Bill Moyers' death, my recovery and why setting back a nuclear Iran must not be allowed to set back democracy here.

Virulence requires vigilance, as we are engaged in both a marathon AND a sprint. Introducing the Hammerman Doctrine: Never give Trump credit, even when he may deserve it.

1. Bill Moyers, a great journalist and profound religious thinker, who died this week, was a role model for me in how he synthesized those two roles. I devoured his interviews with Joseph Campbell on The Power of Myth and I walked with him through the 20th century. And his 10-part PBS series and companion book, Genesis: A Living Conversation, provided the template for my own interfaith conversations in the public square. The fact that Moyers’ death came on the same week when Congress voted to defund PBS is a profoundly cruel irony.

Bill Moyers said this:

2. I received some good personal news this week. For the first time since my malignant prostate was removed three months ago, I took a PSA blood test and the cancer was found in such minute amounts as to be officially designated “undetectable.”

That truly is an enormous relief and the best possible baseline for future testing. For me, surgery was the right option, because the kind of cancer I had was particularly virulent.

But one thing I’ve learned is that “undetectable” does not mean “gone” and virulence requires vigilance. I once had a dog who died of testicular cancer - thirteen years after he had his testicles removed. A few cells remained in his body after his neutering, only to become cancerous and metastasize many years later. A real head-scratcher.

3. It’s important to understand that virulence requires vigilance on the political front too. The malignancy in our society known as Trumpism, which could not be completely removed by a few positive election results in 2018 and 2020, will certainly not be removed with a few off-year elections and large rallies in 2025. Even when the marches are unprecedented in size and scope.

The protests helped and they are necessary, but we are discovering that this race is both a marathon and a sprint.

4. I’m in the midst of reading an excellent and highly-praised new book, Melting Point, by Rachel Cockerell, which traces the Jewish journey through the 20th century through generations of the author’s family. Cockerell accomplishes this by brilliantly weaving together primary sources: letters, news clippings and first-person recollections, lending a sense of immediacy and intimacy to the project.

I was struck by one brief section which, although tangential to the book, sheds light on the consequential moment we’re living through right now. It brings us back to that pivotal year in the consolidation of dictatorial power, 1933. The common assumption is that when Hitler grabbed the reins of Germany, world Jewry was not up to the task of reading the tea leaves and challenging his agenda in any organized manner. We often bemoan that “if only Jews (especially American Jews) back then felt as secure as they do now, their protests would have been deafening and maybe they could have snuffed out Hitlerism in its infancy.”¹

It turns out that the protests during that first half year of Hitler’s rule were every bit as loud and organized as those opposing Trump have been this year.

The book highlights (in chapter 36) one day in July of 1933, when Jews rallied in tremendous numbers and with surprising boldness on the streets of London. The Jewish Chronicle reported that the procession extended a mile and a half, marching four abreast, “including many women” and several octogenarian rabbis. The parade took three hours to pass and the normally reserved British onlookers “were profoundly impressed” and cheered loudly not only at the parade, but later on in movie theaters when highlights were played. Here’s the clip, minus the soundtrack.

An impressed Gentile spectator at the march remarked, “Hitler’s ears should be burning.”

A look at the New York Times from the next day shows that world Jewry was fully galvanized to fight the Nazis, just a few months after Hitler had taken power. (When they were calling Hitler’s power grabs “atrocities” and “inhuman acts,” they had no idea what was in store.)

That July 21 edition of the Times included articles about the London march, as well as meetings in Amsterdam promoting a mass boycott of German goods and coverage of anti-Nazi speeches around the world - even in Berlin - by notable Jews and others.

The above article tells us that “20,000 London Jews marched in the broiling heat in a mass protest against Nazi persecutions of their brethren in Germany.” They were boisterous and bold, carrying banners saying, “Make German goods untouchable” and they unveiled a “hair-raising effigy of Herr Hitler as the giant ape King Kong.”

Interestingly, as you can see below, West End Jews were more reticent than their East End neighbors, fearing that raising a ruckus would only “cause worse trouble for the Jews of Germany.”

Were they right? Well, their reticence reflects the cowardice expressed by some major Jewish organizations today in the face of Trump’s bullying tactics. But the 1933 protests may not have mattered.

Here’s another story that appeared on the same day - the Germans anticipated all the rallies and boycotts taking place to their west and responding with a big Teutonic middle finger.

“Raids on small shopkeepers…,” “300 rounded up…,” “4,000 placed in a concentration camp…” If you just replace the word “Nuremberg” with “Los Angeles,” well, you get the idea.

The attack on Jews in Nuremberg happened on the same day, appearing in the same edition of the same newspaper.

5. And that July date was in no way unique. Several weeks before, on March 27, a national day of protest occurred in the U.S., with an anti-Nazi boycott and a massive rally in Madison Square Garden. There was an overflow crowd of 55,000 packing and surrounding the arena and parallel events were held in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia and 70 other locations, with the New York event broadcast worldwide. Sounds much like the rallies we’ve had here in recent weeks.

When American Jewish leaders debated the wisdom of such bold protests, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise argued:

"The time for prudence and caution is past. We must speak up like men. How can we ask our Christian friends to lift their voices in protest against the wrongs suffered by Jews if we keep silent? … What is happening in Germany today may happen tomorrow in any other land on earth unless it is challenged and rebuked. It is not the German Jews who are being attacked. It is the Jews."

Bill Moyers could not have put it better. Wise characterized the boycott as a moral imperative, stating, "We must speak out," and that "if that is unavailing, at least we shall have spoken."² The group voted to go ahead with the meeting at Madison Square Garden. This was on the front page of the Times on March 28:

Another major rally took place in New York on May 10 to protest book burnings in Berlin.

On the day of book burnings in Germany, massive crowds march from New York's Madison Square Garden to protest Nazi oppression and anti-Jewish persecution. New York City, United States, May 10, 1933, (USHMM)

You can see that back in 1933, Jews were not powerless, in America and elsewhere. The international pressure might have helped at that early stage as Hitler began to consolidate his power, but not for long.

Things got hairier as the decade advanced, with fascism more entrenched, both in Germany and in America too, as well as far-flung places like Italy, Spain and Japan, and Stalinism in the Soviet Union. Once “America First” hit its stride and antisemitism increased, Jews became less visible and less audible.

But when American Nazis took over Madison Square Garden in 1939, between 10,000 and 100,000 protested outside and one fearless protesting Jew, Isadore Greenbaum, even came inside the arena and was beaten and subdued by Nazi stormtroopers on the stage.

Kristallnacht in 1938 shocked the world, but by then the protesters’ energy was spent and the world reaction was insufficient to dissuade Hitler from his diabolical aims. In a meeting five days after Kristallnacht, Hitler said, “We can do whatever we want with the Jews, because the world doesn’t care.”

By the time trains were chugging their way to death camps, powerlessness seemed pervasive. There were notable exceptions, as Jews like Rabbi Wise struggled to enable Jewish emigration to Palestine during the mid-‘30s despite severe restrictions. And in 1943, stepping into the vacuum left by mainstream Jewish leaders, a maverick activist group called the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe pressured Washington to rescue Jews from destruction.

But it is also safe to say that by the time the Holocaust turned deadliest, Jews’ energy had waned - and Hitler was too strong.

Right now we need to remember the need to oppose 21st century American fascism as if every battle is the most important one - while simultaneously understanding that there will be many more battles to come.

It is a marathon AND a sprint.

So, about Iran and Israel…

6. I am alternately overjoyed, outraged and exasperated at the events taking place in Israel, Iran, Gaza and, to use the President’s terminology, the “f**king” front lawn of the White House last week. With no definite assessment yet available, I do believe massive damage was done to Iran’s nuclear program, simply because Israel has carried off so many complex operations this past year and this is precisely the type of operation that is in their “boots-in-the-air” wheelhouse. The attacks on the Iranian nuclear program had to at least set it back substantially, and the world is safer for that. It is also much safer with the likes of Nasrallah, the Sinwars, Assad and many Iranian military and nuclear leaders departed from the scene.

7. But the news from Gaza and the West Bank has been much more depressing, and enraging.

Dahlia Scheindlin (There Is Only One Way to End the Gaza War and Prevent Future Bloodbaths, Ha’aretz) who feels the same frustration I - and many long-time supporters of Israel are feeling - wrote on Thursday:

To be clear, ending Israel's war of destruction in Gaza is the most urgent priority for every single person in the region. The mass killing has accelerated to an unfathomable rate of dozens to nearly 100 Palestinians every day in recent weeks – often as they arrive at aid distribution centers desperate for food. No human being of conscience should tolerate this, and the hostages Hamas is holding, which is a war crime, should never have justified the bloodbath against civilians. Netanyahu should therefore marshal his Iran-fueled momentum to end this war, as both he and Hamas have refused up to now. Neither history nor humanity should forgive either of them.

Leave it to Israel to have perhaps its most redemptive military triumph since 1967 and demonstration of civilian resilience perhaps ever, at the same time as its greatest moment of shame³ - all coming in the wake of its most catastrophic intelligence failure, on October 7.

There is a place where pride and hubris intersect. One is pure, the other is tainted, one brings life and the other devastation. Israel is a study in the fusion of pride and hubris. The pride is admirable and unsurpassed. The hubris is not.

8. Donald Trump is pure hubris. There was nothing courageous or deliberative about his involvement in the Iran campaign. I do believe the right thing was done - even my battery-challenged watch gets the time right twice a day - but given his lack of experienced advisors and seeming mental deficiencies, which came into focus with his expletive-charged temper tantrum on the White House lawn, we are damn lucky the world didn’t blow up last week. And his lust to take credit goes beyond laughable. If he gets the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel’s family should call it a day and go back into the dynamite business.

But as I explained back when Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem, while his Israel policies may be helpful at times, his motives are never for the benefit of Israel or the Jewish people. He moved the embassy to Jerusalem to appease evangelicals, not Jews, on the eve of a special election in Alabama (which his candidate lost). His reckless behavior has alienated allies and encouraged adversaries. And in supporting anti-democratic forces in Israel, including his indefensible, doubled down broadside this week against the rule of law and the Prime Minister’s trial, he is doing the Jewish people no favors.

9. But here’s the main point of today’s essay - I’ll call it the Hammerman Doctrine:

   I will never give Donald Trump credit for anything - even acts that prove to be for the betterment of humankind - because his ultimate goal is to end American liberal democracy, which would be disastrous for America and the world. Trumpism is a virulent autocratic agenda and the only way to defeat it is through complete vigilance, all day, every day.

So I refuse to fall in line with many of my Israel-supporting coreligionists and give Trump an ounce of gratitude for bombing the Iranian reactors, even if the result was a positive one for the security of Israel, America and the world. I believe that if Jews (and others) want a better world, a safer Israel and a more just and compassionate America, there is no choice but to set aside all other considerations and get right back out there and protest, full-time.

• In case you need a refresher as to why, check out Congressman Steve Cohen’s rolling list Tracking the Trump Administration’s Harmful Executive Actions and the NYT list tracking All of the Trump Administration’s Major Moves in the First 100 Days. He’s already caused inestimable damage, and he’s just getting started with the decimation of Medicaid, universities, the rule of law and civil rights⁴ . Memories can be fuzzy when the zone is constantly being flooded. But we can’t let that flooded zone become a Zone of Indifference.

An upcoming day of protest is on July 17 (July 4 too), in memory of John Lewis and his “Good Trouble.” Let’s get out there and march and chant and let them hear us everywhere from the White House to the reticent West End Jews of London, to wherever the Supreme Leader is squatting in his foxhole.

In the words of Frederick Douglass - words I found in a 2017 Bill Moyers essay on democracy:

“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”

Bill Moyers should be proud - and Hitler’s ears should be burning.

1. Snuffing out good old “Baby Hitler.” Read and hear my sermon cycle on that classic moral dilemma: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

2. American Jewish Historical Society account of “The Anti-Nazi Boycott of 1933”

3. Ha’aretz’s expose, giving soldiers’ testimony on recent activities in Gaza, is, if verified, shameful and simply cannot be ignored. See the rest of the article, along with soldiers’ testimonies - and read reaction from the IDF: Israeli Army Says 'Lessons Learned' From Army Fire Incidents on Gaza Aid-seekers After Haaretz Exposé. For all who love Israel, this story is heartbreaking, which is why we can’t avert our eyes. See an updated podcast report by Haviv Rettig Gur giving more perspective.

4. I recall the Boston Globe’s prescient mock front page printed as a warning several months before Trump’s first election (dated for a few months after he would be sworn in), and how unthinkable it all seemed back then. Today we look at those headlines and call it “Tuesday.”