Welcome to Judaism Demystified, a podcast for the perplexed.
Join us as we explore some of the most fascinating Jewish and
Torah related topics with our esteemed guests.
By tackling some of the biggest questions you likely won't find
addressed elsewhere, we aim to shed light on important issues
and inspire a return to the fundamentals.
Enjoy the show. Thank you for joining the
Judaism Demystified podcast. It is an absolute honor to have
Adam Scott Bellows on. Thank you so much for joining.
Thank you, Thank you for having me.
I'm really happy to be here, especially given the prestigious
guest that you've had on prior to me.
It's it's very humbling to have been asked to join you.
Thank you so much. So if you could just briefly
tell our audience a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Sure, I I grew up in the Midwest.
My whole family's from Chicago. I was a fifth generation born
American in Chicago and I was raised in Cincinnati, OH.
I made aliyah about 14 years ago, studied at the University
of Arizona and have a Judaic and Middle Eastern history degree.
And then I did my masters in Middle Eastern history at Tel
Aviv University, served in the Army in Habronen Bedell in the
Civil administration. And nine years ago I started the
Israel Innovation Fund. And the goal with creating the
organization was to build and is to build a new type of Zionist
institution, I like to say the SpaceX to the Jewish world's
NASA. We focus on perpetuating Zionism
as a movement and as a National Liberation movement.
Our We have 4 projects right now.
Our flagship project that we've been working on for quite some
time is called Wine on the Bind where we allow people to plant
grapevines instead of trees and vineyards instead of forests.
And then we have a Hebrew project and a self-defense
project. Our Hebrew project is called the
Bot Yehuda project or the nickname for it is the Hebrew
Nanny project where we are working to build an
infrastructure to send Hebrew speaking au pairs the Jewish
homes so that over the next 20 years we can create a bilingual
Hebrew speaking diaspora. And then our self-defense
project is called Shomrea AM, which is a self-defense project
where we are going to send, let's say 5 to 20 different Krav
Maga, Madrid, Krav Maga teachers to the diaspora in every city
that we have a concentrated Jewish community, utilize all
the pipelines of schools, federations, Habad, synagogues,
etcetera, to provide subsidized Krav Maga to the community.
Our goal is that self-defense in Hebrew literacy will be just as
important for preparing for your bar mitzvah as learning
Shakharit Marie of the Torah service and, and everything else
that you learn and, and reading the Torah.
And together those two projects, we're, we're going to be
rebranding them. And I, I like to call it project
Maccabee really. And that's really kind of how I
like to exploit it because we're trying to build Hebrew speaking,
self defending Jews. And that has never existed
outside of the land of Israel ever in the diaspora.
So, and then our, our final project is called Herzl AI.
We're working to bring Jewish figures to life, to be able to
interact with them and to get, get guidance and advice from
them. So we're working to create an
interactive Herzl that is AAI Avatar based on all of his
writings, speeches, books and plays so that you can interact
with the founder of the Zionist movement and understand how he
would interpret things of today, but also to answer the questions
of where he was as he built the Zionist movement.
So we really are looking not to create something for Hazbara but
for Jewish education and to create a greater bond with the
next generation in the Zionist movement.
Excellent. That's so interesting and
amazing work, and I'm looking forward to seeing more and more
growth. So I want to just get into some
questions that I have for you. What do you see as the main
causes of the disconnect between Jewish leadership and the
everyday Jewish community? And how does the culture of gala
dinners and celebrity influencers taking money for
advocacy play into that? Gap.
So I think that the culture of giving is a very cyclical one.
It's done by the same families. You'll notice that a lot of,
you'll notice that a lot of the influencers are related to these
big families. I, I think it's really just
comes down to class warfare in a way.
I think it's a very elitist culture.
I think that there's a huge disconnect between the I, you
know, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a
gala. OK, The the thing that I have,
that's the problem that I think is visible, is that while we
have hostages under the ground who have not been fed, while
Israelis are living in a state of perpetual war where mortgage
payments have doubled and there is such a huge disconnect with
what Israelis are going through. I just think it's very obnoxious
to see American Jews dress up in tuxes and, and, and cocktail
gowns and acting like they're the heroes of the Jewish people
because they're attending these events.
I think it's become more about being seen than actual result or
measurable results. And as you now know, and that
has been made public, many of these organizations that have
been hosting these ridiculous perpetual galas throughout, you
know, the last couple of years since October 7th has happened,
have all been exposed for major financial, you know,
misappropriation, so to speak, or irresponsibility.
So it, it is very disappointing. I, I, you know, I, I just find
that we're rewarding activism over thought and we're not
empowering thought leaders. And it's, it's really about how
big of a check you can write or how many followers you have.
And I just think there's a very big difference between a
following versus having a plan. And I don't find that any of the
major influencers that are being propped up or being paid 10s of
thousands of dollars, as you know, which was exposed by
Daniel L earlier was that, you know, the AJC gave over a half a
billion dollars to Zack, Sage, Fox to make videos.
OK, some of those videos are really great, but what have they
accomplished? The strategy isn't working.
And I think that's the major disconnect.
What I don't understand is where is the plan to defend the Jewish
people in the diaspora? I don't need to laugh anymore.
I don't need to look at 92nd content.
I really don't care who's got a Birkin bag.
I don't care what gala you're going to.
If these people are so brilliant and so great, why has there been
no plan that has been written to figure out the issues of Jewish
education or the root problems that are causing the disconnect
between Israel and the Diaspora? So I think at its core, it's
just a very shallow idea of creating community because
really it's just a community for those who can write those 500
dollars, $5000 checks when at the end of the day, the majority
of the Jewish people are not the elites.
And, and we've never been that way, in my opinion.
And the Zionist movement was about getting away from that
hubris and embracing the humility of working the land.
And, and that is really, you know, in my opinion, the great
thing about Israel is that it is a very humbling place.
And it was built on the backs of those who took off their shirts
and worked the land and got a tan.
Right. And, and I even I'm, I'm always
disappointed when I see people have a platform and they,
they'll be invited onto CNN and when they're accused of, you
know, being Zionists, they won't actually, some of them do, but
they won't correct them or explain what Zionism really
means you. Know I yeah, I, I think.
It's a problem. I think the biggest thing that
has become very clear is that just because you have a large
Instagram following doesn't mean you're an expert in defending
the Jewish people. For me, I was very upset to see
in the beginning of the war, you know, Emily Austin went on Piers
Morgan and she couldn't name the year the 1929 riots happened.
And you know, I, I really give, you know, credit to everybody
that's trying to defend the Jewish people.
But if you don't know the basic facts of the history of this
conflict or how and why things happened or what each building
block was that has LED us to today, you need to keep your
mouth shut. And what the experts do the
talking and, and this, the problem with the Instagram
generation is that it, there's this cycle of narcissism in this
need for attention versus achievement, if that makes
sense. You know, I, I feel like it's
the DEI, so to speak, of this generation, which is not wanting
to earn the expertise and it's, and it's the elimination of
meritocracy. So, you know, if you're, if you
build the following on being a fashion person, you can't all of
a sudden just become this expert in Israel.
And it's how you get people to make contents about things that
are really factually incorrect and in my opinion, create more
anti-Semitism in many respects. And I, I want to go back to one
of the things that you asked me about the the galas.
If there is anything that perpetuates the idea of the
wealthy Jewish conspiracy, it is the way people showcase the
galas, in my opinion. And I, and I think it's a very
irresponsible thing to have the same people all the time be
honored given these awards who really haven't achieved anything
other than making an Instagram post, who are clearly flaunting
their wealth in front of everybody publicly.
And I just don't think that's a Jewish value.
Well said. Absolutely.
So this ties into the next question because it has to do
with, you know, influence. If it's treated as a money game,
that puts us at a permanent disadvantage, especially with
nations like Qatar can outspend us by billions.
So what alternative models of influence or leadership should
we be building? I think the, I guess you could
say that the most important thing which has been ignored is
reinvesting in the infrastructure of Jewish
education and providing the opportunities for every single
young Jew to be able to access 3500 years of tradition and the
wealth of knowledge that's been given and handed down from
generation to generation. We should not.
How do I explain this? The whole point of advocacy is
to be able to disarm somebody with your tongue.
You shouldn't have to scream. You shouldn't have to raise your
voice. And God knows I've been there.
And sometimes there's an appropriate time and place for
raising your voice and you missing emotion and bringing
that energy. But at the end of the day, you
should be able to calmly take somebody down the line of sale
of why the Jewish people have the right to the state of
Israel. Why, why and how the Jewish
people are the indigenous people of the land of Israel.
And if we look at the failure of Jewish education, I always like
to say it comes down to this. You will know when Jewish
education has succeeded whenever a young Jew can explain why
they're not white. Right.
And if that ever becomes a reality, you know that Jewish
education has totally succeeded because when every young Jew can
explain that the Jewish people are the first victims of Western
imperialism, were thrown into cages in Hebron and sold in the
markets of Rome as slaves. And that's the beginning of the
Ashkenazi story, OK, Which is, which is the group of Jews that
are constantly being accused of being whites and colonizers and
everything else. You know, those are the the
basics that young Jews aren't able to connect in their mind
because they were never given the actual shores of the Roux
and the essence of what our experience has been and what the
story of our nation in exile is and was.
So, you know, personally investing in our infrastructure,
educationally, providing the tools that are necessary for
Jews to engage in their texts, making Hebrew and specifically
self-defense the main priority. Building modern Maccabees is the
way to move forward in my opinion.
There is no greater gift that you can give a young Jew than
the ability to be a Hebrew speaking, self defending modern
day Jew. Absolutely.
And how do you, How can Jewish
communities protect themselves from rising hostility without
slipping into isolation? And at the same time, why is
Israel losing the PR war so badly despite its resources and
talent? Because I would, I would imagine
they say, you know, Jews run Hollywood, Jews run the media.
If that's the case, then we're doing a terrible job.
But I don't think it is true. But but, but it's just, it's
just kind of like upsetting when you see that we're, we're
failing so miserably at getting our messaging across.
I I think there were so many questions that you just asked
me. Wow, give me the first one.
We'll go down the line of questions.
What was the first one? So.
So basically, how can the communities protect themselves
from rising hostility without slipping into isolation?
So there's easy ways to do that because you're in America or
you're in England or you're in Australia and you're obviously
not in the Jewish state where you're totally isolated.
The records show that relying on outside sources for Jewish
security never really pans out very well.
I don't believe that taking care of your own security and
education means isolationism, and there's no real need for
that now. There are many Torah observant
communities that do believe in that and do live like that in
different places in the diaspora.
At the same time, most ethnic minority communities, which the
Jewish people fail to see themselves as, especially in
North America, which is a huge reason for a lot of the problems
in my opinion, that there are in the United States right now.
I do believe in, in taking a step back right now and
refocusing our energy inwards and not necessarily worrying
about what's going on with outside communities because at
the end of the day, the Jewish community is extremely weak,
fragmented and, and unorganized at this time.
I also believe that, you know, I think you had asked me about the
PR and things like that. You know, one of the things
that's come out recently is that the Tel Aviv Institute was
taking money from the Tides Foundation, which is funded by
George Soros. Like without giving any opinion
on like the leadership of that organization or whatever.
There is one thing that's very important is that we need to
stop trying to blend Judaism or Zionism or Jewish life or Jewish
culture into every modern woke or right wing or left wing
ideal. It can't be everything.
Zionism is the National Liberation movement of the
Jewish people. That is something it doesn't
mean it, it's going to mean the same thing to everybody that's
outside of the Jewish community. Staying, you know, concrete in
values and ideals is extremely important in my opinion.
So I, I, I, I don't necessarily. I'm not so worried about
isolationism right now. That's the furthest thing from
my mind. Well, I would say isolationism
that we see happening in front of our eyes is, let's say on
college campuses, these are future leaders of America, and
students will feel like I can't wear a keeper.
I can't. Well, why?
But, but I think the question really is why did that happen?
And how did that happen? And what Jewish leadership has
been in power for the last 20 years that ignored it?
We look at the ADL, for instance, with the CEO that
makes $1.2 million a year, who called the Biden
administration's anti-Semitism policy a major breakthrough when
it didn't say Israel, it didn't say Zionism and it didn't say
anti Zionism. Is that it in it at all?
But it said Islamophobia more than 15 times.
We, we try to universalize our experience and universalizing
the Jewish experience is, is really an assimilated way to try
to get people to not hate us. When at the end of the day,
every single generation that we have seen that has received
violence every 100 years, there's always similarities like
we're at the height of our power, we're at the height of
our assimilation into that community.
Our separateness is what makes us, us.
It doesn't mean that we have to be isolated, but it does mean
that we have to have a strong enough identity to know the
difference between US and the rest of the world if we truly
believe in the destiny of the Jewish people, in my opinion.
I think nationalism also just got a bad name just over the
years and. If you look at the 26, if you
look at the 2016 election, instead of saying fascism, they
said nationalism. And I think that was a great
disservice to the understanding of not only what nationalism is,
what nationalism did for the world, moving it from monarchy
to nation states, but also, I mean, when you it's like, it's
the same thing what's happening right now when they say that
Israel is committing A genocide. You can't just give a word a new
definition. There's a reason why communism
means communism and socialism means socialism, and capitalism
is capitalism. Fascism is not nationalism.
Fascism is extreme nationalism to a point where you're
basically promoting the killing of everybody that's not a part
of your nation. That's not nationalism.
Nationalism is the right for everybody to have their own
nation, and the denial of people to have their own national
affiliation is anti nationalism. Right.
And, and I would some people like to prefer to use the word
patriotism instead because I guess it, it, it hits
differently. But yeah.
So you're patriotic to your nation.
Yeah, I mean, we see also the failures of multiculturalism
around the world. So some nations are actually
like, like Poland, for example, are taking more steps towards
nationalism. Not it's not a bad thing.
It's, it's, you know, sometimes when it you, they go, they
overreach with the multiculturalism and then things
go haywire and then you wonder why then they have to
overcorrect. And I think that if people
really appreciate what, what Zionism really means, they, they
would obviously have a different perspective.
But they've, you know, the, the opposition to Israel has done an
amazing job of just constantly, you know, mentioning that Israel
is Nazism, not Zionism is Nazism and just keep repeating the same
lie and eventually people will believe it.
That's just like, that's exactly what happened.
And I don't, I haven't, I haven't seen enough push back
against that. The kind of language like the
genesis, the genocide is constantly thrown out, the
ethnic cleansing. And like a lot of times I get
very frustrated because they'll just say you're an anti Semite.
You know, that's their answer. And that doesn't work.
Like that's not, that's kind of like a a.
Bad anti anti-Semitism was a point is a term that was point
specifically for anti Jewish hatred.
You know, now because of the inability for people to defend
themselves, they, you know, people like Jew hatred instead
of anti-Semitism, which is I mean, it works.
It's a little bit more direct, I mean, but again, everything that
you're talking about comes down to a lack of education, a lack
of understanding, a lack of historical context.
And what I would say is a fear of non Orthodox communities to
truly embrace certain things that maybe are hard for them to
grapple with given the fact that they're not Torah observance.
I grew up in one of those communities.
I don't really see, you know, back in the day, it used to be
you were so much about it. You're not OK.
And I I still don't think there's anything wrong with
that. People have the right to live
the Jewish life that they want to live.
I have tattoos, OK? I have three tattoos.
It doesn't mean that it's correct or holically
permissible. I just chose to do that.
OK, You know, this is, I marked myself for October 7th.
It was something that I felt and many other Israelis who lived
through the experience, stuff that we needed to do to have a
constant reminder of what we experienced on that day.
OK, that doesn't mean it's holically permissible and
there's not, in my opinion, in today's world, there's nothing
wrong with choosing life that you want to choose.
But when you don't have the education to be able to under
it's like what Aharam said, you got to know the rules to break
the rules. And if, if you don't give people
the opportunity to understand what they're choosing or what
they're choosing against, then you, you hear all this
Chikunalam this or Jewish value this or occupation Shabbat,
Passover, you know, and all this code pink crap and, and, and you
start, you know, pink washing and whitewashing.
What rabbinic Judaism was trying to give to the Jewish people
while they were in exile. And it's a, it's a very sad
thing because you, you not only that, but people that don't grow
up with Jewish literacy or how to do kiddish or what like the
experiences of Shabbat and doing the blessings from handle to
kiddish to hand washing to bread.
And they're, and they're ignorant to the environments
that they're in. You know, it makes them feel
self-conscious. You know, I grew up in
Cincinnati, OH. It's the center of Reform
Judaism. I was very fortunate that my
parents sent me to Jewish day school.
It was a Conservative Jewish day school.
And the one thing that this school wanted to make sure was
that you could survive in any Jewish environment.
And the Conservative synagogue that we went to was so hardcore
about bar and bat mitzvah practice, that it was about
making sure that once you were a bar of bat mitzvah, you could
daven in any Shoal around the world.
And and that was a unique thing for for the conservative
movement. I mean, it was more Conservadox,
but, and obviously before the conservative movement started
going left, but the goal was give the education and the roots
of what you need to be able to survive as a Jew in any
synagogue on a Friday or a Saturday.
And I remember my first time in Poland, davening in an Orthodox
Shoal. The kid sitting next to me who
later became a Reform rabbi was, was freaking out because he
couldn't understand anything that was going on.
He goes, this means nothing to me.
And I, and I'm thinking, no, you were just never taught how to
actually be literate in, you know, Kabbalah, Shabbat or a
Torah service or, or anything of that kind.
I mean, if you, if you're not taught moussaf, how are you
going to, you know, participate? It's just, it's a, it's a very
real epidemic, in my opinion, in the Jewish community, the denial
of the right to have every child be given their inheritance of,
of tradition and knowledge and text.
Yeah, one of the things that this Judaism Demystified podcast
focuses on is getting back to the fundamentals.
And one of the reasons why we wanted to start doing this is
like we noticed we were talking about this off camera, but we
noticed that like even on Twitter, you know, they're
constantly, there's these Jew haters who come out and start
pulling out, you know, Agadot and, and, you know, site like
verses from the Talmud and they'll just take it out of
context and, and they'll throw it out there.
And then the Jews, most of them are, are not able to respond.
They're they're like, well, you know, most Jews don't study the
Talmud. That's their answer instead of
actually knowing what the context is and what is actually
about. And it's not what they're saying
it is. So, you know, I agree, I totally
agree. I think the lack of education is
actually becoming very apparent. And in a way it's a blessing in
disguise because it's forcing Jews now to become a lot more
refined in their understanding of of Jewish text and being able
to respond to these kind of accusations.
So, you know, in a way it's, it kind of seems like, you know, it
feels like it's prophetic, almost like the Jews are coming
back to the land of Israel, but also they're, they're being
exposed to the texts again and it's being put in front of them
whether they like it or not. And now you have to analyze this
text. Now you have to understand what
does this text mean to you and how do you defend your beliefs?
I think it's a very unique time. It's a very unique opportunity
for for Jews to educate our our own I.
I mean, listen, I don't see enough being done.
There is no, you know, when I spent the last 10 months in
exile, I took the time to write about 70 pages of two plans
that, you know, together, like I said, we call project McAfee.
That was about diagnosing the problems that have led to the
issues on campus in in the streets.
So why Sarah and your own were gunned down to why there has
been violence and, and the steady increase of violence
really since the Durban conference and, and if not the
the beginning of the second in the bottom.
Without us taking the time to step back and say what is the
illness and what is the cure to that illness, we're bound to
repeat these issues and we're bound to see more Jewish blood
drench the streets of, of the diaspora and, and as well in the
land of Israel. And Israel has its own problems
compared to the diaspora. And one of the main problems
that the state of Israel has is not understanding the Diaspora
because of who is put in those leadership positions.
And also the same thing with the Diaspora, being that they're so
disconnected not only by distance but by culture and
language. With Israel, we have to diagnose
the issue, which is that Jews do not know how to defend
themselves because they are not given the basic tools.
Jews are pushed around because physical security, OK, was not
something that was necessarily needed for the majority of Jews
in the Dyos right now. I grew up in a home where I was
told all these stories of my father's experiences with
anti-Semitism and the physical threat to his physical body and
his need to physically defend himself.
And the reason why we had guns in the house was because we were
Jews and anybody could come to harm us at any time because
we're Jews. So you know, though the value of
physical security and you know what I I really call the the
Hebrew speaking self defending Jew through magic project McAfee
Hebraization OK. And, and, and the need for
Hebraization of the modern Jew and the Diaspora is what in my
opinion is the is the is the cure to securing a safe and
prosperous diaspora. Because we have to ask
ourselves, is the diaspora always going to exist?
Now? The answer is, you know, 99%
yes. OK, well then you have to say,
given the situation and the rise of anti-Semitism and the
situation that we have now is, is it going to be a weak or a
strong diaspora? Now obviously if it's going to
exist, it needs to be strong. But then you have to define what
is a strong diaspora because and then and then what is a strong
diaspora? Well, it's filled with strong
Diaspora Jews. What is a strong Diaspora Jew?
Will the early Zionists define this?
It's a Hebrew speaking, self defending Jew rooted in
tradition who does not walk looking down but locks with his
eyes up and forward. That is the answer to our
problems. It is very simple.
Every generation figures another thing out to benefit the next
generation. It's like the Shema teaches us
to hand it down to the next generation to teach this and
impress this on to your children.
Every generation added to the Talmud before it was compiled OK
with with when we ignore the basic things of Jewish evolution
and the evolution of the Jewish experience, we're bound to to
lose quite a lot of people. Because if you really think
about it, and this is a very controversial thing for me to
say, what is the reason that 6,000,000 Jews died in Europe?
I'm scared to answer so. You know, in my opinion, yeah, I
don't put all of the blame on this, but I think the rabbinic
elite are extremely responsible in many respects.
They were afraid to leave. They didn't want to encourage
people to leave. They felt that there was a need
to wait for redemption and wait for Mashiac instead of building
it and bringing it themselves. And it doesn't matter what you
think about redemption or Mashiac or if you're into the
mystical or or or whatever. It doesn't matter.
It does matter because you should see prophecy as a call to
action rather. Than you should.
You should see prophecy as a call to action.
At the end of the day, we are always worried about, I'm trying
to, I'm trying to explain this in the most open Broadway
possible without narrowing it, you know, excluding anybody.
But my, my point is, is that you can't expect a people to survive
if you don't embrace the new things that the next generation
can teach you. And when people are knocking at
your door with pitchforks, maybe it's time to leave.
And if you look at, you know, one of the things that is
constantly repeated these days is now we understand how and why
Jewish community stayed before they were ultimately destroyed.
Because a lot of people from Israel are seeing, you know, the
rise of anti-Semitism in all, in all of Europe and England and
America and Canada and Australia, the way that we read
about what happened 100 years ago.
And it's very sad. I mean, I mean, imagine if the
rabbis in the 1920s, as you know, the programs happened and
the Zionist movement was starting to pick up steam.
If they weren't against the Zionist movement and they were
four people packing up and moving to the land of Israel,
you'd have a completely different experience in Israel.
You'd have a completely different history of the Arab
Israeli conflict, and you would have had less Jews die in
Europe. I know that's an extremely.
No, it's not. It's not.
The rabbi of Arshua has made the same kind of comment that all
the, the rabbis of many of the rabbis in Eastern Europe
perished in the Shoah because they didn't, you know, they
didn't see what was coming and they didn't take it seriously
enough and they weren't into Zionism.
But then. If you can't, if you can't
respect the human aspects of what the Gula is supposed to be,
Yeah, Like you can't interpret Torah correctly.
You know, there's seventy faces to Torah we're supposed to be
able to take. And I loved I, I'm just thinking
about the, the episode that I had just listened to of yours,
which was the questioning of believer and, and like he was
hitting on so many things about when it's literal and when it's
not and, and, and the complexity of the lessons.
And it's, I was saying this to you earlier.
You know, if you look at like the creation of the state of
Israel in the last 75 years, you can compare it so well to shof
team through, you know, Solomon. And if you look at, you know,
every 100 years, you can always compare it to the next 100
years, because we've constantly experienced this wave of
anti-Semitism that destroys a community or a community of
roots itself to the land of Israel because of it.
So it's, it's rather, I just think it's rather telling that
in the name of observing Kashem's laws, people were
forced to stay or told to stay, which ultimately led to their
slaughter. And it's it's a very sad and
difficult thing to really discuss in my opinion.
But what's actually amazing about our tradition is that if
you notice, you know, even the, the Agada famous story in the
Talmud about Kamzan Barkhamzan, just to make a Long story short,
it this, this Jew was humiliated in front of all the elites.
All the rabbis were sitting at the table and they stayed quiet.
These are stories written by the rabbi's, whether or not it's a
true story or not. They're trying to paint a
picture of the kind of time that they're living in.
And they were being, they're blaming themselves in a way and
saying like the leadership didn't step up when they needed
to. And even the the destruction of
the the Baita Mikdash, you know, we're always only on to Shabba
of, you know, what did we do wrong And what did our lead?
You know, like the leaders will say that the rabbi's were not
getting along with each other. They, they, they were
sacrificing animals instead of feeding people during the siege
of Jerusalem. You know, it's, it's just funny
that you mentioned Kamasa Barkamasa, because I bring that
story up all the time when talking about my own experience
of trying to sound the alarm of what I saw happening over the
last 20 years. And, you know, I've been
blackballed by a lot of mainstream Jewish organizations.
A lot of people take my professional criticism
personally. You know, I, before I started my
organization, I tried to bring to one small organization in
Israel and one of the major legacy organizations together to
start building the infrastructure for communities
to be prepared for the coming anti-Semitism so that there
would be infrastructure for new immigrants coming into Israel,
given the rise that was on its way out.
And you know, this organization, they, they both went off.
Both organizations went off and did their own thing.
I was cut out of a partnership. One or you know, the bigger
organization gave the other organization a quarter
$1,000,000 and an $80,000 salary to somebody.
And I'm the one who put everything together and was the
one who said, I'm going to put it together to professionalize
this organization. And it was my first professional
win, but I got no credit for it. And it was very destructive.
That person is dead, that Adam died when that happened.
And it was because I was so idealistic, Zionistically and
Judaically of thinking that no matter what, if my intentions
were pure, you know, no one was going to try to destroy me.
And it was, it was a very hard thing to learn and go through
because it was so embarrassing. And there were so many things
that were said about me to discredit my version of events
after that. And it's the first time talking
about it publicly, actually. I can't believe you got me to do
that. And it is a very real thing that
we are experiencing. I see it all the time with what
with what we do with tiff and wine on the vine and the excuses
that rabbis and communities make to not buy Israeli wine and how
they use nibhushal or this and that or this thing and this
thing as an excuse to not purchase the product.
When Israeli wine is literally the symbol of redemption.
It is literally the tool that is the greatest thing to connect a
young person to Israel. It is your history in a cup, our
story in a bottle. It is, you know, the, the
fulfillment of 2500 years of hopes and dreams fulfilled.
And I, I see it so often because we are told not to question
leadership anymore. We are told not to question the
mistakes that are made. We are told that if you speak up
against a person, not only is it personal, but, you know, I'm
trying to say we want to save lives.
We want to stop Jews from dying. It should not be a problem to
say I don't agree with this policy, or maybe this might not
be the right direction, or maybe placating to the left or to the
far right or or whoever is not necessarily the right way to go
about things, and instead we're vilifying those who are in
dissent. And fortunately, since I've
started speaking out about these things and about financial
mismanagement and the ridiculous salaries that some of these
organizations are taking without providing measurable results,
now people are starting to be brave enough to speak up.
And unfortunately, being a lone wolf in that area is very
difficult and not a lot of people have the strength to just
take the hit after hit after hit until you're not the crazy
person outside of the castle banging alone.
And it, and it's very true. We were very look what they did
to Spinoza for asking questions. It, it, it makes somebody more
extreme in many, in many respects.
And you know, it's, it's very unfortunate.
A great example is Kahana in Israel.
You know, the only person that Menachem Begin ever so poorly
about was Kahana. And Kahana acted very
inappropriately at times. And he said very extreme things.
And at the same time, instead of trying to work with him to
mainstream him or de radicalize some of the things that he was
doing, it made him more extreme, if that makes sense.
You know, and I'm not a Kahanist by any means whatsoever, but my
point is that when you shut out the conversation and you're told
that people aren't allowed to question anything and you just
have to go with the flow. One, that's just against the
counterculturalism of what created the Jewish people.
And two, it's just a great way to create dissent in the
community, in my opinion. Well, sorry, that was a long
run. I hope.
I hope that was logical. That was absolutely logical and
I see it even with these influencers today who are like
kind of they sound like mouthpieces of the government,
like it's OK to question certain things that these are doesn't
mean you're. But again I.
Just don't. I just don't see the point of
half of the things that the influencer doing because the
influencers are doing, because it's the same thing.
They're all followed by the same people and they're all making
the same content or they're just trying to make something to
continue their algorithm to go up.
And they're, it's kind of ridiculous.
It's just like, excuse my language has time to just sit
around and go, hi, I'm from Israel and blah, blah, blah.
And I'm sitting here. Let me tell you my opinion on
this. Let me tell you my opinion on
this. You know, I want to hear
somebody's opinion that has studied this conflict for 20
years. I, you know, I remember there
was a feed that was created by an unknown woman and it was
called Jewish Orgs and a lot of people thought it was me.
And it when I read it, I was like, oh, started copying like
everything I'm saying like this is this is like verbatim what I
talk about. And I found out that it was some
woman that works in a legacy organization that was starting
to expose things that she saw. And they did a thing on when
they brought all the influencers to Israel to report on the
trucks going into Gaza. I don't know if you remember
this, all the influencers were making the same video.
OK. And they took an now I'm a
consultant for a high-ranking foreign ministry representative,
so I couldn't collaborate on this post, even though I agreed
with what they were saying. And they took all of the videos
of everybody and put it like in one little box and it was
everybody. And it was like, you know, one
of those things where everybody's saying the exact
same thing. And it's like the conspiracy of
like the, you know, the the one minded, you know, there's a.
Script. There's a script they're
following. Yeah, you've seen the new the
local news thing where they do it and everybody's saying it was
exact. It was supposed to be exactly
like that. And I was accused of doing it.
I just shared it. And I even wrote, I did not do
this. But I agree with what they're
doing. And what they're pointing out
needs to be seen like this strategy isn't working.
OK? It's a bubble.
That's it. And a lot of people accused me
of doing something that I didn't do.
And I finally said, you know, I, I made a reel and I, I go, I
don't need to hide my face when I criticize people, you know, F
off. Like I've been doing this for 20
years. You're all new to the game.
Like you've all woken up post October 7th or you just started
doing this or you had feeds before and now you feel the need
to do it even though you didn't do it before.
When really we wouldn't be in this situation if people were
recognizing the direction that we were going in.
If if you couldn't see the writing on the wall by 2012 like
you are late to the game as to why the Jews are in the
situation that we are in around the world.
Why our safety has come into question.
And instead of us taking a step back and wanting to fix the
situation at its root, we are perpetuating the same structure
that was built for the 20th century and not for the 21st
century. We are not answering the needs
of 21st century Jews and and this influencer crap is this is
exactly a a, a great example of how the establishment is buying
off people in order to perpetuate their, their their
demagogic hegemony over this community that is literally
steering it directly into destruction in my opinion.
And the other side, it's a losing battle because the other
side has more money and more people.
Forget the money. Think about this.
The Maccabees took on Greece, OK.
And and it's basically one of the reasons why the Greeks ended
up falling. I mean, if you know the story,
you know, we were we were committing guerrilla warfare.
We were waging guerrilla warfare, committing guerrilla
warfare, waging guerrilla warfare against the Greeks.
Eventually things got really crazy.
And then Judah Mcabee and the Hashmar Naeem, they they go to
Rome and ask Rome to get involved in help.
And that was ultimately the foreign policy decision that
would lead to the destruction of the second temple, OK.
You know, and it's very interesting because during the
destruction of the first temple, we bet on Egypt instead of
Assyria. And it was also a foreign policy
decision, which is very interesting because the
destruction of our sovereignty always comes from bad foreign
policy decisions, which also affect our domestic policy and
everything else. OK.
So if you just look, it's if you can't question these things, you
know, there's a weakness there, in my opinion.
And we can't continue to perpetuate the same mistakes
that we're making. And we can't continue to
perpetuate a type of leadership that is afraid of being
authentically Judean and standing up for the, the, the
rights of the Jewish people around the world in a way that
it may make them uncomfortable. I remember, and this is a great
example, in December of 2023, I, I started to get the concept of
what I wanted to do for Shomreahan.
And I sat with Natan Sharansky, who is a hero of mine.
And I explained to him what I wanted to do.
And he said to me that Jewish people, especially in America,
want the police to protect them. And he then he goes, what would
Black Lives Matter think and this and that and this and that.
And I looked at him and this is one of the hardest things I've
ever done. And I said, Nathan, we need
Jewish leaders who don't give a fuck about what other people
think. Excuse my language.
I'm sorry to the listeners. Bleep, bleep me out, OK.
You're not the first one. It's OK.
And, and it didn't go. I mean, obviously the meeting
ended, you know, shortly after that.
But my point is that we're always afraid to change.
We're afraid to evolve. We're afraid, you know, the idea
of the new Jew, the muscular Jew, you know that Noordao
Jabotinsky, Akata and and Herzl began to really articulate all
those identities together. Even if you put a little Rob
Cook in there, you know what, what all these ideals that came
from the Zionist movement that was to create this modern
spiritually connected, hard working, land oriented, you
know, Jew connected to the land of Israel was very much
rejected. And it took a very long time for
mainstream, you know, the mainstream of the Jewish people
to accept this is the direction that we needed to go in.
And it's a, it's a very hard thing, you know, to to go from
the height of an assimilated community to realizing that
you're an ethnic minority and that you're not part of the
mainstream and that you need to go internally to redefine what
the community is, because that's the opposite of what these
Jewish organizations want. At the same time I want to say
this, there's one main reason why creating modern day fully
authentic Jews is not in the priority of anything from the
progressive to the ultra Orthodox.
It's because ultimately, either the generation that you're
educating or the children of that generation will move to
Israel, which means less money for those institutions and less
donations. Because there's only One
Direction that you ultimately go in when you totally feel a
complete and visceral Jewish identity through and through.
And that is a deep connection to the land of Israel.
And sometimes it's one that you can't be without.
Am I? You know, I, I, I'm.
Sorry for the rant. No, please.
I love it. It's so passionate.
I, I think that, you know, you mentioned one thing that, you
know, you want people who have been experts, who've been
studying this stuff for 20 years and so on and have nuanced views
and criticize when, whenever our leadership deserves to be
criticized. But at the same time, like I
think of someone like Havi Vereti Gore, who somebody will
like, I appreciate, you know, his content.
Yeah. Aviva's Aviva's Aviva's
brilliant. He was an advisor to Schransky.
I, I, I actually the first time I met Aviv was when I first
moved to Israel and I made aliyah and he was working for
Schransky. He's a brilliant thinker and
articulator. But The thing is we live in a
time where people want sound bites, people want in your face
kind of content. We have to compete with TikTok.
That's where As for most young people are getting their
information. So at the same time do like, is
there is there room for you know the the influencers or maybe do
we have to kind of change their approach?
I don't, I don't, I wouldn't have any problem with
influencers if their content was deep.
You know, if you look at the type of content that I make,
first of all, not a lot. I, I don't usually put my face
on a lot of stuff. I, I did before, you know, one
of the things that I used to do that, you know, kind of, I would
do these rants and I would be kind of animated, but they were
very, you know, Bah, Bah Bah like filled with facts.
And that was kind of like, my thing is that I don't need a
script. And I have a lot of this off the
top of my head. But one of the things that I
would do is I would walk with my dog every morning with my coffee
and I would do my take on the things, you know, that were
complex issues or whatever. When my dog died, I went
through, you know, that was when I left the country for a little
while and I had to, it was a lot of things over five years in the
war and actually there's been two wars and many things that
I've gone through over the last couple years or I just needed a
break. And it was really important
because I was able to reconnect to my roots.
I went back to the diaspora to understand the problems or
whatever. It all goes back to education,
OK? It all goes back to education
and you don't want to know something.
There's no reason why you can't become an expert through 32nd
videos. At the same time, we're not
creating alternative methods of learning for the different types
of learning methods. OK, you know how I love to study
Torah now and it is my favorite way to study Torah is Aleph Beta
the cartoons. It is one of it is one of my
favorite ways. I don't know if anybody has seen
the video that Rabbi Foreman did on, on on the face of God.
Did you did you see that? And it was the and it was the
Mishkan specifically and that and that when you understand
that the layout of the Mishkan represented this face, but it
was the emanation of the like the spirituality.
Your listeners can't see what I'm doing with my hands, but if
they could, they would totally get what I'm.
Trying to I've given a class. I've given a class based.
I, I love to talk about that and you know, you can become such an
expert when you study the texts and the grammar and the syntax
and the importance of the Hebrew itself.
And, and that's why I feel that Hebrew is such an important
piece of the puzzle and that we, we can't deny the next
generation the right to be Hebrew speaking, self defending
diaspora Jews, because those are the nuances that were missing.
When you realize that when the 1st time the, the, the
Burkhadako anem was given and they say, may the face of God
shrine upon you, they mean something very specific.
And when you understand that this is it.
It that's not you can't, you can't get that just from reading
the literal words. You can only get that by drawing
the, the, the Mishkan and looking at it from a specific
view. And once it's pointed out to
you, you can't, you can't ever Unsee it.
You know, it's, it's just like how in Star Wars when Luke
Skywalker turns on his lightsaber for the very first
time and Obi Wan Kenobi's Hut. OK, now I am a huge Star Wars
fan. My feed on Instagram and YouTube
is like 3 or 4 things, the comic books, OK, Star Wars and juice
stuff and movie stuff. OK, so you know, I'm very big in
the pop culture and content, but you know, whatever.
It's probably one of the reasons why I love Hall of Beta, but I
never noticed that the cord to turn on the blade, you can see
it hanging in his shirt. OK, now I've watched Star Wars
thousands of times and once that was pointed out to me, I can
never Unsee it and it has ruined that city.
But I it's, you know, you have a good point about the, the
contents and the sound bites and this and that.
What sound bites are they? What sound bites are they?
Who's making the sound bites? You know what, why?
Why are we not concerned with figuring out a way to teach
every Jew Torah in the way that they can learn it?
You know, didn't the La Pubature ready say that people with Down
syndrome were on like a higher spiritual level and there was a
need to be able to, you know, they connected to specific
things like seat, seat and other things and that the need to
appreciate like them as intellectuals and Torah scholars
and their love of it. It's, it's like that you have to
find, you have to bring Torah. You can't, how do I say you got
to bring the mountain to Mohabbin, that Mohamed to the
mountain, so to speak. And that mountain of Torah has
to be figured out in a way that can be articulated to every
generation, to every type of student, to every type of child,
whether they have trouble learning or not, whether they're
auditorial or visual learners. It is what you know, I
personally, I hate to read. OK, I mean, I love to read.
I read quite a lot, I'm sure you can tell.
But I listen to all of my books on tape before I read the visual
book and then I'll listen to it again.
You know, I have to visually see it and hear it and, and get it
in three different ways for me to really internalize it.
It took almost 30 years for me to learn that.
You know, I didn't become a student until I did my masters.
And I think, you know, that's my answer to the sound bite issue.
Sound bites are great. Sound bites are important.
And yes. But when you have to reduce
everything you say to a sound bite, or you judge people on
their expertise based on making a 92nd video, I think you're
doing a disservice to what has always been considered expertise
or scholarship. I think you just, you gave an
idea to some listener here who's going to realize that we need an
Aleph beta for like Jewish history and Zionism. 100 a 100%
we do it's one of the reasons why we're trying to do the, the,
the AI project that we're doing. And, you know, hopefully we'll
launch Ask Personal very soon and in conjunction with work
with the Zionist archives. And we're obviously going to do.
I mean, I came up with it because somebody was like, you
know, Herzl had a playbook. Can you help me with a playbook
with what you're asking? And I was like, God, I just wish
I could ask Herzl. You know, we have to find every
single way that we can to give Torah, to give history, to give
Zionism, to give, I mean, to any kid that we can't, you know,
history, especially. I always like to say this and
it's one of my favorite things to talk about when I talk about
Jewish education and, and where my understanding of God and
Zionism and Torah all fit together.
And I, I love this saying the God of history is the God of
Israel and the God of Israel is the God of history, because that
was how I found my Amuna, you know, my Amuna.
Like it was really through the study of our history and seeing
the building blocks of history and how they come together and
how the 100 year cycle of our people constantly is repeated.
And I, I mean, I, I, I think it's fascinating, like I was
saying earlier, if you really look at the building of the
States and the Zionist movement until today, it very much
mirrors similar things that happened in between shoftim and
the death of Solomon. And I, I, I really, you know,
understanding our history and the context of our history in
the context of where we are now in a 3500 year history is
extremely, extremely important to the strength and the identity
of, of who will inherit tomorrow when it comes to the next
generation of our people. Absolutely.
I'm so happy you brought up brother Foreman.
We've had him on the podcast as well as IMA Shalev and I'm.
A huge I'm a huge fan. Huge.
They're fantastic, but in general, like one of the things
that we've my Co host and I Benzi, what we've fallen in love
with is the goose. I'm so sorry that I didn't get
to meet Benzi today. Yeah, everything's OK.
Hopefully we'll have you on again one day and we can, we can
do it all together. But you know, we, we, with, with
Aleph Beta, but in general, we, we, we really celebrate the, the
Tanakh study that's happening in Israel right now, specifically
the Gush Tanakh method, you know, the focus on, on the
language and intertextuality and chiasms and, and going into the
history and, and, you know, we've had a bunch of episodes on
this topic because if, like you said, if you learn the
fundamentals, you can't Unsee it and, and it changes everything.
So it's something that we really advocate for.
And before we go, I just wanted to ask you, you know.
Wait, I I want to, I want to, I want to comment on what you just
said, but don't, don't forget what you want to ask me.
I was, I was telling you off camera about a friend of mine
who I think you should have on your program at some point.
And he was arguing with somebody that I thought was a total waste
of time. And it was a typical Nakla Oak
type of discussion. OK, I don't know if you've spent
time in Nakla Oak, but it's the area where all the hippies live
in Jerusalem. I always used to say I thought
San Francisco was the weirdest place in the world until I
discovered Nakla Oak. OK, so and we were having this
argument about national burden and this and that and Torah
study. And it was like, you know, this
guy really, you know, he had the yeshiva lingo and he could drop
all this and that, but he didn't have the fundamentals that you
couldn't Unsee. It was exactly what you, you
guys kind of try to get at, which is the dogma of the
yeshiva world that doesn't allow you to, to open your eyes to the
deeper meanings of certain things.
And I, it just what you said just really reminded me of that
and how important it is to have those historical,
archaeological, you know, and anthropological understandings
of the history of the Jewish people and Tanakh.
I mean, it's just like how for years we always considered Mount
Sinai to be in the Sinai Peninsula.
And really it's most likely in Saudi Arabia.
It's things like that, you know, it's, it's a little nuances.
I'm sorry I interrupted you. You.
No. Of course, I just wanted to say
before we go, I wanted to know, I wanted to let our audience
know where they can find you, how they can reach you.
So you you can follow me on Instagram at Adam Scott Bellows
BEBELLOS. We have a you know, I would love
it if all of your listeners would order Israeli wine for the
upcoming high holidays. You can go to wine on
thevine.com to do that. We deliver in the States.
If you order a case of wine, which is 12 bottles, it's free
shipping. You usually order.
If you order it, it gets there within three to four days.
Sometimes, depending on the day that you order, it could be 5.
So I always suggest just ordering your wine a full week
in advance, but it usually only takes three days.
If you'd like to plant a vine and support the Israel
Innovation Fund and help us build, you can do that at
plantivine.org. And you know, we're going to be
launching a large crowdfunding campaign soon for our pilot for
Project Maccabee for the Hebrew language and the self-defense
project. And you could go to I write for
Wynet, and I'm going to be starting a new column with the
Jerusalem Post soon, so you can engage me there.
Just better to WhatsApp me. But you got to get in touch with
me in some way before I hand out my number.
And I always like to say, if you have a problem with me and you
don't have my WhatsApp, then you probably don't know me well
enough to have a problem with me.
That's great. That's great.
All right. Well, I want to thank you so
much for joining. Us.
I just want to say I'm so honored and humbled that you
asked me to come out of your program.
I mean, you've had some Torah giants, some, some, some real
giants on your this podcast. So it's extremely flattering and
and again, humbling to have even been asked to join you.
I hope I did an OK job. I've been very, I've been very
nervous the entire. Time you did an amazing job.
Well, I appreciate that and really all the best of luck to
you with all you're doing it's it's really amazing.
Kazako Baru, keep staying strong and thank.
You. Thank you.
And thank you so much.