A 3,500-Year-Old Story That Explains Antisemitism Today

[JustAnotherGen]

6. Excellent read in the lead up to Passover

This at the beginning. Its the essence of antisemitism. The color of your skin, your weight, your gender - those are exterior reasons for people to act with cruelty to others.

But Judaism is in the heart - and expressed in values.

Today, we hear antisemitic tropes about Jewish power or wealth, we see passionate protests against Israeli colonialism and committing genocide, but reasonable people know that the Jews are not the greatest violators of human rights on earth. Whether in ancient Egypt, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, or today’s radicalized Islamic world led by the Palestinian Hamas, the accusations shift — but the double standards reveal the underlying discomfort with Jewish values, impact, and distinctiveness.

Antisemitism is not your run of the mill racism; it’s about the Jewish soul, a light that refuses to be extinguished, threatening those who want to dwell in spiritual darkness. Jew-hatred, in the end, is not about what Jews do. It’s about what Jews are and what they represent.

One people - who were terrorized beyond JUST that ONE pogrom. The fear of a friend in Miami whose daughter met and married an Israeli, and had a tiny baby on that day. She said to me a week.later, "At 63 I've never felt so much fear in my own country".

Like the Nazis, Hamas didn’t ask who was “religious.” They didn’t check denominational boxes. They reminded us that in the eyes of our enemies — and in the eyes of Heaven — we are one people. The tragedy of October 7, 2023, and the global antisemitism that followed has awakened and galvanized Jews worldwide to reconnect with their heritage.

Jew-hatred, as painful as it is both physically and spiritually, and as a jarring reminder that we were never meant to blend in, often becomes the crucible through which we rediscover our unique role in the world.

There's so much to unpack here. Have a very sweet Passover!