The Jews should not denounce nationalism – it secured our Jewish survival

That is a strange title and for many is even a disparaging one. However, it is the truth – nationalism secured our Jewish survival.

The nationalism is a positive human concept aimed at preserving and defending the unique moral realm of a nation. Although the borders and history are important in the concept of nationalism, the most important in this concept is the nation’s own unique characteristics - the nation’s unique moral character.

The history is clear on the importance of nationalism for nations’ survival. The Jewish, Kurdish and Assyrian nations are alive (within geographical borders or without them) because they had created, preserved and defended their unique moral character. The Roman, Ottoman and Tsarist Russian/Soviet nations are dead since they were not able – after defeating and capturing many other national groups and making them a part of their empires – to create new national characteristics spiritually acceptable for all in the new borders.
If it is so, why many political leaders denounce the nationalism? Those who denounce nationalism, they denounce - under the slogan of nationalism - something else. They denounce the concept of national superiority, which should be denounced.
The German nationalism of the 1920-1930s was needed for revival of the German nation after devastation of WWI – deplorably, Hitler transformed it into the idea of German (Arian) national superiority over the other nations. The Russian nationalism of the 1920-1930s was needed for revival of Russian nation after devastation of WWI – deplorably, Stalin transformed it into the idea of the newly composed world-wide proletariat national superiority over the world-wide capitalistic nations which should be defeated.
From the news media:
Accepting the American Enterprise Institute’s annual Irving Kristol award, Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s chief rabbi emeritus, inveighed against a “politics of anger” he said was corroding the fabric of U.S. society. “The politics of anger that’s emerged in our time is full of danger,” Sacks said, speaking at the conservative institute’s annual gala. He decried the breakdown of American society into narrower and narrower identities that nurtured a “culture of grievances.”
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But what is behind the “politics of anger or culture of grievances”?
Many life events may make people angry and feel themselves in a sort of state of grievances. However, concerning the nationalism, what causes people to be angry here and to grieve is the government and public assault on their national characteristics (moral values). The people in our Judeo-Christian Western civilization want to preserve their spiritual (Judeo-Christian) realm, which is being assaulted and dismantled. Their traditional morality of individual and collective freedoms and decision making, including helping people who are in need and deserve to be helped, is being replaced by the government-enforced code of human rights. At the heart of this code is the suppression of the spiritual power of individuals and their communities by the legal power of the big government.
To get the “all-mighty power”, the big government proclaims that all people have the legal rights for decent housing, education, health and retirement care, transportation, for disrespecting religion, etc., and the legal duty of the bid government is to provide all that through redistribution of wealth and various legal actions.
Thus, the big government begins playing the role of provider and guarantor of everything, and it puts the country on the road to dictatorship. And this road leads to substitution of traditional national Judeo-Christian characteristics of the country by the government-imposed rules foreign to the majority – and that creates the “politics of anger or culture of grievances”.
There is only one way to get out of the “politics of anger or culture of grievances” and that is to return the nation to our traditional Judeo-Christian characteristics. And the rabbis together with the priests have to lead this return to the true positive nationalism – not to denounce it.