Relentless attacks on Jews and Israel require pushback

While our ancestors would have appropriately marveled at the opportunity to defend a Jewish state, in our day, it is a growing challenge.

Douglas Altabef | June 12, 2025

There is a famous old Yiddish expression that translates to: “It’s difficult to be a Jew.” This age-old perspective is a veritable Rorschach test for each of us to assess what exactly those difficulties are.

For some, it referred to physical, spiritual and financial requirements to fulfill commandments and Jewish practice. For others, it meant keeping oneself, one’s family and one’s community intact and safe in the wake of rampant persecution.

Our difficulties today might be looked at by our ancestors as gifts: Defending our sovereign Jewish state, maintaining our integrity in societies where we have been able to thrive and harnessing the support of a once unimaginable cohort of non-Jewish sympathizers.

Let’s stipulate that this is not a contest. While our ancestors would have appropriately marveled at the opportunity to defend a Jewish state, in our day, it is a growing challenge.

We see the damned if you do and damned if you don’t condemnation of Israel from voices who just want to find pretexts for demonization and delegitimization.

We see the rampant hypocrisy of world leaders who are content, untroubled, and, indeed, gleeful to apply double standards to Israel; standards that are applied nowhere else or even thought to be rational.

We are the recipients of massive amounts of projection. Our critics unashamedly ascribe to us behavior, motivations and attitudes that are not only fictitious, but reflect the sensibilities and desires of the accusers themselves.

We are tried and convicted before we have even had coffee in the morning. We are despised. We are loathed for the simple crime of being.

But maybe, just maybe, there is something else going on. Perhaps what we are seeing is another manifestation of the love/hate relationship that we have always “enjoyed,” by virtue of the historical role we have been assigned and have willingly assumed. Could it be that the true problem lies elsewhere, and that the situation reveals far more about the accusers than it does about Israel and the Jewish people?

There is a discernible glee in shedding any kind of responsibility for the historic oppression of Jews, including and, perhaps especially, for the sins of the Holocaust. There is an almost palpable sigh of relief for putting conscience, responsibility and remorse aside to return to “normal.”

The refrain “Never Again” seems to be rapidly morphing into “yet again.” But that overused and possibly anachronistic expression does offer a path for our revival and renaissance.

We cannot control the reaction of the world to the Jewish people. So, if “Never Again” is about the behavior of those who loathe us, then, as we say in New York, forget about it.

But if “Never Again” refers to the Jewish response to the inevitable hatred that we are experiencing, then not only can we take back the battle, we could win it. That is because the attitude of those who detest us is somewhat complex. Yes, there is fear and loathing, but there is also fear and respect.

There is also the underlying sense that we are special and that we are playing a unique role. We are not like everyone else in the world because God wants us to be different from everyone else.

The question is: What are we going to do about it?

By taking back “Never Again,” we will never again fail to assert our humanity, humaneness, legitimacy and downright goodness. Never again will we apologize for being given a role in history that, ironically, benefits others at least as much as ourselves.

We must internalize this mindset and project it in our encounters and our dealings with others.

It is not enough to counter the lies or to correct the record because the accusers are not interested in facts. They are interested in taking us down to their level and knocking us off the pedestal of their creation. And the worst thing we can do is to facilitate that effort, allowing them to denigrate us.

Ultimately, there is only one way to deal with the hate, and that is to be the Jews our accusers secretly fear and respect. To be the Jews, who have a different and unique role in the whole human saga.

In acting accordingly, we would not only effectively counter the hatred, but we would redeem ourselves. We would reaffirm the amazing, irreplaceable and unique relationship we have with God, and our essential role in history.

One does not have to be an observant Jew to do this. One just needs to be an aware Jew: Aware that when we embrace and do not flee from the role that we have been assigned, we will ultimately garner the respect of others.

The ball is in our court. It is our opportunity, our responsibility and our imperative to stand up and remind everyone that, yes, we are those Jews. Yes, we are on the right side of the angels, even if we stumble occasionally because we are, after all, human. And, yes, we embrace our role and will not shy away from it.

If you want to demonize us, you are only demonizing yourselves. Our common ancestor Abraham received the blessing, which still applies: Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.

Fellow humans: Choose blessing. Fellow Jews: Help others to do so.

June 13, 2025 | 1 Comment »

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