Silent Jews
What are they thinking?
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This is a guest essay written by Dena Tauber, a New York-based attorney who discovered a passion for Israel and Zionism following October 7th.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
I have to wonder about all the Silent Jews out there.
I am not talking about the anti-Zionist Jews who are anything but silent. I am not even necessarily talking about “DEI Jews” who readily stand up for women, LGBTQ, and minorities — except for Jews.
Not even if they are Jewish women who were viciously gang raped by invaders, not even if they are Jews of color who were murdered by terrorists, not even non-Jewish Thai citizens who happened to be working in Israel and were beheaded and taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.
I am talking about the Jews who, since October 7, 2023, are carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. These are mainly, but not all, unaffiliated Jews who feel Jewish almost by accident. They are neither ashamed nor proud. I interact with them every day.
To be sure, there are many Jews who first woke up to their Jewish ethnicity after October 7, 2023, and now proudly speak out against antisemitism and on behalf of the Jewish and non-Jewish hostages being tortured in Gaza.
I know people who are not Jewish but vocally support Israel and condemn antisemitism, and they are like bright lights in the darkness. I feel so much love and support from these special human beings.
I am friends with a number of Jews who are not religiously observant, and they are reeling from October 7, 2023, and the ensuing nightmare that followed as much as I am. Their lives have changed forever, as mine has.
There is a separate category of Jews who are not champions of non-Jewish underdogs and are not anti-Zionists, but neither are they pro-Jewish, pro-Israel, or pro-Zionism. (Some might say apathetic.)
I see Silent Jews as divided into three categories:
The first category: Jews who care but think their voices do not matter. They see a lot of people speaking out, including celebrities, so they believe they cannot be useful.
The second category: Jews who care but are afraid or embarrassed to express their feelings publicly. These may be Jews who have strong Jewish identities, but since they don’t champion other causes, they are equal opportunity non-activists and don’t make an exception for Jews, even if they were horrified by the slaughter of October 7th, and even if they are uncomfortable about the rising antisemitism.
These Jews may be professionals, business owners, bankers, and other people who think they have something to lose, and they don’t want to risk their reputations or offend clients or customers by being “controversial.” Some of these Jews send me private messages to commiserate and some thank me for speaking out. Most do not.
And the third category: Jews who just don’t care and do not believe they are affected by what is happening in Israel and even antisemitism at home, because they don’t feel it is personally directed at them. I would love to have a conversation with a category 3 Silent Jew. Do they feel completely disconnected from other Jews and the State of Israel? Do they think antisemites don’t mean “them”?
The epicenter of modern antisemitism is on the university campuses.
Who ever imagined that college students would march around wearing keffiyehs glorifying the mass murder of Jews? (Does anyone think these kids care about people in Gaza, where they have no connection and don’t even understand the conflict?)
The predicament of Jewish students and professors bears an eerie resemblance to the earliest anti-Jewish policies in Nazi Germany. Jewish university students and their Jewish professors were dismissed and forbidden to enter the universities. No doubt the university administrators believed they could not keep the Jews safe.
It is tempting to keep your head down and wait for things to blow over. But that strategy has worked poorly for Jews in the past.
There are loud and ugly voices defaming the State of Israel in the worst ways. There are people out there who smugly ripped down posters of captives being held prisoner in dark tunnels because they were Jews. There are people who tore up posters of 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir when they were kidnapped with Shiri, their mother.
One side effect of silence in the face of these types of activities is scant public sympathy for the hostages. Many hostages have already been murdered by their captors. As survivors trickle out of Gaza, we are learning of the inhuman treatment they received (and those still held captive continue to receive) at the hands of their Palestinian captors: starvation, shackles, being hung upside down, sexual abuse of women and men. (As one hostage put it, “At least the men can’t get pregnant.”)
Yes, folks, it is that bad.
I think it’s worth risking my reputation and career to speak out against this insanity that threatens my people and my family. I am lucky to be included in a group of other Jewish women lawyers (it may be a coincidence that we are all lawyers) who are vocal in support of Israel, the hostages, and to bring attention to Jew-hatred, so I have some support.
But we are not enough. We can’t bear to witness the hatred that our brothers and sisters are bearing on our behalf. The civilized world has already failed them, and we Jews owe them.
We might feel helpless and think our opinions don’t matter — and, individually, maybe they don’t. But together we can make a loud noise, and that matters.
Jews in the diaspora do not have the luxury of ignoring any form of the Jew-hatred that wants to cancel us. October 7th was not just another terrorist attack against Israelis. What is happening today is not the “normal” antisemitism of the past few decades.
I recall listening to American columnist and writer Dan Senor, on his podcast “Call Me Back,” interviewing Scott Galloway, a famed professor at New York University’s School of Business.
Before October 7th, Galloway said he was barely aware of being Jewish. October 7th woke him up. He talked about how the Jewish elite in Germany thought their success made them immune to the coming atrocities and chose to keep quiet and fly the under the radar until it was too late; how students on campuses have conflated the civil rights movement with the pro-Palestinian movement; the shame piled on Jews who speak out in support of Israel.
I'm not saying we are going to be rounded up into cattle cars anytime soon. But I also would not say, “It can't happen here.” — whatever “it” turns out to be for our generation. We Jews have the unfortunate tendency to think that our position in society is of great value and will protect us. Sadly, it may not.
We don’t have to let the world ignore the rape and murder Jews.
Let’s do it better this time around.
Wow Janet- that is actually terrifying. What does Hamas have to do with giving birth?
I recently attended a live taping of a Bari Weiss Honestly podcast where she interviewed Simon Sebag Montefiore, a noted historian. He feels that the past 75 years have been an aberration in Jewish history. That is, Jews sense of relative safety and security, particularly in Western democracies, was never going to last. Personally, I have faced the question as to whether or not I should change the name of my midwifery practice which identifies me as being Jewish, Besholem Birth Midwifery, to something not associated with Judaism. Since last Spring my practice volume has fallen almost to nothing. Last month was my web site’s best performing month with 111 site visits, but only two that resulted in actual contacts. Last April I was openly questioned by a couple interviewing me whether or not I supported Hamas, as they could not use my services if I did not. This is a place I never dreamed I would find myself in but here we are.