The labels change. The verdict doesn’t.

A week ago, I published an essay called Bad Jew.

The title was deliberate.

The image was deliberate.

It showed a man’s hand wrapped in tefillin extending its middle finger to the world. It wasn’t meant to mock tefillin or Judaism. It was meant to express something I believe many Jews are feeling today: defiance.

For too long, we’ve been told that acceptance comes at the price of silence. That we should apologize for defending ourselves, for loving Israel, for refusing to fit someone else’s political narrative.

I reject that bargain.

That was the point of Bad Jew.

It wasn’t about religious observance, and it wasn’t an attempt to decide who is or isn’t a “good Jew.” It was about a phenomenon I’ve watched accelerate since October 7: the expectation that Jews, particularly on the political left, must publicly distance themselves from Israel to remain acceptable. Increasingly, Jewish credibility seems to depend on condemning the Jewish state, and sometimes other Jews, loudly enough.

The response was overwhelming. Most readers understood exactly what I meant. Others disagreed, sometimes passionately. That’s part of writing.

But a number of........

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