A mezuzah was ripped off at a house in Maryland

Meshi is 26 years old, originally from Israel but moved 3 years ago to Maryland because of her husband’s job, currently working in a Jewish kindergarten.

One day Meshi’s husband went to visit their Jewish friends and noticed their mezuzah  was ripped off, he called Meshi and told her to check if their mezuzah was still in their house. mesh found their mezuzah was ripped off as well.

“this was a scary experience” meshi shares”we are the only jews at our building, a swastika was drawn at one of the cars in the parking lot”

is it the first time you experience such an incident or it did it happen before?

“you do feel hate since october 7th(the date the war began) but this is the first time such an incident happens”

how did you experience hate before October 7th?

” me and my husband went to a bar in new jersey and spoke hebrew, someone got up to walk over to us and said don’t speak hebrew”

the guy who told meshi and her husband not to speak hebrew is a former idf israeli arab soldier ” i was shocked”

what were the reactions of your neighbors to the incident?

” the neighbors ignore us, they didn’t say a word, we are not really close i don’t know much about them personally, but i do know that most of them are muslims”

when you first moved to the USA , did you think such a thing would happen to you?

” no, the USA has a mentality of freedom to be who you are, you can be gay or black or whatever, you’ll be you and i’ll be me”

october 7th increases the hate against jews “before october 7th i could walk in the supermarket and speak hebrew on the phone today i see the looks i get and feel the hate”

you mentioned that in the usa you can be whoever you want , what do you think make jews feel neglected at this kind of issue?

“we are a minority we don’t have much of an impact, when i argue with people i can tell they have no idea what they are talking about and they eventually admit this”

you have many followers on instagram, do you get any threats on social media?

“i do get some hate and people curse me on social media, but i also get some people who tell me they support israel”

Did you try to call the police? what did they do?

“they told us to put a camera near the door, 2 days before the incident someone knocked at my door and asked if what is this thing (the mezuzah)

and 2 days later my mezuzah was taken down”

the lack of information about the person who committed this hate crime leaves meshi with fear

did this incident make you fear being jeiwsh?

” no definitely no, im proud to be jewish, i want speak less hebrew however i do go with protection tools, we are more armed”

Do you have any support system from your community?

” i live in a place called a kibbutz full of jewish and Israeli people. Many Israelis hide their mezuzahs because they are afraid. however after it happened many came with israeli flag to our building to show strength and support”

Did you try to content the local authorities?

” i did, they didn’t respond, what is interesting is that the senator of maryland is jewish and pro israel”

Did it make you come back to israel?

“antisemitism didn’t make me want to go back but the desire to be with my family at this tough time did”

Do you have any Israelis in your community who did get back?

” i have friends who got back to israel because the are “canceled” and cant comeback”

what way do you think is the best to deal with antisemitism

” i don’t think we have anything to do about this. This is the government’s responsibility, it doesn’t make sense an elderly man gets murdered for being jewish and the world is silent. If it was an American citizen on 9/11 no one was silent. in america, just like you don’t need to be ashamed for being black you shouldnt be ashamed of being jewish”

Do you have any message to diaspora jews right now?

We are strong people and we will win, we will continue to be strong even if they try to erase us.