Jews are being attacked in places that once were safe for them.
In an old synagogue where I used to pray there was a very old rabbi. I didn’t have much interaction with him—actually I was terrified of him because he looked so serious. One day, he came over to me and told me a story. “I was in Vilnius when the Nazis conquered Lithuania. The SS set up a branch of the German Foreign Office in town. I went there shortly after it opened.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to go to Mandate Palestine.”
“Wait one moment.”
After a short wait, he was given all of the requisite permissions and approvals to travel via Berlin to take a boat to Jaffa. He told a friend of his success, but when the latter tried to do the same, the Nazi officials denied him his request. The old rabbi related how he stood on a train platform in Berlin. Around him were Germans with every type of uniform, from SS black to Wehrmacht gray. Nobody molested him and anyone who asked for his papers left satisfied that he was in proper legal condition. Thus, a Jewish boy, a yeshiva student, stood at the heart of world Jew hatred and destruction and was untouchable.
When we were kids my parents swore up and down that they would never step foot again in Germany. After my grandmother passed away, they changed their minds and took us to the Fatherland. During our visit, we met Betty, an old friend of my grandmother. As a Jewish woman, she spent the war years in Berlin. Her husband was a non-Jewish banker, and for the duration of the war he was able to shield her from the Nazis. Her name appeared on the last transport scheduled to leave Berlin for the camps in the east. With the arrival of the Red Army, the train never left Berlin.
Jews today are finding their public square becoming smaller and smaller. I was somewhat surprised to read a report about Jewish doctors attending a professional meeting of the British Medical Association saying that they felt “intimidated and unsafe.” Every Jewish mother wishes that her son become a doctor; now the doctors are wondering if their mothers should have hoped for hedge fund managers instead.
Around the Western world, Jewish public presence is being threatened. Whether it is Jewish-owned businesses that are attacked, synagogues that are desecrated, students pushed around, or Jews actually denied service, what we are witnessing has not been seen since 1930s Germany. In several countries, Israelis have been denied service and told to leave restaurants. As orthodox Jews are the easiest of the tribe to identify, they suffer disproportionate physical and verbal abuse. Antisemitism is like a bacteria that can lay dormant for decades. Under the right conditions, it can explode into a full-blown sickness. As antisemitism is mainstreamed, it is far easier for people to deface Jewish homes or threaten Jewish students on campus—with zero knowledge of their feelings towards Israel, Palestinians, Hamas or the war. What are the drivers for the malignant antisemitism that has gripped the West?
*Qatar is using its billions to spread not only an anti-Israel message but an anti-Jews message throughout the West. As Rabbi Volpe, formerly of Harvard, noted that when encampments sprung up on campus, all of the tents were brand new and of the same make. A recent article described K-12 educators flown first class to Qatar where they received educational material and instruction. Money is the driver for the antisemitic surge. I imagine that the Soros family and others also contribute to anti-Jewish efforts as it makes their being Jewish liveable.
*The Western left has always hated Jews. Marxist systems have always put the Jews in the oppressor class, even if there are many poor Jews or Jews who help those less fortunate. It’s guilt by association, just as “1/8th” Jews in Germany who were not even Jewish were sent to the camps because they had too much Judaism in their blood.
*The Jews. About 20% of the Jews in New York voted for a guy running for mayor who demands an “intifada revolution”. Self-hating Jews are nothing new and being with the Jew haters is the best way to prove that while Jewish one is not bound by any Jewish principle or association. Like the kapos from World War II, they are sure that the Islamists won’t kill them. They’re half right: they’ll kill them last.
*Muslims. Whether home-grown or imported, many Muslims on campus and in the streets of Western capitals are not inhibited from expressing their hatred not only of Israel but all things Jewish. One fellow in London was good enough to say that if called to war, he would gladly cut off the heads of Jews and Christians alike. Whereas countries like the UAE have the good sense to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and all of its nefarious branches, the U.S. and Europe are too enamored in self-immolation to keep out people who wish to kill many of their citizens and turn their countries into third-world hellholes.
Like the rabbi who stood proudly in Berlin, Western Jews will figure out how to navigate a society that hates them. Certain areas will be written off while there will be increased protection of neighborhoods and institutions, like in Europe where every synagogue has police outside. I don’t expect mass aliyah to Israel, especially with Iran doing some horrible destruction of apartment buildings in the middle of the country. Jews have lived for ages in places where they were hated, and unfortunately the once accepting West is now becoming much the same. There is no question that there are many non-Jews who are friends to the Jewish people and Israel. Whenever we would go around Las Vegas, people would see our Jewish garb and tell us how much they love Israel. The problem in the West, as in Israel, is that a minority is enough to be a problem. Even if only 5 percent of Palestinians are involved in terror, Israel has a problem. And the same in the U.S.: it only takes a small percentage of people to make Jews’ lives unpleasant and possibly unsafe.
While New York has been home to a huge Jewish population for over 100 years, that means nothing for the future. If the pro-intifada Democrat is elected and actually follows through on his program, Jews will look elsewhere. Many Jews left towns that they had lived in for decades when their old homes no longer supported them. Jessie Jackson conveniently called New York “Hymie Town” forty years ago; in a few years, it might be called Islamabad.
For generations, Jews have had to weigh the safety of their surroundings and adapt. When we were in Safed a few weeks ago, we stumbled upon an ancient bakery that had been refurbished and reborn. The proprietor told us that it was Jews who fled the Inquisition in Spain who came to the Galilee and opened the bakery around 1500. My mother and her parents left a Germany that hated them and boarded the SS Washington which took them to Ellis Island and Washington Heights. As the West’s Qatar-fueled Jew hatred grows, Jews will adapt. Some will move to Israel but most will hunker down and figure out where they can best live their lives safely and happily until a better day emerges.