The Shanda of an Anti-Jewish ‘Rabbi’

Throughout Jewish history, there have always been Jews who sided with the enemies of their own people.

In the Middle Ages, some Jews converted and collaborated with the Church to persecute Jews, for example, Nicholas Donin and Pablo Christiani.

In the Soviet Union, Jewish communists – often spearheaded by the Yevsektsiya – eagerly helped dismantle Jewish religious and communal life in the name of ideological purity.

During the darkest years of European antisemitism, there were always a few Jews willing to provide cover for those who hated Jews, the convenient “good Jew” who reassured the mob that its hatred was justified.

Jewish history has a word for such people: shanda. A disgrace.

Canada has its own modern example: David Mivasair.