Candlelighting: Week of December 16, 2011

Forgiving someone on behalf of a community that is not yours is not forgiveness. It is opportunism dressed up as virtue.

Although institutional change can be slow, Jewish organizations fighting antisemitism have made progress…Critics may have some legitimate concerns about mission drift — but this is solved with accountability, not defunding.

Israelis must become King David Jews, fighting when necessary while building a glittering Zion. Diaspora Jews must become Queen Esther Jews. Fit in. Prosper. Decipher your foreign lands’ cultural codes. But be literate, proud, brave Jews.

His message of love — hopeful, expansive, humane — inspired genuine moral progress. It fostered hope that humanity might ultimately converge toward those ideals. In too many parts of the world, that expectation collided with societies that did not share those assumptions.

It is made of humility, forged from the understanding that even with all our strengths, we desperately need one another.

We should not be surprised that conspiratorial antisemitism has reemerged in the current circumstances. But there is a deep reason that ties it specifically to the right.