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From the President
Who We Are: Seeking, Finding,
Appreciating the Truth
By Charles O. Kaufman
B’nai B’rith International President
One of the best aspects of B’nai
B’rith International’s June
gathering in Portugal had
nothing to do with the Tuk-Tuk tour or
wine tasting in Lisbon. It had nothing to
do with wandering through the Jewish
Quarter. It had nothing to do with Jewish
experiences with friends, old and new.
Instead, it was that during the span
of a week, I did not watch one minute
of television news. As someone with a
voracious appetite for media — all of
it — I went completely off the opiniondriven
grid. The benefits were similar to
our fasting. It forced introspection. It
served as a good, head-clearing detox for
the soul.
Upon returning from Portugal and
reconnecting with the flat-screen TV, I
found, to my dismay, that nothing had
changed. News topics were the same.
What I discovered during my selfimposed
blackout was perhaps the only
truth that oddly came from one of the
great purveyors of evil the world has ever
known, Adolf Hitler. He understood
what anti-Semites have always known.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep
repeating it, people will eventually come
to believe it.”
This philosophy fueled anti-Semitism
entering World War II and is often fully
integrated into global political discourse,
replete with biases, stereotypes and hate.
Of course, in the Jewish world we know
this as Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred.
Sadly, it’s as relevant today as it has been
through the ages.
Repeated hate, repeated stereotypes,
repeated lies. I chaired one of six panels
this summer at a Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organizations.
One of the few areas of agreement from
this diverse group was that more education
is needed. As we attempt to repair
the world, we first must mend growing
fractures within our community.
No matter how much you believe the
2013 Pew Research data, “A Portrait of
Jewish Americans,” which tracked Jewish
identity and observance, one thing
is clear: The gap in knowledge about
Judaism, Jewish history, anti-Semitism
and Zionism is, indeed, a vast abyss.
How much assimilation and adaptation
of Jewish practice can we absorb without
redefining the religion?
Will some “New Judaism” or “New
Zionism” movement align itself with
adversaries in the spirit of cooperation,
only to devolve into a period of indifference
or disconnection regarding
Israel? Threats to Israel’s security once
galvanized the world’s Jews. Today, the
divisions are wider between today’s zealots
and those who’ve strayed. For those
who know Jewish history, biblical and
modern-day, this situation is nothing
new. We’ve always had these divisions,
even during 40 years of wandering in
Prayers offered at the Western Wall tunnel, at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, venerated by
Jews for thousands of years.
4 WINTER 2019