I don’t know what the opposite of an antisemite is. But whatever we call those who stand up for the Jewish community, we need more of them now.
In 2019, Ibram Kendi published “How to Be an Antiracist,” a guide to recognizing and countering institutionalized racism in America. Today, the world needs a primer on fighting antisemitism.
The Jewish community is not panicking, but after years of rising Jew-hatred around the globe, an escalation predating Oct. 7, 2023 (though Hamas’ assault and Israel’s response surely exacerbated it), the massacre in Sydney shook us to our core.
We Jews now understand such shootings not as random acts of deranged minds, but as deliberate, natural, predictable outgrowths of the poisonous cocktail of antisemitic vitriol from right-wing nativists and conspiracy theorists, and anti-Israel rhetoric from today’s red-green alliance of Western progressives who proclaim Israel a colonial apartheid state and Islamist extremists who view Israel as the “Little Satan.”
So, what do Jews ask of non-Jews? Not the heroism of Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim fruit vendor, shot while tackling one of the Bondi Beach killers. But we do need your support.
Phone calls, emails, text messages go a long way. I am grateful for precious friendships with many non-Jewish clergy. Each call, every note in recent days reminded me that my community is not alone.
And showing up at synagogues makes a powerful statement. As a Jewish community we remain committed to living our Judaism proudly. We will keep wearing our Stars of David in public, and many of us the kippot on our heads. But that does not mean we are not a little bit afraid. Even walking into a synagogue represents an act of courage. So come to synagogue with us. Show those who would do us harm that an attack on Jews is an attack on you, too.
The tragic irony of the catastrophe in Australia is that it occurred on the first night of Chanukah, commemorating the Maccabees’ victory over the Syrian tyrant Antiochus IV, who had conquered Jerusalem and seized the Temple in his efforts to Hellenize Judea. Resisting assimilation, the Maccabees defeated the Syrian army, and reclaiming the Temple, they rekindled its holy lamps with only a small cruse of oil.
Chanukah celebrates the legend of that oil lasting eight days, and the courage of the Jewish community’s refusal to bend and disappear. According to the Talmud, we light the Chanukah menorah in the window for all to bear witness to the miracle of Jewish survival.
In December 1993, in Billings, Mont., a brick was thrown through the window of a Jewish home with a menorah in it. The city responded in remarkable fashion. Residents of all faiths placed pictures of Chanukah menorahs, published by the Billings Gazette for that purpose, in their own windows. Together, they overcame the forces of hate.
You want to be an anti-antisemite? Put a menorah in your window. Show the haters that there are more of us than there are of them.
Of course, beyond statements of solidarity, we need to uproot antisemitism at its source. So help us hold social media companies accountable when they propagate incitement. Impress upon your children’s educational institutions, whether high school or college, the importance of a fair academic treatment of Mideast history that examines the Arab-Israeli conflict without bias. We Jews cannot accomplish these goals alone. We are already accused of manipulating public policy to serve our interests — one of the most pervasive of all antisemitic canards.
Please don’t purchase music of artists or uniforms of sports stars who utter such grotesque antisemitic claims. Don’t subscribe to podcasts that host known antisemites. And if you encounter it, don’t tolerate nasty stereotyping of Jews by your friends.
If you must criticize Israel’s government (and you have that right), do not delegitimize the nation as our ancestral Jewish homeland, or demonize the home of half the world’s Jews by holding it to double-standards you would not impose on tyrannical regimes whose human rights records the world conveniently ignores. Recognize that anti-Israel rhetoric leads to antisemitic violence. Don’t traffic in it and call out those who do.
Don’t buy into the progressive myth of Jews as inherently privileged and beyond the reach of prejudice. We are not. Insist that DEI initiatives consider us, too.
Because of the persecution Jews have experienced across history and continents, we have always sought to contribute to the wellbeing and betterment of the societies that have welcomed us. From America to Australia, we still do. We ask that the world not abandon us now.
Davidson holds the Peter and Mary Kalikow senior rabbinic chair at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.
