Beyond Antisemitism: This Hatred Will Bring Our Civilization to the Abyss

Given the amount of hatred promulgated toward Jews, Israel and Israelis in our society today, the shooting on Wednesday, May 21, outside a D.C. Jewish museum, which killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two young Israeli embassy workers attending a Jewish event, while shocking and tragic, should come as no surprise.

The shooter was heard shouting, “Free, Free Palestine!” Some do not understand why I abhor this type of dissent, as they claim it is free speech and simply a public voicing of opinion. To me, such chants, along with “From the River to the Sea,” and “Long live the Intifada” are calls for violence. One could argue that it’s a matter of opinion — until an incident of this kind.

An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. All Jews everywhere are now on high alert. We suffer and grieve with the victims’ families and feel our own safety compromised, yet we remain unwavering in our support for our homeland’s existence and the pursuit of peace.

It seems as though any individual, group, institution or organization that is pro-Israel or refuses to support anti-Zionism has become a target of violence, vitriol, sanctioning or some other form of protest.

Many colleges and universities are under pressure daily from students and faculty to invoke boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel supporters. Encampments continue to “pop up,” even though they are now prohibited on most college campuses, and some Jewish students still feel unsafe. The drama continues.

How horrific that these young, beautiful souls were extinguished by a radical who bought into a flawed ideology that Jews should be eliminated, and the State of Israel should be annihilated. This misguided individual feels no remorse for taking a life.

The level of violence is beyond an expression of antisemitism. It is beyond hatred. It has morphed into terrorism. And aren’t the organized terrorist groups smug and self-satisfied that their civilian proxies, many here in the US, are doing their dirty work for them? They need not pick up a gun. They have manipulated others into believing their falsehoods and acting on them.

There has been much discussion over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Surely, one can refute the Israeli government’s policies and actions without hating all Jews — just as one can oppose US government actions without hating all Americans. (For prime examples of extreme hatred, recall the Iranians repeatedly burning the US flag and the al-Qaeda terrorists who downed the twin towers on 9-11.)

But today, it appears as though antisemitism and anti-Zionism go hand-in-hand. Many cannot differentiate between the two. And, once again, Jews are scapegoated and blamed for the world’s evils, including the loss of innocent lives in Gaza.

Forgotten seems to be Hamas, the terrorist group that is responsible for the start of the war with Israel as well as countless murders of their own people. It is much easier to cast blame on a historically marginalized minority.

Antisemitism, hatred and terrorism must be stopped, lest our civilization fall into the abyss. They can be eradicated through education and communication. Individuals must just be willing to keep an open mind and participate in productive discourse, listen to others, learn history, read a wealth of information from many different sources and stop blindly following the opinions of others. For it is when we do not think for ourselves but give credence to fanatics, bigots and extremists that we have a problem.

My volunteer organization Hadassah has been in the forefront of  combatting antisemitism and anti-Zionism through advocacy, policy statements and action. I am proud to raise my voice with Hadassah to help heal our world!

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Diane is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place. It’s where they celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 500 columns in The Times of Israel Blogs and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.