Why Ezra Klein keeps embarrassing himself

Playing the role of "journalist" means obeying certain (professional) commandments. So does the role of being a Jew.

This is embarrassing. But he said it here.

Ezra is a smart, articulate guy. He’s well read, knows a lot about public policy, and probably knows a good bit of history, too. But when he says things like “the Jewish state is born of the Holocaust,” many people will hear cause and effect without any context: The Nazis killed six million Jews, so the world, out of pity, granted the Jewish people a nation-state of their own.

The problem is, context matters. A lot. For instance, Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born of the Balfour Declaration.”

Which takes us back to 1917, more than 20 years before the Holocaust:

Lord Balfour makes a promise of his own.

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The text of the declaration was published in the press on November 9, 1917, decades before the Holocaust.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the dream of Theodor Herzl.”

Theodor Herzl published “The Jewish State” in February 1896, long before the Holocaust.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born of the Blackstone Memorial.”

Which takes us back to 1891, more than 50 years before the Holocaust:

William Blackstone

William Eugene Blackstone was an American evangelist, a Christian Zionist, and the author of the Blackstone Memorial (1891), a petition calling upon the United States to actively return the Jewish people to the Holy Land.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the mind of Leon Pinsker.”

Which takes us back to 1882, 60 years before the Holocaust:

Leon Pinsker, a Russian-Jewish physician, had previously advocated for Jewish assimilation but eventually concluded that antisemitism was a deeply ingrained, incurable “psychosis” and that Jews would never be safe without a country of their own. His pamphlet, Auto-Emancipation (1882), was a direct response to the pogroms in Russia in 1881. He argued that the Jewish people needed to emancipate themselves by establishing a national home. His work was instrumental in mobilizing the Hovevei Zion (“Lovers of Zion”) movement, which promoted Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the imagination of Moses Hess.”

Which takes us back to 1862, 80 years before the Holocaust:

Moses Hess

Moses Hess, a German-Jewish philosopher, believed that Jews would never be fully accepted in Europe. In his book, Rome and Jerusalem: A Study In Jewish Nationalism (1862), Hess argued that the solution to “the Jewish question” was a return to Palestine to create a socialist society.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the visions of Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi.”

Which takes us back to the 12th century, 800 years before the Holocaust:

The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith is a philosophical, historical novel written by Rabbi Judah HaLevi in the 12th century. In the story, the king of the Khazars invites representatives of each of the three major religions to come and explain their beliefs. HaLevi’s book is based on the actual conversion to Judaism of Bulan, King of the Khazars, in the early 9th century, and it speaks directly to the centrality of the Holy Land to the Jewish people.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the wisdom of the great sages of the Talmud.”

Which takes us back to between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, roughly 1,600 years before the Holocaust (and hundreds of years after the destruction of the Second Temple):

A passage from the Talmud, a multi-generational written compilation of the oral law.

Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the vision of the Hebrew prophet who was my namesake.”

Which takes us back to around 450 BCE, roughly 2,300 years before the Holocaust:

In 538 BCE, King Cyrus the Great of Persia issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple and city.

Or, Ezra could have said:

“The Jewish state is born from the promise made to Abraham in the Book of Genesis.”

Which takes us back to the beginning of the Jewish Story.

The Danger of Journalism

Describing Israel this way — “born of the Holocaust” — makes a certain degree of sense if you’re a journalist who is expected to stand on the sidelines and report only what you can observe or fact-check.¹ Journalists maintain this editorial distance and (supposed) objectivity by refusing to insert themselves into their stories.

But this is precisely what Judaism demands of Jews: To insert themselves into the Story — Creation » Eden » Flood » Babel » Egypt » Sinai » The Land » Exile… […Right Now…] — by becoming active participants, and to tell this ongoing Story to their children.

Put another way: Jews are called to be observers, narrators, creators, critics, dreamers, and participants in the Greatest Story Ever Told.

Seen through that lens, the Jewish state is not “born of the Holocaust”; it is born from an ancient narrative that teaches us what it means to be a human being… that warns us about the problems that arise when we are completely free… and that points to one available source of light and a destination that might dispel the darkness.

To sum up…

This is what happens when a Jew decides to become a High Priest in the Church of Journalism and stand on the sidelines, where he can narrate stories of his own choosing, appear on the op-ed page of The New York Times, tour the country as a best-selling author, and be the star of his own show.

Ezra’s other option? Be a Jew and stand proudly with your 17 million brothers and sisters who live inside a Story that we inherited but didn’t create — and which will continue long after we’re dead.

Ezra Klein says embarrassing things about Israel because he’s trapped inside The Ezra Klein Show and doesn’t know how to get out.

1. “… if you’re a journalist who is expected to stand on the sidelines and report only what you observe or can fact-check.” This creates a recency bias for journalists. The Holocaust was an actual, documented event (e.g., witnesses, photos, film) that occurred just 80 years ago, so the media can easily reference it again and again. Whereas you hear a lot less about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE. It was one of the most important defeats in Roman history because it stopped the empire’s expansion into northern Europe, but you rarely hear about it because the details are a bit blurry, and it happened 2,000 years ago.