A recent statement from a group of organizations claiming to represent a broad swath of mainstream American Jewry vigorously rejected the US government’s recent actions to combat antisemitism. This prompts the question: How should Jews – fiercely committed to democracy, the rule of law, and due process – react when other Jews are threatened? How should we respond both to those who threaten us and to those who seek to protect and support us?
Azariah Figo was born in Venice in the 16th century, during a period of Church-mandated burnings of the Talmud and other Jewish books. In his youth, he joined many of his Jewish contemporaries in embracing the intellectual and social opportunities of the Italian Renaissance but later turned to focus on his own people and faith, dedicating his life to serving the Jewish communities of Pisa and Venice and to the revival of the study of Torah.
Considering the challenge of preserving Jewish identity in the Diaspora, Rabbi Figo offered a stunningly novel, simple, and painfully relevant interpretation of Moses’ first encounter with the Jewish people in Egypt.
The Biblical story is well-known. Moses emerged from his adoptive home in Pharaoh’s palace to connect to his brethren and observed their persecution first-hand, witnessing an Egyptian beating a Jew. Turning this way and that and seeing no one, Moses took the law into his own hands and struck down the attacking Egyptian.
What was Moses looking for when he turned this way and that? While the conventional understanding is that he was scanning the horizon to ensure the coast was clear, Rabbi Figo suggested otherwise.
This attack on a Jew was happening in broad daylight in the presence of many other Jews, and Moses expected to see someone stand up for the victim. When he looked around and saw no one prepared to act, he took it upon himself to neutralize the attacker.
Moses initially wrote off the inaction of others as a symptom of the Jews’ persecution fatigue, but then, on the next day, he saw Jews energetically fighting each other and heard them stand up for the killed Egyptian.
Evidently, the Jewish people were not too tired to fight or to care, but – much more concerning – they had given up their reflexive instinct to defend and protect each other, questioning Moses’ actions against the Egyptian attacker more than they had shown concern for the Jewish victim.
Pharaoh had apparently succeeded at rending the fabric of Jewish peoplehood. He was not alone. The Italy of Rabbi Figo and our own America have had the same effect on too many Jews who have allowed other ideals to supersede their Jewish sense of kinship.
As Jews, we should make sure our fellow Jews are safe before worrying about those who have fomented or acted with violence against them. We should understand our history and place in the world too well to entrust our security to the Egyptian Pharaohs we have faithfully served, the Ivy League institutions we have attended and funded, or the many on the margins we have consistently defended.
We should encourage those committed to act decisively to protect us, understanding well that Jew-hatred grows out of deeply diseased systems and cannot just be trimmed at the edges. Like Moses, we must promote love and justice for all but act decisively against those who promote and celebrate hatred and violence.
As Jews, we are thankful for US support for Israel and are fiercely proud and protective of the world’s one Jewish state, its vigorous democracy, and its moral army. And if a Jewish brother or sister anywhere is threatened or hurt, we will be there, visibly and vigorously defending them.
The writer, a rabbi, is the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.
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