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My smart phone beeped. A new Facebook post about Dana Lasch, NRA spokesperson. “Doesn't she remind you of the evil queen in snow white?"
Others posted similar rude comments. Disturbed, I asked why those who called themselves feminists didn't support another woman voicing her views? Why not condemn the leaders of the March for Our Lives and the Women's March, including the anti-Semitic Linda Sansour, who embraces views that are anti-Israel, pro Sharia law and pro Louis Farrakhan, anti-Semitic and racist..
One woman told me that I didn't get it. "I feel sad that you seem not to be listening." I listened --- I just had a different opinion.
She asked me to stop disagreeing with her.
Do we need a Miss FB Manners or etiquette book for sharing divergent ideas? We certainly need a model for respectful debate. And we have it.
The Talmud.
The Talmud is a beautifully choreographed discussion over time and place. Our sages disagree with each other. And it's ok. No one asks them to stop disagreeing or says they aren't listening. No one needs a safe space. In fact, these written disagreements are studied and honored.
We study these disagreements in religious seminars, online, among men and women, even surprisingly in South Korean high schools.
In the Talmud, we understand that disagreement is healthy, even if it's uncomfortable. Today, some feeling threatened and hide from different views. Many believe those who disagree with them are enemies, even evil.
Linda Sansour, Louis Farrakhan and other haters use social media very well and create the "other" out of their opponents, a favorite method of propagandists and more increasingly, liberal media and organizations, including feminists and Jewish progressives. Troubling is the Far Left media support for anti-Semites and racists.
A Jewish San Francisco attorney told me, "It appears that the Far Left are only tolerant of views that are identical to their views and they are incapable of believing that not everyone agrees with them."
Some Facebook friends told her that they were ashamed of her for her conservative and pro-Israel views. In fact, they couldn't be friends with her anymore. One person said to her, "How dare you think this way?" The attorney wrote to me, "This new group of people ‘SJW, Social Justice Warriors,' don't know facts or history but still subscribe to these views."
The Left's Social Media war against pro-Israel views didn't begin with this election. It began more than 20 years ago and has intensified.
Many progressives support openly virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organizations on social media and elsewhere. Some loudly say Zionists cannot be feminists. Jews who support Israel cannot march. Don't criticize Farrakhan, BDS, the UN.
Many political leaders do not condemn hatred of Jews. Some, like Keith Ellison, have worked for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organizations. For many years, he was spokesperson for the Nation of Islam. In his Detroit office when in the state legislature, he is said to have employed members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is now second in command of the Democratic Party. Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders are mum on Jew haters within their own party.
Social media is ground zero in this war. Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of Lawfare, an outspoken pro-Jewish and pro-Israel voice, told me in an interview, "There has been a concerted effort to silence and intimidate anyone who wants to talk about it." The it she refers to is criticism of the standard progressive line. The far Left agenda blames Israel and Zionists for a lack of Middle East peace, for terrorism and for criticizing Islam or Sharia. She told me, "Jews are good for other communities, such as Black Civil rights, ACLU, NAACP, etc., but they do not stand up for themselves. We are too afraid to stick up for ourselves or march for ourselves."
Goldstein is right. We see a silencing of pro-Israel and pro-Jewish posts, blogs and videos on social media. We find this silencing also for Muslim voices that speak out against Sharia, Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Goldstein continued, "It is ironic that in the traditionally ‘progressive' space, there is a movement to make freedom of speech uncool. It is now inconvenient to criticize even when there is a lack of support for women's and children's rights, that the left pretends to back."
I defriended my FB friend. We really weren't friends. Friends share views and understand when there are differences.
So when this person had asked me to be an FB friend, she really wasn't asking me to be her friend. I had hesitated, knowing we didn't share similar political views, although we were Jewish. I had thought that she was interested in dialoguing and talking about diverse views and what united us would be enough.
It wasn't. FB turned out to be for many, to use the Goldstein's words, an inconvenient place to criticize.
In other words, this was no Talmud page.
The Talmud handles disagreeing with respect. In a legal discussion analyzing impartiality in judgment, Rabbi Judah cautioned potential witnesses in a way that makes sense about FB as well.
Furthermore, only one man, Adam, was created for the sake of peace among men, so that no one should say to his friend, "My father was greater than yours...."
As the first human was the earth's only person, the world was created for his sake. The Mishneh continues,
Therefore every single person is obligated to say, "The world was created for my sake."
Talmudic discussions are grounded in a sense of dignity. Each conversation's tone is conducted within this framework. Those with passionate points of view are entitled to them. They are not entitled to abuse nor are they silenced.
If views are harmful to us, such as those of Farrakhan, Sansour or Rouhani, we need to speak out to defend our democratic way of life against hatred, racism and anti-Semitism.
So I say to my defriended FB colleague:
As Americans and Jews sharing views, certainly as women, we have the chance to claim as our own the Talmud's framework for examining ideas.
On social media, we may fill up our virtual Talmudic page with diverse views. We all have our say. We all see the discussion.
If we add this respectful Talmudic framework, not found frequently on FB, we change the dynamic. If we remember, "The world was created for my sake," we change the tone.
What a great responsibility and challenge to repair social media. Who doesn't want to change this social meeting place from a place where civil discourse is not civil? We should all prefer a place of respect even when we disagree. Like in the Talmud.
Susan Weintrob, one of JWR's very first contributors, is a retired educator who writes full time in Charleston, SC.
Previously:
• Spiritual Encounter at the DMV
• 'I am a Palestinian'
• The Sixth Son: The One Who Has Returned
• Face it: Education utopia is an elusive goal. But here's how America can significantly improve its schools
• The Heroes and Haters Among Us
• A centarian's transformation
• Will we still light the Menorah in the window?
• Permission to Speak, Please
• The Bashert Effect
• My Dad's Private War Against Murder Inc.
• Up Against The Wall
• Idiot Proof sukkah Building
• Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? An Unlikely Story of Transformation and Repentance
• Healing and Cooking
• Celebrating denial?