TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Should Jews Leave America: the start of the story
Date: 08/28/26 Length: 00:31:18
Daniel Lapin 0:01
Welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin Show, where we, your rabbi and his wife, reveal how the world really works. And what's special about today's show is not just that Susan and I are appearing together, but this is really an introduction. What we're going to be telling you about today is how and why we created the series that you will be watching over the next several weeks. It's a series based on the idea of is a time for Jews to leave America, a shocking notion, one we certainly wouldn't have thought of, or even dreamed of, when we started in this field 30 and 35 years ago. No, things have really changed, and it's the change we want to talk about, not only from a perspective of the peril it places American Jews in, but to the extent that peril is reflective of a bigger and more vast problem, this is a little bit like the person waking up after a major earthquake and thinking that his main problem is that the bookcase in the living room tumbled over, and he doesn't realize there was an earthquake during the night. He just thinks that for some unknown reason the bookcase tumbled over. But the reality is that outside there are fires, there are freeway overpasses that have collapsed, there are water mains that have broken, there are gas mains that have broken. There's a lot going on out there, but in his house, he's just looking at the mess in his living room of everything falling out of the bookcase. That's how we view.
Susan Lapin 1:50
That's a great analogy because we are very much seeing a United States of America in peril in a way that we don't think enough Americans are realizing yet, and one of the symptoms is the increase in Jew hatred. And just if we can take a minute or two to really establish our credentials, with you said that already that we it would be hard put to find sometime over the last 30 years where we spoke about anti-Semitism. We never
Daniel Lapin 2:17
never did.
Susan Lapin 2:18
In fact, your first book, America's Real War, which with the ridiculously long subtitle, an Orthodox rabbi insists that Judeo-Christian values are vital for our nation's survival. We spoke, and I think we coined this term of about anti-Christianism. We were very concerned that ridicule of Christians and putting down Christians and treating them as a dangerous demographic was becoming popular in the culture.
Daniel Lapin 2:46
You can't make fun of racial groups. You can't make fun of Muslims. You can't make fun of anybody. By that point,
Susan Lapin 2:54
you could not make fun of Jews, and certainly
Daniel Lapin 2:56
not of Jews. At
Susan Lapin 2:57
that point, Muslims weren't an issue. There was no one was talking about Muslims at that time,
Daniel Lapin 3:01
yeah. But the mockery in public entertainment, public policy, and entertainment was primarily exactly so we that was
Susan Lapin 3:08
we were focused on that. We were focused on calling it out and also calling on the Jewish community. Hey, you need to stand up for the Christians in America who have been so good to you, and so this is a very big change. We're not even comfortable.
Daniel Lapin 3:24
Members of the Senate and the Supreme Court
Susan Lapin 3:26
Jewish businesses-they were all
Daniel Lapin 3:27
disproportion. In other words, Jews were disproportionately represented in American life. If and you wanted to attack anti-Semitism as a problem, like what would you like those numbers to be?
Susan Lapin 3:39
It's not that there are no prejudices, but they were much more in line with the prejudice that was against Chinese when they came and the Irish when they came, and whenever a new nationality showed up, the prejudice against Jews was much more the general prejudices that come against anyone different.
Daniel Lapin 3:56
What has changed?
Susan Lapin 3:57
So what has changed? What has changed is that, and I'm not even that comfortable using the term anti-Semitism. I'd rather use the term Jew hatred, though we'll use them interchangeably on college campuses and on a younger generation. The hatred of Jews and the lies, many lies, many half truths, many lies that are being told, and the vitriol that's coming out, we're seeing it coming out of college campuses. But it's also as these people are now becoming, you know, replacement the replacement generation. You have politicians such as the mayor of New York and politicians and who running now for the election that's upcoming, who are extremely open? They say, "Oh, we love Jews. We hate Israel. We're not going to go into that now, but that is really an easily rebutted. This is absolute Jew hatred going on. And the other thing, and this I think scares us even more than seeing it from the left, because from the left we've been seeing hatred, hatred of men. First, they hate. They hate men. They hate whites. They had there's so much hatred on the left. But what really is disturbing us is that there is beginning to be a hatred of Jews and Judaism coming from the church community in America. There's a far right all of a sudden, which is full of hatred, and we're even beginning to see people talking in the name and as Christians, they're saying, "I'm speaking for my faith. We don't think this is widely spread yet, but we want to talk before it gets widely spread. By the time something gets widely spread, like it is in the left in the Democratic Party, it's a little too late. So we want to call this out and make people aware of it now.
Daniel Lapin 5:42
And so, the people that we have brought into the series and who you'll be seeing in coming weeks are people who have insights and understandings and facts about some of these manifestations of Jew hatred that we have been trying to understand and get to the bottom of. I don't know if we actually said
Susan Lapin 6:04
this is going to be a series. It's a series of interviews. We have weeks of interviewing various people, Christians, historians, Jews, and people who come from the Muslim community and are calling out the community in which they lived or in which they grew up.
Daniel Lapin 6:19
So the fact is that Jews have always been aware that our history is filled with examples of being expelled, being thrown out of different countries,
Susan Lapin 6:32
being persecuted,
Daniel Lapin 6:33
persecuted, and persecuted to the point of expulsion and an actual real expulsion. We're all aware of it. I'll tell you something else that's interesting about Jews, and in this, it's again something different. With Jews, it's very common that when children are born, they get them a passport fairly quickly. You know, why does a three-year-old or a two-year-old or a month-old? Why do we see six-month-old
Susan Lapin 6:59
kids had passports as infants, not because we were planning to go anywhere, because that somehow
Daniel Lapin 7:04
built into you
Susan Lapin 7:06
have to be ready to run.
Daniel Lapin 7:07
It's the communal memory. You never know when you're going to have to run, and I also mentioned that when cryptocurrency came out, Bitcoin and others, many people in the Jewish community, oh great, this is this is like diamonds were to our parents and grandparents and great from medieval times. You know, having some movable money that you can sew into your clothes and take with you when you got to run it. How neat is this? You can carry you know cryptocurrency without having anything. That's kind of how Jews think,
Susan Lapin 7:39
and it's just historically it's part of people's families. Whether you grew up in a Muslim country, we actually are going to we interview somebody whose grandparents were forced to flee Iraq. So whether you grew up in a Muslim country or in Christian Europe, this was just a regular thing, and you we can find it in the every century some country that Jews had to flee, or like in Germany where they ended up just being murdered, or in the USSR where they ended up being.
Daniel Lapin 8:06
Everybody knows that part of the reason Jews, so many Jews were murdered, is that there were countries. You know, Hitler took great delight in saying to countries of the world, "Well, we don't want them. Go ahead, you take them. And guess what? It wasn't so easy. Countries were not willing to accept Jewish refugees from Europe. And 1948 arrives the state of Israel. Everything changes. All of a sudden, there actually is a place to run to, and that's one of the founding principles of the state of Israel, called the law of return. A Jew can always come there.
Susan Lapin 8:40
And I don't think people realize so. Our series is not should Jews move to Israel. That's not what the series is. It so happens that since 1948, thank God there is a place we can run to should there be a need. But that's not the question. Our question is what is happening to the United States of America, and is it becoming a place that is going to be dangerous to live in for our grandchildren, and quite frankly, our you'll hear as we go through the series. Our thesis is if it's dangerous for our grandchildren, it's going to be dangerous for your grandchildren as well, even if you're not. And
Daniel Lapin 9:11
that's what we're you know worth. It's the earthquake scenario.
Susan Lapin 9:15
And I just want to give an example. No, before you give an example,
Daniel Lapin 9:18
we want to thank. Oh
Susan Lapin 9:20
yes, thank you. Please do. We this series was it's been taking a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of participation from various people, and so we asked for help, and it cost a lot of money. We asked for help, and nine couples stepped forward. We asked for eight, but nine stepped at the same time. The ninth came at the same time, so we have nine couples who offer to underwrite the costs and support us in this endeavor. Four of them want to remain anonymous, but five of them we're grateful are giving us the privilege of thanking them publicly.
Daniel Lapin 9:55
And as you've often pointed out, so many of the people who read our work and are part of our work have become friends, people we feel very attached to, and these it's five couples who didn't mind us mentioning their names. First of all, Renat and Veda Bugat, who a lovely young family living, they were living in Vilna, Lithuania, and now they're living in Germany, and Renat's provided a great deal of technological support and backup, particularly in the artificial intelligence. Some of you are enjoying the artificial intelligence version of Rabbi Daniel Lapin on the Happy Warriors on the week was Renat's creation. So Renat and Veda, thank you very much for your support of us over here. And another couple with whom we've been friends for I don't know how long, but it's been many many years, and that's Peter and Marsha Brockney. Thank you very much indeed. It's always fun being together with you, and we deeply appreciate your support. We know how comments we
Susan Lapin 11:07
always get such interesting comments on Friday. That's
Daniel Lapin 11:09
right. Yeah, very much so. So thank you all very much as well. And then going back also a long time. Well, you
Susan Lapin 11:17
always say that you shouldn't go into business with friends, but you should become friends with people you're in business with. We became friends with Cindy Vick, and she and Bob, her husband Bob, are also underwriting this series, and our dear friends of ours, who we've spent many pleasant times with in the Pacific Northwest. Yes,
Daniel Lapin 11:36
Cindy and Bob, thank you, and we really think back nostalgically to wonderful summer afternoons and evenings, barbecuing in your beautiful garden in the Puget Sound area of the country. So thank you so much for your support and
Susan Lapin 11:55
slightly newer friends. Yes,
Daniel Lapin 11:57
and that is Andrea and Christopher Wilhelm, we want to thank you very much indeed. We've been Happy Warriors, very
Susan Lapin 12:05
strongly supporting Happy Warriors for many, and also
Daniel Lapin 12:08
your participation. Always thoughtful, always worthwhile hearing from you. We appreciate it very much, and we also appreciate the business that you've got, which is HW Design and the website HWDesignstudio.com will put a link on that in the description as well.
Susan Lapin 12:27
And final but not last at all are Margot and Jeff Lest from who were from abroad at this point.
Daniel Lapin 12:36
Jeff and Margot are in England and have been for many many years, where they created a wonderful company called Genistar. I've actually spoken for them both long distance and also in England itself. In fact, one of my most interesting trips to the UK was one organized by Genistar and by Jeff and Margot, where I ended up speaking For 22 organizations in 20 days, was it? Was I there 22 weeks? It was a
Susan Lapin 13:06
trip that I said I'm not going on because I don't go on trips where you don't sleep or eat.
Daniel Lapin 13:10
But it was very stimulating and very wonderful. So Jeff and Margot, God bless your work with Genistar, and thank you very much indeed for your support.
Susan Lapin 13:19
So back to what's impelling us to do this series and these couples and the one the four who remaining anonymous are allow allowed us to do it. Jews have been around for a very long time. Go back to Abraham. I mean that's a very long time. We've also been around in many many many countries, partially because we get chased from country to country. We got exiled from the lands of Israel more than once, and chased from country to country, and there are things that repeat over centuries that we've learned you don't ignore. That when someone tells you that they hate you and they lie about you and they say they want to harm you, listen to them. And so I just want to give an example of what a blood libel is because you'll hear that language today. People will say that's you know Zara Mamdani repeats blood libels. They'll say you'll hear people say that. So in 1144 in England, in Norwich, England, a Christian boy disappeared, and a few days later his body was found. A few years later, a Benedictine monk wrote down that he had been kidnapped and murdered by Jews who wanted to use his blood in religious rituals. No proof, nothing. There was nothing that that suggested that even that a mentally disturbed member of the Jewish community might have done this. There was nothing. But
Daniel Lapin 14:40
this mass psychosis takes over. We saw it in California with a McMartin preschool story, and frankly, we saw it during COVID, where there was a
Susan Lapin 14:51
health, public health. God forbid, you should go walking on the beach by yourself. You're a danger to society. It was so things
Daniel Lapin 14:58
happen, and just. In other words, blood libel caught on, and
Susan Lapin 15:03
over the years,
Daniel Lapin 15:04
and I think where you're taking us to is that we're seeing the same kind of willingness of people to believe extraordinary things, and all of a sudden, for it to become acceptable to make the most outlandish allegations. Well, I just
Susan Lapin 15:06
want to say that literally hundreds of 1000s of Jews lost their lives because of pogroms that started because of blood libels. This wasn't just oh people said something not nice about you; it made people feel bad. People were tortured and killed, and I'm sorry to say this because we have a great deal of respect for Christianity and our Christian friends. But for example, Easter became a very dangerous time in Europe because people would storm out of Catholic churches intent on punishing their Jewish and there was a lot of torture and a lot of murder and terrible things happened so we don't take this lightly. Blood libels are being repeated in the Muslim world today and they are beginning to spread to America. The same blood libel that started in 1144 that's a long time ago. It is being repeated. If you know anything about Judaism, as a result
Daniel Lapin 16:05
of that, I
Susan Lapin 16:06
just want to finish my sentence. If you know anything about Judaism and Jewish law, it is so counter to anything that is allowed by Jewish law-the shedding of blood. We're careful with the blood of animals, let alone human beings. I mean, there's zero, nothing, nothing, nothing to base this on, but people believe it, and people lose their lives. And the results they believe it.
Daniel Lapin 16:26
Only a few years later, 100 and something years later, Jews expelled from England in the year 1290, thrown out, and vast numbers, tremendous loss, tremendous suffering. So, at any rate, there is a fear. Let it also be said, and I don't know if this is the best time to bring it in, but let's bring it in anyway, which is that we are not supportive of the idea that you can never blame the victim. Sometimes the person who comes off worst brought about his own down.
Susan Lapin 17:03
Participated in has to accept some part of the responsibility. The way I like a large share of the responsibility. The
Daniel Lapin 17:09
victim is very often complicit in his own misfortune. The heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey used to speak about that, and people if somebody starts up with Jack Dempsey and gets beaten. Can he then go around claiming to be the victim? Well, it's true. Jack Dempsey did beat him up. That is true, but he was also part of it. I guess all we're saying is something we'll be covering at greater length as we move through the series. But we do acknowledge that Jews have been a blessing to the United States
Susan Lapin 17:43
and other countries,
Daniel Lapin 17:44
and many and many other countries. When I say a blessing, I'm speaking about you know many Jewish medical researchers. You've got Nobel Prize winners, Jews like Jona Salk for polio. Many Jews really brought great benefit to the United States. Businesses that have been started by Jews. Huge companies, employment. Sorry,
Susan Lapin 18:04
I was going to say philanthropies, hospitals founded, or over 100.
Daniel Lapin 18:07
That there have been Jewish people who've done a lot of harm to the United States as well.
Susan Lapin 18:12
I think we could say that Jews, we as the Jewish people, and you can say this is DNA. If you're into genetics, you can say that this is spiritual. This where we come from, which is that it's from God. You can say that it's isn't this random chance. Jews punch above our weight. There's a we for the percentage of a person of a population that we are, we have much greater impact, and that is both for good and for bad. So that's what we're saying. We're not. This isn't a. You must. We're such victims. Look how nasty people are to us. We absolutely. And this is basically based on the Bible. I mean, we go through the books of Exodus. We go through the books of the Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the prophets, the Isaiah, Jeremiah. God, God gets mad at
Daniel Lapin 18:59
us. Yeah,
Susan Lapin 19:00
we irritate God a lot, and God is very clear that He has us called to be His eternal people and on a mission. And He also punishes us more harshly than He punishes any other person. So this isn't a we're not coming and saying we want you to feel sorry for us. We're saying we're in this together because we exist in the world together, and so America was different. Here's we you know we spoke about all the expulsions and the persecutions in Europe. America was
Daniel Lapin 19:28
some very good notes you prepared on this to keep us focused.
Susan Lapin 19:32
That's really important. And one of the interviews we do is with a historian, David Barton, who's going to talk about the founding of this country. And one of the things that made America different. I just want to point out that Jews arrived in this world in New Amsterdam, which is now New York, in 1654. So Jews were a part of the founding of the country, the colonies, the revolution. More than 100 years
Daniel Lapin 19:51
before the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Jews had really been a few
Susan Lapin 19:56
years after Pilgrims and the Puritans. In other words, Jews have definitely. Been a part and involved in the founding of this who were executed by the the king because they were from the wrong religion and it was Catholics versus Protestants and it was Protestants versus Catholics and it was different strains of Protestants against each other.
Daniel Lapin 20:14
Weren't Quakers killed by other Christians? Yes,
Susan Lapin 20:17
they were. They were religious wars took place where were standard in Europe.
Daniel Lapin 20:20
Yeah,
Susan Lapin 20:21
and it's not again. There were skirmishes in the colonial America, and even when the country was founded, the colonies-they were colonies that this Maryland was a Catholic colony. There was a you know Pennsylvania was founded by Quaker, so it's not that religious distinctions disappeared, but in the Second Continental Congress, when the Declaration of Independence was being discussed, there was a deliberate statement and decision. You know what? We can disagree theologically, and we can live in peace with each other. And while there were no Jews involved in the signing of the Declaration of dependence. Historical record will show that many of the people who did sign had very close relationships with Jews, so they were known. We were we were being included. This, but this this belief that well, we're not going to have religious persecution. That that one of the 10 Bill of Rights, sorry, one of the Bill of Rights, freedom of religion, wasn't well. Let's be nice to the Jews among us. This was needed for the United States, for us all, for Christians to be able to live together. So we were the beneficiaries, but not an unknown beneficiary. It was part of the story, and so the United States has been different, and that's why it is tremendously scary for us to see the hatred that used to only belong in the old world being transported and being spread in the new world, and this is heavily due to Islam, to the spread of Islam and the power of Islam. And we have interviews that I think you will find eye opening as to because I don't think most of us have that much experience with that religion. So we're concerned about a change in the United States of America and a threat to the very foundations on which we were founded.
Daniel Lapin 21:53
And this isn't happening in a vacuum, you know. Back to my earthquake analogy, we're talking about the bookcase falling, but let's also talk about the freeway overpass collapsing and the gas mains causing fires. And in this, I think we are very aware that three destructive and hostile ideologies have taken hold in America recently that are unified by a hatred of American values, a hatred of Western civilization, and a hatred of Jews. And the weird thing is that these three ideologies do not naturally get on that well with one another. They
Susan Lapin 22:56
cannot coexist at a certain point if they have
Daniel Lapin 22:58
to conflict. God forbid if
Susan Lapin 23:00
they are victorious, they will then start killing each other. They'll start. What are the three
Daniel Lapin 23:05
ideologies? Socialism, Islamism,
Susan Lapin 23:11
and secularism.
Daniel Lapin 23:12
And secularism. So the attempt to utterly secularize the Founding vision of America, the Islamah Islamization of America, the fact that there are now actually cities, towns, areas of the country that are operating as Muslim majority under Sharia
Susan Lapin 23:39
under Muslim law, de facto Sharia Muslim law,
Daniel Lapin 23:42
and the reason that that I feel comfortable mentioning this is because there really is a fundamental difference between Islam on the one hand and Judaism and Christianity on the other. Whether you're talking about Catholicism or Protestantism or anything else, the difference is, and we're not talking about the medieval crusades. We're talking about life in America right now, here and today, and that is that Judaism does not believe that everybody should be Jewish, and Christianity may want to see everybody adopting Christianity, but there is certainly no notion that temporal force should be imposed. Islam is different in this respect. Islam definitely acts in the interests and believes in the that everybody should be moving towards Sharia law and the embrace of Allah the Prophet. So allow the king. So at any rate, that's a very big difference, and so I'm really not worried that the Methodist Church in a small town in Kentucky is going to impose its will on the rest of the population. But I am kind of concerned. That the new mosque that is building is going to blast out the call for prayer over its loudspeakers early in the morning for the whole for the whole city, and if you say, "Well, that sort of violates an American value of live and let live, you don't sort of wake people up at five in the morning. The answer is given that that's exactly what they do have to do. So there is a difference, and we are going to be talking about that not only from the outside looking in, but from the inside by speaking to Muslim thinkers, activists, and in some cases, people have even suffered on from for being nonconformist Muslims.
Susan Lapin 25:43
So I think what we're trying to do with this series is we are look we are concerned for Jews in the United States. We're concerned for our grandchildren, but we're also concerned for the grandchildren of our Christian friends, the couples who are many of most of the couples, almost all the couples who are supporting and actually funding this this series, we're very concerned for the future of their grandchildren. We're concerned of the future, and I just want to mention if people haven't and haven't heard the podcast where you spoke about the 250 year curse that civilization seemed to rise and begin to fall after 250 years, we don't think it's coincidence that we just celebrated the 250th year
Daniel Lapin 26:23
and all this is at the United
Susan Lapin 26:24
States of America.
Daniel Lapin 26:25
Is it weird that young people embracing socialism? What's that all about? We have to go into that. This acceptance, where we know Jews in New York who voted for Mayor Mamdani. I mean, is that not weird? But no, we get it, and we're going to help you understand that as well. And so we
Susan Lapin 26:46
invite you to listen. The next week, our first interview is with a fascinating person, the one we're putting out, Dan Burmawi. We invite you to listen over the next few weeks and to learn along with us. We learned a lot as we were interviewing different people, and we hope that if anything, we want to help wake people up because we're all busy. We have families, we have businesses, we have commitments, and it's very easy to say there's not, you know, right now this isn't bothering, this isn't affecting me. But by the time it does affect us, it's really serious and usually takes a lot more blood, sweat, and tears to. Well,
Daniel Lapin 27:24
as Churchill said with World War Two, he realized that that if the war was fought in in he saw war as inevitable. Fight it early rather than later, you get a much better shot at it, and it's already late. And one of the reasons we were brought to the series is the number of Jewish friends who said to us, "Is it time for us to think of leaving America? And we were initially we were shocked by the question, and the more we thought about it, we realized that it does need an answer, and the answer is either yes, it's time to leave America, and to where is a separate question, or alternatively, the answer is no. We have to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Christian brethren and defend everything that has been built, restore what has been damaged, and bring back the America that has been such a blessing to the world. So, which is it? Is the best thing for Jews to recognize that history is repeating itself, and after every other country that Jews have been expelled from, well, that's beginning to happen. You may as well recognize that earlier rather than later. Or no, let's realize there is a war to be fought here. We can be part of the winning side if Jews and Christians collaborate and come together again in the same way that the Old Testament Christians who built the country 250 and 300 years ago get together again to defend and save the country.
Susan Lapin 29:03
So I guess that's what this is. What we're saying is we're hoping to participate in this battle, and one of the way we're starting is with this podcast series that we invite you to watch, and to let us know what you think about it, and ask your questions, and do your own examinations based on questions that they may arise from watching, so thank you very much for joining us today.
Daniel Lapin 29:26
It also be a live thing in the sense that we will be very aware of the questions and responses you have as the series unfolds, and we will come in with responses and comments and possibly additional interviews as necessary, in order to make sure that we provide as comprehensive a picture as possible as to how to best answer the question. You know what? What do you say if a Jewish friend of yours says, "Do you think it's time for me?" Or
Susan Lapin 30:00
I just I really want to stress that the question is also: Is there a future for the United States of America that is the United States of America that you know and love, or is it going to be unrecognizable in a number of years?
Daniel Lapin 30:14
That's really the bigger question because if America is going to remain an America true to the Constitution and true to American values, then Jews have nothing to worry about.
Susan Lapin 30:23
Exactly,
Daniel Lapin 30:24
and if it doesn't, then Jews are not the only ones who have to worry. I think that's that is true. That's very true. That is the point.
Susan Lapin 30:30
So, again, if you have not, if you do not get our mailings from wehappywarrior.com, please go on and sign up. So you'll hear and you'll get notices as each podcast comes out. And we are really-I can't say this has been fun. It's not been a fun activity, but it's been something that rewarding and something we're more passionate about after having done all these interviews than we certainly started.
Daniel Lapin 30:57
We certainly understand more than we did before.
Susan Lapin 30:59
So thank
Daniel Lapin 31:00
you. No question. Thanks so much, and as always, stay firm to your five Fs, your families, and your fortunes, your finances, your fitness, your friendships, and your faith. God bless.
