From The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, June 16, 1895:
I was indifferent to my Jewishness; let us say that it was beneath the level of my awareness. But just as anti-Semitism forces the half-hearted, cowardly, and self-seeking Jews into the arms of Christianity, it powerfully forced my Jewishness to the surface. This has nothing to do with affected religiosity.
Recently neocons Eli Lake and Gabriel ("That is why Iraq is such an important cause") Schoenfeld started following us on Twitter. Guys, if you substitute neoconservatism for anti-Semitism in Herzl's formulation (and the Bush Administration for Christianity), you find me–a happily-assimilating, intermarried Jew (and like Herzl, a feature-writer) who discovered the rock of his Jewishness when you guys pushed my country to incinerate an Arab society in the name of democracy and the sanctity of Israeli occupation.
Tell me, Why shouldn't Herzl, a political visionary if ever there was one, be a role model to young integrated American Jews? Why shouldn't they respond to the real conditions of their lives, as he did when he confronted anti-Semitism, by consulting their Jewishness and coming up with new political ideas for the Middle East to replace your blueprint for permanent war?
