We got a couple emails this week from readers who were so outraged by a headline we published that they said they would no longer subscribe. I hate losing even a single reader, but these notes were upsetting on a deeper level. They echoed the most frightening trend I see around me today: political polarization that has gone from divisive to dehumanizing, with people all-too eager to define opponents out of the debate, and not-at-all interested in engaging their arguments, let alone empathizing with their experience. It's threatening our democracy, and our Jewish communities. The headline was on this OpEd by Michael Weiner, a Yeshiva University student, who is struggling to reconcile his revulsion at what he called "President Trump's atrocious handling of a devastating pandemic" with his belief that the Abraham Accords signed this week will help strengthen Israel's economy and position against Iran. Weiner was savvy about the politics and timing, and said he hadn't yet made up his mind, even within the single issue of Mideast peace. "I want to see renewed peace talks where Israel is respected as a good-faith partner, and maybe even visit Riyadh for Hanukkah," he wrote. "Then again, four more years of Trump will damage Israel's already-weakening standing among Democratic voters and turn the future of the Jewish state into a bitter partisan issue." The piece was thoughtful and smart. But one angry reader likened it to "Tevye debating with G-d," and said he had planned to renew his Forward subscription but now would not: "Shame on all Jews who think Trump is best for Jews and the world." Another subscriber went further, saying she was "sending out a message to all of my Facebook friends to boycott the Forward -- dangerous gullibility has no place in a frightening election." While I was absorbing this in my makeshift basement "office," my 13-year-old daughter was in "school" on the third floor, where social-studies class was reexamining the origins of George Washington's teeth. She showed me the unconventional source they were consulting -- a comic strip of sorts on theoatmeal.com, a website created by Michael Inman, whose bio basically consists of him having two dogs and two cats and liking sushi and peanut butter. What my daughter and I both found most interesting in the strip -- and most relevant to Michael Weiner and the readers he outraged -- was not that Washington apparently had dentures made of teeth that belonged to enslaved people (!). It was the the study Inman introduced -- this is not your typical comic strip; it practically has footnotes -- by the University of Southern California's Brain Institute. The study observed people in MRI machines as they were told things about gun laws or gay marriage that challenged their core beliefs. The researchers found that the same part of the brain that reacts to threats from predators, called the amygdala, stirred when people heard things they fundamentally disagreed with. "From an evolutionary standpoint it makes sense: if you were a caveman and another caveman threw a boulder at your head, you wouldn't react by logically debating the pros and cons of getting brained," Inman writes in his cartoon. But then he goes on to compare how the brain builds a worldview to how a contractor might build a house, and notes: "Just remember your worldview isn't a perfect house that was built to last forever. It's a cheap condo." I know a lot of people, a lot of Forward readers, might compare our current political moment to the threat of being brained by another caveman. I get it. The stakes are really, really high right now. But if some of your neighbors are supporting the other guy -- or, in Weiner's case, thinking it through -- don't you want to know about it? Don't you want to understand it -- even if just to try and change their minds? For me as a journalist, and for us at The Forward, the value of respectful debate and empathetic engagement with all perspectives is paramount. We want every American Jew to both see themselves reflected in our pages and be challenged by them. Because that's what journalism, and Judaism, are all about. We're not trying to make you angry! My Rosh Hashanah wish is that you'll read Michael Inman's strip all the way to the end (and while you're at it, Michael Weiner's OpEd). But you're probably making brisket or soup and trying to reach your parents or kids while scanning this, so I'll give you a cheat sheet. "I'm not here," Inman writes, "to tell you what to believe. I'm just here to tell you that it's OK to stop. To listen. To change." That feels like a great place to stop and say Shana Tova, but I do have some great journalism to share as well. Ari Feldman took a deep dive with Professor Griff, the Public Enemy rapper whose antisemitic statements back in 1989 derailed his career; Deborah Tannen, who has a new memoir out, wrote movingly about her father and the Warsaw ghetto; and Noa Balf noted the absence of women in the signing or substance of the Abraham Accords. You can download and print those via the blue button below.
Also in there is a roundup of the swag bags some shuls have put together for the holidays; the latest from our Lox Columnist, on his early life as a soda jerk; Abby Pogrebin's interview with Cantor Elizabeth Sacks about God and music; and of course the latest Bintel Brief ('My wife is rejecting Judaism. Can I make her stop?') Speaking of our Lox Columnist, the amazing (and 91-year-old) Len Berk, it's not too late to sign up for our Zoomversation about all things appetizing on Tuesday at 5 pm ET with him and Melissa Clark of NYT Cooking. And it's not too early to register for the Forward's first virtual gala, on Oct. 19th at 8:30 p.m. ET. It's come as you are AND pay what you can, so please spread the word to your followers, family and friends. Jessica Kirson is our emcee for an hour filled with laughs -- and really cool auction items! We are a reader-supported nonprofit, and this is our main fundraiser of the year, so if you like the Forward or want to learn more about it, please join us Shabbat Shalom, and may 5781 be a year where the word "surreal" appears less frequently in our pages.
