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Jews Are Afraid Right Now

(New York Times) Sheila Katz - Since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the conditions in the U.S. for deadly antisemitic acts have grown. At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas's terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards. When antisemitism emerges within progressive spaces, cloaked in the language of justice, too often it is met with silence and discomfort, creating echo chambers where dangerous ideas are amplified rather than confronted. I have watched progressive silence meet Jewish pain since this war began with Hamas's brutal attack on Israel. When reports emerged that Hamas had used sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7, feminist groups, globally, largely remained quiet. Movements that champion bodily autonomy - in reproductive justice and LGBTQ organizations - refused again and again to acknowledge that both Palestinians and Israelis are entitled to safety, dignity and freedom from violence. I have watched the morphing of the word "Zionist" - the basic belief in Jewish self-determination - into a slur. Jewish organizations like the one I lead, National Council of Jewish Women, have long sounded the alarm about rising antisemitism. In response, we have been ignored and told that our fear is overblown, our outrage unjustified. We have seen antisemitism dismissed as not bad enough to matter, our grief met with cynicism, our safety treated as optional. Before the attacks of the past two weeks, when we spoke out, we were told we were overreacting, not focusing on the most vulnerable populations, or even that we deserved condemnation because we supported Israel's right to exist. Our position on this war, or on Israel, does not affect how extremists perceive us. To them, we are all Jews, and that alone makes us targets for hate and violence. We need people who understand that standing against hate means standing with Jews. If you only show up for Jews in the wake of violence and not in every instance of antisemitism, you are not standing against hate. You are standing by. The writer is chief executive of the National Council of Jewish Women.
2025-06-05 00:00:00
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