Photo Credit: Asher Schwartz
There’s a reason they call antisemitism, or the more correct term of Jew hatred, the oldest hatred of all.
For it has endured throughout the entire existence of the Jewish people – from Abraham, the first Jew, until today.
It is always there, always changing itself to meet conditions, adapting to circumstances, reworking, modifying, revising.
It is the greatest rebranding in human history, always finding a way to market itself as fresh and new.
Today we see it in all its infamy, seeping from the fringes of society into its very mainstream, like a slow-moving flood weaving and twisting its way through streets and alleyways until the entire landscape is covered.
Sometimes people say, what can we do to destroy this hatred? And the truth is sobering – perhaps more than what they’d like to hear, for the truth is that it is a hatred so ingrained and so ancient, that I don’t believe it can be defeated.
But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless – for we’re not. And education, while a strong and powerful tool – perhaps the most powerful, must be used to combat the lies about us, we must be prepared and under no illusion that that while we can fight it, defeating it is something that is just not realistic.
Many Jews around the world throughout our history, have sought to give in to those who wish us gone, by aligning with our enemies, adapting to religions that persecute us, hiding their identities and assimilating away from their people, joining groups who wish our Jewish country gone, all in the hopes of a relief and a reprieve from the ongoing pressures they face.
It is a false hope.
People say that these days Jew hatred is found in the political left or the political right.
They are both wrong and right.
For history has shown us all too often that Jew hatred exists across all political spectrums, and like a never-ending tidal wave, it ebbs and flows throughout time…
Today, many on the right have remained far too quiet on the disgusting behaviour of Kanye West, excusing him and treating him with kid gloves, because he happened to adopt many of their policies.
And at the same time, those on the left, who are acting aggrieved and condemning the right for antisemitism, are nothing more than loud mouthed hypocrites who endorse Jew hating groups like BDS and vile evil people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, ignoring their blatant lies and blood libels against the Jewish people.
And if we’re being honest, to quote Candace Owen’s ridiculous defence of Kanye West’s Jew hatred, we have to acknowledge that most obvious truth of all.
There is hatred on all sides – and it really doesn’t care about your political allegiance, for the nature of history is that it is always changing.
I can’t tell you how to defeat the hatred of Jews, but I can tell you that aligning yourself for short term gain will only end up causing long term pain.
And we must never forget that while there are hateful people on all sides, there are also good people, moral people who share the pain that Jews feel and reject the hateful ideology hurled against us, and the best way to combat Jew hatred is to find those who genuinely share our concerns and indignation, because fighting Jew hatred is not just a Jewish issue, but an issue for the consciousness of the world.
But probably the most important action all Jews can take, is to not shy away from our identity, but to embrace it and be proud of who we are as a people, to be proud of our homeland and to be proud of all we have achieved.
We are an ancient people, living in a modern world, holding onto an identity that is constantly at threat by evil forces. But as long as we hold onto who we are as a people, despite everything that is thrown at us, we can never be defeated.
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