Who Gets to Define What Being Jewish Means? · Part 3 of 3

To me, Tikkun Olam is the most important concept in Judaism. It gives meaning to being the “Chosen People”: a responsibility to help repair a world in which human beings, animals and all forms of life can be harmed by our actions or our indifference. This is a personal conviction. I do not claim that every Jew must interpret chosen-ness in this way, or that Jewish tradition has always used Tikkun Olam as I use it today. But it is the conviction through which I understand my Jewish identity.  It also shapes my response to the debate that opened this 3-part series. Jewish survival has value in itself. Our right to exist is not a reward for good behavior or public service. Yet survival does not answer every question about what we are here to do.

Memory can guide us without governing every decision

“Never Again” expresses a necessary refusal of Jewish helplessness. After the Holocaust, the capacity to defend Jewish life could not reasonably be treated as an abstract preference. Jewish security remains a real obligation.  But political leaders also choose how to interpret memory. At the May 2024 Holocaust remembrance ceremony, Benjamin Netanyahu tied the readiness to stand alone and continue fighting to the phrase “Never again is now.”  That is a political use of Holocaust memory. My concern is that when leaders repeat this........

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