On Teaching Jewish Violence
Guest post by Mollie Leibowitz
“Wait, we killed all of them?” My friend looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“So, we killed them all and they just weren’t going to tell me?” She repeated. I had just compared my lack of nuanced Israel education growing up in Conservative religious school to learning, in college, that the Book of Esther does not end with the Jews of Shushan uncovering and squashing Haman’s plot to kill them, but with the massacring of 75,000 non-Jews in two days at the hands of the Persian Jews.
My friend was, rightfully, upset about this horrific end to a popular holiday. But her tears were tears of betrayal towards her Jewish education. Jewish institutions across the world teach an overwhelmingly one-sided view of Jewish history: suffering at the hands of antisemites. When Jewish education teaches students to be victims, educators and students alike are absolved from thinking critically about violent Jewish actions in the past, present, and future. If Jewish educators are going to teach about the modern state of Israel as a response to Jewish oppression, they must also teach about Jewish violence. Otherwise, they are doing a disservice to their students and to the future of the Jewish community.
It cannot be denied that Jews have been killed, hunted, and persecuted throughout history. Many Jewish holidays celebrate the survival of the Jews at the hand of an oppressor. Purim falls into this category.
Thus, there is a strong foundation for the emphasis on antisemitism education, which is balanced with lessons of Jewish joy, resilience, and social justice. There is a fear that if children learn about Jewish immorality, they will not want to be Jewish.
Today, in the post October 7th world, more than ever, students are taught kol Yisrael arevim zeh la’zeh, all Jews are responsible for one another. Fear and moral supremacy are amazing conduits of this compulsory community. We must be afraid of our non-Jewish neighbors, and we are better than them. Students are being taught that the story of Purim is occurring once again today, where Hamas is the new Haman.
Jewish leaders must ask: will children rebel when they learn that, though the Ancient Persians tried to kill us, we did kill them?
In my work as a Jewish educator with students in kindergarten through their senior year of college, I have seen many moments reminiscent of the betrayal my friend felt. Jews do bad things too. Like my friend, my students did not flee from this perspective. Yes, they had to sit in the accompanying discomfort, but youth are very much aware, and accepting, that life is messy. Why can’t we teach that Judaism is messy too? Just because we have been oppressed does not exonerate us from causing oppression.
When we do not give students the opportunity to interact with the complete stories of Jewish history, we rob them of an authentic Jewish education. When we neglect to teach students about narratives of Jewish-led violence, they grow up believing that their ancestors have always been on the right side of history. By the time they learn about the creation of the modern state of Israel, regardless of whether they believe it is the rightful Jewish homeland, they believe that the Jews deserve it. All violence done by the state of Israel becomes righteous violence. All violence done against Israel becomes antisemitic.
The story of October 7th can and should be taught v’nahafoch hu, reversed, where Palestinians are like the Jews of Ancient Persia. Just like the Persian Jews, it is dangerous for Palestinians within the modern state of Israel to disclose their identities. Just like the Persian Jews, an evil ruler attempts Palestinian ethnic cleansing.
I do not condone violence. I strongly believe in the power of nonviolent communication. But as long as religious schools teach a love of Israel in their students, Jewish educators have a duty to present the whole picture. As long as the Israeli government commits war crimes in the name of world Jewry, we owe it to American Jewish children to help them engage critically with Israel/Palestine.
If Jewish educators are going to teach Jewish victimhood, they must also teach Jewish hegemony. If Jewish educators are going to teach the war of Israeli independence, they must also teach the Nakba. If Jewish educators are going to teach Haman’s plot to kill the Jews of Persia, they must also teach the Persian Jews’ bloody revenge. Jewish educators are not only tasked with shaping good Jews, but good people. We have a moral obligation to teach the whole story, violence and all, to our students. They won’t run away.
In so many and varied ways, I agree with your post. I, who lived in Israel during the horrific terrorist act perpetrated davka on Purim by Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein. But I have always treated the violence (and every other aspect of the book of Esther differently. When I first learned about the view of this text as a comedy/farce/satire/carnivalesque text, which was about a year before the aforementioned massacre, I have understood the violence at the back of the book as the first “Inglorius Basterds”—an over the top revenge fantasy that so obviously could not have occured in real life. And I still teach it that way—beginning with my post b’nai mitzvah students. They are ready to hear this and understand it (just did another group last Sunday.) Obviously, your mileage may and will vary.
I was enlightened by your essay. Was not aware of our sinful behavior. As you said, we were never taught that part of history. Thank you for sharing your insights. Proud of your intelligence and insight.