Abandoned but Determined

40 years ago, when I was a child visiting cousins in upstate New York, we played a game with some of my families' neighbors. When the kids found out I was Jewish, one of them asked, "You're a Jew? Where are your horns?

20 years ago, when I was a young adult on the reality TV show Paradise Hotel, I was told by one contestant, "You must know how to negotiate?really well, because you can?Jew anyone down."?

1 month ago, the picture below surfaced in my affluent, largely-Jewish town of Port Washington NY. High schoolers thought it would be fun to take a picture re-enacting the Holocaust.?

But they were all just dumb, naive, ignorant young people, I told myself. I really didn't want to believe my fellow Americans could have antisemitism and hatred in the heart. How could they?!?

Then, 20 days ago, 1400 civilians, nearly all Jewish, were slaughtered in Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, which runs Palestine. The terrorists brutally raped and murdered men, women, children and babies. They took 200 hostages.?

It was a tragedy of epic proportions, the largest?single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.?

At least, I thought, this would galvanize support for Israel and for Jewish people everywhere across the globe. At least, I expected, this would quickly unify Americans in calling for the immediate?release of hostages and an end to the hate-filled rhetoric of anti-semitism.?

Only that didn't happen.

Instead, according to the ADL, antisemitic hate crimes in the US?skyrocketed?as much as 1,000%?in the last 3 weeks.?

Instead, elite college campuses such as Harvard, Brown, Penn, NYU and George Washington (see picture below) have openly tolerated, allowed, and even promoted the tearing down of Jewish posters of kidnapping victims, the publishing of antisemitic letters, and rallies where students have chanted such twisted vitriol as, "Israel is worse than Nazi Germany."

Instead, the same liberal progressives who I stood with to support Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, and a woman's right to choose, have been standing against me in pro-Hamas rallies throughout the country chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." (Make no mistake, according to the ADL, this slogan "calls for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,?erasing the State of Israel and its people."

These American adults are supporting Hamas, an organization whose?charter calls for the murder of all Jews,?days after that same group murdered the Israeli proportional equivalent of killing tens of thousands of Americans.?

48% of people aged 18-24 polled this week said they supported Hamas over Israel. HALF!

As it turns out, I was naive all along.?

Antisemitism?is the?oldest form of hate and bigotry.?

In the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of killing Jesus and thirsting for Christian blood.

In the 14th century, Jews were accused of causing?the Plague, called impure and dirty.?

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews were called greedy and dishonest.?

In the 20th century, Jews were called communist, or, according to Hitler, racially impure.?

Today, Zionism, the movement that says that Jews should have a safe state to live in in our ancestral homeland, after centuries of persecution, has been labeled by progressive academics?as racist.??

But as?Lizzy Savetsky?said so well, "There's nothing progressive about fighting Zionism. There's nothing progressive about demonizing the only country in the Middle East that supports the rights?for all races, religions, sexual orientations and gender identifications. And there's nothing progressive about celebrating rape, murder and kidnapping."?

So how do I feel today? I feel abandoned: By a large faction of my political party, by a large percentage of young people, and by many friends, acquaintances and colleagues whose silence speaks volumes. Feeling abandoned is powerful and it really sucks.?

But I also feel determined, and inspired: By the Jewish and non-Jewish voices like Savetsky,?Aliza Licht,?Samantha Ettus,?Meghan?McCain?Noa Tishby,?Mandana Dayani?and so many others who are speaking out. By President Joe Biden, who gave the?speech of his life supporting Israel?and its' right to exist. By my Jewish friends and family and community members who have banded together to support each other through this trying time.?And by so many of you, who have reached out with kind words of support.?

It feels terrifying and lonely and unsafe to be a Jewish person right now. But here's the thing: We've been through this before, a lot, and we've always survived. Time after time, century?after century, evil leaders and their foolish, ignorant followers have tried to persecute us, and time and time, we've survived.?

Actually, we've thrived.?

So while I do feel abandoned, and while the brutality of Hamas is devastating and the ill-informed words and actions of American supporters of Hamas and Hamas sympathizers across the world is downright terrifying,?I also feel determined - that the Jewish people will make it through this, together.?

Shabbat Shalom, and Am Yisrael Chai