Ze’ev Jabotinsky once described a conversation he had with Dr. Max Nordau, Herzl’s partner in launching the Zionist movement. Frustrated by the passivity of the Jewish people at a time when Jewish action was desperately needed to attain their homeland, he asked Nordau how it was possible for the Jews to do nothing. Nordau explained: “The Jew learns not by way of reason but from catastrophes. He won’t buy an umbrella merely because he sees clouds in the sky; he waits until he is drenched and catches pneumonia – then he makes up his mind.” We Jews are, for better...