Sunday, November 6, 2022

"Everybody hates the Jews"

 

Lindsey Liss (Photo courtesy of Robert Chiarito)

     Fish don't feel wet, or moist, or clammy, or any of the other sensations we associate with water. Or so I assume. It isn't as if we can ask them. Though it would make sense. The water surrounds them, they're immersed in it, always. It's what they swim in. Fish can't always be thinking, "Look at me, I'm submerged."
     I feel the same way about antisemitism. My friends are fretting about it being on the rise, and it certainly is. But being alarmed or outraged or offended or even irked — it's kind of the reaction they're going for, no? How about being bored instead? Antisemitism is so dull, always the same plots and libels, the same ooo-scary cabal running the world. I wish. To me, antisemitism is like the price of gas: it goes up, it goes down, but you're always paying something. You're never free of the cost. Sometimes Jews are singled out and hated and harried more than other times. But the pilot light is always burning.
     A friend posted on his Facebook page a cri du coeur by David Telisman called "Anti-Semitism Hurts So Badly That It's Hard To Put It Into Words," and while I understand that people are entitled to their reactions, I also wanted to say, "Really? You're hurt? So badly? By Kyrie Irving?" 
     To me, Kyrie Irving doesn't even register on the antisemitic scale. If you're hurt badly by the various nutteries expressed by a basketball star, then how do you process Dachau? 
     Maybe because I'm of the first post-Holocaust generation that had this stuff really ground into me. At times the religion seemed a death cult; pushing back again antisemitism — and the antisemitism of previous generations at that — was all we did. The religion itself was an afterthought, the way we passed the time, waiting to be killed.
      I was born 15 and a half years after Auschwitz was liberated. That was antisemitism. Kanye and Kyrie is mental illness, focused on Jews, vented freely thanks to the liberation of wealth and fame. Think of all the people who feel the same way but never make a peep. Prejudice is so universal, such an easy high, emotional heroin for the lazy and stupid, that almost everybody shoots up some bigotry at one point or another. And hating Jews is so easy, so consequence free, generally. The shocking thing to me about West and Irving is not that they said what they did, but that they actually had real world repercussions for saying it. That isn't worrisome; that's good. 
      But I also don't think their censure is going to change anything, except maybe make antisemitism worse, by provoking the aggrievement that feeds it in the first place.  The old Louis Farrakhan two-step: say loathsome things about the Jews, then point to the alarmed reaction to what you said as more evidence they're out to get you. Talk about a vicious circle. 
     To me, antisemitism draws not so much fear, as a grin of recognition. There's no need for me to draw attention to it, because either you already understand it too well, or you never will.  Besides, it's a self-own. Anyone who expresses that kind of garbage has already undercut themselves. Who cares what they think? I mean honesty, with Kanye West, you could wipe away every remark he ever made about Jews, and he still seemed crazy, years ago. 
     Maybe I just got in the habit of shrugging it off. I grew up in a completely gentile area. Some years, I was the only Jew in my school. Antisemitism has been rearing up, now and then, since I was 6, and Bobby Koch told me I was going to hell. I wasn't hurt, never mind badly. I was slightly confused. Hell? What's that? And why? You believe that? Really? Gosh.
     It isn't as if Bobby Koch, 6, was an antisemite, just aping whatever his parents or priests or both told him. Can't really blame him for it. Kanye West is emotionally 6 years old. How much mental space do I have to spend on his personal problems? And he's one guy. Think of how many others there are.
     What's the classic Tom Lehrer refrain from "National Brotherhood Week."
   
               Oh the Protestants, hate the Catholics.
               And the Catholics, hate the Protestants.
              All the Hindus hate all the Muslims.
              And everybody hates the Jews.

     That's funny. Because it's true. More or less. Who can really tell? The guy down the block who's walking his dog and sees me walking mine and bolts in the opposite direction, every time. Antisemitic? Socially awkward? Upset by some column I wrote nine years ago? Could be. Could be because I'm a dick and don't know it — they never do — and am being justly shunned. Some combination? Who can tell? He might not even know himself. Though I do suspect that if we had bonded at Bible camp, we'd be chatting it up while our pooches sniffed each other.
     What to do about it then? I push back by not being ashamed of being Jewish. I've written about every aspect of being Jewish in my column — holidays, bar mitzvahs, brises. The best refutation to those who want to cast Judaism as something malign is to portray it as a benefit, a boon, something wonderful. Which it is. 
     Generally, I sidestep haters and bullies. No need to let the poison in, to react. Too many of them anyway, and they want you down in the gutter with them, where they feel at home. I'm not one for symbolic acts, but I do admire people who take the trouble to try to confront evil, to do something about problems in the living world, feeble though those gestures be. So when a reader sent me photos of Chicago artist Lindsey Liss draping some altered Chicago flags over the Kennedy, as a little push back for the antisemitic displays in Los Angeles, I felt like talking with her.
     "What really made me think I really need to do something was seeing those banners over the freeway in Los Angeles; the white supremacists. Just crazy," she said. "Seeing Kanye, and his number of followers continue to rise, was absolutely shocking."
     Liss doesn't think you can be a bigot and claim to love Chicago.
     "He says he's from Chicago, he even named one of his kids, 'Chicago,'" she said. "We're taking in refugees now. Thinking about the rich history of our city. It's not just about Jewish people and antisemitism. It's about equality. Think about the great migration of Blacks from the South to the North, to our city. It just doesn't jibe with us. It's not who we are."
    Pretty to think so. While the great migration aspect is certainly true, as is the sanctuary city aspect now, Chicago also has a tradition of racism as wide and deep as can be found in any Southern backwater. It might be the most segregated city on the planet. Antisemitism was so strong here that the Standard Club was one of the few Jewish organizations to discriminate against Jews, the Germanic founders turning up their noses at their unwashed Eastern European brethren.  Louis Farrakhan is based in Chicago. Eugene Sawyer had staffers telling the media that AIDS was a plot by Jewish doctors. 
     I asked Liss: isn't hatred as Chicago as deep dish pizza? 
     "That's what we were," she said. "I like to think, with all these refugees coming in now, that's who we are."
     And who she is demands action.
     "If felt like if I don't do something, say something, who will?" she said. "My kids are the great grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. So are my nieces and nephews. If you're not outraged..."
      I'm not outraged. To me, being outraged is like being pregnant. You can't be a little outraged. If I'm outraged that Kyrie Irving tweeted out links to an antisemitic film, what am I going to be when jeering Red Hats make me clean the streets of Northbrook with a toothbrush? Which I can very well see happening in 2026. I'm hoarding outrage for when I truly need it. Hopefully never; maybe soon. I can see the argument that by piling on every slight now, we avoid worse. I'm not sure if that's how it works though.
     One of Liss's signs said "Honk if you believe in equality." There were many honks, much support. And much opposition.
     "Lots of people gave me the finger," she said. "I was shocked."
      I'm not. She's lucky she didn't hang that banner in Mount Greenwood. 
     Liss is 47, lives in Lakeview, has four kids.
     "Raising kids in the city is tough," she said.
      I told her I seldom experience what I consider antisemitism, perhaps because I so thoroughly screen it out. Readers venting outrage doesn't count — they'll say anything mean. I discount it. It's a meaningless buzz.
     Not so her.
     "I can't even tell you , how many times people say things inappropriate to me," she said. "Microaggressions. not knowing I'm Jewish. Saying, 'But you don't look Jewish.' What does that even mean?"
     Maybe that's what insulates me. I look as Jewish as the leering moneychanger on the cover of a copy of Der Sturmer. Maybe people put on their best there's-a-Jew-right-over-there behavior when I'm around. Ix-nay on the ew-Jay atred-hay.
     Maybe I find the whole thing is so ridiculously stupid that I can't believe it's real. Would have a hard time carrying on if I focus too much on its reality. Maybe that's the problem. Because I also know, intellectually, it is indeed very real. All too real. Always has been.




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50 comments:

  1. I'm currently reading "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" by Florian Huber. My mom and dad lived through World War II and it's profound affect on them carried over to me - so I've spent a lifetime reading about that era. Huber's book is a gut punch, a visceral history of madness. Because I'm knee deep in the sick lunacy of that time, your remarkably healthy and detached view of antisemites won't work for me today. The human mind is the most complex, fascinating phenomena in the universe - and studies show that 20% of all humans at any given time suffer from a mental illness within that mind. Anti-semitism, indeed all bigotry, is a form of mental illness irrational thought on steroids. So by all means let's arm every man woman and child, give them an unmonitored forum to spew their sickness, and wring our hands when the inevitable occurs. Hopefully, after I finish the book and get back to more mundane ways to occupy my time I'll have a more positive world view. Great article as always.

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  2. "The best refutation to those who want to cast Judaism as something malign is to portray it as a benefit, a boon, something wonderful. Which it is."

    Which it is!

    When I was a kid my Chicago neighborhood was so insular I didn't know what Jewish people were. There were Italians, Irish, and Poles, a few Greeks.
    It wasn't until I went to high school that I encountered a Jewish person and it wasn't until I was nearly 30 that I had a strong enough relationship with a Jewish person that I learned anything about their culture and traditions.
    I am very fortunate to have been included in numerous events which have broadened my understanding of what it means to be Jewish and learn about their beliefs and the wide range of how different Jewish people embrace them .

    I've also spent some time with people from the Nation of Islam ,am aquatinted with the Reverend Luis Farrakan, and am aware of his public stance as a vicious antisemite.

    My Jewish friends struggle to discount this and to believe he is different in private. But are more understanding than I would expect. One explained "He is not my oppressor. He and his people have been persecuted just like mine."

    His power and anger conspire to destroy him. Like ye.

    It takes a big person to see commonality instead of returning hatred with hatred. Would that more of us were this way.


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  3. I get your logic but am unwilling to let any form of antisemitism roll off my back.
    It’s not okay.
    Never forget.

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  4. If you had not included the Tom Lehrer quote, I would have found a way to mention it. A shame he surrendered his gift for biting satire to his true vocation: teaching mathematics.
    Tom

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    Replies
    1. A shame? I don't know about that. Maybe his style wouldn't have translated into the late 1960s and 1970s and beyond, and he'd have overstayed his welcome, creatively. I think his turning his back on the limelight is an inspirational tale.

      Delete
    2. I think Tom Lehrer just got tired of doing what he was doing and lost interest. Also, it was simply harder to satirize some things as the times grew worse. And, like everyone else, he simply got older, and it probably became harder for him to see the humorous side of the darkest situations.

      Years ago, he said something like: "I don't see myself writing about George W. Bush. I just want to vaporize him." That's when I knew we wouldn't be hearing from him anymore.

      It's hard to imagine even a Tom Lehrer writing about someone like Trump, because Trump just isn't all that funny. He's frightening as well as ludicrous. And Tom Lehrer is just plain old now...he will turn 95 next spring. I have no idea what kind of shape he's in. Probably not laughing a whole lot.

      Delete
    3. I've already said my piece about Kanye West, and Kyrie Irving was already a jerk when he played here, in Cleveland. To begin mouthing off about Jews, when he now plays in the biggest Jewish city in America...and for Brooklyn, no less, with its 600,000 Jews, is the apex of brainlessness and lunacy.

      Your images of Lindsey Liss surprised me, Mr. S. I don't think she's as much naive as she is merely young. She's 47 (and looks about 25) and is simply not old enough to have either learned about or lived through so much of Chicago's shameful and hateful history.

      Still, she ought to at least know about Mt. Greenwood, famous for hate since at least 1947. Hell, the last big incident there only happened six years ago, when BLM marchers faced violent opposition on the same night (not a coincidence) that Trump won.

      Racial violence has always been as Chicago as a Chicago hot dog...with everything on it. I've always been a student of Chicago history, but I've also been alive long enough to have witnessed a good deal of that trouble.

      I wasn't around for 1919, but blacks were being pulled from autos and streetcars in the Fernwood Park neighborhood (104th and Halsted), and being beaten, during the week I was born (in August of 1947, also one of Chicago's hottest months ever). There were white riots all through the late Forties and the Fifties and well into the Sixties, including the infamous 1951 Cicero riot that necessitated the use of bayonets (and nearly bullets) by the National Guard. And there were the violent reactions to MLK's 60s marches and Frank Collin's band of 70s Nazis.

      As for antisemitism, I've heard and felt my share. I know the difference between being asked: "Are you Jewish?" and "You a Jew?" Even the Standard Club discriminated against its own kind, if they weren't deemed worthy enough, so the rejected immigrants from eastern Europe formed their own Jewish outfit, the Covenant Club. I went to many a wedding and bar mitzvah there, and found it posh enough and classy enough for the likes of me.

      Maybe I'm just not outraged enough or angry enough yet...or else I only have so much of those emotions to go around. Maybe I'll feel something akin to outrage when the thugs begin pounding on my door because I have a mezuzah on the doorpost. But by then, it'll be a little too late, and it might also be the last thing I feel.

      Delete
  5. Barbara Maginnis PalmerNovember 7, 2022 at 12:21 PM

    This is why you are my favorite columnist.

    ReplyDelete
  6. fathomjournal.org has an article headlined
    "The pleasures of antisemitism"
    by Eve Garrard
    in Summer 2013
    A Must Read Article

    ReplyDelete
  7. A person typed online earlier this January 2024
    "Watch the movie "Oppenheimer" with an eye for the facts that

    1) all the scientists involved in The Manhattan Project were Jewish

    2) most were German Jews fleeing the Nazis just in time to create the bomb

    If Hitler had not called Quantum Physics "Jewish Science" Nazis would have won the war

    In other words, a tiny fraction of the 0.2 % of the world's population saved America and saved the World from absolute evil

    Be careful what you wish for when indicting Jews"

    ReplyDelete
  8. A person typed online in 2020
    "#meJew
    Anti-Semites don’t have a specific color, race or nationality. They don’t have a singular political affiliation. They come from all sides, yet don’t even have a unique doctrine other than one thing: Jew hatred.
    Similarly, anti-Semitism does not discriminate. Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Chassidic, Torah-observant, Zionist & Secular have no meaning to anti-Semites.
    The only thing that matters is one word: Jewish.
    So we’re all in this together.
    Jewish people and non-Jewish lovers of peace and humanity have a singular responsibility, and a shared privilege, in combating anti-Semitism in all of it’s forms.
    There are some who believe that by hiding their Jewishness they will be protected from anti- Semitism. The Megillah teaches us a lesson: When Haman persuaded King Achashverosh to issue the decree against the Jewish people, he argued that those Jews who acted as “one nation” – refusing to assimilate – deserved the decree because they were different, while those who were “scattered and separated among the nations” – who did assimilate – deserved the decree because they tried to imitate their non-Jewish neighbors.
    The Sages teach: “It is a natural law that Esau hates Jacob.” Even if the “Jacob” imagines that his identity is hidden, the “Esau” will sense it, all the way down to the Jew’s greatgrandchildren – as we saw in our own times, in the persecution in Europe.
    When an evil phenomenon takes place in the world, it exists only to intensify its parallel in the realm of goodness. Why, in fact, does the non-Jew sense the Jew, even one whose family has been assimilated for several generations? Because “A Jew, even if he has sinned, is still a Jew.” No matter how many generations have passed, he still possesses a Jewish soul, “A part of G-d Above.” Nothing can destroy the Divine spark within a Jew’s soul – and because this is his essence, his eternal self, the non-Jew will always sense it.
    Everything has a purpose in creation. There is nothing superfluous in G‑d’s world. So what is the purpose of an anti-Semite? Just that—to remind Jews that they are Jewish! It is also to remind non-Jewish people of the inherent morality that G-d has given all of humanity.
    But why wait for the anti-semites of this world to remind us? We don’t want, nor need them anymore. Rather, let us be proactively Jewish, positively Jewish and Jewishly positive. When we decide to live proud, committed Jewish lives, we begin to respect ourselves and the world respects us too. This applies both collectively as a people, to every Jewish community and personally to each individual.
    Judaism is a boon, not a burden. We should be staunch about our heritage. It is a badge of honor to wear with noble pride. If you don’t know why or how, you owe it to yourself and your children to study and practice a rich, vibrant Jewish life.
    For our non-Jewish friends, there are the 7 Noahide Laws that can be universally applied to all humanity in every place and walk of life. By adding your part and promoting acts of goodness and kindness, you can make a better world an imminent reality.

    May we all live in harmony a blessed and meaningful life filled with the promise of a new era when “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares… nation shall not take up sword against nation… they shall never again know war.”

    ReplyDelete
  9. On X formerly Twitter
    Carly Pildis
    @CarlyPildis typed
    “One of the hardest parts about the past 100 days is realizing just how much people hate Jews. Even if we already knew it intellectually, it’s viscerally different now. The denial of rape, the celebration of death, the justification of our pain – even our most cynical were shocked”

    4:28 PM · Jan 14, 2024 from Washington, DC

    ReplyDelete
  10. A person typed online earlier in January 2024
    “So apparently, many sick degenerate Anti-Semites are upset about a Jewish tradition, practiced by some Orthodox Jews. This tradition involves the slaughtering of chickens and then donating them to feed the impoverished as a form of atonement before Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

    It is important to clarify that this practice is not a “sacrifice” but rather an ancient tradition rooted in charity and alleviating hunger. In Judaism, performing acts of kindness is seen as a path to self-improvement.

    Despite not being vegan or vegetarian, I do hold the belief that animals should be treated with compassion until the end of their lives. Regrettably, this is not always the case in many slaughterhouses around the globe, which is indeed tragic. This issue has been observed in some Hassidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

    What is perplexing, however, is the swift reaction of these anti-Semitic individuals to condemn the treatment of animals in this Jewish practice, while simultaneously ignoring or even justifying the heinous acts committed by Hamas terrorists, including the merciless killing of over a thousand individuals, many of whom were children, on October 7th.

    This selective outrage and hypocrisy by these perverted Jew haters is disgusting. They choose to condemn a Jewish tradition aimed at helping the poor, yet they turn a blind eye to, and in many cases endorse, the atrocities committed by Hamas. This is absolutely sickening and perverted!”

    ReplyDelete
  11. About the Hamas Attacks of
    October 7th, 2023
    A person recently typed online
    "Something inside of me was awakened on Oct. 7. A longing to return to my home in Israel. A deep rooted love for the land, the people, culture. I've gone from being a Yom Kippur/Pesach Jew, to a bit of a radical Jew and found peace in this antisemitic society. Many of my friends and family are hiding their Jewish identity, out of fear. Well, I read something about walking through a place and not fearing evil, because HaShem is with me."

    ReplyDelete
  12. A person typed online in
    2012 , and it’s still true in
    2024 about Israel being the good guy
    “David versus Goliath—Israel versus Radical Islamists
    A Question to the World
    The question is, who is David and who is Goliath in this sad “story”.
    According to most world media and public opinion, Israel is the Goliath!
    And I ask; how is it possible? What is the explanation (other than anti-Semitism)? Why do people see Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the underdog?
    First of all, let’s learn some history: there have always been constant Jewish communities in Israel, for 3000 year, so, the idea that we are invaders is simply not
    true.
    Now that we’ve established that we have the right to live here, let’s blame the “occupied territories”!! UPPS…..Sorry, we cannot! The Arabs attacked us also when there was no “occupied territory “(they have been attacking the Jews in this region for about 100 years)!
    So how have WE become the bullies? Maybe it’s because we are the offenders? NOPE, again, NO!
    1. We have been living under a constant rocket attack, daily, for 12 years! Why? Because we attacked? Again, NO! Because we left Gaza to the “Gazans” and unfortunately a terrorist group is their government.
    2. Whenever there are casualties among innocent Palestinians (it doesn’t matter if killed by the Hamas or Israel) we weep! Whenever there are casualties among Israelis (by the hands of Radical Islamists) they dance on the streets and party.
    3. Whenever (God forbid) fanatics on our side cut olive trees or do similar mad things against Palestinians, we put them in jail and condemn them. But whenever a terrorist throws a bomb into a bus in Tel Aviv, he is a “shahid” (a hero). And if he dies he gets his 70 something virgins in heaven.
    4. Israel’s army, police, government and citizens protect people. We are fighting for our protection, for our children’s protection. Hammas, on the other hand, wants their people to die, hides behind them, hides ammunition in their houses, hospitals, schools, etc… because they know what you (world) don’t know! They know that our soldiers are humane and would never, intentionally, hurt innocents.
    5. The more Palestinians die, the more Israel loses the war! Hamas knows this and you, citizen of the world, are puppets in these terrorist groups’ hands.

    So please, explain to me, why are we perceived as Goliath??? The only thing we want is to live in peace with our neighbors. And what the Islamic radicals want is to see us dead!!”

    ReplyDelete
  13. A good book to read is titled
    “The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People” by
    John Loftus and Mark Aarons
    About how Everyone Unjustly Hates the Jews and Israel, how the Whole World unjustly Hates the Jews and Israel.

    The War Against the Jews and Israel isn’t so Secret, it’s so Out in the Open and Public that a person would have to be Completely Blind, Deaf and Retarded to Not See it Immediately, it’s no “Conspiracy” that the Entire World is United against the Jews and Israel , it’s the sad ugly truth

    ReplyDelete
  14. A person typed online earlier today
    "Can you imagine the lefts outrage if someone said that I only support black people who speak out against BLM or I only support Muslims who speak out against Radical Islamic terrorists. So why is it okay for liberals to say they only support Jewish people who speak out against Israel."

    ReplyDelete
  15. In late October 2023 a person typed online about the Hamas Attacks of October 7th, 2023
    "If you’re not Jewish, please read this:

    I am going to explain to you why no matter what other identities I have, I will always need to be a Jew first. I am a woman, I am a progressive, I am an atheist, I am a feminist, I am a person who cares about others and feels overwhelming empathy. First and foremost though — I am a Jew, and I will never not be a Jew.

    There are about 8 billion people in the world. Of those, about 4 billion are women. I care deeply about women. I care about fighting misogyny and rape culture. I care about our reproductive rights. I care about being treated with dignity and respect. I am not alone in this fight. Although many misogynists exist, so do many feminists. Women are not in danger of being wiped out of existence. Being a woman has its challenges, and I will continue to stand up for women as long as I live, but I do not worry about women ceasing to exist.

    Before the Holocaust, the world had about 17 million Jews. Today, we have about 16 million. While the world population grew from around 2 billion to 8 billion, the Jewish population has still not recovered from the Holocaust. We shrank from an already tiny ~0.8% of the world to an even tinier ~0.2% of the world. And it’s not for a lack of trying (this is a joke about older Jews encouraging the younger ones to make more Jewish babies). So, when antisemitism rears its ugly head, I feel an existential threat like you cannot possibly conceive of if you are not Jewish."

    ReplyDelete
  16. The comment continues
    "Last Saturday, October 7th, over 1300 Israelis were brutally murdered by the terrorist organization, Hamas. Thousands more were injured, many were raped, tortured, brutalized, kidnapped, bloody corpses paraded through the streets — things you cannot even imagine in the worst horror movies you’ve ever seen. And most of it was gleefully filmed and shared by Hamas, causing even more trauma and distress to the families of the victims and to Jews around the world. Not all Israelis are Jewish, and not all of the victims were Jewish, but most were. This was the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And we have still not even recovered from the Holocaust.

    Jews cannot stop being Jewish. It is not simply a religion. We predate modern notions of race and religion. Jews are an ethnoreligious group — we were a tribe of people. The nation of Israel. We spread all over the world in the diaspora, we survived so many attacks on our people, yet we still have our shared roots and culture. No matter how religious or non-religious a Jew is — they are still a Jew. Hitler did not spare atheist Jews, and neither did Hamas. This is about so much more than religion."

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  17. & continues
    "Whatever you may think about the state of Israel and its government — it exists. And it is primarily Jewish. It is also home to Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, and more. Israeli civilians do not deserve to be murdered and terrorized. They deserve to live safely and peacefully in their home. None of this means that Palestinians do not also deserve their own state, their own dignity, and their own home. But for right now, I am a Jew talking to you about the Jews.

    Most governments are imperfect. Most countries are imperfect. Caring about Israeli and Jewish lives doesn’t mean I am claiming that Israel is perfect. Many Israeli Jews protest actions of their government that they do not agree with. Jews are known for valuing human life. Please, value our lives too — because we actually have been in danger of being wiped off the face of the Earth time and time again. We carry intergenerational trauma from all of this. We have really high rates of anxiety. We are hyper-vigilant. We want to live. We want to see our people survive this time around."

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  18. & continues
    "When the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was followed by cheers, justifications, and victim-blaming, it broke us. For the past week, we have seen people all over the world make excuses for our murders. This painfully reminds us of all the past atrocities we have experienced. For me personally, what hurts in particular is that so much of it comes from groups I thought I belonged to. I thought I was included in intersectional feminism. I thought I was included in progressive values. I thought my life mattered too. Then, I see them laugh at the deaths of people just like me, who happened to be living in Israel on October 7th. I see them denying and justifying the rapes of Israeli girls, the murders of our babies, the kidnapping of our innocent civilians. Condemning these atrocious acts by Hamas would not mean you suddenly don’t value Palestinian lives. By all means, value their lives too. No innocent civilian deserves to be murdered."

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  19. & continues
    "Making excuses for these unfathomable acts of terror against Israelis just because you hate Israel is incomprehensible in its callousness. We are humans. You do not do this to other citizens of countries whose governments you disagree with. The difference here is that this country happens to have the largest Jewish population in the world, and that is not lost on us. You may not see this as antisemitism, because most non-Jews lack the experience and education necessary to properly identify all the different iterations of antisemitism, but it is. It’s insidious and it disguises itself in progressive language, but if it justifies murdering so many of us, there’s not much else it could possibly be. It’s either ignorance or antisemitism, or both.

    When people talk about Jews being “white European colonizers” in Israel, they completely erase our history and our roots. You know very well that we do not come from Europe. The Nazis murdered 6 million Jews for being the “other.” We were very clearly not viewed as white Europeans. Wherever Jews went in the diaspora, we were discriminated against and told to go back home. We were discriminated against in the Arab countries too, enduring pogroms in the years leading up to the creation of the modern state of Israel. Additionally, 850,000 Mizrahi Jews were kicked out of their homes shortly before and after Israel’s founding in 1948. You can acknowledge Palestinian suffering without denying Jewish history. Jews did not just pop up out of thin air. We are a people with roots. Jews come from the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which is where modern day Israel is.

    None of this means that every Jew or every Israeli agrees with every single thing the Israeli government has ever done. You would not assume that about any other country’s citizens. But regardless, Israel is the home of many Jews, and it is where we all originate. We have a home, and we deserve to live in it without being brutalized and murdered, and without having our lives devalued and our deaths justified. This is not an insane ask. Most people, especially minority groups with a history of so much oppression and persecution, would not have to beg people who claim to be progressive to recognize this very basic human right. Being Jewish comes with a heavy weight and a deep-seated hatred that is really hard for non-Jews to grasp.

    No matter where I go, what I do, or what I believe, I will always be a Jew. And the existential threat facing the Jewish people is unique in a way that is really hard to explain to non-Jews. We are over-represented and overly scrutinized in so many areas. For thousands of years, we’ve just been trying to survive threats to entirely wipe us out. Imagine the lasting trauma that this can have on a group of people who make up only .2% of the world yet are talked about as if we have some undue influence, power, control, or oppressive nature. It’s not true. We are just human beings. We don’t deserve to be murdered for where we live. All over the world we were told to go back home, and finally many of us did, and now that place apparently isn’t where we belong either. But it is our home.

    European colonization and Arab colonization are real. And still, Europeans don’t deserve to be slaughtered and neither do Arabs. The Americas are colonized, and still Americans don’t deserve to be slaughtered. Yet, the world’s focus is on this tiny sliver of land where many of the world’s tiny little Jewish population happens to live. The place we actually originate from. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s Jew-hatred in its most recent form. We don’t deserve this constant justification of our murders everywhere we go.

    We deserve to live."

    ReplyDelete
  20. A person typed online earlier today
    "CNN report— Israel sent undercover special forces to successfully kill Hamas & Islamic Jihad militants. BOTH SIDES agreed the three men killed were militants linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad who engaged in terrorism. Almost every comment on the post from non Israelis/ non Jews is calling the Israeli special forces terrorists and calling this a war crime.

    So when Israel sends bombs that end up also killing civilians, the complaint from anyone “decent” who at least does agree that Hamas are terrorists was why doesn’t Israel send in special forces to kill only the terrorists not innocent people. So then THEY SEND IN SPECIAL FORCES AND ONLY KILL TERRORISTS! Both sides agree the 3 killed were terrorists. AND STILL everyone calls Israelis war criminal terrorists. It was always about hating Israel and there is no winning for Israel and there is no right way for Israel to operate without condemnation because our very existence warrants condemnation in these people’s eyes."

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anyone read the 2021 book titled
    “People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present”
    by Dara Horn , about how Everyone unjustly hates the Jews and the State of Israel

    ReplyDelete
  22. aish.com has an article headlined
    "Is American Jewry Doomed to Repeat the Mistakes of Their Grandparents?"
    by Yael Zoldan M.A.
    November 26, 2023

    ReplyDelete
  23. A person recently typed online in
    January 2024 about Jew-Hatred
    "EMPIRES tried to annihilate us.
    They are all GONE.

    We, are very much here,
    and we are here to STAY.

    The people of eternity
    do not fear a long way.

    🇮🇱💪🏻🇮🇱💪🏻🇮🇱💪🏻🇮🇱"

    ReplyDelete
  24. In November 2023 actress
    Julianna Margulies apologized for saying Black people have been ‘brainwashed to hate Jews’
    Sadly, all Groups of
    Non-Jews in America and Worldwide have literally been Brainwashed to Hate Jews

    ReplyDelete
  25. A person typed on Facebook earlier today
    "Because I'm Jewish no-one even cares, F'ck all of you and F'ck Facebook. F'ck Zuckerberg and all of the other fake Jews out here.

    Facebook has done it again, they removed my post promoting Jewish unity and solidarity. If it was a BLM post or fakestinian posting and promoting violence against Jewish people, that would have Facebook losing many viewers. But, because it promotes Jewish causes, they say it presents a danger to others."
    & also
    "I refuse to live in a realm where a computer algorithm (or coward hiding behind a keyboard) censors, erases, modifies or embellishes my speech or writings. I EXPECT that sort of crap from this electronic video world we call the internet. I DESPISE computers and DESPISE smartphones and DESPISE the fact that the internet is accessible to anyone at all without regard for its inherent dangers. I DESPISE the fact that children have computers; DESPISE the fact that computers are ubiquitous in schools, DESPISE modern-day curricula 'taught' there. Everything has gotten worse since the release of all these computers and smartphones. They INVITE you to use their site; they get you hooked on it, and then they erase or censor your speech. F**K these people and F**K computers. I am in my office on my desktop and I only have this for business ads and bill paying. I enjoy doing REAL things which don't involve screens and I'll be god damned if I'm going to let some digital group of sissies modify or erase my words. As I said, welcome to the club! It's much better than being in the middle of digital strife and radiation bombardment. F**K screens. Enjoy your evening! This was a response to my post about Facebook Antisemetic censorship."

    ReplyDelete
  26. Peter Baum typed online earlier today
    "Given the rabid antisemitism permeating every sector of Irish society including sport our #BROIGAS campaign is more relevant than ever
    Boycott Republic Of Ireland Goods And Services
    This grassroots campaign has been quietly but successfully growing and beginning to have an impact
    Horse racing is a huge part of the Irish economy and surely Jewish and , or pro Israel supporters with race horses in training with Irish trainers and yards should start transferring to non Irish stables"

    ReplyDelete
  27. A person typed online earlier today
    "Texas A&M University pulled its branch out of Qatar quoting Qatar's funding both for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, indoctrination in America and in Qatar.
    Qatar influences the professors and lecturers and this is not restricted to Texas A&M, but includes Cornell, Harvard, and others.
    Their poison also spreads to Australian campuses.
    Their aim is to divide Israel from the United States, and other Western countries, by the indoctrination and activism of their poisoned activists.
    By recent displays of protests and distruptions, they seem to have succeeded in brainwashing the minds of future decision makers in these countries."

    ReplyDelete
  28. Kyrie Irving should be banned from All Sports Forever.
    When he made his Hateful comments about Jews in
    2022 and was banned from playing for his team for
    5 games , however did he cope, it must have been absolute Torture for him not being able to play Basketball for his Team
    However did he cope ?
    We Hate Kyrie Irving also , ban him from All Sports Forever
    American White Supremacist leader
    Nick Fuentes is Catholic , can we get Pope Francis to Excommunicate Fuentes from the Catholic Church for his Hateful Comments about Jews and other Groups of People

    ReplyDelete
  29. It was Real Disgusting, Disturbing and Anti-Semitic how after the Hamas Attacks of
    October 7th, 2023 that
    Murdered 1,400 innocent Israelis
    Many Christians only prayed for the people in Gaza affected by the War, No prayers for the 240
    Israelis taken hostage, No Prayers for Israel or for the
    1,400 Jewish Israelis Murdered. Is Christianity Returning to it’s old Anti-Semitic Ways that directly made the Nazi Holocaust
    Happen

    ReplyDelete
  30. A person typed online earlier
    today
    "When we were led into the gas chamber, YOU said nothing.
    When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing.
    When we were thrown out of a country just for being Jews, YOU said nothing.
    When we now defend ourselves all of a sudden, YOU have something to say.
    How did we take our revenge on the Germans for their Final Solution?
    How did we take revenge on the Spanish for their Inquisition?
    How did we take revenge on Islam for being Dhimmis?
    How did we take revenge on the lies of the Protocols of Zion?
    We studied our Torah
    We innovated in medicine
    We innovated in defense systems
    We innovated in technology
    We innovated in agriculture
    We made music
    We wrote poetry
    We made the desert bloom
    We won Nobel prizes
    We founded the movie industry
    We financed democracy
    We fulfilled the word of Hashem by becoming a light unto the
    Nations of the Earth.
    So World, when you criticize us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland,we the Jews of the world do exactly what you did, we ignore you.
    You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down you don’t care.
    Now leave us alone and go sort out you own back yard whilst we continue our 5784-year-old mission, enhancing the world we share.
    --by Howard Klineberg, in the Jerusalem Post of February 2, 2015."

    ReplyDelete
  31. A person typed online earlier today
    "UNRWA IS HAMAS. HAMAS IS UNRWA.
    There cannot be any further doubt that the United Nations has been wedded to Palestinian terror for decades.
    This after Israel revealed the sophisticated Hamas headquarters built with a major access directly under the UNRWA HQ in Khan Younis in Gaza.
    This exposure goes way beyond 18 Hamas UNRWA employees participating in the 7/10 massacre, rapes, and hostage taking.
    It shows the blatant use of a UN facility for Palestinian terror operations for decades.
    The evidence is so blatant that there is no way that senior United Nation officials were unaware of this command center that was built in their facility.
    It is impossible to believe they did not observe its construction.
    UNRWA MUST BE DISBANDED COMPLETELY AND THE UNITED NATIONS CONDEMNED FOR THEIR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE PALESTINIAN INDUSTRY OF INDOCTRINATION AND TERROR AGAINST ISRAEL."

    ReplyDelete
  32. A person typed online earlier today
    "You may have missed it with all the headlines and the criticism against Israel, but we are winning our justified war against Hamas.
    So here is our advise from Israel.
    Shut up, get on with your life,
    and let us get on with eradicating this Hamas evil.
    Because our fight is your fight. Even if you don't understand that."

    ReplyDelete
  33. Fred Maroun
    typed online earlier today
    "Remember when Macron proposed a coalition against Hamas and took that back the next day? It's easy to propose unworkable and idiotic solutions when you have no stake in the matter.

    The world has been ignoring the growth of Palestinian terrorism for decades, when it wasn't actively encouraging it. The fortress built in Gaza with large-scale use of human shields was easy to predict. The consequences of doing nothing were obvious.

    And now that Israel has no choice but to clean up Gaza, those who enabled Hamas in the past are only too happy today to blame Israel for civilian casualties when the reality is the opposite. It is them who are responsible for what's happening, not Israel. Israel is in fact doing everything humanly possible to limit civilian casualties.

    It is hugely hypocritical for anyone today to lecture Israel on how to conduct the war, even for those like the US who are actively supporting Israel most of the time, but especially for those who aren't. Even more than hypocritical, it's criminal."

    ReplyDelete
  34. A person typed online in
    November 2023 about calls for Israel to Act
    Proportionally in response to the Hamas Attacks of October 7th, 2023
    "Proportionality??? You must be kidding. How can any civilized nation respond to the murder of babies,slaughter of innocent civilians at a concert and the rape and murder of women with proportion?? Answer: you don’t. War is not a game with neat sets of rules, believe it or not. Your job if attacked is to pound the enemy down so hard they never dare get up again. Are there indeed any civilians in Palestine? The members of hamas CAME from this pool of barbarians. They ELECTED them to lead their country.What does that tell you about them? Its indeed unfortunate but not unexpected that the media has become the lap dogs of the terrorists and that Biden is getting increasingly pressured by his left wing party members, which is MOST of them. Its only a matter of time until they force Israel to quit with the job half-done. Again. I cant respect the so-called free press who have sided with these neanderthals, nor the uniformed and totally ignorant college students who assert the violent , unprovoked attack by hamas and the kidnappings “never happened”.Both amazing and frightening that we have such a large part of the country devoid of both information and education.They are in fact perfect little puppets.I hope the Jews will not be lulled into allowing the hamas group to re-gain the upper hand during the current pause in hostilities in their quest to rescue more hostages, many of whom might already be dead. Meanwhile I hope they can bring home as many hostages as possible, and continue to eliminate their enemy."

    ReplyDelete
  35. newsweek.com has an article headlined
    "The Time Is Now for a Jewish Civil Rights Movement" Aug 31, 2020
    By Brooke Goldstein

    ReplyDelete
  36. A person typed online
    earlier today
    "Earlier I was in a store and there was a woman wearing the Palestinian black and white 'Keffiyeh Scarf' and a large button that said :

    "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free".

    She was white and based upon her accent, she was from a European country. She said she has been wearing the Palestinian 'terrorist' scarf since she was 8.

    I asked her if she thinks that Hamas is a Terrorist Organization and she said no. I asked her if Jews had a right to live in Israel, she said no.

    When I told he all the atrocities that Hamas perpetrated on October 7, she did not care and then proceeded to rant that Israel is deliberately murdering Palestinian women and children in Gaza.

    She is one of many in this City, which is infested with radical Pro-Hamas leftists. We see them everyday in the streets of NYC calling for a 'Global Intifada', a violent war on Jewish people worldwide and for the genocide of Jews in Israel, when they chant, 'From the River, to the Sea'.

    NYC has become the center of this demonic genocidal Pro-Hamas terrorist movement in America. Daily these dregs of the earth are blocking bridges, tunnels, attempting to shut down major transportation hubs, Penn Station, Grand Central Station. They have gone to the, Gross Zero, 911 Memorial Museum, which is scared good as close to 3 thousands Americans were murdered there on September 11th, 2001.

    Jewish restaurants have been targeted and Jews have been violently attacked. The Democrat Mayor of NYC Eric Adams has allowed this violent anarchy to take place and continue.

    As an American, as a person of Jewish ancestry, as a descendant of Holocaust survivors and family that were murdered in the Holocaust and as a member of the human race, I am incensed and outraged at these daily displays of antisemitic Jew hatred in NYC.

    So what shall we do ? We shall expose this dark evil, rebuke this dark evil, support Israel, pray for the people of Israel, support and pray for the brave warriors, the soldiers of the IDF and pray for the Jewish people worldwide that are now being targeted for hate and violence.

    We won't go quietly into the night, we won't be silent in the face of this great evil and we won't be shoved into the ovens this time.

    Christians and Jews need to be united in this fight. ‘First they came for the Jews, next they will come for you’.

    Chaplain Michael Green ✡️✝️ "

    ReplyDelete
  37. A person typed online earlier
    today
    "Did you know that there are more Arabs in tiny Israel than there are Jews in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria, Kuwait, Yemen, Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Somalia, Oman, and Iran- COMBINED!
    So tell me. Who are the racist apartheid states?"

    ReplyDelete
  38. A person typed online earlier today
    "Anthony Blinken and David Cameron say that they propose to establish a Palestinian state without israel's agreement. A Palestinian state with its own army, navy run by terrorists and with unlimited arms and money pouring into it. Brilliant idea. What can possibly go wrong with that? Give them both the Nobel Peace Prize immediately."

    ReplyDelete
  39. A person typed online earlier today
    "Original post by Amir Tsarfati: "Breathtaking video captures Israel's Iron Dome air defense system in action. Earlier today, Hezbollah fired over 30 rockets towards the Upper Galilee area in Israel."

    It's enjoyable to hear this video with the Israelis cheering about the Iron Dome protection (and rightly so!).

    I encourage you to watch it again and consider the spiritual battle in the world about us. The LORD's mighty angels are powerfully at work protecting not only Israel and His covenant people, but those who seek Him and love Him. Psalm 46:10 states "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in the Heavens. I will be exalted above the earth." Trust Him! He is working, protecting, watching over His beloved!"

    ReplyDelete
  40. A person typed online earlier today in response to a
    Biased BBC article about Gaza, Israel and Hamas
    "This BBC article leaves out many facts that would give a better perspective on this crisis. The commission of these facts (and more) cast doubt on who they are truly supporting.

    1. Gaza receives billions of dollars in aid monthly from many Arab nations and Western nations but it was not (ever!) used to improve infrastructure or relieve suffering. Misery is used for publicity. Hamas leaders ARE richer than Trump, however.

    2. UNWRA was created specifically for Palestinians. Unlike every other refugee agency, Palestinians can hold onto their refugee status whether they emigrate or settle into society. They can also handily pass down their status for generations inflating numbers through birth rates.

    3. "Refugees" were kept in refugee camps by their own people to increase misery and therefore marketing. There are plenty of Gazans living in great wealth outside the camps.

    4. Hamas demanded under threat of death that Palestinians stay to protect themselves! Israel instead made ways for them to get out of the battle areas because they value human life. Not even the US military is known for this care.

    5. There is vast destruction in Gaza because there is vast terrorism use in everyday civilian buildings including mosques, kindergartens, hospitals, and UNWRA buildings. In the northern Gaza Strip, IDF troops have uncovered more terrorism sites after interrogating surrendered Hamas soldiers.

    6. There is a huge shortage of food because Hamas steals the trucks, beats the citizens, and denies them the aid promised....then they sell unwanted supplies back to citizens for a huge profit!

    7. No Arab nations will assist the refugees. NONE. Not one Islamic nation will take them in! Egypt is sending tanks to the border to keep the Palestinians from crossing over.

    8. Hamas IS hiding among the civilians. They dress like civilians for greater marketing when they do die. Their death tolls do not include any Hamas terrorists IN uniforms or in civilian clothes. (Very convenient right?) The inflated numbers (by those known to continually lie and deceive!) also don't include the number of people who died because Hamas killed them or used them as shields for their own protection.

    9. Hamas trains preschoolers for terrorism (no joke- Google it!). Kids are being killed for doing Hamas' dirty work.

    10. It's also not mentioned that Hamas has always intended to wipe Israel off the map. This is what is meant by their chant "From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free." It's in the Hamas charter and supported by the Qur'an.

    The humanitarian crisis is squarely on Hamas. Israel is trying to limit the casualties by moving the civilians to safe places and now the international community is forbidding it (to save their own skins during an election year or because of rabid Jihadists in their own countries??). Why are the nations not telling Hamas to surrender??"

    ReplyDelete
  41. The Jerusalem Post
    jpost.com has an article headlined
    "Jewish community should re-prioritize outreach to Christian allies as ‘urgent,’ leaders say"
    By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN Published: JANUARY 6, 2024

    ReplyDelete
  42. A person typed online earlier today
    "THE US AND EU ARE DEMANDING ISRAEL SOMEHOW BACK OFF AND NEGOTIATE.

    WRONG.

    HAMAS AND THE IRANIAN REGIME ARE EXISTENTIAL THREATS, AND YOU DEAL WITH AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT BY DESTROYING IT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

    You do not negotiate with a cancer. You do not try to work with a cancer to limit its growth. You destroy it so it cannot grow again and kill the body it inhabits.

    Had the Allies in World War II stopped in 1942 to negotiate with the NAZI’s is anyone stupid enough to believe that would have stopped the Nazis or convinced them to end war as a tactic?

    Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian leadership are the NAZIs, are the cancer on the body of the world.

    You do not negotiate with cancer. You do not, make control of its growth as a goal. Not if you want to survive.

    Think of it this way. If Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranian Mullahs would disappear from the face of the world, everyone in the region would breathe a sigh of relief.

    Is it that those in Washington and Brussels are too stupid to understand that? I don’t think it is that."

    ReplyDelete
  43. A person typed online earlier today
    "IDF special commando units stormed another Gazan hospital and arrested 20 Hamas and other terror group operatives.
    This time the al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
    These terrorists have been removed to Israel where their interrogation is expected to help future ground operations as Israel continues to dismantle Hamas in Gaza.
    Virtually every hospital Israel reaches in Gaza contains a center or hub of the Hamas terror infrastructure.
    Nowhere is void of anti-Israel terror in Gaza.
    Not mosques, not schools, not universities, not hospitals or clinics, not UN facilities, not private homes or apartment blocks, not cemeteries, not ice cream parlors where the head of a decapitated Israeli soldier was found.
    Nothing is sacred, nothing is pure, nothing is innocent, in Gaza."

    ReplyDelete
  44. Replies
    1. Definitely. No idea why this all had to happen.

      john

      Delete
    2. john , why all what had to happen ?

      Delete
  45. I learned much from these comments.

    ReplyDelete

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