Jewish Thriving

After giving talks on my new book in Park City and then Salt Lake City, Utah, this week, I was surprised that the first question I was asked in both places was about what I thought of the comments made by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens in a talk he gave at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The gist of his remarks was that focusing as much community resources as the Jewish world has devoted to fighting antisemitism has been an ineffective waste of valuable community resources, suggesting that “victimization cannot be at the heart of our identity.”**

The address emphasized that, in his view, what we need to do is stop letting our community be shaped and focused by the antisemites. Instead of persisting with its stance of self-defense, the community should shift priorities to focus on building, rather than just protecting, Jewish life, and instead should lean into Jewish values, culture, and community.

I agree with a lot of his critique of a Jewish community defined by those who hate us. But he never really gets to suggesting what it would take to create a Jewish community that thrives and flourishes. He calls for more funding for Jewish day schools but says nothing about any sort of investment in the adults of our community.

What I see is that his advocacy is based within the same paradigm that generated the priorities of the Jewish community that he argues against. As a result, his “solutions,” such as they are, are just more of the same of what the Jewish community has prioritized since the end of the Second World War, whereas thriving will only emerge if there is a paradigm shift.

If you have been listening to me or reading my writings you know that I hit hard on pointing out that the Jewish community in the second half of the 20^th century turned away for our own spiritual traditions in favour of assimilation, affluence, higher education, political engagement, tikkun olam, building palatial synagogues and the like.

The inner life of the individual got no attention and, in Bret Stephen’s perspective, shaped as it is by that very outlook I just catalogued, it still doesn’t. And yet can there be real flourishing without it being centered in the inner life of the individual? Can a community thrive without its members thriving? It’s significant that words like “soul,” “God,” “synagogue,” “prayer” and “holiness” do not get a single mention in his address. Neither does the word “Torah.”

It is valid to question whether money has been wasted trying to fight antisemitism in a way that maybe has no real effect. And while he calls for a refocusing, as a journalist and someone who is operating within the same secular paradigm as what he is critiquing, he has no creative ideas to offer in its place as a roadmap toward Jewish thriving.

In my view, the Jewish community will thrive when it returns to building the spiritual core that has been the central element of Jewish continuity for centuries and millennia, which has largely been abandoned across the spectrum of denominations. From the extreme dilution of Judaism at the far liberal anything-goes end of the spectrum, to the other end where we find an overemphasis on stringencies and frumkeit (meticulous observance of Jewish laws) – there is no significant focus on the inner life.

Historically, the core of the core of that spiritual life, the centre of centres, the holy of holies, has been practicing Shabbat (which also, by the way, does not get a mention in Stephens’ talk.) As the Yiddish writer Ahad Ha’Am astutely observed, “More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.”

So, it turns out – surprise to me! – my new book has something to say on this issue. I wrote it to share my experience that observing a traditional Shabbat with its structures and boundaries has the potential to bring about a real inner transformation for the individual. But as I have thought about it more in the context of Stephen’s talk, I realize that the impact will not stop at the individual.

When one of us invests in creating a spiritual Shabbat, that shift will have a great impact on that person’s life. It will also have a small impact on the community because any change in a constituent element affects the whole. Are you familiar with what is called the Butterfly Effect – and does that idea apply here?

When two people make the changes that transform their personal lives, the impact on the community doubles.

When many of us consciously create a vessel in our week that is meant to hold holiness, rest, peace, joy, trust, satisfaction and the other qualities a Shabbat practice fosters – in other words, when we make it a practice to nourish our individual souls – then the combined force of the personal changes each individual brings about will elevate the spirit of the entire community. That is how we can bring about the thriving that is the ideal condition of a flourishing Jewish community.

** I could not find a full transcript of his talk online but Commentary magazine published an article adapted from his “State of World Jewry Address,” delivered on February 1, 2026, at the 92nd Street Y: https://www.commentary.org/articles/bret-stephens/jews-have-honor-of-being-hated/?utm_source=chatgpt.com