The Daily Foxman: The Luftmenschen of Jewcy

Daily commentary on the ADL/Armenian Genocide uproar

LUFTMENSCHEN VS. REALISTS: David Kelsey of Jewschool has published “The Luftmenschen of Jewcy,” a post in which he criticizes Jewcy for valuing “moral consistency” over the tough-minded realpolitik that Israel’s current situation demands. The cost of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, Kelsey points out, is alienating Turkey, “a crucial Israel ally.” But what is the benefit, he asks. He answers his own question: “The benefit is that Joey Kurtzman and the whole Jewcy mishpacha get to look like badass idealists willing to challenge the Jewish 'defense' organization status quo, and show they are very big universalists not confined to shtetl-like thinking.”

“Jewcy and friends,” he says, “should have done a cost-benefit analysis before going apeshit. If they did, then they clearly harbor a most unsympathetic view to the Jewish state and her needs. If they didn’t, then they are classic, irresponsible, Diaspora Luftmenschen.”

Kelsey’s not alone in thinking this way. The Forward has published an astonishing editorial titled “Of Genocide and Morality,” arguing that with the furor over the Armenian Genocide and Israel’s recent expulsion of Darfuri refugees, we witness the end of the “post-Holocaust era in Jewish history.” American Jews must outgrow their post-Holocaust fetish with simplistic moralizing and “re-examine the moral principles we have created for ourselves in the wake of the Holocaust, and consider whether they reflect the realities of today’s cold, hard world.” “Remembering genocide is important, but not as important as saving lives today.”

I’m afraid this won’t fly, folks. The Jewish community has worked very hard to instill in its young the sense that bearing witness to genocide is virtually a sacred responsibility, that denial of genocide is the final step of genocide, that the “criminal indifference” of the world to the genocide of European Jewry was a cataclysmic moral failure that must never be repeated, and that only by remembering the past can we prevent its repetition. So no, you don’t get to switch horses now that recalling someone else’s genocide conflicts with a strategic goal.