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Kendall Wigoda

Day 98: Antisemitism is here to stay — corrected typo!

After a two-day reprieve on October 7th and 8th, antisemitism regained its footing and reared its ugly head at unprecedented levels on October 9th. While Nazi Germany achieved a higher total kill rate in its heyday, it did not reach the breadth and depth of today’s experience. Antisemitism never went away. It has always been there, but without social media to move things along at the speed of light, those Nazis never stood a fair chance to bring their world view to its idealized conclusion.

Since popular support for Israel began to dwindle by October 9th or 10th, the worldwide armchair pseudo-Nazis have been busy protesting against and threatening Jews who were minding their own business. Immediately the talking heads on TV news shows and social media have spent hours discussing their theories about why antisemitism has not only crawled out of the dark recesses of society, but is now more prevalent and virulent than ever. If it wasn’t so terrifying, it would actually be funny. With all the problems in the world today, the only thing people can agree on is that the Jewish problem must be addressed immediately.

Of course the reasons for hating Jews vary. The Jews killed Jesus (we didn’t and Pope Benedict XVI said so publicly in 2011). The Jews are too rich (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffet resent that comment, as do the overwhelming majority of Jews out there who are definitely not rich). The Jews control the world (we wish we did because we would shut down this crap once and for all). The Jews are God’s chosen people (chosen for what? To suffer for bringing scientific progress and ethical standards to the world). After all these theories and many more, Jews should be asking themselves: Why are we discussing this? Does it really matter why people hate us?

Too many people are spending way too much time in search of an elusive answer. Our enemies definitely don’t waste time trying to figure out why they have such a visceral reaction to us. They are too busy killing us or looking for new and interesting ways to defame us. They will figure out the details later.

Jews with means and influence are spending a lot of time trying to rewrite the narrative. Why are we spending millions of dollars trying to convince an antisemitic world that we are good guys? Were you planning on creating a worldwide Marketing or PR plan to correct all the misinformation out there? What about some after-hours meet and greet soirées? How about inviting everyone for Friday night dinners to demystify “our ways”?

The truth is that it really doesn’t matter what we do. How else do you explain ISIS claiming responsibility for a deadly explosion in the city of Kerman, in Iran, and the ayatollahs saying it wasn’t ISIS, it was Israel? What about the Sky News presenter, Kay Burley asking Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy why Israeli lives were worth more than Palestinian lives because of the 3:1 terrorists for hostages swap deal.

Perhaps we should spend our time on something more productive. Desalination was a good get for Israel. So were drip irrigation, Waze, PillCam and Mobileye . Maybe we should just accept that we will always be the last chosen for pick-up basketball. It’s never going to get better! Not now. Not next month. Not ever. We need to stop caring so much. We have to stop seeking validation. The world will always blame us for all its ills, even if it has to contort all logic to do so. Maybe we should focus on obliterating cancer or staying at the forefront technology innovation instead. We don’t have to share our work. It will be more fun watching the antisemites back pedaling.

About the Author
I spent 15 years as a Public Relations and Marketing Communications professional in Canada before making Aliyah in 2002. Since then I have written freelance articles for Israeli newspapers, written lots of marketing communication pieces and taught a lot of English. Sometimes life here is funny and sometimes it is sad, but mostly there's a lot of weird and wonderful moments.
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