A New Jewish Plotline

"The plot of every Jewish holiday goes something like this: They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat. On Purim, we revel in the tale of a Persian court adviser who tries and fails to exterminate the Jews. We skip the part where, after he is hanged, those same Jews kill 75,000 Persians as a form of preemptive self-defense. At Seder, we make a meal out of being slaves in Egypt; Hagar, the Egyptian slave owned by Abraham and Sarah, tends to go unmentioned."

"These details didn't make it into my religious education. They would have complicated the larger narrative that many Jews tell ourselves and others about who we are: a powerless, morally infallible minority struggling to stay alive in a world that wants us dead. I understand the appeal of this story. Telling it keeps us tethered to our past, which all too often has been a history of persecution."

Religious and cultural retellings of Jewish history frequently frame Jewishness as enduring persecution and survival, culminating in ritualized celebration. Many educational narratives omit episodes in which Jews inflicted violence or benefitted from power, simplifying identity into a morally infallible, endangered minority. Contemporary events, including recent deadly attacks and the October 7 massacre, reinforce a sense of ongoing vulnerability. Statistical indicators show substantial economic, political, and institutional influence among Jews in the United States and Israel. The scale of Israeli military actions in Gaza exposes contradictions between the lived power of many Jews and the prevailing victim-centered collective self-image.

Read at Vulture