Modern Jewish identity is layered with rings of myth and self-delusion. Among Jewry’s greatest illusions today is its convention about Masada, the desert fortress near the Dead Sea that has become an important pilgrimage stop for the world’s Jews, in homage to alleged noble resistance against Roman invaders (hundreds of Jews are declared to have committed mass suicide rather than surrender). Masada has evolved in Jewish consciousness as a point of collective pride in dying for Jewish identity against oppressive non-Jews, a hallowed form of resistance against an “anti-Semitism” of antiquity. Like so much of modern Jewish self-delusional identity, however, an accurate examination of Jewish history and tradition too often proves to be embarrassing