Anti-Semitism at Home and Abroad

Speaking at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein detailed the list of Anti-Semitic acts committed throughout the world in 2009. Minister Edelstein concluded his address with the following words, "It is our moral duty to educate our children about anti-Semitism and the evils of senseless hatred."

Exactly! Minister Edelstein was more correct than even he knows. READ ON.

The more than 500 attendees of the Anti-Semitism Forum came from all over the world to find out how to combat Jew-Hatred in their own countries. They came to the right place, but unfortunately they probably won't come to the true causes and the real cure for anti-Semitism at this conference. Yes, they might vote to increase education, seminars, workshops and newspaper articles on Jews and their right to exist in this world, but that will not end anti-Semitism anywhere.

Minister Edelstein had the answer and he probably didn't even realize it.

END ANTI-SEMITISM by ENDING SINAT CHINAM

The way to end anti-Semitism in the World is to END ANTI-SEMITISM IN ISRAEL, by ending SINAT CHINAM (senseless hatred) of Jew for Jew.

My dear friends, the world's attitude toward the Jewish people is created solely by the Jews' attitude toward the Jewish people, and most especially the attitude of Jews in Israel.

BEAT JEWS HERE, BEAT JEWS THERE

When the world sees Jewish policemen (Yassamnikim or whoever they are) beating Jews on hilltops for defending their land, or Jews at a Shabbat demonstration, they don't start analyzing the scene. Hm, a Jewish policeman is beating that man, because the man won't stop building his town. Hm, a Jewish policeman is beating that man, because he doesn't want that parking lot open on Shabbat. No! They think plainly, "A Jewish policeman is beating a Jew. If a Jew can beat a Jew, than I can beat a Jew as well."

If you look at the charts of anti-Semitic activity in the world, you will see that it has risen in parallel to the amount of hatred by Jews against Jews in Israel.

When Gush Katif was destroyed, the Jews there were thrown out of their homes, their homes were leveled to the ground, and their dead had to be unburied and reburied in other cemeteries around the country. Prior to the Expulsion from Gush Katif, demonstrations were held all over Israel to try to stop the evil decree. Police and soldiers beat protestors with great brutality. The world didn't analyze those scenes. Hm, Jews are beating Jews, because they refuse to leave Gaza. No, they thought, if it's okay for a Jew can beat a Jew, crack his head open, break his arms, it's okay for me as well. And do you know what happened? Anti-Semitism around the world reached the highest levels it had been in nine years.

And just as the Gush Katif cemetery was being dissected, Jewish cemeteries around the world were being desecrated as well - Budapest, London, West Hampton, Berlin.

These are not "coincidences."

This is not "interesting."

As Jews show their hatred for one another, non-Jews worldwide feel they are given a green light to show their vehement hatred against Jews.

FALLING INTO THE TRAP

And yet the Jewish people are constantly falling into the trap that gives anti-Semitism its justification. The secular Jewish public hates the national religious public - the "settlers", the "right wing extremists", the "nationalists", the "Zionists". The national religious hate the Chareidim - the "leeches", "the parasites", "they won't even serve in the Army."

The world doesn't look on and think, Hm, secular non-religious Jews are good. They are just like us. Only Zionist Jews and Chareidi Jews are bad. They think, if Jews can hate one another so fiercely; if they can curse one another and blame one another for the ills of their country, then I can hate them and blame them all for the ills of the world.

The Israeli media doesn't single out his hatred for one or another segment of religious society. The Israel media equally hates BOTH national religious and Chareidim and demonizes them all. And as Israeli media demonizes Jews, so does the world media.

Every time an article is printed, like the one last week in In Jerusalem by Peggy Cidor, which slandered the Jewish Quarter, calling it a "Haredi Slum," and desecrated the Kotel with her words, saying that it had been removed from the Jewish people - "no longer a national Israeli site but a haredi Kotel," then the Jewish people are endangered on the world stage.

The world doesn't know Chareidi/Haredi or National Religious or Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox. The world substitutes all those words for JEWS.

Peggy Cidor wrote that non-religious Jews were alienated from the Kotel. (I could write ten blogs about the UNTRUTH of that statement, but that will be for another day. I go to the Kotel regularly and frequently and have photos to prove from just about every one of my trips that non-religious Jews are IN LOVE with the Kotel.)

Chas v'shalom, her hateful article (and similar articles) will come back to haunt us. The statement about the Jewish Quarter, and the one that said that non-religious Jews are alienated from the Kotel will lead to the Arabs and the World become more emboldened to DEMAND not only the Temple Mount, but the entire Old City, the Kotel itself, Mt. Zion, the City of David. There is no limit to the appetite that stories like these trigger.

HATING THE LAND, INCREASING THE DEMAND

The same concept carries over to the Land. When we reject the Land of Israel, our enemies demand more and more. We turned out backs on Gaza, the enemy attacked us farther into the country. We tore down Jewish hilltop communities, the enemy demanded ALL Judea and Samaria as well. We refuse to defend Judea and Samaria, the enemy whets its appetite for Eastern Jerusalem, and on and on and on.

CREATING THE HATRED, ENDING THE HATRED

We learn from an early age that when we do a good deed (a mitzvah), we create a good angel. When we do an evil deed or say something evil about another person, we create a prosecuting angel.

Every time a Jew lifts a hand against another Jew, somewhere in the world a non-Jew lifts a hand against a Jew. Every time a Jew writes slanderous hatred against any segment of Jewish society, non-Jews use their media to pass along their poisonous hatred against all Jews. Whenever the Israeli government makes an evil decree against the Jewish people or the Land, non-Jewish governments demand more and more concessions from the Jewish people.

My dear dear friends, Jews of Israel and around the world,

Do you want to destroy anti-Semitism?

Do you want to stop Jew Hatred?

You can only stop it with Jew Love!

Anti-Semitism is not caused by Sinat Chinam (senseless hatred) of a Pole or a Frenchman or a Nigerian or a German or a Dutchman for a Jew. It is caused by the Sinat Chinam of a Jew for a Jew.

And no amount of conferences or classes or studies will ever stop it.

The only thing that will stop Sinat Chinam is Ahavat Chinam (unconditional love) of one Jew for another.

TRY IT. For one month, let us encourage every Jew to praise every other Jew - religious, secular, national-religious, Chareidi, Chassid, Misnaged, Ashkenaz, Sephard, Ethiopian, Russian, Bnei Menashe, Indian, every one! Share a smile, say Shalom, shake a hand, see the good, see the good, see the good.

Defend the Jewish people everywhere - in word and deed. Build each other up in your own eyes, and you will see that the entire Jewish people will be built up in the eyes of the world.

START NOW. "My brothers in the Shomron are committed Jews." "My brothers, the Jews of Meah She'arim are devout." "My brethren in Tel Aviv have good hearts." "The Rabbis are learned." "My brothers in the Negev live with mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice)." "My brothers, the Jews in Gush Etzion are full of chesed (loving kindness)." "My brethren in Chevron are devoted to our roots."

And when you read an article or hear someone speak, spewing hatred for our brethren, DO SOMETHING. Right the wrong. Stand up for your brethren here in Israel, and Jews throughout the world will be able to stand up taller as well.

Your actions, your words and your deeds will fan or fight the flames of anti-Semitism. The responsibility begins and ends with ALL OF YOU.