Consider, for a moment, the road traveled by many American Jews these past 15 months. One day, they were members in good standing of a virtuous, unimpeachable community of people who attended the finest schools, subscribed to the finest publications, and held the finest opinions. The next, they woke up not only to thousands of slaughtered innocents but also to the realization that the schools they attended were hotbeds of bigotry, not the free and unfettered exchange of ideas; that the publications they read were propaganda, telling always and only one story; that the opinions they held bore little resemblance to the gruesome reality unfurling before their very eyes.
Having had the opportunity myself, before Oct. 7, to challenge everything I once believed, I can report that the process of asking inconvenient questions can be daunting. Pursue it with neither fear nor favor, and you’ll end up a bit dazed, asking yourself if it’s really you saying all these things you’d once considered anathema. You’ll witness friends taking their leave and social circles contracting. And you’ll understand why that great Jewish playwright hit it right on the head when he stated that some people just can’t handle the truth.
—Liel Leibovitz, “Kahane Lives, Tablet, 2.27.2025
