A recent controversy over a newly hired eighth-grade history teacher in Newton, Massachusetts, has caused me to consider how Jews can defend themselves against falsehoods. Before beginning her job, the teacher had written an undergraduate thesis about pro-Palestinian campus protests in which she described Hamas simply as a “militant Palestinian nationalist group,” accused Israel of collective punishment and genocide, and omitted the October 7 massacre and hostage-taking from her account of the war.

Since teachers are allowed to have political views, and since there was no evidence that this teacher had brought those views into her classroom, parents faced a quandary. Was there anything that could reasonably be done before a problem occurred to ensure that controversial subjects would be taught accurately, with appropriate historical context and credible sources, and with contested claims presented as contested rather than established fact?

I found myself thinking about Eitan Hersh, a Tufts political scientist who lives in Newton and is the author of Politics Is for Power. His central argument is that politics isn’t supposed to be something we watch and complain about. Real political engagement means organizing, building relationships, participating in institutions and acquiring the ability to accomplish something. Hersh calls the alternative—consuming political news and arguing about it without doing the difficult work of organizing—“political hobbyism.”

That argument made me think about the Jewish response to the situation in Newton. Perhaps Jewish parents need to become more involved in their communities—to attend meetings, understand how decisions are made, organize, support candidates and perhaps run for office themselves.

In other words, they need to acquire some power.

The problem with Jewish power

I thought about that question again during the recent controversy involving Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft.

Macklemore used his appearance before an enormous Ed Sheeran concert audience to deliver a political message about Gaza, including an accusation of genocide. The audience had come to hear music, not to attend what became, for those few minutes, a political rally. Images from Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests appeared on the screens while Macklemore delivered an emotionally charged indictment of Israel.

Imagine how that felt to Jews and Israelis in the audience. They were surrounded by tens of thousands of people while enormous screens showed images from a terrible war and the man controlling the microphone accusing Israel of genocide. While Macklemore tried to assure Jews that his criticism wasn’t antisemitic, his words rang hollow for many Jews, including the Jewish singer Pink.

Pink responded to Macklemore in an Instagram post: “You don’t get to decide that for us.” She explained that the performance had frightened her and people she loved and asked others to think about the Jewish family nearby who might feel scared or targeted.

Of course, there was no military expert onstage to explain the extraordinary difficulties of urban warfare, no discussion of Hamas’s conduct or the military environment in which Israel was fighting, and no one to tell the audience that experienced military analysts have reached very different conclusions about Israel’s efforts to protect civilians. John Spencer, one of the world’s leading scholars of urban warfare, has visited Gaza with the IDF and studied its civilian-protection measures in detail. His conclusion could hardly be more different from the picture Macklemore presented: “They are doing more … to protect civilians than any military has in the history of war.” 

A microphone, an enormous audience, and the ability to present a one-sided description of an extraordinarily difficult urban war—that is power too.

Robert Kraft has another kind of power. He is a wealthy Jewish businessman, owner of the New England Patriots, and a man who has devoted considerable resources to combating antisemitism. Kraft objected to Macklemore’s continued participation in the tour, and he was not alone. Multiple venue owners ultimately told the promoter that they would not host concerts with Macklemore on the lineup, and........

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