COMMENTARY
The Know-Nothing Excommunicators
by Seth Mandel
November 2018

Perhaps we should call it “Spinoza’s Revenge.” In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish leaders pronounced a cherem—excommunication—on Baruch Spinoza, the Jewish philosopher who contested the Torah’s divine provenance. Spinoza became the founding father of secular Jewry on the eve of the Enlightenment. In a twist, the drive to excommunicate dissenters is now led by many who would consider themselves Spinoza’s heirs. From the pens and pulpits of the American Jewish left come the writs of cherem for those with unacceptable political opinions. This wave of McCarthyism didn’t start with the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, but that is where we shall begin. READ MORE