(RNS) — I didn’t assume it was potential for me to admire Jeffrey Goldberg any greater than I already did. 

Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, {a magazine} that has included me as a reader and subscriber for a few years. He began his profession in journalism because the editor-in-chief of the Each day Pennsylvanian on the College of Pennsylvania (the place he additionally labored within the kitchen at Hillel). He moved to Israel; served within the IDF; served as a jail guard, the place a friendship with Rafiq Hijazi, a PLO chief from Gaza, resulted in Goldberg’s guide “Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror.” He labored as a columnist at The Washington Publish, and at The Jerusalem Publish, after which finally turned the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

Final week, Jeffrey Goldberg discovered himself with an unlikely invitation to a group chat on Sign with, amongst others, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance and Michael Waltz. On the chat, these high-profile political leaders had been discussing plans for an assault on the Houthis in Yemen. This amounted to the most important safety breach in latest historical past.

Jeffrey Goldberg principally took on your complete Trump administration, which went into instantaneous vilification mode. Right here is Invoice Kristol:

The White Home and Hegseth pressured Goldberg’s hand. On Monday and Tuesday, they accused him of mendacity in regards to the contents of the chat — and, crucially, insisted that nothing within the chat had been categorised. In different phrases, they each created a significant extra incentive for Goldberg to launch the total transcripts and eliminated the scruple that had satisfied him to carry them again within the first place.

Jeffrey Goldberg launched the transcripts of the chat. Listed here are his phrases:

As a normal rule, we don’t publish details about army operations if that data might presumably jeopardize the lives of U.S. personnel. That’s the reason we selected to characterize the character of the data being shared, not particular particulars in regards to the assaults …

The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump — mixed with the assertions made by quite a few administration officers that we’re mendacity in regards to the content material of the Sign texts — have led us to imagine that individuals ought to see the texts so as to attain their very own conclusions.

Andy Warhol predicted that everybody would get quarter-hour of fame. Jeffrey Goldberg has had greater than quarter-hour of being a warrior for fact.

Right here is creator and editor Elissa Wald on Substack (shout out to Erika Dreifus for telling me and others about this):

I’m happy with his [Goldberg’s] calm and stage demeanor after our authorities unleashed contemptible assaults on his character to deflect from their very own buffoonery. I’m proud that he launched some extra of the Sign chat right this moment, with the implicit menace of releasing the remaining nonetheless hanging within the air above the entire clusterf–okay.

I’m happy with his integrity. I’m happy with his fearlessness. I’m happy with what he mentioned to a reporter who very fairly requested him if he was afraid of violent retaliation by our dictator’s regime:

It’s not my function to care about the potential for threats or retaliation. We simply have to return to work and do our jobs to one of the best of our skill. Sadly, in our society right this moment — we see this throughout company journalism and regulation corporations and different industries — there’s an excessive amount of preemptive obeying for my style. 

Jeffrey Goldberg has not solely been one among my journalistic heroes. He has additionally been one among my Jewish heroes on the planet of letters — together with Yossi Klein Halevi, Leon Wieseltier, Martin Peretz, the late Nat Hentoff, the lately departed Max Frankel of The New York Instances — the individuals who not solely made me wish to write (thanks, Nat, for that early inspiration), however who made me wish to write as a Jew.

Let’s return to the title of Elissa’s column — “Jews With out Trembling Knees.”

Right here she is once more:

I’m additionally afraid for Jeffrey Goldberg. Pete Hegseth is a white Christian nationalist. I can solely think about the froth he’s working himself into over this Jew who’s exposing him. You may hear the viciousness dripping from his voice as he deflected to attacking Goldberg in response to reporters’ first questions on this debacle.

Not that you just requested me, however sure, Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Waltz — they need to have all been fired, instantly.

However, again to Jews with out trembling knees.

The place had I final seen a kind of?

It was on Purim, after we learn the story of Esther. It was in how Mordecai refused to bow all the way down to Haman, although that act was signing his demise warrant. It was in how Esther selected to strategy the king together with her request that he intervene to save lots of her folks. “Then I shall go to the king, although it’s opposite to the regulation; and if I’m to perish, I shall perish!” (Esther 4:16). A Jew with out trembling knees.

Keep tuned (and begin cooking) for Passover, with its reminder that although God was the final word instrument of redemption, it nonetheless took Moses to strategy Pharaoh and to announce that divine demand for liberation. A Jew with out trembling knees. 

So, my very own buying and selling card assortment — Jews With out Trembling Knees — the trendy model:

• Natan Sharansky, the previous Russian refusenik and Israeli statesman.
• Amanda Berman, head of Zioness, who’s sending forth the message you can be concurrently proudly progressive and proudly Zionist.
• Erika Dreifus, who’s pushing again towards the uncooked Jew-hatred within the modern publishing world.
• Professor Deborah Lipstadt, who has represented the US within the battle towards antisemitism, however who defended Jewish historical past towards David Irving, a infamous Holocaust denier.
• Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld, of blessed reminiscence, who marched for civil rights and had his head bashed in by a Southern racist in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1964.

These are just some which might be prime of thoughts. Possibly you’ve gotten a few of your personal.

That is what I do know. Such braveness is in brief provide in America right this moment, and we are going to want way more of it if we’re to endure as a society.

And welcome, Jeffrey Goldberg, to my pack of Jewish hero buying and selling playing cards.

Or, as we’d say in synagogue: Yasher koach. All of the extra energy to you.