I used to believe in the “big tent.” I believed in the biggest tent possible. I was all-inclusive.
And then October 7 happened.
That’s when my thinking changed.
The “big tent” is an expression used to define the Jewish community. It is a metaphoric embrace that all Jews fit inside the tent.
I used to believe that the differences between Jews and Jewish organizations were small relative to what unified the Jewish community – hence, my large, inclusive tent. But ever since October 7 and the reactions of certain Jews and certain Jewish organizations to that day and to Israel’s response to that day and to Hamas, I can no longer be an advocate of the big, inclusive “big tent”.
If you are Jewish and you support Hamas, you should not be permitted in the tent.
If you are Jewish and you do not condemn Hamas, you should not be permitted in the tent.The tent is not that big.
The tent needs to tuck itself in and say to groups, organizations, and people that they are not welcome if they advocate for Hamas or do not condemn Hamas. The Jewish tent cannot permit those Jews who support the mass murder of Jews to be under its cover.
If you think this is not a big issue – think again.
If you think, how many people are we actually talking about – I’ll tell you.
Young Jews condemning Israel and supporting Hamas are all over the social media. X, TikTok, Instagram ...
Here is one, very typical, example: On X, Anne Epstein, a student at Boston University, flat out says that she is Jewish and then proceeds to explain that she is ripping down posters of those kidnapped by Hamas, dragged into Gaza, and held in captivity, because: “You are reading into(sic) propaganda, You are supporting occupation.” You can hear the interview with this woman – now excluded from my tent, on Camera’s X feed.
Jews supporting Hamas in America
SO, HOW prevalent is support for Hamas among Jews in America? Cyngal, a polling company, polled Jews in America from October 16 19 - just over a week after the horrific Hamas massacre. They discovered that 11.5% of those polled felt Hamas was justified in their murdering, raping, and kidnapping. It broke into two groups. 3.6% strongly agreed. 7.9% somewhat agreed.
That’s 11.5% too many.
They also discovered that 57% of Muslims in the United States felt the same way.
I have devoted my life to education – in summer camps, classrooms, lecture halls, corporate boardrooms, corridors of power, in the media. And I do not think that we can educate these Jews. They are beyond educating, beyond the pale of acceptable Jewish behavior.
Once upon a time, we would have called them self-hating Jews, but that term does not do them justice. They are way beyond self-hating.
It is time for us to put Jews who bash Israel and praise Hamas in cherem – to excommunicate them.
They are not welcome in Jewish life – not in any form of Jewish life.
They support Hamas and give credence to their attacks by claiming to be Jewish.
We must reject them.
We cannot permit them refuge in our families and in our communities.
Do not invite them to your family celebrations. Do not permit them into your temples and synagogues. Do not talk to them. Do not approach them. Do not bury them in Jewish cemeteries. Do not say Kaddish for them.They are traitors to the Jewish community. They endanger the Jewish community. They are collaborators.
THIS IS not the first time in Jewish history when traitors were identified and placed in cherem.
At one time, the phenomenon of the Jewish traitor was so dangerous to the Jewish community that the rabbis changed the liturgy of the weekday prayer service. They added an additional blessing to the daily prayers. The blessing is called Birkat HaMinim. A curse on heretics, it is the 12th benediction in the eighteen benedictions, the Shmoneh Esrei.
The change transformed the 18 benedictions, the Shmoneh Esrei, the centerpiece of the daily liturgy, into 19 prayers - although it is still referred to as the 18, the Shmoneh Esrei. The prayer is recited silently three times and aloud twice. It is a significant part of Jewish prayer.
The Talmud, in Berachot 28b, records that Rabbi Shmuel HaKatan was commissioned by the rabbis of Yavneh to write a prayer about disloyal Jews and Jewish groups causing damage and creating a danger to the Jewish community. Exactly who the Jews and Jewish groups were is a matter of speculation.
During the Middle Ages, when groups of Jews collaborated with non-Jews who were attacking Jews, the European Christian censors of Jewish books changed this blessing. But the direction of the blessing was, and still is, targeted against Jewish traitors to the Jewish community.
We may need a new term for this group of people, but whatever the term is, it should not be based on anything Jewish. Hamas Supporters works for me.
I suggest that, like the rabbis, we take these traitors seriously. For those readers who pray, this benediction should take on added significance.
The writer is a social and political commentator. Watch his TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS.