A Special Thank You to Our Online Heroes Fighting Antisemitism

I have heard and seen some heart wrenching posts from Jewish online creators who are exhausted from the antisemitic hate they get. One could say it comes with the territory. I think they already took that into consideration when they took this on. Battling lies and propaganda is no easy job. Some do it with comedy, some in all seriousness. Leave it to the Jews to make lemons out of lemonade.

We have all lost “friends.”

I don’t know one of my Jewish friends who haven’t felt let down. I have categorized this before. Some friends will quietly support you, that’s fine. Some never ask how you are. In fact, most don’t. Some have come out as secret and not so secret antisemites. And some are just trying to get through the day and keep their own life together. Sometimes its just life for people, But damn, this is big. This is Holocaust big.  How could they not say at least something? It is the rare and treasured friend who sticks with you, when you need to talk about antisemitism, and the war. And there are those who never ask because they think it doesn’t affect them ….yet. But it will.

Your Jewish online heroes.

Some are not Jewish. Let’s give a shout out to them. They don’t have to be in the trenches with us, they choose to. These are truth tellers and seekers. They also get death threats, ugly mail and dm’s. What I think you have noticed is we, the collective ” we” don’t seek out posts from the pro Hamas camp to bombard with harassment. They do. To take that on by choice is nothing short of heroic. Countless creators, if they are dropping bombs, they are truth bombs… The hostage families, who are in a club not of their choosing, speaking out, and the survivors, after enduring the worst brutality in history. Speaking out. We hear you. The IDF, God Bless them, they are heroes full stop.

Does all this sharing fall on deaf ears? I am reminded when I asked a Chabad rebbetzin once during the megillah reading why the children were allowed to run around. Her answer was ” on some level they will hear it,” even through the noise. In the noise of all this Jewish hate I hope even one person hears. If so, then another person will. Maybe this is too optimistic, but she planted a seed.

If you have lost so called friends and followers, you have gained us. We are your people, we are your family. 

So I say this to you, our online warriors. As my friend Limor reminded me today. We have Hashem, and Hashem has our back. And in turn we will have your back.  Thank you for all you do! Shabbat Shalom.