Praise for Betrayal
“When Jewish histories of the second half of the twentieth through the early decades of the
twenty-first century are written, there will be particularly dark chapters concerning the moral and
Jewish demise of American Jewry. In the 1960s, virtually every non-Orthodox synagogue along
with secular Jewish organizations began abandoning both Jewish and liberal moral values and
replacing them with the left-wing values of the universities and the mainstream media. If
academia and the New York Times said there were more than two sexes, or that America was a
fundamentally racist country, that is what most American Jews said. Even American Jewry’s
legendary support for Zionism and Israel began to dissipate. By the turn of the twenty-first
century, the most pro-Israel Americans were evangelical Christians, not Jews. To cite one
example of far too many, the Anti-Defamation League, founded to combat antisemitism, now
foments more antisemitism than it combats. If you want to know why and how this happened,
this is the book to read. It is also the book future historians will study to comprehend the almost
incomprehensible: How the Jews of the freest, most opportunity-giving, and most pro-Jewish
country in history came to align themselves with forces that embraced anti-American values.”
— Dennis Prager, co-founder of Prager University (PragerU), the most viewed conservative
video site in the world, and author of ten bestselling books, including three of a projected
five-volume commentary on the Torah, The Rational Bible.
“The authors of this courageous 22-essay collection show that the U.S. Jewish establishment
consists of weak, politicized bureaucrats who ‘seem more loyal to a progressive ideology than to
the safety of Jews.’ Covering topics ranging from theory (history and psychology) to gritty detail
(Virginia and North Carolina case studies), Betrayal loudly rings the alarm for a somnolent
American Jewry. Read it and wake others.”
— Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum.
“Today’s America is scarred by ever-increasing anti-Semitism. It befouls the nation’s colleges
and universities, now seeps widely into K-12 education, has established an ugly foothold in our
political institutions including the halls of Congress, permeates virtually all of social media, once
more defiles our workplaces, and inexorably redounds in attacks, including physical assaults, on
Jews and Jewish institutions. The glaring failure of most major Jewish organizations, particularly
legacy bodies, to confront the assault and the threats, to mount a forceful campaign to fight the
bigotry, is a scandal. That organizations and their leaders too often even embrace the Jew-haters,
cultivating agendas that consign protection of the community to a low priority, amplifies the
disgrace. The essays of the present volume offer vivid evidence of those failures and their dire
ramifications for American Jews not only in threats unchecked but in threats intensified by the
dereliction of feckless leaders. It is a wake-up call that must be heard, internalized and acted on
by American Jews if they hope to turn back the hate-mongering sweeping over them.”
— Kenneth Levin, psychiatrist, historian, and author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a
People Under Siege.
“If you want to believe that all is well in the Jewish world… don’t read this book. If you want to
keep your faith in the Jewish legacy organizations and establishment leaders… don’t read this
book. If you want to bury your head in the sand and decide that America — and especially Woke
America, which most Jews worship — is not changing and turning anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist,
don’t read this book. If, however, you think it’s time for the American Jewish community, its
organizations, and its leadership, to have an honest, challenging, vigorous debate about where we
are going — and what mistakes we have made — then, indeed, read this important, illuminating,
sometimes depressing, but ultimately inspiring, book.”
— Gil Troy, Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, and
editor of the three-volume set Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings.
“With anti-Semitism on the rise and violence simmering, American Jews are frantically looking
for leadership. Tragically, all too often they find muddled minds and moral cowardice, ossified
institutions, and partisan affinities winning the day. Dr. Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser have
given us not only a maddening, stirring, and absolutely necessary record of this colossal
communal failure, but also just the hopeful catalyst we need to start rebuilding amid the
wreckage.”
— Liel Leibovitz, editor-at-large at Tablet magazine.
Jews Betrayed by Their Own Leaders
Jews Betrayed by Their Own Leaders – SPME
American Jews were very fortunate in North America to be welcomed by societies with strong liberal streaks. The U.S. and Canada offered freedom, respect, and opportunity beyond what had been available to Jews in their European points of origin.
Not that antisemitism did not exist in the U.S. and Canada. In some places housing and facilities were “Restricted to Christians,” elite universities such as Harvard and McGill had quotas to limit the number of Jews admitted, and some hospitals did not want Jewish interns. In response, Jews built their own hospitals and their own country clubs.
In gratitude and self-interest, Jews became determined liberals at a time when ‘liberal’ meant commitment to individual freedom, social toleration, a diversity of opinion, and equality of opportunity. On this basis, Jews affiliated with the Democrat Party in the U.S. and the Liberal Party in Canada.
But a funny thing happened in North America at the end of the 20th century and through the early 21st: the Democrats and Liberals moved far to the political left, allying with socialists and adopting socialist policies. They also shed their liberal policies and adopted illiberal ones: treating people no longer as individuals, but as members of races, genders, and sexualities; raising some categories of people over others; silencing voices that did not agree with their policies; and using coercion to oppress political opponents.
In the new illiberal dispensation, not only was the white, Christian majority of citizens denounced and vilified, but successful minorities, such as Jews and Asians, were classed with the majority as ‘evil oppressors’ of subjected minorities. Jews now went from being an appreciated minority to being a source of evil. Israel, the newly revived ancestral country of the Jews, was selected for special opprobrium of all countries in the world. Antisemitism became socially acceptable and, in some circles, such as universities, common and even politically mandatory.
How did the Jewish community react to these developments? The leaders of the community had become so embedded in the Democrat and Liberal Parties that they became paralyzed when those parties turned extremist and illiberal. The communal organizations that Jews had constructed to protect themselves were so compromised by their affiliations with the Democrat and Liberal Parties that they abandoned defense of the community to continue to serve the parties. Many so-called community ‘leaders’ followed the party politicians into the far left, in effect abandoning the no-longer fashionable Jewish Community.
Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, sets out in convincing detail the historical developments and in-the-trenches struggles to defend the community. The twenty-four authors report with deep, first-hand knowledge of the rising attacks on Jews and liberalism in North America, and the unwillingness of the Jewish establishment to confront and counter them. This work signals that the Jewish community is finally waking up!
— Philip Carl Salzman, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, McGill