Stopping anmti-semitism

Can we stop antisemitism?

   

    Jews have a tendency to view antisemitism as inevitable, as a fact of life. Like blue skies,  sunrise, sunset, it can’t be changed.  We assume  we have  no control over this hate we face  our actions are explanatory, defensive, denying.  We shrink from calling those dedicated to our extermination enemies and allow them to set the agenda.

   As a group Jews do  not unite and fight antisemitism,  We allow opportunities to pass by and when our enemies take advantage of every possible opportunity,  we don’t expose them  We reject action and deny antisemitism exists. We allow others to control the agenda .We adopt the causes of others and often put them above our own. 

 Our problems are not the result of lack of skill in persuasion.  Our accomplishments prove we have the skill. Something holds us back and prevents us from fighting our battles and it is called diaspora

Thousands of years in diaspora took their toll. We developed a national psychology that allows others to take advantage of us. There may have been a time  time when  believing that we should never start a fight, that others set the rules , that we must adapt, watch what we say and do was  necessary as a survival mechanism.

The world around us changed.  We have a country to be proud of, the venture capital of the world,with an excellent economy, medical system, & educational system, that has absorbed more people than any other  country on earth and that gives every Jew the 'right of return' as protection against antisemitism. The majority of  Jews  in diaspora live democracies that guarantee rights and give us ways to  fight when denied.  We have the right to control the narrative, to act strongly at the first sign of danger. We don't.

Changing a cultural behavior pattern thousands of years in the making is very difficult.  A tortured nation is like a battered child  or captive. who has been released. and doesn't just snap into normal mode. A history of  control  by others, being told you are worthless and undeserving, of being physically harmed weakens the captive ; He accepts negative  views of himself.  He has little control over his fate; other than pleasing his caeptor. (' If we do  better this time, then they will accept us)and this takes root in his psyche as an imntemse desire tom please enemies and not recognize them for what they are

For Jews, the torah, the belief in being "chosen" and other aspects of Jewish religion provided an alternative perspective that emotionally sustained them - pride in learning, the ability and priority placed on logical reasoning , rejecting the 'goyish' violence and embracing the moral high ground. are some examples of norms, that  became part of our religion  but that create problems for us today

In Biblical times, before norms developed to accomodate life in diaspora,  Israelites avoided war, but when war war was necessary they settled for nothing less that unconditional surrender. Enemies were called enemies and those with genocidal intent ( Amalek) were eliminated completely.  including possessions and animals. 

  Today, we avoid blaming those who wish and do us evil.  We find it difficult to describe  groups  dedicated our destruction  as enemies. We see things from their point of view..  Clinging to that moral high-ground we find reasons to excuse behavior we would never tolerate in another Jew.

 Nations openly declare their desire to exterminate us. They call us Nazis, genocidal, apartheid, hold up flags with swastikas replacing the star of David.  Jews are being murdered all over the west.  There is anger, ridicule, explaiions from ning, but what have we done?  kept a count of violence against Jews and perpetrators?, demanded that the department of justice act against antisemitism? learned self defense? Where are the demonstrations, and law suits, the pressure to remove antisemitic content from education and on and on.  How different are our actions from those of Jews in Germany before the war?

I was a child in the aftermath of WWII. My friend’s  parents were holocaust survivors.  ‘why did you let it happen?’  ‘Why didn’t you do something? why did you wait too  late? We asked again and again; the response always silence, In a movie theater, in a  newsreel,  we watched a transport of Jews to a concentration camp, a death march and thinking. There were so many more Jews than Nazis. Even though Nazis had guns we could have stopped them.  Now I stand on the cusp of another breakout. I will NOT be one of the people who have only blank stares to offer when children ask me about what I didn’t do.  Then words never again are  more than a hashtag, They are a  promise to our descendents and a commitment to action.

Does your head  spin when you hear about terrifying things happening to Jews every day - accusations & insults, BDS, campus antisemitism, murders, destruction of Jewish property, threats. Mine does. Where do you begin? What can make a difference? The burden seems impossible to handle.

Our history is one of accomplishing the impossible. If, a Jewish man and his niece defeated the a  king's decree to exterminate the Jews of Persia, if Matityahu, and his sons, won a  war against the Roman army, if Jews built Israel from its' ashes after millenia,  we can unite against antisemitism with enough power to win.Jewish history. after all, is a tale of people accomplishing the impossible.

I can hear the skeptics, all the reasons we cannot succeed and will make no attempt to convince.  Those who are compelled to act  know. History shows is that a small group of people can put a plan in place and ignite actions that work.  Success is contagious.