Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew – the Bad Guys!

My parents taught me “don’t judge a book by its cover” — out of respect for the author. In the case of Rabbi Raphael Shore’s new book “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew: Learning to Love the Lessons of Jew-Hatred,” it’s the opposite. Judge the book by its bold, striking, Jew-positive cover – out of great respect for this author.

Without knowing anything about the cover’s origins, when you look you see a big, bad-in-a-good-way, strong, muscular Jew, looking down on a sneering, small Adolf Hitler, a balaclava-clad Hamas terrorist and one of the Academic Intifada’s pink-haired, mask-wearing, rampaging snowflakes. The caricature conveys the book’s bold, powerful, unapologetic claim: Although Jew-hatred is an unfortunate fact of life, in this twisted world, it’s actually a mark of respect. The worst people in the world today have joined a cavalcade of history’s greatest killers in choosing to hate us. Then and now, what they most hate about us is that eternal Jewish commitment to living life fully, joyfully, and meaningfully, while making the world a better place.

Admittedly, the book should come with its own trigger warning, as if its unbridled, out-of-the-box cover isn’t warning enough. This summer, Rabbi Shore, a valued colleague, successful film producer and founder of OpenDor Media, a Jewish educational organization, asked me to blurb his book. I confess, I was wary.  

With a quick glance, I saw one politically-incorrect phrase after another practically jumping off the page. Shore argues that “Jew- haters may be evil, but they aren’t always stupid.” He claims that “Judaism and Nazism share the same world view” and that Hitler was correct in labeling himself a “rational antisemite.” Finally, the pièce de résistance, a most toxic combination of words: “Hitler was right.”

I could just imagine the demonization derby the book would trigger — with him, me and anyone else associated with the book canceled. After all, the book does not just get readers thinking the unthinkable. It says the unsayable and, if misquoted, seems to legitimize the illegitimate.

Fortunately, I have this pesky rule I imposed upon myself at the start of my academic career. I insist on reading a book from cover to cover before judging its content – or its cover. I started reading – and was enthralled. 

Rabbi Shore has lived in Israel for 40 years, since graduating from University of Toronto. That means that, as the academic world sucked the oxygen out of its own universe, suffocating so many intellectuals with a boring, heavy-handed conformity, Shore searched for truth. And as too many North American Jews and their peers became thin-skinned, politically-correct and sheep-like, Shore went whole hog Israeli. He is unafraid to defy the conventional wisdom – and ready to shout his heresies from the rooftop — or, more accurately, spread them through hard-hitting films and this book, published by his intrepid publisher (and mine), Adam Bellow of Wicked Son.

At his most delightfully perverse, Shore tells Jews … take the compliment! Apparently, the world’s haters hate Jews because they hate the Jews’ philosophy of love. The evil ones recognize the threat that goodness poses to their malevolent ambitions. In short, he proclaims: “In explaining the root cause of antisemitism, this book will end up illuminating the essence of the Jewish People.” 

The notion of Jews as a “mirror image” of their tormenters is fascinating – and worth pursuing. Going beyond triumphalism or a New Age-y, feel-good-even-if-people-try-to-make-you-feel-bad pretense, Rabbi Shore makes a powerful case for the Jewish people – and Judaism. In so doing, he tackles the ongoing historical mystery: “Why do so many people hate the Jews.” He then explores Jewish identity in a compelling way. And, most important, he shows the world how best to fight the haters. Like any oppressed people, Jews beat the bigots by understanding who we are and celebrating our heritage, our vision, our uniqueness.

Admirably taking the time to probe Nazi ideology, Shore explains that “Hitler articulated the uncomfortable disruptive power of the Jewish People. It is a phenomena that many people feel but cannot articulate. Hitler understood the Jews with icy clarity.”

The “world view” Judaism and Nazism have in common recognizes an “epic ideological struggle” taking place globally, universally, for millennia. “The Nazis fought on the side of brute force and the Jews on the side of love.” Given his satanic ambitions to impose a kingdom of darkness on earth and control the world, “Adolf Hitler was right to fear the Jews. The Jewish People are the Burning Bush that will not be consumed.”

Probing deeper, Shore characterizes Jew-hatred as “the revolt against God and the People who represent Him, against those who were commissioned to bear the ancient moral truths.” Ultimately, then, “Jew-hatred is the struggle to destroy the awesome spiritual potential of humanity by wiping out the Jews.”

Having used the negation of Judaism to define Judaism, Shore then develops the book’s true “purpose.” He wants to understand “the meaning of it all.” Shifting dramatically – and somewhat abruptly – the book builds on Shore’s own journey from superficially being “Jew-ish” as a kid to appreciating the power of God, Jewish peoplehood, and Jewish civilization. 

He argues that Jews have survived and thrived and shaped humanity for millennia “because they are the carriers of information so potent that it has drawn both vehement opposition and begrudging respect from nations.” The Jewish arsenal is “what the Torah calls ‘Jewish weapons’ of the spirit – prayer, Torah study, ethical observance, and belief – in God and His Plan.” 

The Jewish People, he explains, “established a vision for humanity: That history has meaning, that our lives and our world has a purpose, to live with love, mutual respect, human rights, with a utopian vision that all of humanity will one day unite in spirituality, brotherhood and peace.” 

More recently, with the rise of Zionism and Israel’s founding in 1948, this spiritual, ethereal people annoyed the world by adding “a physical army to their spiritual arsenal.” And, trusting in the Lord, Shore deems the Jewish People “indestructible because God’s plan requires an indestructible People, as they are still essential in helping the world fulfill its purpose.“ 

Secular thinkers can question whether God is as present in the world as Rabbi Shore believes. Historians can offer alternative explanations for Jews’ ongoing impact on history and for Jew-hatred’s never-ending, ever-changing, plasticity and toxicity. But every Jew – in fact every person who ever encountered persecution – should learn from the trajectory of Raphael Shore’s argument. We spend far too much time fighting haters, trying to prove what we are not. We need to spend more time learning, affirming, and celebrating who we are and who we can be, regardless of our adversaries or any adversity.

“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew,” then, is particularly timely. Many Jews are enjoying a post-Oct. 7 “surge” of interest in Judaism – even as the haters spew their surge of venom against Jews, Judaism, Israel and Zionism. We need a robust debate about antisemitism and how to transcend it. We need to make sure that, as I argue in my book of “Letters to My Students,” we prove Jean-Paul Sartre wrong. He said “the antisemite makes the Jew.” No! The Jew makes the Jew. On Oct. 7 – and since – many of us may have discovered what we are willing to fight for, even die for. Now, it’s up to us to determine what we are willing to live for – and what kind of Jewish experiences, values, and, yes, commitments, can help fill our lives with purpose.

“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew,” then, is particularly timely. Many Jews are enjoying a post-Oct. 7 “surge” of interest in Judaism – even as the haters spew their surge of venom against Jews, Judaism, Israel and Zionism.

Similarly, we in Israel have experienced an extraordinary roller-coaster year of low-lows and high-highs. Without discounting so much misery all around us, there’s been something mystical in the air. It’s as if all the horrors of Oct. 7, all the violence since, has also brought out a softness, a joy, a generosity, a radiance – as well as a sense of focus and mission in Israeli society.

In that spirit, I sent in the following blurb: “I’m confused. Here comes a book about the most depressing of topics – Jew-hatred throughout the ages – yet it’s inspiring, uplifting. Without underestimating how evil it is, how twisted Jews’ enemies are, Rabbi Raphael Shore pulls off the ultimate Jew-Jitsu: He explains that much of the hate comes because Jew-haters hate Judaism’s empowering, soaring, disruptive message. Rather than succumbing to despair – like too many others – Rabbi Shore wisely, bravely, shows us that the best response to those who hate Jews is to embrace Judaism, appreciate its grandeur, and benefit from it. Bravo!!!”

And, PS – Rabbi Shore points out that his striking book cover doesn’t just evoke Nazi propaganda posters from the 1930s gauzily – it’s a mirror-image of one. In the original, the tall muscular superhero is an Aryan German. The large Jewish star originally was a large swastika. And the little munchkins nattering at the central figure are, of course, Jews.

Thus, both verbally and visually, Shore shows how to transform the negative into the positive, despair into hope, and Jew-hatred, the world’s longest hatred, into Jew-positivity. He makes it easy for many of us to embrace Judaism, a most potent, constructive, and inspiring religion and civilization.

Professor Gil Troy, a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global ThinkTank of the Jewish People, is an American presidential historian. His latest book, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” was just published.