וְעָנִ֨יתָ וְאָמַרְתָּ֜ לִפְנֵ֣י ׀ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָ אֲרַמִּי֙ אֹבֵ֣ד אָבִ֔י וַיֵּ֣רֶד מִצְרַ֔יְמָה וַיָּ֥גׇר שָׁ֖ם בִּמְתֵ֣י מְעָ֑ט וַֽיְהִי־שָׁ֕ם לְג֥וֹי גָּד֖וֹל עָצ֥וּם וָרָֽב׃
You shall then recite as follows before the LORD your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation.
Because of the dramatic increase in antisemitism lately, many Jews—particularly young people—are reticent to identify publicly as Jews. Stars of David get tucked in or taken off, Israel-themed t-shirts are folded away, and kippot are covered with a baseball cap. Sometimes, this is a wise decision. I would not recommend identifying oneself as a Jew on the streets of any European city.
But here in America, most of us can still publicly declare our allegiance to Am Yisrael without fear. For the moment, we can still be loud and proud about our Jewish identity without fear of violence. (There are tragic exceptions, such as the firebomb attack in Colorado.)
Back in the days of the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem, the festival of the first fruits required one to declare one’s Jewish identity by reciting a very brief summary of Jewish history as it stood at the time:
You shall then recite as follows before the LORD your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. The LORD freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deut. 26:5-9)
According to Bekhor Shor (bio), this declaration had to be made in a loud voice:
YOU SHALL THEN RECITE: in a loud voice, as in Deut. 27:14, [where the Torah says, “The Levites shall then proclaim in a loud voice to all the people of Israel”] because this was a praise of the the Holy Blessed One. But the declaration of the ma’aser tithe (Deut. 26:13) was spoken in a low voice because the person saying it was praising himself, as Scripture says: “I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandments.”
We learn from this that one must not shy away from openly declaring one’s Jewish identity. As for our personal accomplishments, Jewish or not, those should be said quietly out of modesty and not announced to everybody.
Our mission as American Jews must be to thwart the plans of those who would force us to be quiet about being Jews. We will never accept second-class citizenship. We must refuse to allow this country to follow the example of Spain, France, England, and other countries where our brethren are afraid to declare their ethnic heritage.
Doing that is going to require us to speak loudly. We may get dirty looks. We may lose friends who were not real friends to begin with. We may even hurt a few feelings along the way. None of that matters. Nobody allows us to live as proud Jews. That is our inalienable right, and it is a right that we must take rather than request.
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