How Sun Tzu can teach Jewish leaders to win the war against antisemitism

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

— Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

Antisemitism did not end after the Holocaust. It mutated. It put on a hoodie, enrolled in elite universities, bought crypto, opened TikTok, became “anti-Zionist,” partnered with jihadists, and embedded itself in “social justice.” It left the gas chambers and entered the group chat. And yet, while our enemies evolve, too many of our institutions cling to outdated strategies rooted in trauma-response instead of strategic offense.

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Enough shock. Enough hand-wringing. Enough timid temperance in the face of a historic hate that has full confidence in its future.

If Jewish leaders want to defeat antisemitism in the 21st century — not merely protest it, or commemorate its victims, but devastate it — then it’s time to learn from the greatest strategist in human history: Sun Tzu.

His book, “The Art of War,” written 2,500 years ago, is not about glorifying war. It’s about making war unnecessary. It’s a manual for winning before the battle begins. For long-term strategic thought. For understanding enemies so thoroughly, and ourselves so clearly, that we — not our haters — set the terms of engagement.

We must ask ourselves: Are we reacting to antisemitism, or are we strategically defeating it?

Jewish leaders today often treat antisemitism like random sparks, each needing a fire extinguisher. A professor makes an antisemitic remark? Outrage statement. A student group calls Israel a colonizer? Security alert. A public figure praises Hamas? Twitter thread.

This is fighting incidentally, not strategically. Sun Tzu warned: “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”

The battle against antisemitism is a war of narratives, not just behavior. If we’re always reacting, we’ve already surrendered the battlefield. The haters shape the premise, and we show up late to debate it. The Jew becomes a defendant in a courtroom he did not choose, arguing cases he did not bring.

That is not winning. That is explaining the fire damange to the arsonist.

It is astounding how often Jewish leaders act baffled by the latest wave of antisemitism. How did the left become hostile to Jews? Why would college students praise Hamas? How did U.N. bodies become antisemitic? Why do far-right nationalists share memes with far-left activists?

Because antisemitism is not ideological. It is adaptable. It needs no coherence. It feeds on grievance, identity confusion, and moral emptiness. It’s a parasite that only needs a body, not a brain.

Sun Tzu would laugh at our surprise: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

Why are we shocked? We’ve seen this movie for 2,000 years. There is no form of oppression, no movement of history — from the Crusaders to the communists, from Pharaoh to Freud — that didn’t at some point use antisemitism for emotional payoff or political expediency.

Thus the first rule: stop reacting. Start predicting.

Stop being offended. Start being prepared. We must study our enemies — not hate them, not emulate them, not appease them, but unlock them.

Who finances them? Who scripts them? How are they using platforms, memes, victimhood, or moral jargon?

And to know ourselves means recognizing our strength — not our trauma. The Jewish people are not merely survivors. We are creators, builders, and leaders. Global society uses our medical breakthroughs, our scientific inventions, our legal doctrines, our art, our tech, our moral ideals — yet too many of our leaders act as if we are constantly on the defensive.

We need to lead from power, not fear.

Jewish leaders must understand: today’s Jews are losing because we keep accepting our opponents’ premise. They say Zionism is colonialism — and we start explaining. They say white Jews are privileged — and we start apologizing. They say Israel is a genocidal apartheid state — and we start offering humanitarian stats.

This is not strategy. This is hostage communication.

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war. Defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

The Jewish fight against antisemitism must begin before the lies appear. That means proactive Jewish education rooted in power, pride, and purpose — not abstract “tolerance.” Teach Jewish teens who Herzl was before they learn who Howard Zinn was. Teach that Hebrew is the oldest continuously spoken national language in the world — not just a prayer text. Teach that the Jews brought ethics to civilization, not “lobbying” to Washington.

Sun Tzu understood morale: no army achieves victory if it doesn’t believe in its own cause.

Yet much of Jewish outreach today is built around Holocaust memory, interfaith vulnerability, and victim archetypes. That strategy might evoke sympathy, but it does not evoke strength. Sympathy is temporary. Strength inspires respect.

There is a reason antisemites hate Jewish power more than Jewish pain. One threatens them. The other sustains them.

We must teach young Jews: You are the heirs to Isaiah and Einstein. To Yehuda Ha-Levi and Golda Meir. To Maimonides and Jonas Salk. We didn’t survive because we suffered. We survived because we built, thought, loved, invented, healed, transformed, rebelled, restored.

“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys,” Sun Tzu wrote.

We cannot inspire a new generation to defend Jewry if they feel burdened by it. We must inspire them to own it.

Sun Tzu ends “The Art of War” with an ode to spies. Why? Because information is not the prelude to war.

“To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.” In modern terms, that means Jewish leaders must become experts in narrative intelligence. We cannot merely respond to antisemitism’s outbreak. We must dissect its prep work. Track antisemitism across universities, social media, politics, and entertainment pipelines. Don’t discover hate after it goes viral — anticipate it before it does.

If we are not seated at the tables where narratives are shaped, then we are food on the table.

The final challenge is theological: Do Jews today believe they are history-makers or merely history-survivors?

We observe Holocaust Remembrance Day with a rightfully heavy heart. But whose holiday is Independence Day — ours, or our enemies’?

Are we Jews because of how we died — or how we live?

Sun Tzu might be telling us this: Do not fight a war merely to survive tyranny. Fight it so the future is undeniable.

Do not condemn antisemitism merely to discourage hatred. Shatter it in such a way that humanity is altered by your existence.

Do not ask for fairness. Build such impact that fairness rushes to catch up.

The Jewish people do not need to learn how to survive. We mastered that already. What we need now is the strategy of winning.

Winning not as vengeance, but as civilization. Winning not in the comment section, but in classrooms, boardrooms, legislatures, the and humanities.

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

That’s not passivity. It’s mastery. It’s not avoiding conflict — it’s living in such a state of strategic power, moral beauty, and intellectual preparedness that the war ends before it starts. That has always been the dream of the prophets. The mission of our ancestors. The destiny of our people. Now it must become the playbook of our leadership.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is the author of “Kosher Hate,” founder of the World Values Network, and a voice on Jewish leadership, values, and identity.