Don't Have a Cow!
By Hazzan David Lipp

By the time you read this, the event I describe will seem like ancient history. It’s the now famous eight second clip of “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live, when the anchor says that Israel has vaccinated half its population: “I’m guessing that’s the Jewish half.”

As a Jew, it’s hard not to hear that as a devastating and potentially dangerous blow to our self-image and safety. Just a hop, skip and a jump from poisoning the wells and baking our matzah with the blood of Christian children. Jewish organizations sprang into PR-protection-mode, denouncing the slight as anti-Semitic and demanding a retraction and apology from what must be a very tough writers’ room. And rightly so.

And yet. There was a part of me that was concerned about creating our own version of cancel-culture in a “First Amendment Republic;” our own inability to hear things in context, to both literally and figuratively take a joke.

Let me give you an analogous situation that arose recently.

I had the joy and challenge of interviewing Israeli actress Shira Haas for both the Louisville Jewish Film Festival and as part of my synagogue’s weekly Sunday program. Ms. Haas starred in the Netflix series Unorthodox. When I announced it on Facebook, one of my Chabad friends asked that I confront her about the show’s unfair portrayal of the Traditional Jewish community, especially at a time when anti-Semitic incidents are frequent. I answered, having watched the show, that: 1) It is an autobiography and seems to be a reasonable portrayal of a specific person’s experience; 2) There were likable Orthodox characters featured in the show (her husband in particular); 3) There were specific scenes intentionally intended to portray the joy that’s possible in a community like that (the wedding scene, for instance).

That said, I told him I would ask Ms. Haas about the controversy and she welcomed the question. She said that as they made the series, the writer and the directors all emphasized how they didn’t want the show to feel black and white. Whether they succeeded in their intent was a judgment call I’ll leave to those who choose to watch it.

I sometimes worry that as Jews we respond to events in the world as if we’re still stuck in a Shtetl in the Pale or in the Warsaw Ghetto of 1943.

In response to the SNL clip, most such bits involve an understanding that it will start as an actual news item and then slip into a fabrication or exaggeration. Further, although it is true that Israel has vaccinated a decent percentage of its Arab population, there has been some controversy about making it available to the Palestinians beyond the green line and one would have to be very partisan to claim that Israel in general treats non-Jewish Israelis on a level playing field with its Jewish citizens.

I sometimes worry that as Jews we respond to events in the world as if we’re still stuck in a Shtetl in the Pale or in the Warsaw Ghetto of 1943.

I’ve got news for you. We’re not.

I’ve studied some Jewish history.

Let’s say that the “Golden Age of Spain” was truly shiny and glittery. By comparison with the rest of the world, I would say we had roughly a century of awesome experience in Muslim Spain about one thousand years ago.

But.

We were still second-class citizens. Tolerated. Developed great poetry and literature and even had a taste of political power. But, bottom line, we were still Dhimmi. Second Class Citizens.

If a millennium ago in Spain we experienced a golden age, we are currently in a platinum age. Hyper-Platinum. Seriously.

My argument is that we’ve never in our history been in a better position to advocate for ourselves and take care of ourselves as individuals and as a people.

Israel is arguably as militarily powerful or more than any country ten times its size. Jews have more influence, political and otherwise in the US than we have ever had anywhere in the history of the world. Just one example: both presidential candidates in the last two cycles had Jewish relatives within one degree of the presidency, vice presidency or both.

An influential rabbi, the son of one of our illustrious colleagues, once said that if our grandparents from the Pale could see how we live, they would assume the Messiah had come.

Do we have enemies who want to kill us? Sure. Do we have to be vigilant and make sure we take steps to take care of ourselves? Of course we do.

My argument is that we’ve never in our history been in a better position to advocate for ourselves and take care of ourselves as individuals and as a people.

So rather than moaning and crying about an eight second clip from SNL that accused us of something unfair, we should make our objection known and move on.

We’re powerful and influential and have much to be thankful for.

We should act like it.

For those reading who are cantors, who mediate the airwaves between God and the Jewish people, we should sing like it.

And move on.

May you all have a truly Zissen and Kosher Pesach, one of freedom from plagues real and imagined. One during which we can both tell....and take....a joke.

A graduate of University of Minnesota and the Jewish Theological Seminary, Cantor David A. Lipp has served his entire career at Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Louisville, Kentucky and is proud to serve his colleagues as president of the Cantors Assembly.  He is married to Rabbi Laura Metzger and they are the parents of a daughter, Natania, who never ceases to amaze.