How to Deal with Growing Anti-Semitism

Let’s borrow a commonly misused term, replace a word and add it correctly to the lexicon of the mainstream media pundits. “Systemic racism,” used to depict the supposed hatred against blacks, can be realistically changed to “Systemic Jew-hating,” a more accurate description of such bigotry growing throughout our nation and the world against Jews, a truly, besieged minority. Most recently, a crowd of coordinated Black Lives Matter supporters physically attacked a Jewish political motorcade in NYC. According to NYPD reports, the physical attacks by blacks against Jews is constantly rising, leading to many in law enforcement to believe Jews are being targeted for their manner of dress, their vulnerability as being non-belligerent and of course, for simply being Jews. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism reported that through Nov. 3rd of last year, of the 364 hate crimes reported in New York, 160 targeted Jewish people. The FBI reports a 13% increase in Jew hating crimes last year, with prospects of it surpassing that figure in 2020.

“The surge of attacks on the Jewish community, in large cities like New York and in smaller cities like Pittsburgh and Poway, really has no precedent,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer of the ADL. “The severity of these incidents seems to be increasing in both their aggressiveness and physicality,” he said. He supported his words with statistics, adding that there were 780 Jew hating incidents, assaults, vandalism and harassment, nationwide, in just the first half of 2019, alone.

But not only Jew hating, but the never ceasing, apparently inborn fear that Jews have of being attacked and even murdered for their faith is found in remote areas, as well. In the town of Bozeman, Montana, (Yes, there are Jews in Montana,) Rabbi Chaim Bruk, the co-CEO of Chabad Lubavitch, chimed in on the topic of the surge of Jew hating. “The natural response would be to hide, to take off our yarmulkes and stop shopping in the kosher section of the grocery store. But we’re not going to cower or run away. We’re going to continue celebrating, even if they’re going to make it a little harder.”

The rabbi is right on the mark. We Jews have to stand up, not “cower” or retreat from those who hate and attack us. But we’ll go a step further. We must finally unite as a physically strong people and indicate we will fight back. Jews in Israel stand together and inflict harsh punishment on their abusers. They exude sturdiness and strength. Back in the days of Rabbi Kahane, the Jewish Defense League in NYC rose up and created an image of tough Jews who defended the Jewish community with muscle to replace weakness. We are calling for our leaders to stop begging our attackers to give us peace. A show of militancy, a mindset of fighting back is what is needed to protect us. Let’s work to the time when others will cross the street to avoid a bunch of Jewish men approaching them. It’s time we all became Maccabees. We repeat, “It’s time!”