Why?

Why did some Jews vote for Mamdani despite his anti-Israel rhetoric? How can they support BDS? What causes them to believe the hateful Hamas propaganda? Being that I have not lived in America for almost forty years I can’t really answer those questions, but I do have my theory. Growing up, I attended a Reform Temple and celebrated my thirteenth birthday by reading from the Torah. My parshe was Vayera, the portion we read yesterday. However, I did not read the whole parshe, only a seventh of it as was the custom then and I assume it is still the practice today. In other words, a Jew attending a Reform Temple miss 6/7 of the Torah. And if he or she are unaffiliated and not exposed to Torah readings at all, most probably the only things they know about Judaism are some catch phrases like "Be a light unto the nations" or "Love your neighbor as yourself". These are wonderful guidelines but not all there is to Judaism. These precepts do not explain the Jews tie to the land of Israel. Nor do they include the commandments between man and G-d. If they are not exposed to Torah readings, they most certainly know nothing about the Talmud teaching in Sanhedrin: If someone comes to kill you, arise and kill him first. Nor do they understand that when the Jewish nation left Egypt we were attacked by Amalek for no reason and hence given the directive to destroy that nation. In addition, their lessons in Jewish history are probably sorely lacking and they do not know Israel was a thriving Jewish country two thousand years ago and there have been Jews living here for centuries. Their ignorance combined with a sincere desire to improve the world makes it's very easy to fall into the misconception that Jews are not the victims and decide the best way to cure all the evils of mankind is to Free Palestine. How sad they know so little about their own, precious heritage.