Words

Words have meaning and power. They shape us and our society. They stir thoughts, emotions and actions. Woe to those who underestimate the power of words.

I spent 37 years teaching literature at the university level and demonstrated to students how writers like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Emile Zola held up a mirror to society and were agents of social change. Their words revealed truths that some did not want to see. Twain vividly portrayed the ugliness and injustice of racism; Dickens and Zola exposed the desperate poverty of the peasants and the working class.

Words communicate, influence and convince. That great power has created empires and defeated them, moved people to aspire to great deeds and brought unspeakable horrors. They are not just words. They are shapers of history.

Today words are used in a propaganda war, not to reveal, but to conceal, not to summon truth but to distort it. Mark Twain wrote: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on his shoes.” Somehow, people are more likely to believe a juicy lie than a hard truth. If it confirms a bias, then it is most definitely accepted as proof positive.

Sometimes, words are used to deceive. If you say, “I’m not an antisemite. I’m an antizionist,” the true meaning is that Israel, a sliver of land, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, has no right to exist. It is like saying: “I’m not anti-American. I just think that America has no right to exist.” There is no other country in the world whose right to exist is in question.

If you say that mobs are exercising free speech when they gather in front of synagogues, Jewish schools, on campuses or public places and intimidate, use hate speech and trespass, then you are abusing language and encouraging lawlessness.

If you say that mobs are exercising free speech when they gather in front of synagogues, Jewish schools, on campuses or public places and intimidate, use hate speech and trespass, then you are abusing language and encouraging lawlessness.

If the media use the word “militant” instead of “terrorist” in an effort to be non-judgmental, then they are corrupting language and are negligent in their mission to call out the difference between truth and lies.

“Genocide” means the deliberate attempt to eliminate an entire people. People who say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, when the population increased after Israel evacuated the strip in 2005, and civilian casualties during the war were fewer than any war waged by Western democracies, then you are using a word for purposes of creating animosity and fueling hatred.

Israel is condemned as an apartheid state. The fact is that there are Arab citizens of Israel who are doctors, lawyers, judges and members of the Knesset. Half of Israel’s population are Jews who were forced out of Arab lands, who speak Arabic and come from Arab cultures. There are churches and mosques all over Israel. How many Muslim countries have a single church or synagogue? This is yet another example of distortion and the deliberate corruption of language for the purpose of defamation and delegitimization.

The word “narrative” is used in order to avoid using the word “history.” Narrative is a word taken from the world of fiction. The purveyors of lies and distortion do not want to talk about the facts of history because they would have to face the fact that Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. Jews had kingdoms in Israel before the birth of Christianity and Islam. Israel isn’t taking anyone’s land. They are returning to their ancestral homeland after two thousand years of persecution in the diaspora. So the Jew-haters talk about “my narrative” and “your narrative” as if lies are equal to historical facts.

I imagine Samuel Johnson, editor of the original Oxford English Dictionary and Daniel Webster, founder of the American Dictionary, resurrected and standing before the corrupters of language for propaganda purposes, shouting “Shame! Shame! You are destroying the very foundation of language itself.” Or George Orwell, shocked to see his prophesies on corruption of language coming true beyond his wildest imagination. They painstakingly labored to make words clear, precise and grounded in reality. The deliberate misuse of language for political or theological purposes is an unspeakable and unforgiveable assault on everything decent and good.

I imagine Samuel Johnson, editor of the original Oxford English Dictionary and Daniel Webster, founder of the American Dictionary, resurrected and standing before the corrupters of language for propaganda purposes, shouting “Shame! Shame! You are destroying the very foundation of language itself.”

In Genesis (1:3), God says, “Let there be light, and there was light.” All of Creation was the result of the uttering of words. There is no greater example of the power of words. God created the world with words and humans have the power to destroy the world with words. Humans are the only creatures on Earth with the gift of language, a precious and unique gift. The misuse of language, especially for malignant purposes, undermines the heart and soul of humanity itself. We all lose in that tragic betrayal.

Facts are stubborn things. Truth eventually prevails. The cost is always very high until the inevitable restoration of truth. The rainbow after the Flood in the Bible (Genesis 6:9-17) is God’s promise never to destroy the world again for its evil. It is up to us whether we preserve it or destroy it.

In memory of the murdered Jews in Australia who tried to bring light to a dark world, let us commit ourselves, each in his or her own way, to confront deception with history and facts.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Waterloo.