Sunday, March 17, 2019

Responding to Antisemitism

As many of you know I had the fun and privilege of traveling to Israel with outstanding educators Avi Siegel, Moji Pourmoradi, Tziona Kamel and 44 teenagers.  Some of the teens will be speaking about their experience on the 7th day of Passover and we will all continue to reflect on that trip.  Right now I want to focus on our tour of Yad Vashem for reasons that will become clear.




Temple Israel of Great Neck Teen Trip 2019

Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum, traces the complex history leading up to the Shoah, during the Shoah, and beyond.  

Several exhibits are devoted to the various phenomena that led to the Shoah and in particular, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the role of anti-Semitism

As you might expect, several exhibits in the museum are devoted to pre-existing antisemitism in Europe and how the Nazis capitalized upon it to create nothing less than a murderous propaganda machine.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Europe and the US.  Anti-Semitic tropes are being used by national leaders, Democrat and Republican.

I have two points to make about this and I’ll devote a few minutes to each.

1. Jews deserve to have antisemitism specifically named and denounced.
2. Jews must not allow antisemitism to define who we are.