A Thank-You Note to Anti-Semites

Dear Jew Haters,

My father was born in 1945, the year the U.S. and its allies defeated Hitler and the Nazis.

The slaughter, rape, enslavement and torture of millions of the only 16.6 million Jews worldwide at the time dominated not only discussions in every Jewish home, but were also embedded into the very mindsets of Jews worldwide.

My dad grew up with the slogan Never Again, which was first seen on handmade signs displayed in multiple languages by survivors at the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp.

The haunting words “Never Again” are written on a Star — of — David shaped protest
Image: Shutterstock/Lorainne_M
My family wasn’t that religious growing up, but we were proud Jews.

Our favorite holiday was our origin story, Passover, when every year we reflected on how Jewish hatred in Egypt thousands of years ago is still relevant today.

Piled on top, my family was infatuated with the Holocaust. After years of Sunday school and bar mitzvah training, I knew more names of Nazi death camps than I knew books in the Bible.

I could tell you about the forced conversion and expulsion of Jews in Spain and Portugal in the late 1400s, but I had no idea why some Jews didn’t eat pork or why others lit candles every Friday night.

I knew about Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass,” when from November 9 to 10, 1938, the Nazi Party and Hitler Youth smashed the windows of Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes. But I couldn’t tell you the story of Jonah, the Jewish temples in Jerusalem or that the word “Jew” derived from our ancestral homeland, Judea — in other words, Israel.

Historical Jew hatred was a rallying and unifying cry for Jews everywhere, and it’s part of the reason why the Jews rebuilt as a people following the Holocaust.

By the time I entered adulthood, though, I wanted my connection to Jewish identity to be more than just because I was hated by the Nazis, the Spanish and others.

By age 22, I had decided to learn about my heritage and the depth of our traditions and culture.

For many other Jews my age and younger, living in the U.S. seemed safe and friendly, so they chose a different path.

So many wanted to blend in. Adopt others’ traditions like Christmas trees. They would tell you “I’m Jewish but….” The but was that they didn’t do anything Jewish. They didn’t believe. Didn’t practice. Some people I met didn’t even tell me they were Jewish until years after meeting them.

Many needed to qualify their Jewishness in an understandable effort to just fit in. Most people would prefer not to stand out.

Since six of every seven Jews in America can mostly pass as part of the white majority, blending in and not standing out came easy. Black people, in contrast, can change their last names and try to fit in all they want, but they don’t get to hide who they are like white-passing Jews can.

America became comfortable for Jews. So much so that they didn’t need to belong like their parents and grandparents did. Especially after 1960s America, they could excel and achieve without the burdens of as many obstacles.

With all that comfort, attendance at Jewish holidays and participation in Jewish events in America eventually hit at an all-time low.

Despite what the rest of the world may perceive about Jews, Jews had also drifted further and further apart as a unified people.

There are far-left Jews. Right-wing Jews. Bernie Jews. Obama Jews. Trump Jews. And John McCain–type Jews. There are ultra-religious Jews, some of whom want nothing to do with society, and other Jews working tirelessly to make society better. And many in the 1,000 variations in between.

There are Jews who never want the Palestinians to have their own state, and there are many Jews who demand Palestinian statehood. There are both antiracist Jews and racist Jews.

Indeed, there’s a joke in Jewish circles:

“Two Jews, three opinions.”

With only 15.7 million Jews worldwide, mass disunity isn’t a great thing for survival and perseverance.

Then on October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists unleashed the worst slaughter of Jews in one day since the Holocaust.

With the blood soaked dust settling, we now know that the massacre involved cooking Jewish babies alive in ovens; cutting limbs off; raping Jewish women; kidnapping pregnant women, elderly and toddlers; and mass gunning down Jews at a concert.

But, God forbid, that isn’t what this thank-you note is about.

After Hamas’ slaughter, Jew haters from L.A. to New York, St. Louis to San Francisco, Tunis to Rabat, London to Paris, and Berlin to even Armenia came out in droves.

Burning and vandalizing Jewish institutions. Shouts for Jews to die. Signs at rallies showing the Jewish star being thrown into a trash can. Threatening and intimidating Jewish college students. Social media posts calling for the Jewish homeland to be destroyed. Young college students calling Hamas a political resistance movement even after their brutal rapes. So much for #metoo.

It was and remains overwhelming. Where did all these hateful people come from, some of us Jews thought. Many forced to reassess their friendships.

But something interesting happened.

Synagogue attendance shot up. Readership of Jewish publications is up. Purchases of Jewish stars hit record sales. Menorah sales for the upcoming Chanukah holiday, unironically about Jewish survival, skyrocketed. Even Jewish groups normally hypercritical of Israel have joined in unison with other Jews.

Then there was the largest gathering of Jews, in Washington, D.C., since Mt. Sinai. 290,000.

Jews of all stripes are claiming and reclaiming their proud 4,000-year-old peoplehood.

Ethiopian Jews. Yemenite Jews. Iraqi Jews. German, French, English and Russian Jews. Argentinian Jews. And of course, American Jews.

Secular Jews. Reform Jews. Orthodox Jews.

Left wing Jews. Moderate Jews. Right wing Jews.

Virtually all unified about Jews.

Dear Jew haters, you have accomplished something even the hardest working and smartest rabbis and Jewish leaders couldn’t do after decades of strategy planning.

You’ve reunited us.

You’ve given us renewed purpose. A reconnection to our roots. You’ve helped us remember that we have a beautiful millennia-old peoplehood that we ought not take for granted. That we have a God we can pray, cry and give thanks to.

It’s a bit sad us Jews didn’t achieve this unity through more positive methods, but thanks anyway, asshole antisemites.

We remain indestructible and stronger than ever now, thanks to you.

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

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