(RNS) — Jews have been living on an emotional roller coaster.
It started on Oct. 7, Simchat Torah, a historic low in modern Jewish consciousness.
Then, in recent weeks, we experienced a welcome “high.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was under serious consideration for vice president on the Democratic ticket.
Then, in recent days, for many Jews, a “low” when Josh Shapiro was passed over in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Jews have a right to be disappointed.
But along with that disappointment, let us realize the Shapiro possibility contains two serious lessons for American Jews.
First, the purpose of an election is not to make Jews (or any other ethnic group) proud. The purpose of an election is to win.
People will be speculating for quite some time as to whether Josh Shapiro’s clear pro-Israel positions had presented a problem. They certainly did to the anti-Israel factions; they obscenely call him “Genocide Josh,” conveniently ignoring that his rivals were just as pro-Israel as he is. That’s called antisemitism.
By the way, the Trump campaign willingly contributed to the anti-Shapiro noise. To quote The Bulwark: “The Trump campaign and its allies moved to quietly kneecap Shapiro. It did so by forging a de facto alliance with the enemy of its enemy, the progressive left, which opposed Shapiro.”
Moreover:
“Where we could, we amplified the leftists on Twitter. We fed Shapiro oppo (opposition research) to the media. We did what we could to create more noise and discontent,” a Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe internal campaign workings, told The Bulwark prior to Harris making her pick on Tuesday.
“We didn’t do that with Tim Walz,” the adviser said of the progressive blue-state Minnesota governor who ultimately scored the VP nod.
The choice of Tim Walz was a political calculation. It discerned that Walz would have broad appeal to a demographic that is necessary for a Democratic victory. To paraphrase “The Godfather”: It’s not personal (or ethical or theological), it’s political.
But the second lesson is far more important: Be like Josh.
FILE – Then Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, center, attends a Commemoration Ceremony in Schenley Park, in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, three years after a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Shapiro was on the short list for vice presidential candidates but wasn’t selected. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
For the second time in our lifetimes, a Jewish person was either the vice presidential candidate, or came close to being the vice presidential candidate, which means a Jewish person would have been a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
In the first case, I am referring, of course, to the late Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who ran for vice president on the Gore-Lieberman ticket in 2000. Sen. Lieberman was an observant Jew, and his religious observance did not measurably impede his political ambitions.
And then Josh Shapiro. He is a serious Jew — Jewish day school educated, who sends his own children to a Jewish day school, who keeps kosher, who observes Shabbat with his family, who unequivocally supports Israel and who finds deep meaning in his faith.
This is what he said at the recent rally in Philadelphia with Vice President Kamala Harris: “I am proud of my faith. I lean on my family and I lean on my faith, which calls me to serve,” and then he went on to quote Pirkei Avot, the maxims of the ancient Jewish sages:
I’m not here to preach at y’all. But I want to tell you what my faith teaches. My faith teaches me that no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it. That means that each of us has a responsibility to get off the sidelines, to get in the game and to do our part.
Here is the big takeaway for American Jews.
I keep returning to Dennis Kardon’s painting “Lover’s Quarrel.”
We see the artist attached to his double as if they were Siamese twins. One likeness wears a baseball cap, and the other wears a kippah (yarmulke). If you look closely, you will see that there is a scar where those two selves are joined together.
I now advocate the creation of a new American Jewish denomination: Josh Shapiro-ism.
Josh Shapiro Jews will know they can erase any imaginary scar where our Jewish selves and our secular selves are joined together — because those parts cry out for integration. They can be one and the same.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro gives remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Tree of Life complex in Pittsburgh, Sunday, June 23, 2024. The new structure is replacing the Tree of Life synagogue where 11 worshipers were murdered in 2018 in the deadliest act of antisemitism in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
Josh Shapiro Jews will know they need not deny any aspect of their American identity or their Jewish identity.
Josh Shapiro Jews know they don’t have to choose either the ghetto or the world. We can have it all. We can be Jews and modern. We can tie the pieces together. As God is “echad,” the symbol of oneness, we can also be echad.
Josh Shapiro Jews know Israel needs to defend herself militarily and American Jews need to defend her intellectually. This does not necessarily mean agreeing with every Israeli policy; in fact, it might require vociferous protest. It means speaking out against the toxic extreme nationalism — no, xenophobia — of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. Our very texts and history would encourage such opposition.
But furthermore, Josh Shapiro Jews know they will not necessarily win any popularity contests in their defense of Israel. They might have to pay some social and even professional prices for that. To quote the Israeli American actress Noa Tishby, it will take courage to be uncool.
And that will be just fine with them.
Josh Shapiro Jews know their young people can be fully conversant and literate with Jewish traditions, and that there are immeasurable, innumerable benefits to doing so. Right now, Josh Shapiro is the most publicly visible Jew in America. We should want our children to be like Josh.
Josh Shapiro Jews are literate Jews. Let us strive to create Jews who are literate.
- They are literate in Shabbat; whether or not they are fully observant of Shabbat, they should appreciate the gifts of Shabbat.
- They are literate in Jewish dietary traditions, whether or not they fully observe those traditions.
- They are literate in Jewish ideas, and that means having exposure to Jewish texts.
Josh Shapiro Jews find meaning in their faith. That faith includes a relationship with God, a seeking of the transcendent, an encounter with Torah, a belief that mitzvot can transform our lives and heal the world, a sense of the Jewish people as extended family — and, beyond that, hope that this people will endure, and that it will be an ever-renewing people, over and above the catastrophes that befall us.
What am I talking about? I am talking about the creation of a thick American Jewish culture firmly rooted in American life and firmly rooted in Jewish traditions.
If it works in the Shapiro home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it will work anywhere.
Josh Shapiro Jews.
Let’s do this.
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