To Know Me, My Jewish Identity, and My Fear

I know these recent days have been difficult for many of my American friends, as they fear for what may come to pass in the future that could endanger them or their loved ones. I am sorry, I wish the world were different. Like my friends, I also fear for my future, and for the future of my loved ones.

For those who do not know me, I am a proud Jew—history’s favorite villain. Not white enough to be excluded from the hate of the far right, but not minority enough to be excluded from the hate of the far left.

I am watching my fears unfold in real time:

Antisemitic graffiti and symbols plastered relentlessly around my neighborhood; I do my best to remove them but more appear the next day. Jewish homes, shops, and art vandalized in my neighborhood. Israeli products targeted for boycott at my grocery store. Jewish students harassed and blocked from their classes on campuses across the U.S. Jewish people attacked and stabbed in my city. A visibly Jewish person shot on his way to synagogue in Chicago.

All this in the name of “Free Palestine” and in the wake of the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, where young Jews were murdered, mutilated, and raped at a dance festival, Jewish kids were murdered in front of their parents, Jewish parents were murdered in front of their kids, and men, women and children were taken hostage in airless, dark tunnels.

Each time the IDF publishes the pictures of new soldiers that have lost their lives defending Israel, I check to make sure that none of them are my family members. But in the end, they are all family members—members of my big extended family—the Jewish people.

This past week, I was horrified to watch an actual pogrom against Jews take place in Amsterdam in the name of “Free Palestine.” Not in 1800s Russia. Not in 1938 Germany. Not in the Middle East. In modern-day Europe. This could be New York tomorrow. This could be any of our free, Western cities tomorrow.

There is a reason 30,000 Jews from around the world have left their diaspora communities to immigrate to Israel in the past year, knowing full well that in their new lives as Israelis, they will need to run to bomb shelters as rockets and suicide drones are sent daily from 7 different war fronts. Knowing full well that their children will join the army at 18 years old and risk their lives to protect the people of Israel from enemies that would wipe Israel and all of its Jewish inhabitants off the map if there were no Israeli army.

There is a reason why, for many Jews like me in the U.S. today, there are no more pressing issues than violent antisemitism and the security of Israel.

Israel, the Jewish homeland, is the one place that will accept us Jews and protect us as Jews, should we need to flee antisemitic violence someday here too—perhaps someday in the not-too-distant future, if the situation in Europe today is any indication. I worry about the future, too, yes. But the current reality of a Jew in this world frightens me more.

I hope better times lie ahead for our people.