By Olivia Herman

 

Last year I went to Israel on a life-changing program, called Alexander Muss High School in Israel. While I was there over four months, my eyes were opened to the harsh reality of antisemitism in Israel. During the Passover break, my mom, dad and sister came to visit me. We stayed in Tel Aviv on Dizengoff street, a very popular and crowded street at all hours of the day. One day, while waiting for my dad to get the car from the parking garage to take us to his brother's house, my mom, sister and I saw a crowd of seemingly hundreds of people running and screaming in terror towards us. I had been to Israel several times before this and nothing like this had ever happened. I grabbed my mom and sister, and we ran back into the hotel so quickly that my mom knocked over a chair. At that moment I remember being so terrified that my dad was still up the street. Even after he got to us safely, I was still worried about anyone else potentially involved.

 

Thankfully, we were all reunited shortly after and were later informed that it was not an act of terrorism, but a car crash whose noise sounded like a gunshot; nobody was hurt. This event made me realize how daily activities as simple as going to my cousin's house could be life threatening, just because I am Jewish. The following year I was lucky enough to go back to Israel and I was very excited to reconnect with my counselors from the program. I met with one and we caught up on everything new in our lives. She told me that she began working at a juice stand on Dizengoff Street, so close to my hotel that we bumped into each other. I then returned home to New York where, one day after school, I turned on the Israeli news station and saw that there was a terrorist attack right across from the juice stand where my counselor worked and across the street from the ice cream shop my sister and I had been just a few nights before. Luckily, my counselor was safe and was not working at the time of the shooting. Tragically, however, the lives of two innocent young men were taken. This attack occurred on a Thursday night, party night in Israel so many people were out. I couldn’t help but think to myself, if it had been a week earlier while my family was still there, who knows where we would have been. This made me think of all of the innocent and undeserving victims who were killed while just going about their daily routines, living their lives. Along with their families and friends; the lives impacted by these acts of terror.

 

When turning on the news or scrolling on Instagram, it is nearly guaranteed that on a daily basis there will be a new horrific act of antisemitism somewhere in the world.  Whether it's a brutal attack on innocent people, or a post by a celebrity persuading their followers that Jewish people are inferior, or anti Israel protests on college campuses…antisemitism is on the rise and is ignored too often. In order to break the cycle, we have to raise awareness and educate the world by highlighting contributions made to the world by Israel and the Jewish people. As the next generation of American Jews, it is not only our obligation, but our responsibility to speak up and out against antisemitism and hate.

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By Jace Novitz

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I am a Jewish teenager. I attend a school where the majority of students are Jewish. Most of my friends are Jewish.  Given this background, one would think it’s very hard, maybe even near impossible, for me to still face the negative and horrible consequences of the many acts of antisemitism we see today. Despite what I believe is somewhat of a sheltered life, I, like many others like me, have faced antisemitism in my daily life.
Having all Jewish friends has both positive and negative attributes. On the positive side, on the occasions where we encountered antisemitism, we were all together. However, I have come to learn, when just one person experiences these horrible acts, the community fights back together. That's what makes being Jewish so special. It is more than just a religion. It provides a culture to live and grow in.  
 

My friends and I are able to do many activities that focus on our religion, while making positive changes. Most recently, we traveled to New Orleans with our temple to assist in rebuilding the community after the hurricane.  However, we faced antisemitism while we were there helping their community. Having all Jewish friends, wearing Stars of David on our necks, it is very easy for us to be targeted, not individually but as a whole. While in New Orleans, there was a group of antisemitic people. When they saw us, they began shouting, “go home Jews” and “stupid Jews” just for wearing these very special necklaces. We were scared, we were in a place unfamiliar to us and did not know the extent to which the group of harassers would continue.  We went into the nearest hotel and spoke to the manager. We couldn’t believe how helpful the manager was. He would not allow the harassers in the hotel. He let us stay there until our chaperones arrived. He even provided food and water for us free of charge. It felt so good to know this man was standing up for us. While we learned he wasn’t Jewish, we also learned there is support for our community all over the country. The strength of the Jewish community is immense and growing.

After a further analysis of this experience, I tried to think about this in a different way: how it can relate to other forms of discrimination, for a belief, or even for how someone chooses to identify. Antisemitism goes hand in hand with other forms of discrimination, including discrimination in the LGBTQIA+ community. People within this community face very high rates of discrimination, bigotry and even violence. A recent study shows that the LGBTQIA+ community is actually nine times as likely to have various acts of violence committed against them than people who are not a part of this community (Dowd). This statistic, as overwhelming as it is, shows how people everyday face acts of violence and discrimination, no matter what race or religion they are, or how they identify.

Being Jewish is not something I chose to be; I was chosen. It’s the religion I was born into. We choose to be part of the community to increase its strength. Those around us who support us, who connect with us and who choose to assist us are the most important to us.

 
No matter how hard we try, it is near impossible to make the world perfect. Combating acts of discrimination, bigotry, and violence is something that everyone is capable of doing. If everyone helps, the world could be a better place than it was yesterday.

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By Eli Penn

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Growing up an American-Israeli on Long Island, an area with a large Jewish population, I thought I would be sheltered from antisemitism. However, after antisemitism directly impacted my family, I now realize that it is a problem not only for Jews but for our entire society at large.

 

This past year, my older sister experienced acts of antisemitism from a close friend. Ayesha (name changed for privacy) was one of my sister’s closest friends from high school and an observant first-generation Pakistani Muslim. Both my sister and Ayesha took pride in the fact that they were born to Middle Eastern immigrant parents. My sister made sure to exclude politics from their conversations, instead focusing on shared interests and schoolwork. As they became closer friends, both applied to some of the same universities, hoping to attend the same college. When Ayesha was rejected from her dream school, my sister cried, wishing she could give her acceptance spot to Ayesha. Eventually, both my sister and Ayesha enrolled in different universities. But after a few months apart, my sister felt Ayesha drifting away, as Ayesha rarely replied to calls or texts.

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Then, this past January, Ayesha finally messaged my sister, "Our morals don't align anymore…I believe that the state of Palestine exists, and I can’t be friends with anyone who doesn't recognize or respect that.” My sister was dismayed that Ayesha was willing to abandon a special friendship, assuming that my sister's religious background was tied to her political views. She replied, “...Despite being such good friends and knowing me for so many years, you’ve come to use my ethnic background to make a complete assumption about me.” Ayesha wrote back, “It’s either u [stet] support Palestinians or not.” My sister always hoped her friendship with Ayesha could transcend religious and political differences, and was very saddened to see Ayesha end the friendship. As I watched the whole thing unravel, I wondered if Ayesha abandoned her close friend because of antisemitic brainwashing, which has become more prevalent in some universities. Or perhaps it was because of religious preaching of hatred.

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Recently I reflected on these events after attending the Holocaust Memorial Service in New York City, where I was honored to hear a speech by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. The Ambassador stated that antisemitism is the world's oldest form of hatred and that it is our responsibility to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate. She reminded us that as we fight antisemitism, we will create a world of tolerance and compassion, and if we do not stand up against it, we will not overcome other forms of hatred and bigotry. The ambassador's words resonated deeply and opened my eyes to a new perspective on combating antisemitism. We can combat discrimination through compassion for those who experienced discrimination and by striving to build relationships with people from different religions and political affiliations. This will create a more peaceful world. My sister and I will continue to reach out and develop friendships with those from other religions and cultures. Especially this year, as Passover, Easter, and Ramadan overlapped, it reminded me that we must work toward respecting and accepting all religions.

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As I witnessed, antisemitism hurts both Jews and non-Jews, just as it hurts Ayesha and her family's relationship with my own. My sister and I were always raised to respect all religions and stay open-minded, hoping that we would someday create unity between Muslims and Jews. This is why the friendship between Ayesha and my sister was crucial, as it embodied the idea of peaceful coexistence and not following religious stereotypes. Cross-cultural friendships are the foundation of America's melting pot; as Americans, we cannot let hatred and bigotry hurt those relationships.

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By Loren Rosenthal

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​In 1941, Adolf Hitler took six million Jewish people captive and brought them to concentration camps. For over three consecutive years until 1945, those people were slaughtered in the largest genocide to date, the Holocaust. Child labor, starvation, unnecessary experiments, lethal weapons, and poison were only some of the things used to efface half of Europe’s population. And the most appalling part of it: they were killed for no reason other than being Jewish. Now, almost 85 years later, antisemitism is at an all time high and it’s sickening. The world has been trying to combat antisemitism for years but the amount of hate crimes.

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As a teenager in today’s world, social media is a huge part of my everyday life. Snapchat, instagram, tiktok, twitter; all essential apps to have at this age. Along with the privileges of social media comes a dark and upsetting part. “Florida man wears swastika tank top while shopping.” “Seattle synagogue vandalized on heels of Yom Hashoah!” Headlines like these really make you question if this is the early 1940’s in Germany or present day America. People being scared for their safety in public because you never know who will pull out a gun on the street is one of the most disheartening things I've ever heard. Sadly, this is a very rational fear to have no matter what your ideas and beliefs are. It seems like no matter what anyone does, they’ll get told it’s wrong because the world can never live in harmony. Immigrants came here for freedom and to have a promising future, but to be honest, it feels like we’ve been robbed of it. Some are affected by antisemitism because of who they’re with, which is really sad. You hear these stories about how young Muslims get hijabs ripped off of their heads and they lose friends from it because their parents don’t want their children to be in an unsafe situation like that. Hate crimes affect so many more people than just who they’re targetted at. Why is the world the same as it was 80 years ago? Why aren’t changes made so this doesn’t keep happening every day? When an artist comes out and says that he basically supports the Nazis, why do people not hold him accountable? It’s all, “separate the art from the artist,” until history repeats itself. Antisemitism is not a joke, and I’m sick of people laughing at it instead of doing something. Middle schoolers shouldn’t be recreating Hitler poses and drawing swastikas at school. The world needs more awareness of antisemitism; enough is enough, where does it stop? People kind enough to boycott Kanye West and discontinue partnership with him, that’s expected and you shouldn’t have to think twice about it. One of my Jewish friends who I met at camp is going to a Catholic high school because she’s embarrassed to be Jewish. Teenagers should not be dealing with identity crises because society influences it.

 

It’s so significant that we support the right people and make the right choices to fight antisemitism. Everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin celebrating their religion, and that should be a goal for leaders around the world. We can’t live like this anymore and something needs to be done. Give America back it’s freedom and remind people why they immigrated here. Be proud of your religion and hold people accountable. Stop global antisemitism and hate crimes. 

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