Going “Full Jew”

Watch and Listen

Over the past year and a half I have had

the privilege to be in community with

many many Jews and I've learned a lot

I've engaged with thousands of you on

social media in real life in my own City

of La in Israel and in many cities

across the United States today I want to

share with you some of what I've learned

three Revelations I've discovered

through speaking with and listening to

you maybe some of these will seem

obvious but they weren't to me at least

not right away number one

Jews wildly overestimate what the World

At Large knows about Jews guys people

don't know anything about Jews I mean

nothing the vast majority of people

around the world will never meet a Jew

in their lives and that goes for

literally millions of Americans the only

touch points the majority of people have

with Jews are via three equally

destructive Avenues number one is the

news media and the only time Jews end up

in the news is when they can be

portrayed as the bad guys or when

they're being killed not a lot of

stories about Jewish wisdom or

achievements or celebrations and

certainly know stories about the Myriad

ways in which they're discriminated

against in this country the second

common public touch point with Jews is

TV and film as meta World Peace told me

on the show his first exposure to a Jew

was Robert Duval's lawyer character in

The Godfather which taught him that you

go to a Jew and you want to make money

cool cool cool of course he meant no

offense by it and and none was taken but

it's a testament to the way in which

Jews are so often portrayed on screen

which is one-dimensional stereotypical

and inauthentic that is why accurate

contemporary humanizing Jewish

narratives on screen are so important

and any that come close to achieving

this aim deserve our full support as a

community the third touch point is

Prejudice the you hear Through the

Grapevine Jews have horns Jews only care

about money Jews control the world Jews

control the media Jews control the banks

Jews control the weather

etc etc etc none of these

representations provide an authentic or

positive or even factually accurate

understanding of who Jews are and as a

result nobody knows who Jews are I mean

as van Jones told me people don't even

know that green bomb or feldstein are

Jewish last names they have no idea this

is a vitally important concept for the

Jewish Community to grasp as we think

about our place in the world and

strategize on how to approach others

outside the community

my second Revelation is that Jews

overestimate the size of the anti-jew

anti-israel mob trying to topple Western

Civilization most Americans don't want

to topple Western Civilization most

Americans don't care about what happens

in a Middle Eastern country with which

they have absolutely zero connection

most Americans are not building their

entire identities around racist hatred

of a single ethnic minority remember my

first revelation most people don't think

about Jews at all most people either get

it and support Jews or don't have the

education or desire to feel any

meaningful way about Jews at all which

is its own thing but not the focus here

now of course this is not to diminish

the seriousness or pervasiveness of

anti-bigotry especially at the

institutional and cultural level we

absolutely have major problems to

address there but I'm talking about

random Everyday People the vast majority

of whom are not taking off work to go

chant a bunch of crap in Arabic in front

of a Jewish person 's house now even

these people do have certain unconscious

biases about Jews Like Jews are fine

which of course is a bigoted assumption

rooted in racist lies that all Jews are

wealthy and powerful and white so of

course they're fine but we all have

unconscious biases and they're not a

form of active malice the anti-jew

anti-israel community is violent

obnoxious racist and completely

uninterested in actual peace or dialogue

or even reality

and they are loud but they are small in

number and the same is true of our

politicians if you'll recall I once

discussed a number of cognitive biases

on this show and many of them are at

work here recency bias anchoring bias

confirmation bias perception bias the

availability heris all these little

mental shortcuts which can often be

traps lead us to incorrectly assume that

a fringe radical minority is larger and

more powerful than it actually is don't

fall for it and last but certainly not

least is a revelation I discovered not

just by observing others but by

observing it in myself for many Jews and

I cannot speak for the Orthodox though I

do know this to be true for conservative

reform and more assimilated Jews there

is an unconscious and largely

unrecognized aversion to allowing

yourself to go and feel full Jew what do

I mean by that I mean the feeling that

you want to go to the Shabbat dinner you

want to be around Jews you want to

connect and have a good time and

participate but you don't want to put

your arms around each other and sing

Shalom Alim or do the long kiddish or

discuss the paraa of the week or wear a

kipa not because you've considered each

of these traditions and made individual

choices about why you dislike them but

because unconsciously there is a voice

inside you telling you that to do those

things would be too jewy even in our own

homes among our own friends and family

there is a deeply ingrained warning Bell

that goes off whoa back up to jewy which

if we're being honest is another way of

saying too uncool or too different or

too

unassimilated and that's BS we didn't

put that idea there we were incepted by

Leonardo Dicaprio and a global society

that for centuries has been trying to

make Jews conform with the Christian or

secular majority so my call to action

for this week Go full Jew let it rip

even if it's just for a moment try it on

say a blessing before you eat a meal the

whole Western World can't shut up about

the importance of being present and

expressing gratitude Judaism has been on

that train for thousands of years with

all kinds of beautiful blessings and

rituals don't use the random Mantra from

the self-help book say the Moy Go full

Jew make that donation to a Jewish cause

instead of listening to the voice

telling you it's too self-serving or too

insular no one else is given big money

to support us I'll tell you that or on

Shabbat do the long kidish sing the

songs take a moment to appreciate the

miracle it is for you to be standing

here doing the same thing that thousands

of other Jews are also doing in Korea

and Chile and Scotland and Nebraska the

thousands of Jews have done for

thousands of years before you in Tunisia

and Latvia and Israel in and addicts and

caves their commitment their legacy

deserves to be honored and so does the

Jew in you whether anybody else knows a

damn thing about it or not