Bret Stephens delivered a provocative “State of World Jewry” address entitled “Stop Caring about Antisemitism” at the 92nd Street Y. Every Jewish reader should hear.
Stephens — a New York Times columnist, founder of the Jewish thought journal Sapir, and a prominent center‑right voice on Jewish life and politics — argued that the customary combat against antisemitism is broken and urged a different strategy.
Lister here
Watch on you tube here
His four main points:
The current “fight against antisemitism” (education, advocacy, monitoring) is largely ineffective and misdirected.
Antisemitism is not mainly ignorance; it’s rooted in the psychological toxic mix of resentment & envy towards Jewish people’s distinctiveness and success, so facts and moral appeals won’t eliminate it.
Jews should stop centering their identity on victimhood or proving worth to the broader world — that dynamic weakens, not strengthens, Jewish people and Jewish life.
The priority should be massive inward investment: scale up Jewish day schools, cultural institutions, philanthropy, media, publishing, and religious leadership rather than fighting antisemitism as the primary focus.
I agree with Stephens’ diagnosis and his prescription — institution‑building and robust Jewish education are essential. To his ideas, I want to add the most fundamental institution of all: the Jewish home.
Why the Jewish home matters most:
Classical Jewish sources place the home at the center of Jewish identity and transmission. The Shema commands teaching Torah “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:4–9).
The repeated biblical and rabbinic injunctions to teach children (v’higadeta l’vincha) and the centrality of family rituals — the Shabbat table, the Passover seder, daily blessings, mezuzah, Chanukah lighting — show that ritual, practice, and values are formed primarily at home. Rabbinic law and classical sources (Mishnah, Talmud, Rambam) consistently assign parents the primary role in raising children in Torah and mitzvot.
So: build the schools, bolster cultural and communal infrastructure, fund leadership and media — but don’t forget that the home is the locus where Jewish life is lived and passed on. Philanthropy and policy that strengthen families, support at‑home ritual practice, help parents teach, and reduce barriers to making a Jewish home will pay the largest, most durable dividends.
Omission of the Jewish home points to a broader American cultural shift that affects American Jews as well: over generations many of us have come to rely more on institutions and experts, value mobility and careers in ways that make sustaining everyday family rituals harder, and embrace forms of secularism and individualism that can quietly displace routine religious practice.
The quieter, generational work of teaching Jewish virtues and ritual in the home must be strong; when neglected, it leaves our community fragile.
Any Jewish strategy—any “recipe”—that fails to center and strengthen the Jewish home by supporting parents, everyday ritual, and family learning will never work for us.
Listen to the speech today and tell me in the comments below how you think we can strengthen Jewish community in these times.
— Am Yisrael Chai.
Kenden
I don't know much about Bret Stephens, but that is such an important point you're making, thank you!
The Talmud records that until Shimon ben Gamla instituted schools near the end of the second Temple Period, all education happened in the home, with every father teaching all of the Torah to their children as is written in the verses you quoted.
Even now that we need schools, the ultimate responsibility for education remains with the parents.
I would love to hear Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Naiman’s comments after he listens to Bret Stephen’s speech, which I highly recommend. I also agree that the family, and also Jewish camping are among the greatest beneficial influences on Jewish kids!