AD Cohen

Essays.

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

Thanks so much to @Howard_Lovy at JUDITH MAGAZINE for publishing my essay about Deni Avdija, Jewish sports heroes, and Blazers Fandom.
https://t.co/Ve5iWpZ8Lg
#RipCity #DeniAvdija

[Orli Peter @orlipeter]

Genocide. Mass starvation. Israel bombed Al Ahli Hospital and killed 500 people.

The list of ever-more-creative libels against Israel seems endless.

Some have been decisively disproved. Others continue to be asserted despite a lack of credible supporting evidence. Yet they continue to spread.

Why?

Because many of the most egregious libels against Israel aren't spread because they're true. They're spread because repeating them is psychologically rewarding. It gives ordinary people an intoxicating sense of moral righteousness. In doing so, they become what I call moral superspreaders—one element of a broader psychological model I'll be presenting next month at the Contemporary Antisemitism Conference at the University of Haifa on how modern propaganda hijacks the human brain.

Heretic Coffee's recent decision to publicly tear up a grant from the Jewish Federation illustrates this almost perfectly.

They declared they would rather go out of business with a "clear conscience" than accept funding from a Jewish organization because of its support for Israel. Think about that for a moment.

By their own account, they were willing to reduce the resources available for their humanitarian mission rather than be publicly associated with that donor. In other words, they chose moral identity over humanitarian impact. The feeling of moral righteousness became more important than feeding more hungry people.

A fascinating recent study (linked below) helps explain why. Researchers found that people who are highly invested in seeing themselves as moral are also more likely to judge others by harsher standards than they judge themselves.

This is exactly what Hamas's remarkably successful propaganda campaign exploits.

One of the oldest propaganda tactics is simple: If you've committed atrocities, accuse your enemy of something even worse.

The larger the accusation against Israel, the less mental space remains for Hamas's documented atrocities. Attention shifts away from the perpetrator and onto the accused.

At the same time, the people repeating those accusations receive a psychological reward. They experience themselves as standing against history's greatest evil. That feeling is emotionally gratifying. It makes the accusation far more likely to be repeated.

That's how ordinary people become moral superspreaders. They don't merely spread propaganda. They spread it because doing so reinforces who they believe themselves to be.

Propaganda doesn't spread because it's persuasive. It spreads because it's psychologically rewarding.

Its greatest success isn't convincing people to believe a lie.

It's making them feel like better people for repeating it.

[Uri Kurlianchik @VerminusM]

Eric Hoffer wrote this article about the Jewish state in 1968. Amazing how nothing changed since.

"The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break of diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us."

[Sports Rabbi @thesportsrabbi]

Deni Avdija about his fans in Israel🇮🇱👏

“You know, I play for myself to enjoy my career and enjoy basketball, because that is why I started playing and it is what I love to do.

But to carry an entire nation behind you during challenging times, during wars, during moments when people are looking for an escape or something to look at to improve their mood... I am happy that I am sometimes able to provide that.

I hope to keep doing this for many, many more years, and maybe one day, we will get a ring”

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

https://t.co/NoJkywlL6O

[Sports Rabbi @thesportsrabbi]

Deni Avdija with a message to his fans🇮🇱

“In challenging times like these, far from home, you make me emotional every time. I love you, happy holiday 💙 And may we know better days”

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

@thesportsrabbi https://t.co/rVvSQkfMCt

[Creative Community for Peace @CCFPeace]

At a time when much of the artistic community feels like it has turned its back on the Jewish people, it matters to see a loud and proud Israeli Jew succeeding on the world stage.

Deni Avdija’s success isn’t just personal, it’s symbolic. And it’s only the beginning.

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

@CCFPeace https://t.co/rVvSQkfMCt

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

@CCFPeace https://t.co/rVvSQkfMCt

[Eve Barlow @Eve_Barlow]

Antizionism has been responsible for more attempts at murdering Jews in the last ten years than Antisemitism. If we’re to accept that Antizionism is not antisemitism, it’s important to establish this fact.

[Howard Lovy @Howard_Lovy]

More 5-Star reviews for my novel: "An intense love story about an unlikely couple bound, and forever tied together by the strings of their musical instruments. Lovy beautifully illustrates the powerful bond for which only music can create." https://t.co/iHfcch5aWm

[Howard Lovy @Howard_Lovy]

Today in Judith Magazine, where I'm nonfiction editor: Watching Deni. I grew up on stories about famous Jewish athletes. Being from Detroit, I heard plenty about Hank Greenberg and how he refused to play in a pennant race on Yom Kippur. I’ll admit my knowledge of Jewish sports heroes doesn’t go much beyond that era. Andrew Cohen brings us up to date, reminding us that today’s Jewish athletes can inspire pride—and, at times, something closer to worry. https://t.co/KhVHjBSsEx

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

@cheekysecrets0 @Osint613 @grok is this confirmed?

[Portland Trail Blazers @trailblazers]

From Portland to LA 🌟

[Adam Louis-Klein @adam_louis52328]

Antisemitism and antizionism are a kind of division of labor through which society distributes anti-Jewish hatred between the Right and the Left, sustaining cultural meaning by using Jews as a scapegoat and as a language of generalized accusation for sorting through social and civilizational problems and crises.

[נדב איל Nadav Eyal @Nadav_Eyal]

Can you hear those thousands of voices, shouting in the streets and on campuses, ‘from the Gulf to the sea: Persia will be free’?

The marches of impressive solidarity with a people striving for liberty?

What about the voices of demonstrators in the West reminding the world of the mass executions, the systematic discrimination, the brutal oppression of women, the state murder of gay people, the annihilation of minority communities; the torture; the country turned into a brutal theocracy- The Handmaid’s Tale in real life?

Can you hear the solidarity with the Iran uprising? The outrage?

I hear nothing.
https://t.co/pDOn69li11

[AD Cohen @acohenwrites]

Great article about Deni Avdija, his Israeli roots, and his journey towards an all star appearance. https://t.co/uOPmpVhf5n @TPS_News_co_il @trailblazers @avdijaszn #deniavdija #NBA #allstars #Trailblazers #israel #Jewish

[Adam Louis-Klein @adam_louis52328]

https://t.co/oRG6q9ptu2