JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • AUGUST 11-17, 2023 5 By DENNIS PRAGER I f one were to draw up a list of human needs, food and shelter would be at the top. With great respect to Freudians, sex would not be No. 2. The need for meaning would be second only to the need for food. That meaning is more important to happiness than sex is easily shown. A great many people go long periods without sex, and while many of them miss it, if they have meaning in their lives, they can lead quite happy and fulfilling lives. On the other hand, few peo- ple who have regular sex but lack meaning are happy or fulfilled. Third on the list of human needs is the need to feel important. This need is much less often cited than the need for food, sex and meaning. But it is so important that a case could be made that it is tied for No. 2 with the need for meaning. T he infamous “midlife crisis” is a crisis of importance: “I thought I would be much more important at this stage in life than I am.” That mostly afflicts men — just as feeling less important after one’s children have left home afflicts mothers more than fathers. Among the many psycho-social crises afflicting Americans is a cri- sis of importance. Fewer Ameri- cans feel important than did Americans in the past. Why? What has happened? What has happened is a steep decline in the number of institutions that gave people a feel- ing of importance. Given that work is generally regarded as one of the most ubiqui- tous providers of purpose, and that, prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, more Americans were working than ever before, one would think that more Americans than ever before felt important. It has not turned out that way. For many, work has not provided the sense of importance people expected it to, let alone fulfilled the other great need: for meaning. This is especially true for women, but first, we will address men. Work used to provide many men with a sense of importance. It is simply a fact that being the bread- winner for a family means one is important. However, since the 1970s and the rise of feminism, women have not only become breadwinners, but they have increasingly become the primary breadwinner within a marriage and for a family. That has helped couples finan- cially, but it has also deprived a great many men of their sense of importance. When regarded by a wife and children as important, husbands/fathers felt important. Progressive America mocks the 1950s TV series “Father Knows Best.” But when wives and children believed that, men felt important because they were. The price for this, according to feminism, was paid by women, who didn’t receive the accolades of breadwinning. And they set about changing it. However, contrary to the expec- tations of the well-educated, women becoming breadwinners has not provided most women with a sense of importance, and certain- ly not meaning in life. Contrary to what feminism, colleges, high schools, progressive parents and the mass media have claimed for decades, men and women do not have the same natures. Just as sex with many partners continued on page 20 Feeling Of Importance Government takes it away from you Just as most women are not as satisfied as men are with many sex partners, so it is with work. President Joe Biden repeated this theme recently: “Put trust and faith in our government,” he pleaded with Americans. One could accurately say that we are replacing America’s motto, “In God We Trust,” with, “In Government We Trust.” PERSPECTIVE other campuses. Bratman may be the most p ominent Hillel direc- tor across the univers ty. I some ways, this seemed to be a conces- sion to the Jewish community un- der siege. Still, several aspects of Bratman’s record suggest that the same CUNY administration that had for so long ignored the anti-Semitism on its campus—and which is under con- stant and considerable pr ssure by leftist and Islamist extremist stake- holders to deny that anti-Zionism is antisemitism—might not have been bending to Jewish interests at all and indeed might hav had quite dif- ferent motive for this choice. In 2021, after CUNY’s 30,000-member staff union, the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (PSC-CUNY), adopted a vile an- ti-Semitic, anti-Zionist BDS res- olution, Ilya Bratman formed a group calle the CUNY Allia ce for Inclusion (CAFI) that purport- edly ould cou er the union’s an CHARLES J COBS I n respons to public outrage over the pervasive, system- ic, years-long scandal of an- tisemitism at CUNY, the universi- ty formed its inaugural Advisory C uncil on Jewish Life. At first, Chancellor Mato R dríguez re- fused the demands of Jewish fac- ulty and student victims at CUNY to be represented on the council, stating, “… [T]he advisory council on Jewish l fe will be c mprised of Jewis leaders in New York who are external to the university” [em- phasis added]. But in late May or early June of 2023, secretly and behind the scenes, Rodríguez reversed him- self and appointed Ilya Bratman to the council. Bratman is an adjunct faculty member at CUNY, as well as t e executive director of Hil- lel at Baruch College a d several Jews At CUNY Have No Protector Well, actually they do – but he has failed miserably tisemitic and anti-Zionist positions. But Bratman’s CAFI group failed, even to put up a good fight. While PSC-CUNY union delegates sponsored rallies under the slogan “#zi ni mOutOfCUNY,” CAFI never condemned its BDS activist presi- dent, James Davis, who lied to the The CUNY Alliance for Inclusion (CAFI) was meant to counter the university union’s an- tisem tic and anti-Zionist positions. It asn’t. continued on page 25 Ilya Bratman, adjunct professor at CUNY, was tasked with ghting antisemitism at the university. His efforts to date have been anemic. ANTISEMITISM

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