Why are Jews defending Mark Ruffalo?

The quip inspired several thinkers, including Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone of Chabad, to caution against such thinking.

“There are many ways to criticise bad arguments,” Lightstone wrote. “Saying people who are indeed Jewish are about as Jewish as a ham sandwich is simply not it.” Shapiro, however, was not convinced: “Wrong. Using the mantle of Jewishness, something Einbinder and company demonstrate zero actual commitment to, in order to promote anti-Judaic insanity is fundamentally un-Jewish and ought to be called out as such.”

You may, if you choose, spend the Days of Awe pondering this worthy philosophical question, asking yourself, in this season of repentance and forgiveness, just how forgiving we ought to be of those Jews whose opinions and affiliations we find not only maddening but ruinous. And you ought to do just that, because, increasingly, the question is growing ever more urgent.

Einbinder, for example, has recently joined more than 180 prominent Jews in the entertainment industry in signing a letter supporting the actor Mark Ruffalo, whose recent comments – criticising Jewish investors for “crushing workers,” “consolidating the wealth of the world,” and enabling a “genocide” in Gaza – were perceived by many as antisemitic.

Also endorsed by luminaries like Joel Cohen, Todd Haynes, and Jonathan Glazer, the letter rejects any and all accusations of Jew-hatred. “Pointing out the crucial connections between what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism,” it argues. “It is, for us, the very essence of Jewish ethical duty.”

Dana Nessel seems to agree: While she wasn’t speaking directly about l’affaire Ruffalo, Michigan’s Attorney General made headlines of her own recently for taking the logic of the Hollywood letter to its natural conclusion: Jews, she argued in a speech to fellow Democrats, should sacrifice everything – “even the very future of our own people” – to save humanity by supporting a slew of progressive causes and candidates, even ones outwardly hostile to Jews.

Which brings us right back to Shapiro. Curtly and correctly, the writer diagnosed a growing problem plaguing the Jewish community: Jews – usually only loosely affiliated with Jewish institutions and only remotely attached to Jewish observance and learning – who use their own Jewish background to undermine not only foundational principles of the Jewish faith but also, increasingly, the very wellbeing of the Jewish people.

And, as Nessel made abundantly clear, we’re no longer speaking metaphorically here: at the end of the Jewish progressive thought process is the conviction that there is something noble, even beautiful, about putting actual Jewish lives at risk if by our martyrdom we may affirm our ultimate commitment to ephemeral and abstract leftist virtues.

Gandhi would’ve empathised: the venerated leader famously advised his Jewish friends to offer no resistance to Hitler, and surrender prettily on the altar of non-violence, inspiring the world as they perished righteously.

Judaism, hallelujah, holds very different convictions. It values life, and permits – even sanctifies – defensive measures, even violent ones, designed to save the lives of Jews and repel their very real enemies.

We can spend a lot of time and energy carping about those among us who see self-sacrifice for leftist virtues as the ultimate act of Jewish righteousness. We can argue about whether they’re merely misguided, delusional, or morally corrupt. The conversation is an important one, as different analyses lead to different approaches. What we can’t afford to do is let the hypothetical, nearly theological, discussion distract us from the clear and present danger at hand: people arguing passionately that you should give up your life for their cause aren’t merely having a conversation. They’re trying to push you off the ledge. And the only thing you can do if you wish to keep on living isn’t to stick around and debate whether the drop is indeed precipitous or which bones it may break; rather, the only normal reaction is pushing them away and rushing off to safety.

Let intellectuals, now and in the future, debate why so many Jews are seized by suicidal empathy for their tormentors, or why so many chose to flee their own life-affirming tradition for the steely abstractions of deadly universalist cults. For now, we’ve a much more pressing order of business: realising that even though Judaism relishes a good argument, it cares much more for Jewish life. It’s time for the chatter to end and for anyone who advocates Jewish martyrdom to find themselves on the other end of a locked communal door.