Global Jewry is outraged.

Last week’s shocking announcement by the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, is a new low we never imagined the nations of the world were capable of reaching. It’s akin to prosecuting the firefighter for using too much water to extinguish the raging fire. Israel didn’t start this war. And she’s desperately trying to retrieve her hostages from Gaza and allow her citizens in the north to live without rockets launched at them daily.

The ICC filed this verdict despite never having heard Israel’s side of the story. Chief prosecutor, Karim Kahn, famously canceled his trip to Israel last May, choosing instead to file the claim without due process! What this means is that, as of now, Netanyahu and Gallant cannot visit 124 countries where they will be arrested upon arrival, because Israel is being accused of genocide!

The Pope also made similar audacious accusations against Israel when he called for Israel to be investigated for genocide. The kettle seems to be calling the pot black as the Pope, whose office turned a blind eye to the murder of countless Jews for over 1000 years during the Crusades and in the Middle Ages, should know better than to accuse a victim of instigating the crime.

The United Nations Security Council called for a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, without even making mention of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gazan dungeons. The world is placing the blame squarely on Israel. A ceasefire would allow Hamas to rearm and reorganize, effectively causing Israel to lose the war and any leverage they have built through their military efforts thus far. Even Russia, actively firing ballistic missiles into Ukrainian population centers, is condemning Israel for its aggression and war crimes!

This is a blood libel of global proportion.

Blood libel, or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation), is an antisemitic canard that falsely accuses Jews of murdering non-Jews to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. The first examples of medieval blood libel emerged in England in the mid-1100s before spreading into other parts of Europe, especially France and Germany. This libel, alongside those of well-poisoning and host-desecration, became a major theme of the persecution of Jews in Europe from that period down to modern times. (Wikipedia)

There is nothing new about this story. For over a thousand years, Jews have been persecuted for ridiculous and unfounded claims of murder, even though murder is explicitly prohibited in the Torah. We Jews won’t even eat an egg if it has a mere spot of blood in it!

Any time Jews were accused of blood libels, mass attacks on random Jews ensued. Sometimes entire villages, towns, or cities were made Judenrein. This has never been an attack on an individual. It has always been an attack on our collective.

Issuing arrest warrants on Israel’s leaders is the same as issuing arrest warrants on all Jews everywhere. Netanyahu and Gallant are just the poster children of the underlying animosity that these haters harbor toward Jews everywhere. We are all victims of this callous claim.

Just 114 years ago near Kiev in Russia, Mendel Beilis was accused of murdering a 12-year-old gentile child and mutilating his body to use his blood to bake Matzah for Pesach. Even though the Torah explicitly prohibits the eating of any blood, and even though the Torah expressly prohibits human sacrifice thousands of years before the rest of humanity decided to follow suit, the ludicrous libel went to court in this famous modern-day blood libel. 

Leading the prosecution was a virulent antisemite, a Catholic Priest from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He shocked the court by providing “proof” from the Torah that Jews don’t consider gentiles as human, as he quoted the Talmud, “You are called Adam, but the gentiles are not called Adam.” Though Adam is one of many terms in Hebrew that describe human beings, and this quote was merely semantics, the prosecution took this claim very seriously.

In a brilliant clarification, the defense explained that the uniqueness of the word Adam is that it describes both a single person and a group of people with the same word. The word Adam has no plural form. They explained that only the Jews are one united nation to the point that we are “all for one and one for all.” When one single Jew is accused of murder, then all Jews are being accused of the same. When one Jew is recognized for his heroism, that reflects on all of us. No other nation on earth has the same dynamic at play.

The jury accepted this explanation and ultimately found Mendel Beilis innocent of all charges.

When Amanda Knox was accused of murder in Italy, no one thought that all Americans were killers. Rafael Nadel’s tennis prowess does not make all Spaniards exceptional sportsmen. But we all know good and well what Bernie Madoff’s actions did to global antisemitism.

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, the chancellor of Yeshiva University, was on a cruise with mostly non-Jews in July of 1976 when the Israelis were kidnapped in Entebbe. On the cruise, there was a waiter, a Jew by the name of Mendel. On July 4th, when the radio transmitters reported the news of the Israeli raid and rescue of the hostages, the non-Jewish personnel on the ship were so ecstatic and impressed with Israel that they lifted Mendel on their shoulders and carried him around the ship!

A stack of Jewish religious books entered as evidence by the defense in the Mendel Beilis trial.

Bibi is a modern-day Churchill and we are all Mendel Beilis. Like the attack on Beilis was turned when the gentiles saw the Jews proudly united, the hate today will subside when we learn how to live together in peace.

When the wicked Haman lodged his shocking request to King Achashverosh to murder all the Jews during the Purim story, he justified his request thus: “Since they are a nation scattered amongst all the nations. (Esther 3:8)” Similarly, the Talmud tells us that our Temple was destroyed because of senseless internal politics. It will thus be rebuilt through irrational and unconditional love for each other.

What will you tell your grandkids you were doing when the world declared war on Israel? Perhaps we can take a page from history and learn that no force can break us when we stand together as one.

Though we have every reason to be horrified by the global blood libel in our nation, we urge you to channel your indignation to indiscretion—as they search us out with hate we will seek each other out with love!

We live in a diverse world. We have lots of reasons to find differences between us, ranging from politics to parenting and religious practice. It’s time we focus on what unites us, rather than on what divides us. Remember that our G-dly soul within us will always eventually bridge the divide.

The haters know that we are “all for one and one for all.” The question is, do we?

Rabbi Dovid Vigler
Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens
6100 PGA Blvd, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
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