Author: David Harbater

An article published last week lavishly praises Panama as an ideal vacation destination for observant Jews. The author begins by celebrating the country’s natural beauty, warm climate, and relative affordability, before turning to what he describes as Panama’s most remarkable feature: its Jewish community. From modest beginnings of some 2,000 members in the early 1950s, the community has grown to approximately 17,000 today—and, the author boldly claims, it may be “the most observant Jewish community in the world.”… Having read this glowing portrait, one cannot help but ask a simple question: if all this is true, why should observant Jews see Panama merely as a vacation destination rather than a permanent home? If Panama offers year-round sunshine, safety, prosperity, and what is purportedly the most observant Jewish community in the world—if it is indeed a “Jewish paradise”—why live anywhere else?

It is very rare for Jews today to begin a sentence with the phrase, “As a Jew…” when defending Jewish self-defense, expressing solidarity with Israel, or advocating for Jews under threat. Instead, the phrase is typically employed in situations where their Jewish identity is invoked to stake out a moral position in contested spaces. This is especially true in discussions surrounding Israel, Gaza, or the Palestinians. In such contexts, “As a Jew…” often functions as a preemptive disclaimer: a way to signal distance from mainstream Jewish or Israeli perspectives, and to claim special moral authority when critiquing Jewish power.