Work Will Set Us Free

Children Of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, beloved tribe.

Oy, the tsuris we have this year. Oy, what it means to be a proud, Israel-loving Jew and supporter of democracy in the U.S. right now.

The bridge has become so narrow it’s not much more than a tightrope.

We have outrageous Jew-hatred from the left.

We have lye exploding out of a fire hose and dissolving our democracy from the right.

We have a rogue and radical Supreme Court in a sociopath’s pocket.

The entire point of the holiday our nation will celebrate this Thursday is that Americans refused to live under a monarch.

Do you remember the Schoolhouse Rock song we grew up singing about the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution?

It was called No More King.

The Supreme Court overturned the ethos at the very heart of the American experiment today, by ruling that Trump is above the law and and that he enjoys presidential immunity for all official acts conducted within his tenure in the White House. The jury’s still out on whether that includes leading an insurrection against his own nation’s capitol.

And as if that weren’t enough, in a massive power grab, the Supreme Court also ruled that our judicial system no longer has to defer to federal agencies such as the EPA or the FCC when ruling on policy decisions.

There is absolutely no way to overstate how catastrophic this is.

And that leaves aside the whole clusterfuck brewing in the cauldron of the Middle East as we speak.

The near-certainty that Israel will very soon have to wage war on the murderous jihadism threatening her from almost every conceivable front.

The existential fear for Israel’s future that’s with me every waking hour.

This is the literal truth: if I didn’t have so much to do, I don’t know how I’d get through this time.

Writing this newsletter three times a week, while running a Jewish book club with thousands of members, while launching a Jewish magazine of letters, arts & culture, while building a publishing house whose explicit aim is to fight anti-Semitism in the book world: while I sometimes think the work involved in all of this will kill me, I know that not doing it would kill me faster.

My mishpucha, nothing is going to save us except ourselves.

If you’re as old as I am, maybe you remember that the LGBTQ+ community used to be represented by a pink triangle.

Before rainbows edged them out, pink triangles were worn on pins and t-shirts and jewelry as a form of queer pride.

Rainbows are much less fraught, much happier — dare I even say much gayer? (You see, I’m so old I remember when gay meant happy.)

I do love the rainbows of today — and yet, there was something electrifying about turning a symbol of Nazi oppression into a symbol of empowerment.

It’s the same sentiment at play in the jewelry and Judaica created by Rockets Into Roses. This company collects the remains of the rockets fired into Israel by Hamas and uses them to create wearable and usable art. I have a magen david necklace from them myself. I love repurposing hate into beauty. It feels like the ultimate fuck you to terror.

And in a certain ironic way, I have that same sentiment around the phrase welded into the arch just above the gate of Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht Frei — Work Sets You Free.

The sense of purpose I feel right now, and the necessity of staying sane so I can shoulder all the work it involves, is very literally keeping me grounded and centered in the face of this year’s surreal avalanche of disaster.

The work I’ve carved out for myself with this newsletter and all its adjacent projects remains true to my original purpose when I started it all in February: what I most wanted was to build a home for proud American Jews who refuse to disown Israel on the left side of the political aisle.

And now, no matter how bad things ever seem, I have my work cut out for me and that work sets me free. I no longer care about protecting my career. I no longer care what anyone anywhere thinks of me. I no longer care who tries to come for me. No one can stop my magical Jewish ass.

Even within this community, I have to just do my work and let the chips fall. Every time I come out in favor of Biden, I lose at least a few readers. So be it. I have to call it as I see it.

I don’t think a day goes by in which other Jews don’t try to persuade me to move to the right. They tell me how much the far left hates us, as if I don’t already know. They say they’re done standing with people who never stand with us in return, as if social justice work is transactional. They say that Biden is undeniably past his prime, quite possibly even truly demented, the latter of which I vehemently don’t believe myself.

But even if I did, it’s important to realize that your general election vote is not about how much you personally like the candidate. You are not voting for an individual; you are voting for what that individual represents. You are voting for a set of policies. Biden represents the continuation of our democracy, the effort to avert climate collapse, reproductive freedom for women, trans rights, diversity in government, affordable prescription drugs, taxes on the nation’s wealthiest individuals and richest corporations, lowered inflation, solidarity with Israel, kindness, decency, integrity, and a thousand other vitally important values.

Heather Cox Richardson addressed her vast following today, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, and her words were eerily reminiscent of what I wrote on Friday: now is not the time for despair. We need all hands on deck. Think about what you’re good at doing, what you love to do, and for God’s sake, harness those skills in service of the fight before us.

To this end, so many have offered me help in the last week or two, with all the initiatives I have going, and I am going to do my level best to draw on every single one at some point. If you offered your skills and I haven’t yet corresponded with you, please know I intend to as soon as I can. All your contributions are vital, and valued beyond words.

Tomorrow I’ve scheduled the launch of Judith Magazine. I’ll be showcasing a poet whose beautiful work made me weep. She sent a book-length manuscript to me, one that honors Chiune Sugihara — one of the brightest stars in the firmament of our Righteous Among The Nations — with the words on every page. Please have a look and invite your friends.

I’ll be back with you soon. Stay strong and stay sane. Chazak v’ematz.

Am Yisrael Chai.