The Blogs: The disease of antisemitism: What you can do

Antisemitism is a deadly virus that mutates in every generation. In the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, it is “a profound psychological dysfunction, a disease masquerading as a cure.” Today that virus is known by many names including anti-Jew, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas. For the last 80 years, the collective Jewish immune system has been somewhat inoculated to the virus by the horrors of the Holocaust. But this deadly and communicable disease is mutating once again and threatening to overrun our ability to fight it.

While Jews may suffer – even greatly at times from the virulent illness of antisemitism, the good news is that as a nation, we have a 100% survival rate. Not so for the source of the pathogen. Without exception for the last 2,000 years, eventually the virus turns on its source with a 100% fatality rate.

The question is, how can we minimize Jewish suffering in the face of this disease? How can we boost our collective immune system to shorten the length of the illness?

History has taught us what weakens our immunity – apologetics, assimilation, capitulation, identifying with the disease, accepting responsibility for the disease, denying Jewish identity, and turning against one another.

So how do we build our immune system? We fight injustice from a place of strength and dignity. We internalize that though the road of the Jewish people has been long and arduous, we are a precious, Godly and miraculous nation. And it is precisely our spiritual DNA, the DNA of Malchut or Kingship, that the world so desperately needs expressed right now: clarity, truth, wisdom, faith, strength, fortitude, hope, bravery, confidence, unity. And it is precisely these attributes of Malchut and faith that the antisemite fears and abhors in us, going all the way back to our enslavement in Egypt. They don’t just want to destroy the Jewish people, they want to destroy the foundations of morality.

Each of us has a critical role to play in the current situation. Maybe you have clarity on what that role is. If so, wonderful! But for those of us struggling with how we can best support the Jewish people now, it’s always best to start by looking inside ourselves. Is there something that needs to be healed, strengthened, or released in you to fully embrace your spiritual destiny? What does the Jewish community need that you can provide? How can you strengthen your connection to the Jewish people? Your connection to Israel? What wants or needs to happen to unapologetically embrace our collective destiny to lead the world out of the abyss of moral bankruptcy and towards the light of spirit and truth?

Each person must answer these questions for themselves. Carpe Diem. The time has come. Pick up the gauntlet. Be brave. Know who you are and why you are here in this moment, in these times. Take action. And go forward with confidence and pride that you are a precious link in the chain of an eternal, holy and indomitable people.