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Michael Steinhardt explains there are three pillars to Jewish pride
- 15 March 2023
- 10:01 pm
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- 15 March 2023
- 10:01 pm
“From his middle class beginnings in Brooklyn to a spectacular Wall Street career, Michael Steinhardt understood that apathy and assimilation were threatening the Jewish future in America.” His book Jewish Pride provides some solutions. (Photo: Amazon.ca)
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As you know, I have objected to the use of the expression ‘Jewish pride’, in that pride should be defined as something internal. In other words I have pride in something I do or choose to do, not in what others do.
Therefore I can have pride in my choosing to live my life according to Jewish ethics and as part of the continuing nation of Israel. The problem is that if you don’t know Judaism and Jewish history and ethics, you are having pride in having cheese and lox for breakfast on Sunday mornings, and that is inadequate.
We are now losing about 40% of western Jews through intermarriage and lack of knowledge of Judaism. To say that that is unfortunate is an understatement.
Michael Steinhardt, one of the co-founders and sponsors of the Birthright program, has written an excellent book called “Jewish Pride”. It should be compulsory reading for every Jew who is interested in maintaining Judaism and Israel.
Steinhardt believes that there are three pillars to Jewish pride – peoplehood, excellence, and joy.
Peoplehood is feeling that we are part of all Jewish people. We care about them and participate with them more than we do about others. There is an unexplained feeling that all Jews are part of your family and should be treated as family. The next part is excellence.
Jews have a striving for excellent in their educational system, their work ethic and their souls. They are always striving hard to change things – to make things better. They question the status quo.
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The last part is the joy we have in being together. It is a special joy of being with our own people.
Steinhart’s birthright program is designed to show young diaspora Jews the strength and pride of Israelis in their physical and mental courage and successes. It is a program that successfully transforms healthy pride of Israelis to young diaspora Jews.
He wrote in the book: “On the whole, we are not fired up. We are not in love. We are not, as a community, showing courage or creativity or heroism. If anything, the opposite is true. Every year, more and more young Jews seem to just drift away. However you want to measure it… our sense of Jewish purpose seems to be dissipating.”
Steinhart’s ideas should be read, understood, and applied by all diaspora Jews. At this point in Jewish history, a time that I consider to be a crisis point, Steinhart’s book is worth reading.
Jonathan Usher was born in Montreal. He graduated from Queen’s Law School in 1963 and moved to Toronto where he has lived since. In the past 20 years of retirement he has become a very prolific and published letter-to-the-editor writer and conservative, social iconoclast.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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