Rabbi Ken Spiro

How did your personal Jewish journey influence your evolution as a historian?
A: I was raised as a Reform Jew, in a typically American non-observant, assimilated household. I went to public schools and Vassar College, where I majored in Russian language and literature. But I didn’t mean to be a historian. I wanted to get into international business and I was accepted into an MBA program. I deferred for a year because I wanted to relax a bit and get fluent in one of the languages I was studying, and chose Russian, which I could read but couldn’t converse in.
My plan was to spend six months in a graduate program at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow and six months on my first visit to Israel, on a kibbutz-ulpan working on my tan. In Russia, it was the bad old days of Communism and it was illegal for a Jew to own a book in Hebrew. I spent time with many young Russian Jews who were willing to risk their lives in order to explore their Jewish heritage. Because of their dedication and courage, I wanted to do something more meaningful. I decided that I wanted to learn more about my heritage. So I went to Israel and checked into Aish HaTorah, an international outreach organization founded in 1975 by Rabbi Noah Weinberg. He was the first person to focus on creating institutions of learning for Jews with little or no Jewish background. I stayed and studied and realized that I didn’t want to get a degree in business when I could impact the world as an educated Jew. I studied fulltime and received smicha [ordination] from Yeshivat Aish HaTorah four years later, and went on to earn a Master’s degree in history from the Vermont College of Norwich University. I also became a licensed tourguide for the Israel Ministry of Tourism.

Give us a preview of your May 25 talk in Greenwich.
A: The focus is basically taking the universal values that everyone in the Western world would like to see – peace, social responsibility, justice and equality, respect for human life, etc. – and showing how all these utopian values, directly and indirectly, come from the Jewish people.
These values are taught through other religions as well, but what distinguishes Judaism early on is the concept of one God, God’s intervention in Egypt, and God’s handing down of the laws on Mount Sinai.
It’s an eye-opener for most people because we tend to equate modern democratic values with the ancient Greeks and Romans. But the truth is, the ancient world was a pretty brutal place. So many Jews – especially young Jews – think that Judaism is irrelevant and meaningless, and has little more to offer the world other than bagels and lox. I want people to see what the British historian Paul Johnson described as “the basic moral furniture of the human mind that Jews have provided to the world.”  I have no religious agenda, but rather want to show how impactful Jewish ideas have been in shaping the modern world.

The late ‘80s saw the emergence of the “New Historians” in Israel, when the government declassified documents pertaining to the 1947-8 War of Independence. How do you see their approach in the context of Israeli history?
A: Benny Morris and the new generation of post-Zionist Israeli academics are far less dedicated to the “My country right or wrong” worldview and are mostly leftwing in their approach. In their writing and lecturing, they talk about the other side of the story of Israel’s founding, focusing on the displacement of the Palestinians.
I see it as revisionist history, an attempt to rewrite the narrative, and these academics can actually be quite hostile to the Zionist worldview and more sympathetic to the concept of “Nakba,” [“catastrophe”], the way Palestinians describe the founding of Israel in 1948.
This extreme left ideology is disproportionately represented in the media but is not indicative of the general population, which is moving to the right. Like Hollywood, which is politically liberal and left-leaning and gets more media attention than other parts of the U.S. – but it’s not a true picture of the U.S., whose majority is more center and right.
In Israel, the people you hear about don’t necessarily present the prevalent position. There is actually a converse relationship: the left gets more hysterical in reaction to the direction the country is moving, politically and religiously. People are coming back to Judaism, coupled with the fact that the average ultra-Orthodox birthrate is slightly over eight children per family, versus an average three children per secular family. The Dati Leumi [National Religious] birthrate is lower than the ultra-Orthodox but higher than the secular. There is a move back to the religion, especially among Sephardic Jews, who are extremely traditional – to a level that is not paralleled in the U.S. A huge chunk of the Israeli population is Sephardic, who keep kosher, observe all the holidays; the women go to the mikvah every month. They’ll have a traditional Friday-night meal and then watch a soccer game.
The left is hysterically recognizing that they’re fighting a losing battle.
Much of the center and left populations are recognizing the failure of the peace process and the increase in terrorism and rocket attacks, and have given up on the notion, sadly, of peaceful coexistence. As a result, many have moved toward the right – including Benny Morris himself, as I understand.

Rabbi Ken Spiro comes to Fairfield County:
“What Would the World Be Like without the Jewish People?” Wednesday, May 25, 7 p.m., Greenwich Reform Synagogue, 257 Stanwich Road, Greenwich | Info: Laura Blum, laurablum@jccgreenwich.org / (203) 552-1818 www.jccgreenwich.org/
Aish Connections’ “One Shabbat” Memorial Day Weekend Shabbaton Program: Friday-Sunday, May 27-29, Stamford Plaza Hotel, Stamford | Info: www.oneshabbat.org
For more info on Rabbi Ken Spiro and his work: www.kenspiro.com