Do We Need a Golem? Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2019

Introduction: The Golem Obsession

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This summer, I traveled through Europe with Rabbi Hayon and sixteen congregants on a tremendous trip in celebration of Emanu El’s 75th anniversary. Some went because they like to travel. Others went to get in touch with their family’s roots or to learn from their Rabbis. But I went on sacred pilgrimage. I went to see the birthplace of the Golem.

The Golem is a creature from Jewish folklore, a silent, mighty figure formed from mud. Through mystical power it is brought to life to be a helper or protector. Legendary golems have been fashioned throughout Jewish history, appearing at moments of great creativity or need.

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My lifelong interest in Golem Legends has reached an extreme that can only be described as obsession. The Golem bookshelf in my house contains well more than 100 volumes. Not only do I have dozens of golem figurines, I have Golem playing cards, golem cookie cutters, golem Slurpee cups. When I started calling our New York apartment the “South Brooklyn Golem Museum,” my wife was none too pleased.

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The Jewish mystics believe that God created the universe using the power of words. If one were to learn even a small portion of the mystical words with which God spoke the world into being, one could animate lifeless clay. This golem would not have a soul, for only God gives out souls. It would not be capable of speech or thought. It would only follow its master’s instructions. Long before there was Frankenstein, or robots, or Artificial Intelligence, Jews were conjuring up Golems.

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And the most famous Golem of all belonged to Rabbi Judah Loew, the chief Rabbi of Prague in the 16th century, who was known by the honorific, the Maharal. This past summer, I stood in the otherworldly, gothic synagogue known as Altneuschul where he once preached, and I told our group the tale of the Maharal’s Golem:

The Jewish community of Prague lived in a Ghetto. The low boil of ancient religious animosities bubbled over when Brother Thaddeus was appointed as Prague’s Cardinal. He stoked the dangerous myth of the blood libel - the scurrilous accusation that Jews use Christian blood to make matzah. Fearing for his community’s safety, Rabbi Loew took two of his students to a secluded spot on the banks of the Moldau river. They formed mud into the shape of a giant man, and the Maharal, using his prodigious mystical powers, brought the Golem to life. Each night, the Golem patrolled the boundary of the Ghetto, guarding the Jewish community from threats.

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It took Rabbi Loew and his Golem five years to finally defeat Brother Thaddeus and reveal his lies and machinations. Seeing that his people were safe, Rabbi Loew brought the Golem up to the attic of the synagogue, and uttered the words that turned it back into mud once again. He covered its clay body with the fragments of torn prayerbook pages and old tallitot, and there, legend says, it rests to this day, waiting for such a time as the Jews might need it again. During my visit, a historian at the Prague Jewish Museum told me that the Jewish community is so afraid of the dark power of the golem’s lifeless form, that when a few years ago, they replaced the roof of the Altneushul, they didn’t touch a single thing in the attic, except to remove the bodies of dead birds.

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The legend of the Maharal’s golem is a story about power in the face of fear. There are forces at work that the community is powerless to address. The walls of the ghetto, erected to keep in the Jews, do little to keep out the dangers. But the great Rabbi Loew, using only the creative capacity of words, brings to life a powerful protector, the manifestation of his desire for defense. The Golem is a fantasy of the downtrodden -- a miraculous help when more earthly saviors cannot be found.

As I walked around what remains of Prague’s Jewish ghetto, I kept having two thoughts. The first was “oh, another Golem tchotchke. I must purchase it for the South Brooklyn Golem Museum, Currently in Residence in Houston.” But the second thought was darker. It had been only months since the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that claimed the lives of eleven Jewish worshipers one shabbat morning. It was just weeks after the shooting at the Chabad in Poway that claimed the life of yet another. As I stood outside the Altneuschul and looked at the ladder that leads to the attic, I wondered if it was time to wake him up. Do Americas Jews in 2019 need a Golem?

 

Antisemitism in 2019

I remember my first interaction with antisemitism. I was walking home from elementary school with my mother. In a patch of new cement, someone had carved a swastika. I didn’t know what that symbol meant. But my mother was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and I saw the look of shock and worry on her face.

Today, this story feels quaint. At the time there were not armed guards at my synagogue. At the time, if I turned on the TV and saw images of synagogues under siege, or of men marching through the streets chanting the Nazi slogan “Blood and Soil,” I knew I was tuned to the History Channel. Today we see this on CNN.

 I recently attended a program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, where Jewish teens from across Texas told stories about their experiences with antisemitism. They spoke of friends, and even some teachers, making comments about Jews being stingy. They spoke of bullies telling them to join their families in the gas chambers. And they spoke of administrators who failed to take seriously these acts of hate. For many of our teens, antisemitism is not written in history, or even etched in cement. It is hurled at them in the hallways of their schools. It’s alive and well.

In 2017 the ADL reported that antisemitic incidents were up nearly 60 percent from the year before[i] In 2018 assaults on Jews in the US nearly doubled.[ii] The FBI reports that Jews are subject to more hate crimes than any other religious group, despite making up less than 2% of the American public.[iii]

These are more than just alarming numbers. We live in a time when the church across the street does not need armed guards, but Emanu El does.[iv] Nothing brings me greater joy than seeing you here this Rosh Hashanah. But I am also heartsick knowing that perhaps you felt a pit in your stomach as you got dressed this morning -- an unspoken fear of being in such a large gathering of Jews. We are grateful to our security personnel for keeping us safe today. And it is also a seductive fantasy to imagine our gates guarded by an unstoppable golem.

Understanding Antisemitism as a Conspiracy Theory

Antisemitism is the world's oldest, most pernicious animosity. Deborah Lipstadt, renowned scholar of the Holocaust and antisemitism in her compelling and challenging new book, Antisemitism Here and Now emphasizes how persistent this hatred is. She says, “It doesn’t go away... Though its outer form may evolve over time, its essence remains the same.”[v]

Through every generation, antisemitism has been, at its core, a conspiracy theory that the Jews hold a power disproportionate to their numbers. Perhaps the most famous modern formulation of this conspiracy theory is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion -- the fabricated minutes of the secret Jewish cabal that supposedly controls the world’s banks and governments. First published at the end of the 19th century, today it finds ever wider audience online.[vi] But any reference in our public discourse to murky “Jewish money” or insidious “Jewish lobbies,” echoes these enduring myths.

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Antisemitism ascribes to Jews extreme qualities of greed, self-interest, and perversity in order to describe how influential we are imagined to be. This distinguishes it from most forms of racism which seek to maintain power over another group by emphasizing their inferior qualities. This may explain, though not excuse, why people who pride themselves on being the voice for the vulnerable sometimes unabashedly deploy antisemitic rhetoric. Precisely because of the antisemitic mythos, they do not view Jews as vulnerable. This is the great irony of the Golem myth, that a group who felt powerless, but was oppressed for being secretly powerful, might invent a manifestation of their own power. The golem protects the Jews while confirming the antisemite’s worst fears. Through the golem, the Jews could finally wield the strength that our enemies always suspected we had.

 

Antisemitism on the Left and the Right

How many of us are positive that antisemitism is coming from the extreme right? Who among us is certain it is coming from the far left? As hard as may be to believe, you are all right. While the structure and impact differ, there is rampant antisemitism to be found in both extreme camps. We must acknowledge this symmetry but avoid the trap of false equivalency.

The Left: Zionism

On the Left, the animus often starts with Israel. Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T’ruah, a Jewish human rights organization. Writing in the Washington Post, she reminds us that, “not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.”[vii] But she goes on to assert that too often, political criticism, especially from the left, crosses into conspiracy theory and Jew hatred implying that Jews use their money to have outsized influence on policy and institutions. In November 2015, a Palestinian solidarity group organized protests at the City University of New York around planned tuition increases, by what it referred to as a “Zionist administration… that support[s] the Israeli occupation… and reproduces settler-colonial ideology... through Zionist content of education.”[viii] When folks on the left use the words “Israelis,” “Jews,” and “Zionists,” interchangeably and conspiratorially, that is antisemitism.

A liberal ideology that usually seeks to identify with the victims of oppression, too often casts Jews solely as victimizers and ignores the real dangers that Jews face in Israel and around the world. Some leaders on the left fail to denounce the vile rhetoric of antisemites like Louis Farrakhan, even when they are quick to denounce other purveyors of hate speech. This belies a worldview where Jews are the oppressor, so they cannot be oppressed.

The Right – White Supremacy

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When antisemitism burns on the far left, the kindling is Zionism. On the far right, the tinder is white supremacy. White Nationalism is on the rise in America, and antisemitism is its foundation.[ix] A few days after the 2016 Presidential election, at an alt-right conference in Washington, DC, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, gave a speech where he decried liberals, saying, “One wonders if these people are people at all or instead soulless Golems.”[x] Spencer concluded his remarks by raising a strategically placed water glass and shouting, “Hail Trump! Hail Our People! Hail Victory!” Many in the cheering crowd returned his Nazi salute and some shouted “Sieg heil.” That these far right elements seem infatuated with historical fascists is unsurprising. That they seem to have such a strong affinity for those currently in power is a source of great concern, whether those in the administration share their beliefs or merely tolerate their extremist views. The words of these white nationalists have real impact. In 2018, of the 50 terrorist murders committed in the US, people with ties to right-wing extremists committed 49.[xi]

Naming Antisemitism In Our Camp

Our certainty that the source of antisemitism if found only in the opposite camp intensifies the problem. As Deborah Lipstadt points out, “Those on the left see Jew-hatred only on the right. Those on the right see it only on the left.... They are blind or rather,” she argues, “willfully blind themselves to the antisemitism in their midst.”[xii] If I am honest, I know that I have been guilty of excusing the antisemitism of my friends, even as I condemn it from those with whom I disagree. As difficult as this is, we must do better if we are to root out antisemitism. As Lipstadt warns, “As long as we are blind to [antisemitism] in our midst, our fight against it will be futile.”

This is made all the more challenging in an environment where the accusation of antisemitism is increasingly being used as a partisan tool. Our political leaders expose their disingenuousness when they cherry-pick the antisemitism they are willing to condemn. The accusation of antisemitism has become just another piece of mud to fling on one’s opponents and the Jews just a pawn in a political game. We must end use of antisemitism as a partisan cudgel. When we witness our allies employing antisemitic tropes, and we fail to speak out in good faith, we empower those who make their arguments in bad faith.

 

Acknowledging the Pain

Antisemitism is worse now than it has been in a long time. Maybe I was just very lucky to grow up in a time and place where I had the privilege of not thinking about it. But I think about it all the time now. Like Rabbi Loew, I am heartbroken and afraid for my community.

Not scared for my own physical safety, because I know how hard we work to keep you safe here. I am scared for America and for democracy. As Deborah Lipstadt explains, “the existence of Jew-hatred within a society is an indication that something about the entire society is amiss. No healthy society harbors extensive antisemitism—or any other form of hatred.”[xiii] I am scared about the celebration of violence in our society, about the way that hateful and hurtful speech is not denounced, but glorified. I am scared that those with long stewing hatreds feel they have allies or role models in the highest seats of civic life. The disease of unbridled hatred is spreading in America. We can spend our time arguing about who is Patient Zero, or we can work together for a cure.

 

Conclusions: Drive Out, Dive In, Speak Up

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As I stood in the shadow of the Altneushul this past summer in Prague, and looked up at the resting place of the golem, I wondered if he might be that that cure. Might I feel less afraid if there had been a Golem to stand guard in Charlottesville? In Pittsburgh or Poway? Could a Golem stand between the Orthodox Jews in New York City and the people throwing rocks at them as they walk down the street? The image of a powerful Golem that could protect the Jews at this time of increased vulnerability is an alluring fantasy.

But it is just that. A fantasy. Our threats are real, and our responses must be based in facts not myths. And the truth is, though the threats to American Jews in 2019 may be uniquely concerning, we have never needed a golem less.

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We don’t need a golem because in America we have a voice. Never in history have Jews had more power over their own destiny. Never in history have Jews been more integrated in society than we are in America today. If we made a golem, it would need a ghetto to patrol. A golem marches between us and the world. Making one would mean drawing in, and putting up walls. And if the golem story shows us anything, it’s that we are never safer inside a ghetto.

In the absence of a single fantastical solution to antisemitism, our responses to the problem must be varied and strategic. In her book, Antisemitism Here and Now, Deborah Lipstadt suggests some directions, which is why I’ll be leading a discussion of it on Sunday Morning, November 10. I invite you to join me then. But today, I want to share with you three approaches to the challenge we face. To respond to antisemitism, I believe we must Drive Out, Dive In, and Speak Up.

Drive Out

We must Drive Out antisemitism in its most dangerous forms. The extremists hate us. The farthest left think the Jews are unforgivable oppressors. The neo-Nazis think we are the literal devil. Both share in the conspiracy theory that we pull the strings of world affairs. There is no Golem that can root out hate in people’s hearts, or conspiracy in their mind. These extremists must be called out for what they are and ostracized from the marketplace of ideas. We must demand that our leaders in both parties disassociate from these extremists. Violent hate has no place in civil society.

Dive In

But most Americans do not hate us. In fact, many of them love us. And yet, through ignorance or indifference, they are blind to the antisemitic tropes and conspiratorial beliefs that infect their own thinking. Where we have relationships with these individuals, we must Dive In, and point out when they misstep. In 2019 people are learning to call out racism, sexism, homophobia when they see it. We need to be just as brave in calling out the aggressions of antisemitism big and small -- the offhand comments about Jewish money or Jewish power. The assumption that all Jews are white, are wealthy, are Democrats. A golem would do us no good in reaching these people, as a golem is incapable of speaking for us. We must speak for ourselves. We must use the creative power of words with which God built the universe, not to build Golems but to build bridges. We won’t change our enemies, but we might move our friends. So that when the hateful few come to do us harm, we are not standing alone, or behind some imaginary golem, but shoulder to shoulder with allies who understand our struggles and our pain.

Speak Up

And if we have learned to speak against those who hate us, and speak to those who like us, then we must also speak up for those who need us. If history has taught us anything, it’s that antisemitism is never an isolated hatred. It is the canary in the coal mine of democracy. As Deborah Lipstadt says, “what starts with attacks on Jews rarely ends there.”[xiv]  The white supremacist terrorist who committed the massacre at Tree of Life didn’t do it just because he hated Jews. His online bile in the moments before the shooting was about the Jewish community’s work supporting immigrants. Jews are targets in our current climate. We may even be amongst the most reviled, but we are not the most vulnerable. Because unlike Rabbi Loew, we have power, and it isn’t supernatural. But the marginalized in our society cry out for a protector. The immigrant, the refugee, the undocumented, they are experiencing the fear that our people recognize too well. A monstrous, muddy golem cannot save them, so we must be their strength. Over and over the Torah commands us to welcome the stranger because we were strangers once. So let us not be far from the people who need love most. Let us be the voice for the voiceless, because we can. This is how we will truly address antisemitism, when the marginalized and the powerful alike can attest to our humanity.

 

A mindless clay mass cannot save us. We must be the power we need. Where there is hatred, we must be love. Where there is fear, we must be hope. Where there is darkness, we must be light. Let the Golem rest in his attic with his prayerbooks and tallitot. We have better uses for our words than bringing him back to life.

Shanah Tovah


 

NOTES

[i] https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/anti-semitic-incidents-surged-nearly-60-in-2017-according-to-new-adl-report

[ii] https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/anti-semitic-incidents-remained-at-near-historic-levels-in-2018-assaults

[iii] https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime

[iv] Many Christian congregations, especially black churches, as well as many mosques and other places of worship do feel threatened in the current political climate and have increased their security as well.

[v] Lipstadt, Deborah E.. Antisemitism (p. 16). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[vi] https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion/

[vii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-to-tell-when-criticism-of-israel-is-actually-anti-semitism/2018/05/17/cb58bf10-59eb-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html

[viii] https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/195048/students-for-justice-in-palestine-blame-high-cuny-tuition-on-zionist-administration

[ix] https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/06/29/skin-in-the-game-how-antisemitism-animates-white-nationalism

[x] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/it-began-with-words

[xi] https://www.adl.org/murder-and-extremism-2018

[xii] Lipstadt, Deborah E.. Antisemitism (p. 211). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[xiii] Lipstadt, Deborah E.. Antisemitism . Introduction Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[xiv] Lipstadt, Deborah E.. Antisemitism (p. 164). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.