Another "League of Trembling Israelites" Moment

The "League of Trembling Israelites", as I was taught by Malvyn Benjamin, is that peculiar phenomenen of Jewish self-induced fear that attempts to avoid a situation that already exists, is doing damage and by their actions, supposedly soothingly assuaging, only make matters worse and never corrects it.

Case in point:

In a move that raised student ire, Erin Stalcup, a departing adjunct professor of English at Yeshiva, signed an open letter to President Obama calling upon him to cease his support of Israel’s “apartheid regime” and her “flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions.”

The letter...likens the state of Israel to the racist regime of South Africa in the 1980’s, comparing their oppression of the black population to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians...It summarized by contending, “Every one of these acts is a crime against humanity. In their ensemble, they constitute one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times.”

Though the letter was composed and signed in January, it only reached the attention of the collective YU student body midway through last week – due to one student’s incidental discovery of it on the internet...

Alexander Fischman, head of YU’s SAIPEC, circulated a petition signed by a number of student leaders calling on President Joel to denounce Prof. Stalcup for her comments. An AIPAC representative, however, successfully pressed Fischman to stop the petition, arguing that the petition would draw more attention to the letter and not result in a useful contribution.

A Post of Mine Over at MailJewish

Without recourse to theology, but from my own political ideological orientation, I strongly criticise the way the Tachanun has reinforced the most negative of Jewish national characterisitcs which, I presume, only strengthened what I call "The League of the Trembling Israelites" and perhaps led to the sorrowful meekness of Jews, for the most part, especially during the Holocaust. I am referring to the phrase: "nechshavnu latevach yuval" which although having roots in Tanach (Yehsayhu 53:7; Tehilim 44:23; Yirmiyahu 12:3), is an original composition using the words of Tanach but in a new fashion.

And, while theologically, one could state that it doesn't mean that we Jews actually are as sheep being led to the slaughter but only that the Goyim presume we are, (and recall the spies saying "v'nehi b'einenu kachagavim"), any pyschologist would say that if we repeat that phrase twice weekly for 30 years of the life of a Jewish male, we would probably adopt that imagery and presume that we truly are as sheep and act that way in expectation.

That is quite depressing.

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