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Diaspora Jews learned to be helpless — and that must end.

JL;DR SUMMARY Benjamin Kerstein argues that Diaspora Jews have developed a culture of learned helplessness towards antisemitism, rooted in historical statelessness and powerlessness. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryJewish IdentityDiasporaAmerican JewsSelf DefenseJewish ActivismJewish SurvivalLearned HelplessnessCulture Of Quiescence

Places mentioned

Israel
"But in practice, these were mostly the Jews of Palestine and then Israel, not the United States."
United States
"Most Jews, however, preferred to repeat the patterns of their forebears, who escaped each collapsing Diaspora by searching for opportunity in more promising lands."

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Cairo Item ID 64126
Cairo Source ID 36
Retrieved 2025-10-19 05:30:57 UTC
Curated 2025-10-19 08:31:07 UTC