October 7th changed what it means to be Jewish.
Antisemitism is mainstream again. Here is a personal reflection on how to fight back.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of Moral Clarity.
The High Holidays are nigh, and it is almost one year since Hamas’ October 7th attacks on Israel changed the world for Jews.
Jews are now living in a different world to the one in which I grew up. It is with immense sadness I note that we are back in a world more similar to the one into which my parents, both in their 80s, were born. It means the progress we thought we had made through several generations was illusory. We have regressed to history’s dismal mean.
Data shows that antisemitism had been on the rise for some time before the October 7th massacre, but it unleashed a tsunami of hatred. The scale of it has been transcendently shocking.
Even before Israel had counted its dead and accounted for its abducted, and before it had responded in Gaza, mobs in cities as far apart as London, New York, Jakarta, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur were openly calling for genocide.
No longer limited to the fringes of the Far-Right, Jew-hatred has become mainstream on much of the Left, including in the progressive circles with which many Jews in the Diaspora have traditionally been a driving part.
Antisemitic views are now common in public discourse, universities, multilateral institutions, governments, political parties, non-governmental organizations, and the mainstream media.
My generation enjoyed what may have been the best years in Jews’ long history. Israel’s recreation gave Jews sovereignty for the first time in 2,000 years — allowing generations of Jews to grow up, not as outsiders, but as normal people in their homeland.
Flourishing Western democracies and a Christian re-evaluation of Christian-Jewish relations after the Holocaust allowed Jews in the Diaspora to have their rights protected amid a broad social consensus that antisemitism was something uniquely egregious.
The fall of the Soviet Union allowed Jews from that former empire to emigrate to Israel, or the West, to pursue opportunities of which they previously could only have dreamed.
I went to high school with many Jews who had come from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. My father once joked that we were the Tel Aviv Boys Club. Except for my school being half-empty on Jewish holidays, this was unremarkable. We lived ordinary lives and gave it no thought.
That feels like a long time ago, now. Antisemitism is now so pervasive that Jews can no longer be confident that their classmates, neighbors, colleagues, and workmates are not antisemites. Jews now feel profoundly insecure. Their trust in their wider communities and societies has eroded.
Western governments’ failure to crack down on antisemitism means Jewish communities’ trust in government has plunged, too. Distressingly, governments across the Western world and elsewhere have earned this loss of trust. Their leaders have condemned antisemitism, but not acted to stop it. They have even contributed to it by legitimizing the blood libels against Israel with unfair criticisms of Israel based on carefully constructed Palestinian lies.
Many Jews are now questioning whether it is wise or safe to be visibly Jewish, such as by wearing a kippah, or whether it is safe to send their children to school doing so. Those with obviously Jewish names — such as my good self — cannot hide, as the antisemitic sickness that appears regularly in my email inbox testifies.
What this means in the longer term is beyond this essay’s scope, but it has raised the more immediate questions of how Jews should respond, as a nation, a people, a community, and as individuals.
Here are three components that I see as necessary to an effective response:
1) The Military Response
The Jewish comedian Jackie Mason once joked that “the Israeli army is, man for man, the toughest army in the world, and as soon as you say that some schmuck at the back stands up and starts clapping.”
The Israel Defense Forces, a people’s army if ever there was one, is living up to its reputation and winning the war against Israel’s enemies in the Middle East. The IDF has smashed Hamas in Gaza, has Hezbollah reeling and weakening by the day in Lebanon, and has Iran feeling deeply vulnerable about how it might fare in a war against Israel.
While ignorant Western leaders keep calling for peace and making absurd demands for a two-state solution, Israel is correct that the surest path to peace lies in defeating its enemies, not accommodating them. There can be no peace without security, and it is axiomatic that Israel’s security is best served by diminishing its enemies’ capacity to harm it.
After October 7th and seeing the world’s morally anemic response, I decided I was not going to cede one millimeter of ground to vile antisemites, and not let any lies or antisemitism from any quarter go uncontested.
The days of weak Jews are over.
2) The Narrative Response
I am past war-fighting age and do not live in Israel, but the one war I am equipped to fight is the narrative war. Unlike on the battlefield, Israel is vastly outgunned in the narrative war. It is a war that must always be fought, but in this age of the internet and fake news, it has never been so fierce. This is the space where I feel I can contribute the most.
While the Jihadist Palestinians and their moronic Western supporters have flooded the internet and social media with toxic lies and antisemitic bile, it has been fantastic to see so many people — and not just Jews — stand up for truth and work to counter the so-called “pro-Palestinian” narrative. People of decency have built an online ark in response to this flood.
This gives me confidence. It has shown me that there are still many people of decency who value the truth, know right from wrong, and who are fed up with the post-modernist dystopia that we have created.
3) Reclaiming Jewish Heritage
There is no topic Jews love discussing more than what it is, or what it means, to be Jewish. Judaism is a religion and an ethnicity. Jews hold many different beliefs, some hold none, and they come from many places. This lack of groupthink is a profoundly Jewish trait.
All Jews — whether observant or secular, religious or atheist, matrilineal or patrilineal, born Jewish or converts, Right-wing or Left-wing — must strengthen the Jewish nation by embracing and interacting with their history and traditions.
This will mean different things to different people. For some, it might mean becoming more observant. For others, it might mean celebrating Jewish holidays and rituals they normally pass over. It might be as simple as holding more Shabbat dinners. Maybe it is putting a mezuzah outside your house or simply wearing a Star of David necklace. People can find a way that is meaningful to them.
Much of this can be shared with the many people who are the Jewish people’s friends — and I mean friends, not allies — religious and irreligious, who are equally disgusted by antisemitism’s return.
It does not matter how Jews choose to connect with their identity and history; it matters that they do so. This will strengthen us all.
It is common to hear that Hamas or Islamism cannot be beaten because it is an ideology and you cannot beat an idea. Yet, being Jewish is also an idea, so we must make it one that is hard to defeat. The best way to do that is by engaging with it, connecting with it, and claiming it as an identity, regardless of how any individual chooses to do this.
This is the defense that has kept the Jewish People alive against improbable odds for more than three millennia.
Nachum, I am going to use this comment to you as a template and send it to anyone that may have some influence to initiate what I see are the two components to a necessary response to anti semitism.
1. The Military Response - all Jewish schools and Yeshivas should be offering a required self defense course that students need to pass in order to graduate. Once a student completes the course he/she should be able to handle themselves when physically challenged.
In addition, all these large Jewish organizations who constantly beg for money and do relatively nothing should be offering this course to all non-students, the elderly etc. They should be FREE OF CHARGE and come out of public donations.
2. The Narrative Response - All articles, news stories, opinion pieces on antisemitism should have a CALL TO ACTION. Something that the reader can do to fight whatever antisemitic incident happened. An email address to send a complaint, the name of the individual, the company, whatever .... they should all have a method of contact. Sometimes it can be as simple as writing an email to your local Mayor or elected official but always either an email or a phone number. I have read countless articles on anti semitic acts without a call to action. The writer or journalist should not expect the reader to look it up for themselves. People are lazy and we need to make the process as simple as possible.
Reclaiming Jewish Heritage - I dont really think there needs to be too much done in that area. The anti semitic hatred is enuf of an impetus for reclaiming Jewish Heritage. Look at how all of us are more involved in things Jewish after Oct 7th. We seem to be reclaiming in our sleep.
Papa j
I was raised as a High Holidays/Passover Jew. I went to Hebrew school a couple of afternoons a week as a child (for a short time) and barely learned the alphabet, much less what Judaism was. My first husband was not Jewish and my early adult years were spent in full "assimilation mode". I never hid my Jewishness but I didn't dwell on it either. In those days, Israel was seen as heroic in the eyes of the Western media. I rarely experienced any anti-Semitism, and when I did I figured the person was just an idiot or a misfit. I didn't think that he or she represented a threat.
Twenty years ago, thanks to the Chabad, I began studying Judaism. This coincided with my changing political views and I appreciated the brilliance of our scriptures and sages. I began taking on more mitzvoth with the realization that I would probably never be "Orthodox" in my level of observance, but that I could never go back to being a fully assimilated Jew.
Today, as Israel's existence is threatened and Jews the world over are fighting a Nazi-like Islamo/Leftist scourge, my day starts with learning the latest "Jewish news" and sharing it as widely as possible. I share anything that I think will help our people gain legitimate allies. I use my 20 years of experience studying local and global politics from a Jewish Zionist's prospective to help Jewish liberals shed their illusions and false friends while hanging on to their dream for a peaceful world.
Yes, a mezuzah is visible on my door frame. Yes, I wear a gold chai around my neck. I also have a Star of David keychain hooked to the outside zipper pocket of my shoulder bag. On Chanukkah, an electric menorah shines brightly from my window. And, I recently wrote to the owners of a shopping mall in our Jewish neighborhood in Montreal, Canada - asking them to stop running the anti-Semitic CNN news network on the televisions throughout the mall. Still haven't received an answer to my request but I’m not giving up!
This is not how I expected to be spending my golden years. But I am filled with purpose; not fear. May the New Year bring a sense of purpose and unity to my fellow Jews. May we carve a new future for ourselves – for Israel. Proud, strong, determined and free. With Torah as our blueprint to drive away the darkness and bring the Redemption.