DEVARIM 5781
Tisha B’Av, Could It Happen Here?
Why does anti-Semitism—Jew hatred—have such power? It’s a great mystery that, perhaps, only Gd knows. We see it in our Torah reading where Moses reviews for the people how when they asked permission—as they were travelling through the desert to the Promised Land—to pass through other people’s land, they were not only refused, but attacked for no reason other than that they were Jews! We see it in the litany of the worst tragedies ever to befall us—all of them happened on Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av) which we commemorate tonight and tomorrow. And we see it today.
Only just a few years ago it looked like anti-Semitism had all but disappeared in America. In fact, 10 years ago I spoke about a new phenomenon—about how being Jewish was so cool, as we heard in Adam Sandler’s famous “Hanukkah Song,” describing how many famous people are really Jewish. Let me read you a bit from my Rosh Hashanah sermon that year: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes picked the name Suri—a Biblical variant of Sarah—for their daughter. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their daughter “Shiloh”—after the Biblical city where the Tabernacle was placed by King David. We have Madonna studying Kabbalah, not holding concerts on Shabbos and visiting Israel for Rosh Hashanah. Mattisyahu, a Lubavitcher Chassid clad in black hat and tzitzis, is now atop the rap music charts. There were 2 Orthodox contestants on “The Apprentice.” On the “National Spelling Bee” 2 of the words used for the contestants were: Yizkor and Hechsher. The Wall St. Journal reports that non-Jewish children in Long Island are asking for Bar/Bat Mitzvah parties so that they can also be lifted on a chair and celebrated.
There has been a recent trend for non-Jewish celebrities to wear Jewish jewelry. Sarah Palin sometimes wears a big Magen David pendant and Elijah Wood has a ring inscribed with a quote from Pirke Avot, Im lo achshav eymatai, “If not now when?” Then there are all those red-string bracelets worn by Madona, Demi More and Ashton Kutcher—not to mention Justin Beiber’s new Hebrew tattoo he got in Israel. What in the world is going on? It all leads to inescapable conclusion that Jewish is really cool.
Well, it’s 10 years later and being Jewish is not so cool anymore. Anti-Semitism has surfaced yet again, and in a big way. Jews constitute just 2% of the US population, but they are the victims in more than 60 % of religion-based hate crimes, according to the FBI's most recent Hate Crimes Statistics report. We see in the media subtle and not so subtle accounts of verbal anti-Semitism by high officials and intellectuals, and anti-Semitic physical attacks by common street thugs. Here’s a few examples:
- During the Gaza war last month, we saw Jews attacked at kosher restaurants in Los Angeles and New York, with attackers attacking only if they admitted they were Jews!
- On July 1stwe had the stabbing of Rabbi Shlomo Noginski outside Shaloh House—the Jewish day school and synagogue in Boston's Brighton neighborhood. 24-year-old Khaled Awad, was formally charged with a hate crime.
- Last month April Powers lost her jobas chief equity and inclusion officer for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. What was her crime? It was posting a message on social media deploring, “the increase in hate speech and random violence against Jewish people.” Astonishingly, that post generated a furious backlash because it didn’t mention Islamophobia. Powers, who is black and Jewish, was forced to resign and inundated with death threats.
- Also, last month, a Philadelphia festival, Eat Up the Borders, billed as “a curated event celebrating diversity through food,” cut Moshava, an Israeli food truck from the event, citing “the concerns of community.” One complaint read: “I’m absolutely disgusted by the cultural appropriation of Palestinian food in this event. I will definitely not be attending and telling all my friends the same.” Notice how they word it—it sounds like justice. It sounds like inclusivity and openness. This is how antisemitism becomes mainstream.”
- During the Gaza war, the NY Times—along with most of the media—had op-ed after op-ed condemning Israel, but not a single op-ed—while 5 thousand missiles were falling on Israel’s population centers—not a single op-ed in the American newspaper of record with one positive word about Israel! What none of the op-eds made mention of—none—was that Hamas calls for not just the destruction of Israel, but for the destruction of Jews—me and you
- This is all in addition to the constant anti-Semitic rants of Rashida Talaib and Ilhan Omar, and the insult we feel when their democratic colleagues refuse to condemn them.
Jeff Jacoby writes in aish.com (How Jew-Hatred is Different from Other Forms of Prejudice 7/12/21): Anti-Semitism is something else. The most dangerous anti-Semites don’t regard Jews or Judaism as inferior but as the embodiment of what they revile most. For millennia, anti-Semites have identified Jews with whatever in their worldview was uniquely detestable or treacherous: Medieval Christians abominated Jews for not worshiping Jesus. Communists painted Jews as greedy bourgeois capitalists. Industrialist Henry Ford accused Jews of manipulating the global economy. The Nazis depicted Jews as vermin polluting German racial purity…Black nationalists smear Jews as racists who caused the slave trade and Jim Crow. Haters of Israel ostracize Jews for supporting the Jewish state. Anti-Semitism has existed for as long as Jews have existed, shape-shifting to fit the times. It has proved the most ineradicable of hatreds because, like a virus, it mutates…
It was easy for progressives and Democrats to express horror when a right-wing murderer opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, but many were reluctant to condemn the numerous attacks on US Jews and Jewish institutions by anti-Israel fanatics during the recent fighting in Gaza.”
As Dr. Martin Luther King jr. responded when approached by a student who attacked Zionism: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews—and you’re talking antisemitism!”
And now, many American Jews have not only become complacent, they’re ignoring it or worse, joining the fray. It is unbelievable to me that when asked (poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute) if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Israel is an apartheid state,” 25% of American Jews agreed! Additionally, 34% agreed with the statement: “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the U.S.,” and 22% agreed that, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.” Really?? Genocide?? Does Israel have gas chambers and crematoria?
“Let’s be realistic,” David A. Harris—executive director of the American Jewish Committee—wrote, “Given its longevity, anti-Semitism in one form or another is likely to outlive us all…at least, however, the ability of Jews to stand up to anti-Semitism is greater today than it ever has been.” And he’s right! We can fight it, but we must speak out forcefully and never let up. And we must do that with even our own people—especially our children—so many of whom are grossly ignorant of the dangers of anti-Semitism.
And if we do, with Gd’s help, we just may prevent another Tisha B’Av tragedy. Amen!
