At the barricade
Walking towards our Chabad, we share greetings with our friendly armed guard. Even in the Florida heat, he wears an armored vest, pistol and extra ammo pouches. He stands at post in front of our “soft target” house of worship defending the First Amendment’s promise of freedom of religion.
Our shabbat observance is once again affected by tragic headlines. Ringing in our ears are the pop-pop-pop of the assassins’ shots at Australia’s Bondi Beach Chanukah slaughter. The images of bodies lying in the white sand and Jews running for cover add to an internalized catalog of Jew-targeted desecrations, terrorism and murders.
Australia, the down-under land of “G’day Mate” and Crocodile Dundee, has been a relatively comfortable place for their over 100 thousand Diaspora Jews. But like everywhere else, post October 7th, the Hamas-supporting street demonstrations erupted and anti-Jew violence occurred.
The many liberals, pundits, and academics who demonized Zionism set the stage for the Sydney mayhem. More recently Prime Minister Anthony Albanese‘s recognition of a Palestinian state has made him culpable for fostering Jew hatred and the Bondi Beach horror. Might this be a teaching moment for Starmer, Carney, Macron and the others who delegitimize Israel only to placate the Muslim world? Their diplomatic capitulations could lead directly to bloodbaths like the one on Bondi Beach.
Our guard also symbolizes the Jews’ historic vulnerability. His presence reminds us that we are a hunted people. We have been targeted in Manchester, Paris, Pittsburgh, Tel Aviv and now even sunny Sydney. Our guard’s vigilance also reminds us that monsters out there search the Jewish calendar for “hunting season” …Yom Kippur, Simchas Torah, Shabbat and Chanukah. It is when we tend to flock together.
We shouldn’t really be surprised by the massacre and destruction given the decades of antisemitic and anti-Israel collegiate indoctrination funded by Qatar and others. The media’s Israel and Jew-hating bias, blood-libel and inversions has drummed into heads dangerous falsehoods. The swarms of kufiyah-wearing American protestors chanting “From the river to the sea” and “Globalize the intifada.” establishes the predicate for the violence that follows.
As an aside, to see how insidious the politically motivated and high-tech misdirection is away from the obvious connection to Islam, ask your AI app, “Why is there an increase in antisemitic acts of violence?” You will find the first explanation offered is, “The rise of political violence in the U.S. since events like the January 6 Capitol riots has created a more hostile environment. Reports indicate a significant increase in political violence, with antisemitic incidents rising sharply in this context.” Laughable and telling.
We go into our Chabad. Some congregants as matter of tradition touch the mezuzah affixed to the entrance door post and then kiss their fingers. It is customary to then recite from Psalms 121, “The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from now and to eternity.”
Our Chabad’s guard will be the Lord’s helper to keep us safe.
We all know there has been a dramatic increase in violence against Jews in America, and elsewhere, since October 7th. The latest FBI statistics show 69% of religiously motivated hate crimes were aimed at Jews. This morning, we know the odds are in our favor, but we know the likelihood of an “incident” is not zero.
We are in now inside our shul and we begin to share a sincere “shabbat shalom” with our fellow congregants. From the sanctuary, we hear the steady chant of Shacharit, the Morning Service floating through the air. The men wrap themselves in a tallit, and we find a seat. In addition to our cherished millennia-old Judaic beliefs, we add a solemn prayer that our lone guard standing at our “barricade” will prevent our shul from becoming the next killing field.
