My Review of Sarah Hurwitz's "As a Jew: Reclaiming our Story....."

Be Strong and Stand Tall

Former senior speech writer to President Barack Obama and head speech writer to Michelle Obama, Sarah Hurwitz has written an important book on the need for American Jews to reclaim their proud identity and go beyond being a “social justice” Jew or a “cultural” Jew. Although Hurwitz was a Bat Mitzvah her experience with Judaism was of the pediatric variety. She didn’t really rediscover her Judaism until she was 36 when she walked into an Introduction to Judaism course. Thus, much of the book is autobiographical.

 

She tells us of her discovery of the very long text-line of Judaism going from the Tanakh, to the Talmud, to later rabbinical commentaries and on to the modern era. She didn’t realize the full depth of Judaism as a way of life and a way of thinking. She also has become learned in the history of antisemitism going back to the early Catholic Church relying on the work of James Carroll’s “Constantine’s Sword.” She goes on to discuss the antisemitism that originated in the Soviet Union and how the Soviet’s anti-Zionism was picked up by the Islamic world.

 

Hurwitz picks up on Dara Horn’s theme distinguishing between Purim antisemitism and Chanukah antisemitism. Purim antisemitism calls for the destruction of Jewry while Chanukah antisemitism is all about societal pressure for Jews to give up their identity. The latter is the antisemitism of the Left in America today.

 

In order to be cool in Left circles Jews have to be social justice warriors and denounce Zionism. I have seen many a letter to the editor signed by an anti-Zionist Jew starting with "as a Jew." She characterizes Jewish anti-Zionism as a luxury belief similar to those who live in gated communities calling to defund the police. Here she goes into the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict where she effectively rebuts much of the pro-Palestinian propaganda that has become mainstreamed in America today.  That said, Hurwitz is a self-professed ‘liberal Zionist” who supports the two-state solution.

 

Her solution is for Jews to lean in to be strong and stand tall against the wave of antisemitism we are now experiencing. We have to reclaim our proud story and to that we have to reclaim our story going back to the beginning.