Douglas Murray vs. ‘Influencers’

Not a week has gone by this fall when British intellectual and Israel and Western advocate Douglas Murray hasn’t been in the news.  A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of seven books, Murray, 45, has proven to be our brilliant and brave truthteller during the darkest of times, well deserving of every accolade. 

At other inflection points throughout history, thinkers like Theodor Herzl, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have played a larger-than-life intellectual role. All of which begs the question, which I’m asked often: Where are the Jewish Douglas Murrays?

At other inflection points throughout history, thinkers like Theodor Herzl, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, Elie Wiesel, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have played a larger-than-life intellectual role. All of which begs the question, which I’m asked often: Where are the Jewish Douglas Murrays?

Where indeed. Unlike a century ago, no one is stopping Jewish intellectuals from speaking out, though leftism seems to have permanently shut the mouths of many. Still, a multitude of young Jewish intellectuals write for Tablet, Sapir, Commentary, The Free Press, my own White Rose Magazine, and the Journal. 

But here’s the problem. The Jewish nonprofit world ably realized that Murray should be rewarded for his extraordinary efforts to analyze the current surreal situation, but when it came to including others who have also been working exceptionally hard, many of the nonprofits—across the political spectrum—went straight to Instagram to find what are known today as “influencers” or Instaporners. What my GenZ son so aptly calls OMG Girls.

In 2024, in other words, the Jewish nonprofit world is rewarding and helping to fund self-worship: plasticized idols whose genius is to get attention. 

This brand-obsessed subterfuge comes after decades of much of the nonprofit world doing little except take our money and put on grossly lavish galas to applaud themselves. Michael Steinhardt aptly called out this mess in his 2022 book, “Jewish Pride.” “There’s a whole system of accolades and honors and galas and plaques that numbs most donors into believing that they are already doing their part,” he writes. “Their public status is commensurate with the size of their gifts, not with their effectiveness.”

As a result, many nonprofits missed the fact that Islamists had begun to fund and propagandize our universities; the media, seduced by leftism, had become aggressively anti-Israel; and the U.N. had become a seething cauldron of antisemitism.

Instead of seeing Oct. 7 and its aftermath as a reckoning, many nonprofits took it as a cue to go further off the ledge by looking for people to defend Jews, Israel, and our ancestry on Instagram, which has become a playground for people who crave incessant external validation but have never studied or written about any of the pertinent issues. 

Of course there are wonderful exceptions. I did find Elica Le Bon on Instagram, a first-generation Iranian immigrant born in the U.K. and currently living in Los Angeles, where she practices law. Le Bon is as brilliant, insightful, and brave as Murray, and possesses the same steadfast moral clarity. She also happens to be beautiful — but that’s far from the most interesting thing about her, and she never “uses” it. 

In their desperation for stardom, “influencers” end up doing all sorts of things that may backfire on Jews: Fabricating assaults; starting fights with random people on the street; yelling at homeless men. A pro-Israel rally up at Columbia University was suddenly moved because an “influencer” wanted a better camera angle. As a result, dozens of Jewish New Yorkers, including the elderly, were left facing a crowd of keffiyeh-wearing mobsters.

People of the Book or not, no one expects every Jew to become an intellectual; we all have our strengths and weaknesses. But pushing Jewish intellectuals aside to make way for “influencers” to literally do anything for likes and followers has left us precisely where we are right now: not in a good place.

Traditional editors like me will continue to teach young women and men how to become brilliant public intellectuals like Murray and Le Bon. I also will continue to boycott events honoring “influencers.” As for the shameful women and men who used Oct. 7 to “become famous,” at some point soon Gen Z, who have had to endure leftist and superficial drivel their entire lives, will remove all the frauds from every stage. It’s just a matter of time.

Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine.