Many of Marci Shore’s observations about the power of words, particularly how language can infect public discourse and mislead societies, are brilliant. She is especially perceptive in describing how polities conform and bend to government power. Her observations draw on personal experience and decades of academic research into the archives of Poland under the USSR totalitarian regime.
I am basing my comments on Marci Shore’s recent appearance on CBC Radio One’s Ideas program, How New Fascism Operates. In this episode, Shore considers the Communist and post-Communist worlds and compares it to the current political climate in the United States, during the Trump era seeing both as similarly fascist. Shore left Yale University after 19 years and began teaching at the University of Toronto in 2025. She acknowledges the feminist dictum of the 60’s, “The personal is political”.
I come to these questions from my own personal and political perspective.
I am a postwar, Hungarian-born Jew who grew up in Montreal, spent 30 years of my adult life living and working in New York, while also living in Israel from 1965 to 1969 while attending Hebrew University and traveling back and forth between Jerusalem and Montreal since 1995.
What I believe is missing from Professor Shore’s view of the current Trump era is a Jewish sensibility, an awareness of the Jewish canon and of the way history continues to shape both the United States of America and the modern State of Israel, its people and its politics. I find this a significant omission.
Christianity and Islam have, at different points in history, each laid claim to the inheritance of biblical Israel, but it is the Jewish people who have nurtured and maintained that tradition through a rigorous attachment to the study of their canonical texts, Jewish traditions, the Hebrew language and their connection to the Land of Israel for more than 2,000 years.
I recently had the privilege of viewing the intact Isaiah Scroll discovered in Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and now for a short time on exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Remarkably, this parchment scroll, dated 2300 years old, hews closely to the traditional text accepted by our tradition.
A clear biblical influence can be traced in American political thought. “In God We Trust” appears on the U.S. dollar bill. The language of inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence, and the protections later enshrined in the Bill of Rights, reflect ideas about human dignity that are deeply rooted in the Jewish biblical tradition, particularly the idea that human beings are all created in the image of God and therefore all possess inherent dignity and inalienable rights, the bedrock of Western democracy.
The modern State of Israel is a remarkable expression of that ideological continuity and is what energizes public discourse in Israel. Public life in Israel is steeped in the understanding that Israel and the Jewish People share a cultural heritage that continues to be expressed through the Israek educational system, the Israeli army and the Israeli government. The weekly Israel State holidays such as Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, celebrated by the Jewish People worldwide and the modern State of Israel all have their roots in the Torah, the Five Books of Moses.
One of the remarkable features of the modern State of Israel is the continuing power of Jewish texts and traditions in everyday life. The Five Books of Moses, the Prophets and the Writings, as well as the Mishnah and Talmud, remain living texts. They continue to be studied by young and old in schools, seminaries, homes and study groups, both in person and online.
This is not simply a matter of religious observance. These texts, along with the tradition of questioning, studying and debating our sources and traditions, continue to influence Israeli culture and public life. I believe this intellectual inheritance is one source of Israel’s extraordinary achievements in so many areas of human endeavour
I am especially aware of this as I am spending this year’s High Holiday period, pre-Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to the last day of Sukkot in the land of Israel. This period is a time when Jewish tradition asks us to reflect on our past, both personal and communal, while also contemplating our personal and collective futures.
However the Jewish canon addresses not only Israel, but all of humanity. A beautiful example of this could be heard in synagogues around the world only a few weeks ago. On August 29, 2026, the haftarah for Parashat Ki Tavo, the Sabbath synagogue reading from the Prophets, was Isaiah 60:1–22, the sixth of the seven haftarot of consolation.
Rabbi Maury Kelman of Or Chadash Synagogue in his synagogue newsletter described it this way:
“The sixth of the seven Haftarot of consolation soars with hope as the prophet Yeshayahu/Isaiah depicts the Jewish people returning to Jerusalem, followed by the nations of the world who will bring their wealth and unique goods to the Jewish people. These nations shall recognize the grievous sins of the past, in rejecting and attacking us, and pay homage to God and the Jewish people.
“The Haftarah finishes on a beautiful note, with Hashem’s tangible presence manifest throughout the world: ‘You shall not need the sun for light nor the moon’s brightness to illuminate you; rather God shall be an eternal light for you, and the Lord shall be your glory … for God shall be for you an eternal light, and the days of your mourning shall end.’”
For me, this is what needs to be added to any discussion of truth, political power and the forces that shape our respective societies. We cannot understand our current world without also understanding Israel and the Jewish texts and traditions that have influenced world civilization and continue to influence many people worldwide. As I was leaving the Israel Museum, I met three Christian women from Singapore who are visiting Israel to participate in the annual gathering of the nations in Jerusalem to celebrate with the Jews the ancient last day of Sukkot in Jerusalem, a day that has been traditionally dedicated to the igathering of all nations in Jerusalem. They are members of the ICEJ, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem who sponsors these visits every year.
The biblical heritage of Israel is not merely a record of an ancient past but remains part of a very lively present reality.
Addendum:
During this period I have participated in many classes given before or after services and during the intervening days and also have picked up many of the weekly and monthly publications that are available to all for free as hard copies in many places and on line.
Here is a list of those publications available online
Torah Tidbits https://www.torahtidbits.com/
The Kiddush Times https://kiddushtimes.com/
Jewish Action https://jewishaction.com/cover-story/celebrating-250-years-of-america-the-orthodox-jewish-experience/
HaMizrachi https://mizrachi.org/hamizrachi/
and there are others in Hebrew, in French and in Russian, all available on line and as hard copies.available in stores and in many synagogues.