Fall of the Jewish lion and rise of the Jewish sheep

There was a time when Jews were feared — not because we sought power, but because we possessed moral courage.

We challenged Pharaoh when the world bowed before him. We defied Antiochus, resisted Rome, endured the Inquisition, survived pogroms, rebuilt after Auschwitz, and created the State of Israel after burying one-third of our people.

The Jewish story is the story of the lion. Today, I fear that too many American Jews are becoming sheep.

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Not sheep because we lack strength. Sheep because we increasingly lack the courage to say no. No to antisemitism. No to the normalization of evil. No to those who trivialize Hitler. No to Jews who lend them legitimacy.

Nothing illustrates this crisis more vividly than the recent conduct of Orthodox social-media personality Yossi Farro.

Farro chose to publicly associate with Clavicular, an online personality whose content has included a “Heil Hitler” singalong and references to Hitler that many have viewed as glorifying Nazism.

The scandal was not merely the meeting. The scandal was what happened afterward.

Instead of overwhelming condemnation from the Orthodox community, countless Jews rushed to defend it. “We’re doing outreach.” “Everyone deserves love.” “We’re trying to bring people closer.” The rebbe said to reach out to the lost souls.

No. The rebbe never said whitewash neo-Nazis.

Judaism teaches outreach. It never teaches moral surrender.

The tragedy is that this mentality of behaving like sheep in the fight against antisemitism has, sadly, affected Chabad — the movement of which I could not be a prouder member since I was 8 years old — more than almost any other segment of the Jewish world.

This is especially heartbreaking because the Lubavitcher rebbe was anything but weak. He was among the fiercest Jewish leaders of modern times. He demanded moral clarity. He spoke truth to power. He warned repeatedly that Israel must never surrender even a single inch of strategically vital land to enemies who openly sought its destruction.

Long before the Oslo Accords were signed, he predicted they would end not in peace but in catastrophe. History and the murder of more than 1,000 Jews blown to smithereens on buses and pizza parlors after Oslo tragically vindicated him. Then of course there was Ariel Sharon’s catastrophic retreat from Gaza in 2005, which led to October 7.  I was friendly with Sharon and hosted him in front of thousands of Oxford students, where he gave an unbelievably powerful and unforgettable speech. How tragic that Israel’s greatest warrior is today almost forgotten, as Sharon’s name has come to be associated with Jewish capitulation and defeat rather than victory and life.

Yet somewhere along the way, too much of contemporary Chabad transformed the rebbe from a lion into a Hallmark card.

The rebbe’s public message increasingly became stripped down to a single slogan: DO ONE GOOD DEED. Seriously? The greatest Jewish spiritual leader of modern times has been reduced to a slogan one would find on a Chinese fortune cookie? Yes, do one more mitzvah. But that’s it? Smile more. Be nice to everyone. Never offend anyone. Never draw hard moral distinctions.

Whatever happened to fighting and resisting evil? Outreach became not merely a sacred obligation but, for some, an excuse to avoid confrontation with evil itself.

Of course Judaism commands kindness. Chabad has brought countless Jews back to their heritage through warmth, love and compassion. That legacy is extraordinary.

But kindness divorced from moral courage ceases to be Judaism.

The rebbe never taught Jews to sanitize evil. He never instructed his followers to blur the distinction between righteousness and wickedness. Outreach was never meant to become appeasement. Love was never meant to replace truth.

In this respect I am reminded of the Dalai Lama, whom I had the privilege of sharing a stage with in Birmingham, Alabama — one of the greatest honors of my life. He is a man of remarkable grace, compassion and spiritual depth.

Yet despite his extraordinary moral stature, Tibet remains occupied. The Tibetan people remain terrorized by the evil Chinese Communist regime without a speck of freedom. The Dalai Lama remains an exile, and, God forbid, it appears he may die in exile.

Why?

Because compassion alone does not defeat tyranny. Unless one is prepared to forcefully denounce the crimes of the Chinese Communist regime — its imprisonment of dissidents, its destruction of religious liberty, its repression of an entire people, its genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs, and its countless violations of human rights — tyranny simply continues unchecked. Evil rarely retreats because its victims are kinder. It retreats only when it is confronted.

The lesson for Israel could not be more obvious.

Israel cannot defeat Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, or the worldwide explosion of antisemitism merely by projecting goodwill. The Jewish state must remain compassionate toward innocent human life, but it must also possess the courage to identify evil without hesitation and confront it without apology.

The same is true for the Jewish people everywhere.

If we become so obsessed with appearing kind that we lose the ability to condemn wickedness, we cease to be lions. We become sheep waiting patiently for wolves to discover us.

Our prophets confronted wicked kings. The Maccabees fought assimilation. Moses shattered the Tablets rather than pretend idolatry was merely another viewpoint. Abraham challenged Nimrod.

Jewish leadership has always required drawing bright moral lines. Today, too many erase them.

The matter became even more troubling when Farro expressed his desire to wrap tefillin with Congressman-elect Brad Lander, whose congressional victory came with the endorsement of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Lander’s positions on Israel are downright antisemitic and disgusting and have drawn huge criticism from many in the organized Jewish community, particularly his sharp rhetoric regarding Israel’s war against Hamas.

Let me be clear. I am not arguing that one should never offer tefillin to someone because of their politics. Chabad has spent generations reaching every Jew with extraordinary love. But there is a profound difference between quietly offering a mitzvah and publicly celebrating or legitimizing public figures whose rhetoric or alliances many Jews believe harm the Jewish people and lead to the destruction of the Jewish state.

Public symbolism matters. Images matter. Legitimacy matters. Especially now.

This is not an isolated incident.

Across America we increasingly witness Jews inviting anti-Israel politicians into Jewish institutions. Jewish organizations honoring people who repeatedly demonize Israel. Rabbis remaining silent because confrontation might cost donors. It might get you sued by a hotel.

Influencers chasing clicks instead of truth. Communal leaders confusing popularity with principle. All while antisemitism reaches levels unseen in generations. Jewish students are assaulted on campuses. Synagogues resemble fortresses.

October 7 should have awakened every Jew. Instead, many seem desperate to prove how accommodating we can be. History offers us a brutal lesson. The Jewish people have rarely suffered because we resisted evil too strongly. We have suffered because we recognized evil too late.

Every generation tells itself: “They don’t really mean it.” “It’s only performance.” “It’s only rhetoric.” “It’s only a joke.”

Then history answers.

Judaism has never been merely a religion of kindness. It is also a religion of courage. King David was compassionate. He was also a warrior. The Maccabees prayed. They also fought.

The State of Israel exists because Jews finally decided that lions bury fewer children than sheep.

American Jewry stands at a crossroads.

Will we become a people so desperate to appear tolerant that we normalize those who flirt with Nazism? Will we become so addicted to social media that every photograph is justified in the name of outreach or clicks? Will we continue applauding public relations while forgetting Jewish dignity?

Or will we remember who we are? The descendants of Abraham. The students of Moses. The children of the Maccabees. The survivors of Auschwitz. The builders of Israel.

The Jewish lion must return. Not because we seek conflict. Because history has taught us that evil never sleeps. And sheep have never survived wolves.

Only lions have.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is the author of 30 books. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.