Were I a sociologist, I would suggest that the spell that Jeremy Ben-Ami’s J Street has on its deluded followers in the 21st century reminds one of the spell Shabbatai Zvi’s false messianism had on his witless followers in the 17th century.
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the Noel Airman for the Marjorie Morningstars of our time.
J Street is a bystander to the mega ethical issues of our time. J Street lacks moral compass, moral clarity and moral coherence. Its so called progressive posture amplifies the malaise and intellectual shallowness now endemic in the so called liberal body politic–especially in all too many left-wing Jewish Americans: Values Are Declared but not Acted Upon. To the degree that this malaise and intellectual shallowness is so pervasive in Jewish youth, it poses an existential danger to American Jewry.