Are Antisemitic Extremists All Narcissists? If So, Maybe the Biblical God they Follow is Also a Narcissist.
How is it that the violence of antisemitic extremists often echoes the arrogance and grandiosity of Their God? Yes, I'm talking about the one Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship.
Narcissism has been getting a lot of press lately. It’s apparently everywhere we look: in dating apps, in men, in women, in the woke, in the Republican Party. Also the Democratic Party. It depends on who you ask.
The Judeo-Christian Bible is full of violence and exhortations to violence. This is a truism for modern Bible readers who tend to reject its often extreme message to kill everyone who is perceived as an enemy. For most people in the twenty-first-century perspective, the violence of the Bible is excessive and outdated. And yet today in the United States, an overwhelmingly Christian, and therefore biblical, nation, we continue to encounter violence in the form of almost weekly mass shootings. According to The Gun Violence Archive, there were 25 mass shootings in the United States in January 2023. I am writing this on January 30, so there is still time for the list to grow by one or two shootings.
Not all mass shootings are connected to antisemitism or even to political extremism. But they do suggest a violent, hate-filled society that does not shy away from using deadly weapons to enforce its beliefs. And the perpetrators all seem to take their own grievances very personally. With self-centered, grandiose abandon, they shoot up homes, dance clubs, schools, and public parks
Political extremism also promotes violence. A case in point is the storming of the Capitol in 2021. It also stimulates the hate speech we see cropping up like malignant mushroom clouds all over the country. Speech is not violence per se: it does not kill directly. But it can spur violent individuals to commit atrocities. Consider also the horrific hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on October 28 of this year. The alleged assailant, David DePape was, by his own admission, influenced by right-wing conspiracy theories to carry out the vicious attack on the octogenarian.
On January 16, Martin Luther King Junior Day no less, hate speech reared its ugly head in my Michigan community for the second time in a year. About a year ago, as I was walking near one of my small city’s two synagogues, I saw a nasty poster on a telephone pole denouncing Jews with the typical accusations of antisemites: the Jews control the media; they killed Jesus. Blah, blah, blah. I tore down the flyer and went on with my day.
This month, the same kind of message appeared again and the police got involved. A packet of flyers denouncing Jews was found at a Waverly, Michigan townhouse complex. This time, the flyer denounced Jews for the “Covid Agenda.” A number of prominent American politicians were listed and identified as either Jews or “Shabbos Goys” (non-Jews who perform jobs for Jews on the Sabbath when they are forbidden to work — note, this is not actually a thing now). The bottom of the flyer noted, somewhat hilariously, that “These flyers were distributed without malicious intent.” Yeah, right. Obviously just a CYA attempt for legal protection.
The flyer made the news. My husband, a rabbi, was interviewed by the local station. Clearly, people are starting to get concerned. There has been no violence yet. But for how long?
I watched the news report on the station’s YouTube channel as we don’t own a television. As I clicked on the video, I could not help but notice the comments below the news clip. They were all posted by local anti-semites. I won’t quote any of them, but the essence of their message was, “What’s the problem? It’s just the truth. Long live America and free speech!”
I do not love free speech absolutism; to me, free speech should not mean that one can say whatever one wants, even when it amounts to hate speech. Of course, drawing the line is very difficult. I wish I knew a way to limit hate speech without interfering with freedom of speech. In a way, it was helpful to read the incendiary comments under the YouTube video; it’s good to know what your racist neighbors are thinking. On the other hand, it’s horrifying to learn that there are many people in your community who hate you just because you are a Jew. Who knows what kind of violence the aggressive words might spark? Will some maniac show up at my synagogue with a hammer? Will someone come with an assault rifle to settle some scores with the people he believes shut down his children’s school or ruined his business?
Last year, a bullet hole was found embedded in a brick in my synagogue. Was it a random firing? Was it intentional? We don’t know. As a precaution, we held safety audits to practice evacuating the building in case of an attack. This was around the time of the attack on the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas in 2022. Coincidentally, the rabbi of that congregation, Charlie Cytron-Walker, who heroically convinced the would-be shooter to relinquish his weapon without harming anyone, grew up in Lansing, Michigan. His mother spent an agonizing night worrying about him during the standoff. She was comforted by her own rabbi, the one who happens to serve at the synagogue where I found the offensive flyer a year ago.
As Nellie Bowles reported, citing a Tweet from Blake Flayton in the January 20 issue of The Free Press, there was an antisemitic demonstration at the University of Michigan on January 13. The students stridently brayed “Intifadah!,” while carrying signs reading “The only solution.” The reality is that this kind of protest often leads to violence against Jews on campus wherever this happens. It becomes a code used to justify antisemitic violence, and is not just a political protest movement. In response, Bowles quips,
Ah yes, students marching and calling for intifada, or genocide against the Jews, and “from the river to the sea,” or the destruction of Israel and expulsion of Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Just another day on the quad. Go Blue!
As you may be aware, Bowles and her wife, Bari Weiss, the publisher of The Free Press, promote free speech in their newsletter. Comments on this site are not censored for incivility. As a result, name-calling, of Democrats, the Left, and especially the Woke is liberally sprinkled among less insulting, more thoughtful responses to articles. Does Bowles worry that the University of Michigan students’ violent words will be translated into violent actions? Hard to tell from her ironic response to the Tweet. It’s conceivable that it might make her a little nervous. It definitely worries me.
At any rate, antisemitism is having a bit of a moment in Michigan this month.
Last September, I gave a sermon at my synagogue on the Bible reading that immediately precedes the one for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. The biblical passage read for that week was from the book of Deuteronomy. In this section of the book, God warns the Israelites, who are still wandering in the Sinai desert after escaping slavery in Egypt, that they must obey God’s very specific rules (the Ten Commandments plus six hundred and eight others enumerated by traditional count throughout the Bible) after they enter the promised land. They must be obedient or disaster will ensue. The disasters include the selling of their children into slavery, starvation resulting in the cannibalism of newborn babies, and the general downfall of Israelite society.
Obey or else. Worship Me exactly as I tell you to or I will allow unspeakable atrocities to befall you. Watch Me let your enemies destroy you. For generations. When you submit, I will love you again.
Kind of like a domestic abuser, right? Maybe one with a narcissistic personality disorder.
In my sermon, I was trying to highlight what I see as the intermittent narcissism of the God of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch). This apparent narcissism is a perennial theme in human nature and human history that reaches its malevolent arms and malignant attitudes into our own troubled century in the violence and intolerance that we see today all over the United States and even in Canada, where I was born. The narcissism of the biblical God Yahweh reflects the narcissism of antisemites and other violent extremists of every political, religious, and racial stripe.
At the end of my sermon, I pointed out that Jews no longer accept the version of God that the Bible presents. We have taken our own power back in our rituals. We exalt the individual and reject collective punishment. The God of the Torah is different from later conceptions of Him, for example in the Mishnah from the early years of the common era. God is no longer the great punisher. The fear of God suddenly turning on us is no longer there. Jews, not Israelites created Rosh Hashanah; we now believe in ourselves as agents of our own destinies.
But we continue to read the Torah as part of our heritage. And that means dealing with some problematic passages that call for the kind of violence we can no longer accept as normal.
When violent language abounds and violent individuals feel free to spew hatred in a fire of deadly bullets, people are going to suffer. And when both this hatred and the violent actions that follow are justified by unquestioned religious or quasi-religious beliefs in an ultimate source of righteousness, you get a society that just isn’t safe. But tell that to free speech enthusiasts like the antisemites in my community.
It all starts to look a little narcissistic.
Excellent article as well as thought provoking.
I’ve wondered why God says he loves us while threatening us if we don’t do his bidding. So in other words God is blackmailing us to act a certain way or else….eternal hellfire damnation. I have NEVER understood the open hostility, hatred and violence towards Jewish people. Those bullies have to be dealt with. Free speech is a wonderful concept; however, people need to understand that it comes with CONSEQUENCES when our “Right” is abused. Remember what our parents taught us “if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all”. People find it’s easier to hate because all the blame goes to everyone else vs the pain of self reflection.
Words can’t be unsaid, words can hurt, words are powerful. Playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote “the pen is mightier than the sword”. Words even have the power to insight people who feel marginalized to commit violent acts against our own government. Just because you’re not antisemitic doesn’t give you a free pass; stand up and let others know antisemitism is unacceptable! To abolish antisemitism (this next part will be difficult) we need to reach out to those very same antisemitic people. If we see them as humans who are more than just their hate it allows us to have meaningful discussions -why do they feel as they do. Hate begets Hate. Compassion begets Compassion. How can we expect hateful people to act differently if they’ve never known compassion ? Maybe we’ll plant a seed of doubt resulting in them turning their backs on antisemitism. Jewish people & non Jews have to continue the fight as long as antisemitism continues.
Narcissistic? Even when I was a kid I noticed that God was narcissistic, although I didn't name it as such. I sort of wondered why he was so obsessed with us being in church every Sunday (although in retrospect I think that was more the Word of the Mother instead of God :) The evil, the violence, the imperialism, the baby-brains-bashing, the kids-laughing-at-bald-guys-killing of the Old Testament...well, you can see a heavy hand of Man in those stories.
Some have speculated that religion exists to justify all the above, but Jonathan Haidt (himself Jewish, but I don't know if he's religious or secular) thinks there's a good evolutionary reason for religion - because it makes groups more cohesive, better able to cooperate, get shit done. Which is great if you're raising a barn, less so when you're raising an army against the infidels du jour.
As for the haters of Jews in Michigan and other places, I don't know if it's narcissism so much as a weird need to shit on someone else. And *everyone* seems to need one. When I read Richard Wright books when I was in school, I was annoyed at his grandmother (mixed ancestry herself, whitish, blackish, and Indingen-ish) bitching that the Jews killed Christ. I was like WTF??? You're black, you bitch about racism in pre-civil rights America, and you think the Jews killed Christ? How about the ROMANS? Theirs was the final word.
Robert Wright's book The Evolution of God, which I've read twice, puts *everyone* in their place, religiously speaking, and explains how we all got so fucked up on religion.
That said, corners of some religions are trying to move beyond the more violent days of yore, which is good to see. Glad to see some Jews (probably not all, I'm guessing) are moving beyond the Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God spiritual model (and I realize I just referenced a historical Christian sermon, but it fits nevertheless) and embrace a quieter, kinder, more middle-of-the-road kind of God, as some Christians have attempted to do (while others cling to the Old-School God and a Jesus who hates all the people they hate and would totally bring an AK-47 to a mall and gun down all the consumerist and liberal sinners. Progressive Muslims are also fighting back against discrimination against women, terrorism and hating on Jews. True fact: I got mistaken twice for a Muslim here in Toronto by Muslims who thought my pentagram was a Star of David. One freaked me out a little ("Are you Jewish?" he said with a big smile and I thought, "OH MY GOD HE'S GONNA LOB A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL AT ME!" and I was like, "NO! NO! I'M NOT JEWISH!" and he was like "It's okay if you are, I was just asking, I don't hate Jews!") The other one was on the subway and he said, "Happy Rosh Hashanna!" and I said, "But I'm not Jewish!" and he said, "You're not?" and I said, "Why do you think I am?" Well it was the pentagram again! But this time I laughed and said, "I think it's nice that you said that. Are you trying to build bridges with Jews?" and he said he was. I've never forgotten that.
So, there's hope for everybody, y'know? I'd like to see all us *level-headed spiritualists* get together and fight the whackos (with words and deeds, not guns or bombs).
anyway...long-winded answer :) Excellent article and I'm sorry you're having to put up with all this awful anti-Semitic mischigoss in Michigan. I hope you and your husband stay safe, along with all your synagoue!