I must live somewhat in a bubble. I hear of things here and there with antisemitism but had no idea it was so rapidly growing. I thought yesterday about what might be mine to do in this small slice of the world I occupy.. I found out we have an Anne Frank museum at a near by university, I plan to take our children next week. It isn’t a large thing to do but I can educate my children and myself.
I've noticed that jew hatred is emerging again in pop culture. But I don't get it. Why do people want to persecute the jews? The only answer I can come up with is envy. Other cultures don't like the jews because they're successful. Envy certainly seems to be the main driver of socialism, another disturbing trend.
I don't get it either, Chas. But neither do the experts. The truth is, if one looks at institutions that are leading to the moral decline of America, such as Hollywood and the liberal arts in higher learning, Jews will be found, as they will be found in uplifting (but unmentioned) institutions. America has been incredibly good to the Jews. I simply believe that antisemitism should be irrelevant, and will be, when Jews come home to Israel. The millions that will now be spent to no avail on battling antisemitism would be of better use to resettle Jews in Israel. Thanks for your comment!
In America it was supposed to be “Never Again” since I was a child. It is heartbreaking to see and hear the hatred. Thanks for sharing how to help when the time comes to say goodbye with goodwill forever. It will be a sad time herein the USA.
P.S. I have learned never to to convince my Jewish friends to accept Jesus. But there is one loophole: If I’m asked a question, I am free to answer until I see the expression that that discussion is over.
Education is definitely key here . I admire Israel and the Jews . Focused ,hard working ,strong communities, and peaceful. It’s just so disgusting what I am seeing but remember it’s a minority of ignorance. Islam is a retardant based religion . In fact it’s not even a religion. An excuse to do evil .
Do you really think Israel can absorb all Jews? Doesn’t Israel already have plenty of its own problems? I hear what you’re saying, and the fear is real—but it seems unlikely that a country currently engaged in an existential war for its own survival could absorb all Jewish people, not just the young and capable who could contribute to its military strength. I sound like an even worse pessimist, I guess.
Absolutely. No problem whatsoever. Including tired and poor and elderly Jews. As for the war, Israel just has to decide to win it and it is won, in short order.
I understand where you’re coming from, and it’s certainly alarming what we’re seeing. But my understanding of pogroms and the like is that they were nearly always encouraged, if not actually instigated by authorities. American government and the American people are still on the side of the Jews in that regard. And if America turns against the Jews, what chance does Israel have? Europe is a different matter perhaps…
WOW. Frankly I have been saying this since 1983, - I was laughed at and told by American Jews it would never happen in the USA. Of course my late mother was a German Jew born in Berlin and raised in Mannheim , my father from Beuthen O.S. so what did I know?
I agree with you that this is coming, in fact it is already here (perhaps it never left). However 😃, I have a couple of points of precision:
1. You say eloquently: "It is because the Jews are on a mission from God. Period. The lowest handmaid at Mount Sinai saw and heard what even the greatest Prophets did not see or hear. We are commanded. For all of our generations. The voice from Sinai still resonates with its message of ultimate morality in the air that touches our ears, circling the Earth like the crack of Krakatoa forever. End of story until the end of time."
This is not correct. The generic handmaid you speak of never heard God talk directly but through Moses at Sinai and that, of her own volition. I know that your Talmud says she did but the Torah says precisely the opposite (Deuteronomy 20:18-21).
2. The way you explain the ongoing hatred between the Jewish people and those who unwisely would want them as their enemies, points to an unending conflict for which Jews and those who pray for Jerusalem must arm themselves in preparation. Though that will be so and conflicts will increase in number and intensity, why do we stubbornly reject the promise of God's prophet, the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-, and insist on fighting God's battle with our hands and not let God rule our hearts, subverting in this way God's commandments in the process?
With this attitude, we seem to say we are 'righter' than God Himself and know more than He does.
Ehud is most likely far too polite to say this, so I will.
Your proselytizing is no more than a continuation of centuries of persecution and attempting to convert us—-usually at the sword, so at least you are a tiny bit better than that. But only a tiny bit. You contribute to our murder with such attitudes, and then pretend to be a friend.
In the USA we still have the opportunity to protect ourselves with lethal force. Instead, we try to intellectualize our way to survival? The result — shot dead in cold blood, burned with homemade flamethrowers, chased around campus like stray dogs. If our survival instinct has been pacified by our intellect we might as well walk to the camps and await the extermination.
I do not care if I am hated. That’s the haters burden. All acts of violence against us/me will be met with lethal force.
How can a smart people be so stupid?
I have been preparing my entire life for this moment. I am ready.
I will not walk to the abyss of the open pits to be shot in the back of the head.
“This is not a post that I would have chosen freely to write.”
I believe you have expressed yourself very well Ehud, and the burden of bearing your message to your audience comes through in your writing.
To a very large extent, I agree with you.
We differ on the theological aspect of the Messiah, but I am well aware of the dynamics behind Jewish rejection of Yeshua - as well as with the overtures of ‘Christendom’. And, while I realize it means little to many Jews, I am ashamed of, and share disgust with, the primary history behind Jewish/Christian relations.
But, let’s leave that aside here, and focus on the critically important message that we agree on, the pending rise in antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israelism. In that regard, we are in full agreement, but I believe it is going to be far worse than you see it. And, accordingly, this is a response that I wish I didn’t believe I had to share.
My beliefs in this regard are based on a foundational belief in the (written) Bible as the inspired Word of G-d. And, as such, by extension, that it is the ultimate and imminently trustworthy authority on any subject it touches upon.
Of course, even if one tracks with me in the above statement of foundational belief, the crux of the issue then becomes that of proper interpretation and application. Here, things can, and do, get terribly frustrating, confusing, and increasingly, contentious.
All that to acknowledge that my perspectives in respect to what I am sharing here are rejected, and even vehemently attacked, by many professing Christians - not to mention Jews and people in general.
As a final introductory point, while my belief is that the Bible is comprised of both the Tanakh and Brit Hadasha, my beliefs in terms of the subject of current and prospective antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israelism can be derived solely from the Tanakh, though they are most fully informed on the basis of both sets of writings.
Having said all that, on the basis of my understanding of Biblical prophecy, the current vile, evil, antisemitism that is rapidly spreading around the world, will only grow stronger and stronger. It will reach successive convulsive points, and will recede in force here and there, but it is going to grow far worse than we now see, before it gets ‘better’ - for a brief time.
That ‘better’ point will actually come as a result of a coming global turmoil that will reshape the entire geopolitical world, out of which ‘the man of peace’, who will actually be the anti-Christ, will rise to dominance.
There are a number of diverse views regarding the ethnic and religious identity of this coming world leader; many believing that he will be a Muslim.
My own view is that he will arise out of the Jewish Diaspora.
How this person could not only survive, but rise to a position of such geopolitical prominence in a time of rampant antisemitism is a mystery. But that shouldn’t pose a problem; there have always been mysteries in our world, particularly in regard to spiritual matters.
At any rate, this ‘coming prince’ will rise to such power that he will be able to enter into - and enforce - a ‘covenant of peace’ with Israel that will, amongst other things, give her the green light to rebuild the Temple on Temple Mount, with the intention of entirely reinstituting the sacrificial system.
From my perspective, this person will not only be Jewish, but he will be embraced and acclaimed as the promised Jewish Messiah, and it will largely be on the basis of this globally enforced ‘peace’, and the rebuilding of the Temple.
The formalization of this agreement/covenant will actually mark commencement of the seven year period known by many Bible scholars as ‘Daniel’s seventieth week’ (of years) or more commonly, ‘The Tribulation’. There will follow a three and one-half year period of peace and prosperity.
At the end of that three and a-half years, however, the anti-Christ will come to Jerusalem to attend the commemoration rites of the rebuilt Temple, during which he will proclaim himself to be G-d, and demand to be worshipped as such.
It is that point that the Jewish people as a whole realize they have been deceived; their agreement was actually the ‘covenant with death’ referred to in Isaiah 28 - and all Hell quite literally breaks out…
This ushers in ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’, referred to in Jeremiah 30:7, which will be a global persecution of the Jewish people surpassing even the Holocaust. There is much that could be said about this, but the most important point is that it is only from within the nation of Israel, that any significant resistance will be possible. And that is why it is so terribly important that Diaspora Jews take what is happening very seriously, and do whatever they can to make Aaliyah as soon as possible, so as to provide at least some time to get settled in and established in the Land.
I well know that this ‘picture’ is a depressing and extremely hard one to accept. Trust me, I ran from G-d for twenty-five years because I didn’t want to believe it myself. But, as Ayn Rand once said, “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
Tragically, it seems that ignoring reality is a common trait of fallen human nature. And I expect that many Jewish people will continue to ignore (as much as possible), or attempt to explain away, this rising existential threat to the Chosen People. If so, they will come to lament that mistake.
As dark as this picture is, I want to end by affirming my absolute conviction that the G-d of Israel WILL, in fact, come to the rescue of the remnant of His people at the end of the Tribulation.
Those who are knowledgeable, Bible-believing Christians, believe that, immediately preceding that point, the Jewish people will recognize and embrace Yeshua as their true Messiah, but that is another subject, albeit one with grave, eternal consequences for countless people.
Be that as it may, the Day will come when ALL G-d’s promises to the patriarchs and, through them, to the Chosen People, will be fulfilled, to the smallest degree of the smallest detail. Israel WILL BE the Head of the Nations, and all nations WILL come to Jerusalem to pay homage to the G-d of all creation; the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who will be sitting on the throne of David…
But first, we must continue to walk as sojourners through this world, by faith - so help us G-d.
Jews in America are but 3% of the population. They are the "canary in the coal mine" of our society. Once the Jews are "delt" with, who will be next? Yes, there will be a next, there always is.
For most Jews, the problem of anti-Semitism is built into their lives, their behavior, their worldview. They don't just live with it, they live in it for generations. Even though somewhere at some time it becomes a light version, almost invisible, is condemned or seems completely harmless. For me, anti-Semitism is personal. I grew up in an atmosphere of, if not encouragement, then benevolent semi-approval of anti-Semitism. Already at the age of seven, I made a choice when I did not (of course, this was unconsciously and perhaps accidentally) side with the older children who teased a Jewish boy and did not include him in their games and activities because he was Jewish. Perhaps since then I have begun to carefully choose between the screaming demands of the crowd and my own opinion. As a child, I heard all the blood libels concocted by generations of anti-Semites, stories about the "meanness and cunning" of the Jews, and I saw that this had nothing to do with the real people I knew, who were much more morally superior than those who told about them. Already at the University, I was taught as "justice" the reason why the percentage of Jews in higher education institutions should be limited, and I perceived this as an attack on my personal morality, an attempt to get my agreement with these ideas. Therefore, anti-Semitism in all its manifestations, both the ancient semi-religious, semi-sectarian, and the more fashionable anti-Zionist and simply pathologically hateful, was disgusting to me and caused only anger and a desire to resist, because it was directed not only at the Jews, but also at my worldview. For over forty years my life and work have been closely connected with the Jewish people, for over a quarter of a century I have been closely connected with the land of Israel, which I have studied and understood enough to have a firm and unshakable opinion about the rightness, the rights of the Jewish people and the correct choice of the path it is taking. And this is not the fanaticism of Islamic and pan-Arab anti-Semites, not the inflated sense of moral superiority and dogmatic bias of anti-Zionists. This is a long and difficult path of knowledge, observation and moral analysis that I have gone through.
I identify anti-Semites even before they express their (usually ignorant) claims against Jews and Israel, simply by the way they allegedly "want to understand the problem", but already have the intention to accuse, defame or delegitimize.
It seemed to me that anti-Semitism was disappearing, becoming a marginal movement, a refuge for illiterate, ignorant and limited people.
I was wrong. Anti-Semitism has taken other forms, disguises itself under different terms, receives academic degrees and titles, is reborn in grotesque and absurd theories, spreads like a virus and attacks like Alzheimer's.
But I still see it, define it, and will point to it as one of the greatest evils on earth.
My family lived in a very Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx when I was a kid. We moved to S. Florida when I was 7 years old. There was a neighbor, Howie who was friends with my older brother. He wore a kipah and walked home from school with us. Our parents (west side story Puerto Ricans) always said to us, “Play with the Jewish kids and be good to them. They are the chosen people.” I have never forgotten this early lesson and I never will.
Only pseudo intellectuals are antisemites. The true learned are either observant Jews themselves, atheists Zionists, or morally consistent religious people.
I need to start telling the stories that formed me (I guess I have already begun?). But I think I will know when it is time to write more. For now “Emerald” (the name my brothers called me when we spoke English), and Esmeralda Eulalia (the name my parents gave me at birth—EEN initials), needs to keep learning from so many great people like you and the people I come across due to your interactions. Thank you so much!
And I thought I was a pessamist.
It's rolling to fast this time. I cannot see any logical point where it might be contained.
I must live somewhat in a bubble. I hear of things here and there with antisemitism but had no idea it was so rapidly growing. I thought yesterday about what might be mine to do in this small slice of the world I occupy.. I found out we have an Anne Frank museum at a near by university, I plan to take our children next week. It isn’t a large thing to do but I can educate my children and myself.
That is thoughtful! Thanks for the comment.
I've noticed that jew hatred is emerging again in pop culture. But I don't get it. Why do people want to persecute the jews? The only answer I can come up with is envy. Other cultures don't like the jews because they're successful. Envy certainly seems to be the main driver of socialism, another disturbing trend.
I don't get it either, Chas. But neither do the experts. The truth is, if one looks at institutions that are leading to the moral decline of America, such as Hollywood and the liberal arts in higher learning, Jews will be found, as they will be found in uplifting (but unmentioned) institutions. America has been incredibly good to the Jews. I simply believe that antisemitism should be irrelevant, and will be, when Jews come home to Israel. The millions that will now be spent to no avail on battling antisemitism would be of better use to resettle Jews in Israel. Thanks for your comment!
In America it was supposed to be “Never Again” since I was a child. It is heartbreaking to see and hear the hatred. Thanks for sharing how to help when the time comes to say goodbye with goodwill forever. It will be a sad time herein the USA.
P.S. I have learned never to to convince my Jewish friends to accept Jesus. But there is one loophole: If I’m asked a question, I am free to answer until I see the expression that that discussion is over.
Thanks Michelle, all around.
Education is definitely key here . I admire Israel and the Jews . Focused ,hard working ,strong communities, and peaceful. It’s just so disgusting what I am seeing but remember it’s a minority of ignorance. Islam is a retardant based religion . In fact it’s not even a religion. An excuse to do evil .
Do you really think Israel can absorb all Jews? Doesn’t Israel already have plenty of its own problems? I hear what you’re saying, and the fear is real—but it seems unlikely that a country currently engaged in an existential war for its own survival could absorb all Jewish people, not just the young and capable who could contribute to its military strength. I sound like an even worse pessimist, I guess.
Absolutely. No problem whatsoever. Including tired and poor and elderly Jews. As for the war, Israel just has to decide to win it and it is won, in short order.
I understand where you’re coming from, and it’s certainly alarming what we’re seeing. But my understanding of pogroms and the like is that they were nearly always encouraged, if not actually instigated by authorities. American government and the American people are still on the side of the Jews in that regard. And if America turns against the Jews, what chance does Israel have? Europe is a different matter perhaps…
Point well taken.
WOW. Frankly I have been saying this since 1983, - I was laughed at and told by American Jews it would never happen in the USA. Of course my late mother was a German Jew born in Berlin and raised in Mannheim , my father from Beuthen O.S. so what did I know?
Wow right back at you. That's pretty amazing. In 1983 I would have said the same thing, that it could never happen in the USA.
BTW your essay was very well written.
Martha's Vineyard? Nice place I have been there. 1987 ish...
I agree with you that this is coming, in fact it is already here (perhaps it never left). However 😃, I have a couple of points of precision:
1. You say eloquently: "It is because the Jews are on a mission from God. Period. The lowest handmaid at Mount Sinai saw and heard what even the greatest Prophets did not see or hear. We are commanded. For all of our generations. The voice from Sinai still resonates with its message of ultimate morality in the air that touches our ears, circling the Earth like the crack of Krakatoa forever. End of story until the end of time."
This is not correct. The generic handmaid you speak of never heard God talk directly but through Moses at Sinai and that, of her own volition. I know that your Talmud says she did but the Torah says precisely the opposite (Deuteronomy 20:18-21).
2. The way you explain the ongoing hatred between the Jewish people and those who unwisely would want them as their enemies, points to an unending conflict for which Jews and those who pray for Jerusalem must arm themselves in preparation. Though that will be so and conflicts will increase in number and intensity, why do we stubbornly reject the promise of God's prophet, the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-, and insist on fighting God's battle with our hands and not let God rule our hearts, subverting in this way God's commandments in the process?
With this attitude, we seem to say we are 'righter' than God Himself and know more than He does.
Thank you for your time and blessings.
Ehud is most likely far too polite to say this, so I will.
Your proselytizing is no more than a continuation of centuries of persecution and attempting to convert us—-usually at the sword, so at least you are a tiny bit better than that. But only a tiny bit. You contribute to our murder with such attitudes, and then pretend to be a friend.
Go to hell.
Sick and tired of the whining.
In the USA we still have the opportunity to protect ourselves with lethal force. Instead, we try to intellectualize our way to survival? The result — shot dead in cold blood, burned with homemade flamethrowers, chased around campus like stray dogs. If our survival instinct has been pacified by our intellect we might as well walk to the camps and await the extermination.
I do not care if I am hated. That’s the haters burden. All acts of violence against us/me will be met with lethal force.
How can a smart people be so stupid?
I have been preparing my entire life for this moment. I am ready.
I will not walk to the abyss of the open pits to be shot in the back of the head.
Strong backing on this, Candace.
“This is not a post that I would have chosen freely to write.”
I believe you have expressed yourself very well Ehud, and the burden of bearing your message to your audience comes through in your writing.
To a very large extent, I agree with you.
We differ on the theological aspect of the Messiah, but I am well aware of the dynamics behind Jewish rejection of Yeshua - as well as with the overtures of ‘Christendom’. And, while I realize it means little to many Jews, I am ashamed of, and share disgust with, the primary history behind Jewish/Christian relations.
But, let’s leave that aside here, and focus on the critically important message that we agree on, the pending rise in antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israelism. In that regard, we are in full agreement, but I believe it is going to be far worse than you see it. And, accordingly, this is a response that I wish I didn’t believe I had to share.
My beliefs in this regard are based on a foundational belief in the (written) Bible as the inspired Word of G-d. And, as such, by extension, that it is the ultimate and imminently trustworthy authority on any subject it touches upon.
Of course, even if one tracks with me in the above statement of foundational belief, the crux of the issue then becomes that of proper interpretation and application. Here, things can, and do, get terribly frustrating, confusing, and increasingly, contentious.
All that to acknowledge that my perspectives in respect to what I am sharing here are rejected, and even vehemently attacked, by many professing Christians - not to mention Jews and people in general.
As a final introductory point, while my belief is that the Bible is comprised of both the Tanakh and Brit Hadasha, my beliefs in terms of the subject of current and prospective antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israelism can be derived solely from the Tanakh, though they are most fully informed on the basis of both sets of writings.
Having said all that, on the basis of my understanding of Biblical prophecy, the current vile, evil, antisemitism that is rapidly spreading around the world, will only grow stronger and stronger. It will reach successive convulsive points, and will recede in force here and there, but it is going to grow far worse than we now see, before it gets ‘better’ - for a brief time.
That ‘better’ point will actually come as a result of a coming global turmoil that will reshape the entire geopolitical world, out of which ‘the man of peace’, who will actually be the anti-Christ, will rise to dominance.
There are a number of diverse views regarding the ethnic and religious identity of this coming world leader; many believing that he will be a Muslim.
My own view is that he will arise out of the Jewish Diaspora.
How this person could not only survive, but rise to a position of such geopolitical prominence in a time of rampant antisemitism is a mystery. But that shouldn’t pose a problem; there have always been mysteries in our world, particularly in regard to spiritual matters.
At any rate, this ‘coming prince’ will rise to such power that he will be able to enter into - and enforce - a ‘covenant of peace’ with Israel that will, amongst other things, give her the green light to rebuild the Temple on Temple Mount, with the intention of entirely reinstituting the sacrificial system.
From my perspective, this person will not only be Jewish, but he will be embraced and acclaimed as the promised Jewish Messiah, and it will largely be on the basis of this globally enforced ‘peace’, and the rebuilding of the Temple.
The formalization of this agreement/covenant will actually mark commencement of the seven year period known by many Bible scholars as ‘Daniel’s seventieth week’ (of years) or more commonly, ‘The Tribulation’. There will follow a three and one-half year period of peace and prosperity.
At the end of that three and a-half years, however, the anti-Christ will come to Jerusalem to attend the commemoration rites of the rebuilt Temple, during which he will proclaim himself to be G-d, and demand to be worshipped as such.
It is that point that the Jewish people as a whole realize they have been deceived; their agreement was actually the ‘covenant with death’ referred to in Isaiah 28 - and all Hell quite literally breaks out…
This ushers in ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’, referred to in Jeremiah 30:7, which will be a global persecution of the Jewish people surpassing even the Holocaust. There is much that could be said about this, but the most important point is that it is only from within the nation of Israel, that any significant resistance will be possible. And that is why it is so terribly important that Diaspora Jews take what is happening very seriously, and do whatever they can to make Aaliyah as soon as possible, so as to provide at least some time to get settled in and established in the Land.
I well know that this ‘picture’ is a depressing and extremely hard one to accept. Trust me, I ran from G-d for twenty-five years because I didn’t want to believe it myself. But, as Ayn Rand once said, “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
Tragically, it seems that ignoring reality is a common trait of fallen human nature. And I expect that many Jewish people will continue to ignore (as much as possible), or attempt to explain away, this rising existential threat to the Chosen People. If so, they will come to lament that mistake.
As dark as this picture is, I want to end by affirming my absolute conviction that the G-d of Israel WILL, in fact, come to the rescue of the remnant of His people at the end of the Tribulation.
Those who are knowledgeable, Bible-believing Christians, believe that, immediately preceding that point, the Jewish people will recognize and embrace Yeshua as their true Messiah, but that is another subject, albeit one with grave, eternal consequences for countless people.
Be that as it may, the Day will come when ALL G-d’s promises to the patriarchs and, through them, to the Chosen People, will be fulfilled, to the smallest degree of the smallest detail. Israel WILL BE the Head of the Nations, and all nations WILL come to Jerusalem to pay homage to the G-d of all creation; the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who will be sitting on the throne of David…
But first, we must continue to walk as sojourners through this world, by faith - so help us G-d.
Am Israel Chai!
Jews in America are but 3% of the population. They are the "canary in the coal mine" of our society. Once the Jews are "delt" with, who will be next? Yes, there will be a next, there always is.
For most Jews, the problem of anti-Semitism is built into their lives, their behavior, their worldview. They don't just live with it, they live in it for generations. Even though somewhere at some time it becomes a light version, almost invisible, is condemned or seems completely harmless. For me, anti-Semitism is personal. I grew up in an atmosphere of, if not encouragement, then benevolent semi-approval of anti-Semitism. Already at the age of seven, I made a choice when I did not (of course, this was unconsciously and perhaps accidentally) side with the older children who teased a Jewish boy and did not include him in their games and activities because he was Jewish. Perhaps since then I have begun to carefully choose between the screaming demands of the crowd and my own opinion. As a child, I heard all the blood libels concocted by generations of anti-Semites, stories about the "meanness and cunning" of the Jews, and I saw that this had nothing to do with the real people I knew, who were much more morally superior than those who told about them. Already at the University, I was taught as "justice" the reason why the percentage of Jews in higher education institutions should be limited, and I perceived this as an attack on my personal morality, an attempt to get my agreement with these ideas. Therefore, anti-Semitism in all its manifestations, both the ancient semi-religious, semi-sectarian, and the more fashionable anti-Zionist and simply pathologically hateful, was disgusting to me and caused only anger and a desire to resist, because it was directed not only at the Jews, but also at my worldview. For over forty years my life and work have been closely connected with the Jewish people, for over a quarter of a century I have been closely connected with the land of Israel, which I have studied and understood enough to have a firm and unshakable opinion about the rightness, the rights of the Jewish people and the correct choice of the path it is taking. And this is not the fanaticism of Islamic and pan-Arab anti-Semites, not the inflated sense of moral superiority and dogmatic bias of anti-Zionists. This is a long and difficult path of knowledge, observation and moral analysis that I have gone through.
I identify anti-Semites even before they express their (usually ignorant) claims against Jews and Israel, simply by the way they allegedly "want to understand the problem", but already have the intention to accuse, defame or delegitimize.
It seemed to me that anti-Semitism was disappearing, becoming a marginal movement, a refuge for illiterate, ignorant and limited people.
I was wrong. Anti-Semitism has taken other forms, disguises itself under different terms, receives academic degrees and titles, is reborn in grotesque and absurd theories, spreads like a virus and attacks like Alzheimer's.
But I still see it, define it, and will point to it as one of the greatest evils on earth.
Because for me it is personal.
Absolutely stunning and uplifting. Thank you Viktor.
My family lived in a very Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx when I was a kid. We moved to S. Florida when I was 7 years old. There was a neighbor, Howie who was friends with my older brother. He wore a kipah and walked home from school with us. Our parents (west side story Puerto Ricans) always said to us, “Play with the Jewish kids and be good to them. They are the chosen people.” I have never forgotten this early lesson and I never will.
Only pseudo intellectuals are antisemites. The true learned are either observant Jews themselves, atheists Zionists, or morally consistent religious people.
Am Israel Chai
Simple decency. Just beautiful, Emerald. I too received an early lesson from my father that I have not forgotten. I will be writing about that soon.
I can’t wait to read it!
I need to start telling the stories that formed me (I guess I have already begun?). But I think I will know when it is time to write more. For now “Emerald” (the name my brothers called me when we spoke English), and Esmeralda Eulalia (the name my parents gave me at birth—EEN initials), needs to keep learning from so many great people like you and the people I come across due to your interactions. Thank you so much!
And there you have it, the beauty of the Substack platform.