In medieval Europe, Jewish scholars were summoned before Christian authorities and forced to defend the Talmud against claims that it said things it didn’t. The proceedings, called disputations, were rarely fair and not exactly voluntary.
Henry Raz, 17, is a high school junior in Marin County trying to counter a flood of online videos that claim the Talmud exposes secrets Jewish leaders want to keep hidden and permits Jews to deceive and kill non-Jews. To Raz, it looks like the same dynamic as the medieval disputations, adapted to the age of social media algorithms. That’s why he started a YouTube channel called “Disputations.”
Raz didn’t grow up attending synagogue, but his family regularly celebrated Jewish holidays and he became a bar mitzvah. His family now belongs to Congregation Kol Shofar, a Conservative synagogue in Tiburon…