Some Thoughts on Facing Antisemitism

To my fellow Jews

Some things to think about when facing antisemitism. This includes things I say to myself with increasing frequency related to the escalation of antisemitism I see daily online.

No one is beyond getting riled to anger. Remember that the bigots who want to do away with us *want* us to take on and display their inner turmoil and irrational hatreds. Work hard to control your emotions so you can recognize when you're being manipulated.

Antisemitism is growing at an alarming rate in the world once again. We cannot stand by silently, but if we speak only from emotional reaction our voice isn't likely to be heard by even rational people, many of whom can be fooled and swayed to do evil in the guise of good as history repeatedly shows. Your neighbors and mine are not unlike the neighbors of Jews in past generations who permitted the Holocaust. Too many people do not realize that simple truth. It took a great many“good people” to do nothing and turn a blind eye to allow hate to escalate to such a point. Is that happening again?

I would suggest to you that you learn as much as you can about Judaism and Jewish history...the older I grow, the more truth I see in the adage that those who "forget" the past are doomed to repeat it. We have new methods of spreading the same forms of hate being directed to us now (fundamentalist evangelicals hating us because we declare Christian dogma isn't Judaism!) and we've got seeming intellectuals buying into the history revisionism of the oil-rich Arab countries and extremist Islamo-facists regarding Middle East history inciting Jew hate to obliterate Israel. If enough rational people aren't involved in trying to stop hate, violence and bloodshed, in another generation if not sooner, the Holocaust may only look like a prelude. Others who claim to love Israel work for the day to bring about their Armageddon to punish the Jews who “reject” Jesus. I pray I AM wrong about that dread, but I cannot help but see parallels to previous waves of violent persecution that were preceded by several decades of precisely the same escalation of antisemitism, the same forms of propagandist accusations and stereotypes. I never thought I would see Jew hate existing in my life to the level I now see on a daily basis on the internet and in my own community and across the world.

Another adage can be applied here by replacing the word woman with Jews and man with gentiles. It may not be fair, but the fact remains that for a woman to be considered half as good as a man at a job she must perform twice as well. In the business world this double standard still applies in so many places. For Jews to be considered half as legitimate with rights to exist as Jews, the Jews must excel and show twice the level of ethical values as the Gentiles surrounding them. Jews understand this, non Jews do not. In the larger world view, Israel is held to standards that no other country on earth is expected or demanded to adhere to, and the countries that want Israel destroyed are ignored and aided in their duplicitous double standard. Jews across the world are held to the same double standard.

We are supposed to be a light unto the nations. That is the task that every Jew is obligated to do when we affirm our place as members of the eternal covenant of Israel, and Jews the world over are held to that role even if we did not choose it for ourselves individually. Do not forget that. We are also teachers whether or not we want to be. A majority of non-Jews in the world know very little about Judaism. Their ideas of modern Jews are formed by what they read in the news (biased against us despite the antisemitic canard of Jews controlling the media) the stereotypes of TV, what the New Testament says in error about Judaism with it’s demonization of Pharisees, and an important factor we must always keep in mind, the behavior of people around them they identify as Jews. Every Jew is a role model whether you want that role or not.

That's why Jews may sometimes be the hardest on one another when a Jew acts badly. We are a tribal family and we also expect more of our own while we work together for the benefit of all our extended human family in Tikkun Olam