how antisemitism may be something they confront in the coming weeks and months, and about how to be brave in their own way.
Agency is taken, not given
Though we are all born with agency - the sense of control that we feel in our lives or the capacity to influence our own thoughts and behaviour - not everyone chooses to assert their agency. Often, we accept limitations that others place on us. We allow fear or discomfort to limit what we could, and should, bring ourselves to do.
In 2024, we must assert our own agency. We must be courageous. This is not only how the Jewish community has survived, and thrived, for millennia, but it is how we must move forward from the constant onslaught of negativity against us.
However hard it is to be a Jew at this time, we must know that this is one of the best times in history to be Jewish. We have a voice, we have respect, we are cohesive, we have a country, and we have an army.
Nothing is stopping us from being brave. Everything is telling us to be strong and of good courage (chazak ve’amatz). Let’s seize the moment and stand for what we know to be true.
Am Yisrael Chai
I would be remiss not to mention Ryan Holiday’s book Courage is Calling: Fortune Favours the Bold, in which I found several of the above examples of courage, and quotations used.