They don’t tear down the teddy bears

Violence against the Jewish people worldwide—verbally, physically and institutionally—is hardly a new phenomenon. There have been the various invaders throughout history who expelled or killed the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, the renaming of the territory to “Palistina” (after the Philistines who opposed the Israelites) by the Romans in order to disconnect the Israelites’ identification from the land, the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the pogroms (murders of Jews and desecrations of synagogues and the ancient Jewish communities of Safed and Hebron) by Arab rioters in the 1920’s, the British cutting off Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine after caving to Arab pressure (effectively closing European Jewry’s last escape route from Adolf Hitler), the death of six million Jews during the Holocaust, Israel’s surrounding countries attacking her the day after her rebirth in 1948, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Munich Massacre 1972, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, United Nations Resolution 3379 which proclaimed that Zionism was a form of racism that passed in 1975 and would not be revoked until 1991, the Coastal Road Massacre—launched by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1977 against the Egypt-Israel peace treaty—which killed 38 Israelis, the Second Intifada in 2000 in which Palestinians rejected yet another offer of statehood and instead responded with violence—particularly bombings—that injured or killed thousands of Israelis, the Israelis receiving thousands of rockets in their territory since 2005 instead of peace after leaving Gaza, continuing rocket attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah, cross-border tunnels built underground from Gaza into Israel in order to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians and stabbing sprees and car rammings from the Palestinians against Israeli soldiers and civilians. These instances do not even begin to show all the violence that has been perpetrated at Jews worldwide.

These events happened before October 7^th, 2023, the biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.

But many verbal, physical and institutional violent events are still happening to Jews around the world.

No one cares.

I am loath to throwing around words from the Holocaust since so many people use these words incorrectly—between Republicans calling abortion a Holocaust or Democrats saying gentrification is genocide—but my anger directed at the modern-day Sturmabteilung and Einsatzgruppen worldwide calls for these words. I lost a queer friend of almost 14 years on both Instagram and Facebook and an old babysitting client on Instagram who works at Columbia University’s Medical Center for saying how none of the modern-day Hitler youth that permeate the campus grounds have called to bring the hostages home.

I don’t regret a word I said.

Being in America and listening to the ballyhoo coming from the ignorant, self-righteous prigs at the various colleges and universities at both the student and faculty level that is laced with such grotesque antisemitic and anti-Western vituperation, I wonder how many more days will leave me and my fellow Tribe members both furious and lachrymose. The students in particular, whose recent Tentifada protests are completely concomitant with hatred, are protected by the aegis of their professors, the milieu of spineless administrations who have caved to the demands of these domestic terrorists and the hijacking of the concept of intersectionality. Colleges and universities, which are supposed to broaden one’s horizons and teach people how to think instead of what to think, are nothing but overpriced adult daycare centers and, to quote Gad Saad in The Parasitic Mind, are anti-Darwinian cesspools of barren ideological conformity.

I want to believe that these people are just ignorant and that they truly believe in the rights of Palestinians. But when these people and the groups they join use their energy and money to vilify the State of Israel, call for her destruction, show support for terrorists and their supporters, bully and intimidate pro-Israel and Jewish students and faculty with painful and often antisemitic rhetoric, participate in violence against said students, faculty, pro-Israel/Jewish/Zionist speakers and law enforcement, schedule BDS motions during Jewish holidays so Jewish students cannot voice their opposition and scream out “Long live the Intifada” or “From the river to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” I’m not so sure.

I wrote about this in one of my classes in graduate school back in 2017. Absolutely nothing has changed, except for TikTok existing now, the highest number of dead Jews since the Holocaust and the posters of the hostages—the most ever kidnapped by both Palestinian civilians and terror groups—being torn down across the world. Can anyone give a rational explanation as to why a photo of a red-headed four-year-old triggers such outrage? Would people have to admit that Hamas and their disciples aren’t exactly heroes?

These people don’t tear down posters for babysitting services, lost pets or missing teddy bears.

Just the Jews.

My neighborhood for the past three years, South Boston “Southie”, does not have the same levels of antisemitism that exists in other towns and cities throughout Massachusetts. Southie leaves us alone. Hostage posters stayed up for months without damage; they were eventually taken down by a developer. I would rather have that than the damage that has been done to the posters in my former neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts and its neighbor Cambridge. At least the Nazi groups who have infiltrated Southie’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade are honest about their intentions compared to the progressives in Somerville and Cambridge who hide their faces behind their Arafat scarves.

Cambridge, MA

Cambridge, MA

Porter Square Station, Cambridge, MA near Somerville

Posters intact in South Boston, MA. Later taken down by a developer

Before and after October 7^th, 2023, the Jewish people have always been inured to violence and tragedy. The past seven months have seen the kibbutzim in southern Israel turned into charnel houses—with remains that still have yet to be identified—continued stabbing and car ramming sprees, gun battles, booby-trapped buildings in Gaza, the deaths of hundreds of IDF soldiers and families and friends of the hostages not knowing if they’re alive or dead. I am grateful that the Jews have each other because, once again, we are alone.

The only words I can offer to the hostages are that you are adored and missed. Your parents celebrated the sound of your heartbeat before you were held in their arms. Trying to stay alive now is a magnificent victory. The Jewish people remain proud of your best efforts to survive in the darkest abyss of Hell.

Please continue to be brave, even when you are broken.

You are loved beyond measure.

And to the members of the Israel Defense Forces: PLEASE bring them home.