Lift Up Your Heads. It’s Jew Hatred, Really

Today, in the face of calls to “globalize the Intifada”, pundits strain to distinguish between anti-Zionism and racial antisemitism. In creating this false dichotomy, they willfully ignore the fundamental and foundational hatred that is driving violence against all Jews across the globe. Despite a demonstrable lack of forensic and factual foundation,[1] they have fueled a global campaign to instill Jew hatred. For Jews facing the resulting onslaught of virulent demonization and worse, the instinct to “duck and cover” must be tempered by recognition of our identity and duty to be a light, even in the depth of spiritual darkness. 

Since the late middle ages, the term “Jew” has invoked hatred and violence towards an entire people, leading them to become acceptable targets for irrational and barbarous violence. In the 11th century, a crisis of faith inside the Christian world (including the Great Schism of 1054 and threat of being subsumed by Islam) led church leaders to scapegoat the Jews and blame them for the troubles the church was having–promoting them as a common enemy that the entire Christian world could unify against. In the culture of Christian society, the status of the Jews was transformed from “Christ killers” to full-fledged demons.[2]  It was buttressed by the publication of blood libels, featuring Christian children kidnapped and tortured for Jewish ritualistic purposes–like innocent lambs led to the slaughter. Failing to understand how the Black Death (bubonic plague) that decimated Europe could befall devout Christians, the Jews were accused of causing it by poisoning the water–leading to their horrific massacres, including in Strasbourg where about 2,000 Jews were burned alive. The ultimate expression of this hatred came with the Nazis and the Shoah.

Today, the ploy of demonizing Jews for an imagined reason and then persecuting and killing them has been flipped by a heinous Jew-hating death cult. In the aftermath of Hamas’ obscene acts of violence on Black Sabbath (10/7), Jew-hatred has been incited as a weapon of war by false and catastrophic proclamations and condemnations of the victims of Hamas’ barbarity for allegedly taking revenge by the systematic murder of Palestinian children, mass starvation, and genocide in Gaza. These false accusations began before Israeli forces had even regained control of their territory after the attack.

The accusers pay no heed to Hamas’ deliberate tactics of purposefully and extensively exploiting its own civilians as human shields (“increasing hatred toward the attackers”)[3]  by operating from hospitals, schools, and kindergartens–intentionally blurring the distinction between combatants and civilians and between military infrastructure and civilian property; or stealing aid intended for residents to support its fighters and finance its governance apparatus; and, present no forensic evidence of widespread, planned massacres of civilians. They willfully ignore that Hamas, through brutal assassinations, prevented the safeguarding of humanitarian aid. They also refuse to acknowledge unprecedented precautions implemented by the IDF to minimize harm to Gaza’s civilians. Notably, the possibility of evacuating civilians from combat zones was thwarted by Egypt’s closure of the southern border, and Arab and international refusals to provide refuge to Palestinians, which, remarkably, were endorsed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. All this has bolstered Hamas’ inversion of reality, where, in fact, it is the actor that acts with explicit genocidal intent to murder Jews—men, women, children, and babies.

Calls to “globalize the intifada” are nothing more than condensed coded hate speech meaning “kill the Jews”, no matter where they are. Tragically, but not surprisingly as we’ve seen this before, the results include Jew murder on the streets of Washington DC and Boulder Colorado, and a pre-orchestrated “Jew Hunt” in Amsterdam. These acts, which constitute a demonstrable and imminent danger of more, instill fear in Jews across the globe and lead many to hide their Jewish identity.

For Jews, the question about this hatred is not how but why is it manifesting? According to the Nietzschean aphorism, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Almost two millennia ago, Jews were debating the cause of Jew hatred. In one telling (Talmud Tractate Shabbat 89a:7), this hatred is eternal and springs from the time of Moses and the call of Sinai to hear G-d and follow His laws of life. (The Talmud notes that “Sinai” is almost identical to the Hebrew word for “hatred” – שִׂנְאָה, pronounced sinah.) At its root, it’s because Jews chose not to be star worshippers or deny His commandments.

At Sinai, the Jews accepted the duty and burden to become a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). The answer to Judeophobia is not for Jews to go underground and hide their Jewish identity, but to own it and openly embrace our destiny to transform the moral landscape with ideals of the sanctity and dignity of human life, equality before the law, and individual conscience and social responsibility, among many others. The Hebrew word הִנְנִי , meaning “here I am,” is the time-honored response to this calling (Exodus 3:4).[4] 

The rabbis of old tell us that vengeance for Jew hatred shall come at the hand of G-d (Midrash Tanchuma, Matot 3). In the meantime, Jews must recognize the enemy, lift up their heads and be counted among their people, and abide by their obligation (Sanhedrin 72a) to defend themselves against imminent, deadly threats. 

Endnotes

1. Cf., D. Orbach et al., Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025, Mideast Security and Policy Studies No. 213 (Sept. 2025), https://besacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/213-2.9.2025-Edited.pdf
2. Cf., S. Reznick, “Kill them, kill them, kill all the Jews” – Violence and Persecution: Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem (Final Paper Jan. 2014), https://www.academia.edu/7994345/Violence_and_Persecution_Medieval_Jewish_Christian_Relations
3. Cf., S. Said & R. Jones, Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas, Wall S. J. (June 10, 2024), https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7?mod=Searchresults&pos=5&page=1
4.  In blessed memory of Charlie Kirk, see https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHhCdG2PUl6

Jonathan Rosenoer, October 12, 2025