Where is the pride?

YouTube is one of the marvels of the Electronic age. You can play eight hours of the singers and jazz artists of the 1940s. You can take a Friday and play Yiddish and Israeli music all the way up to Shabbat. And then there are the other sites.

Rachel and I were scrolling and typed in “History of the Jews.” The first video that came up was a vile attack on the Jews from some obscure group that shall remain nameless. Basically it said we had a chance given to us by God and blew it by not recognizing the Messiah and then killing Jesus. It then gave a litany of hate including justifying the expelling of Jews from a long list of nations back to Roman times.

I was a lot more surprised than I should have been. Anti-Semitism is alive and doing well. We have the nonsense of BDS on campuses around the world. We have thousands of Muslims from the Middle East pouring into Europe and bringing with them all the hatred and lies and danger that have eliminated the Jewish populations of those countries. In France, Jews are advised not to wear their Yarmulkas until they are inside the synagogue and never wear one just walking on the street.

For a long time I was one of those who did not put any credence in the claim that the very cultures of nations in Europe were changing due to the massive influx of Immigrants from mostly Muslim nations. I’ve changed my mind.

This is not to say every Muslim entering every European nation is a Jew Hater. But, look at the stats. If three hundred thousand Muslims flee to Europe and 10 percent of them harbor a hatred for the Jews, that’s 30,000 virulent anti-Semites coming into countries that already had their share of Jew Haters.

Notice that none of the Arab States are taking in any of their brethren. They don’t want to upset their balance, which refuses simple human rights. The U.S.? Our problem is a lot less noticeable. One big reason is that while we still have some ethnic neighborhoods in America, for the most part we are fully integrated and the ethnic “neighborhoods” house mostly the newcomers and the ethnic businesses. As the families become more familiar with our way of life, they adjust and become American in every way.

Now, we do have our home-grown wackos—all I have to say is “Pulse” to explain. BUT—that dude was born in Queens, N.Y.—Donald Trump’s hometown!

So—where do we start? How do we take these new threats and counter them. You do it with PRIDE! Pride in whom you are and what and where you come from. Where is the innate pride that every Jew should have of his heritage and his Judaism? We are more than 70 years past the Holocaust. We lose more aging survivors every day. We know that this generation is more secular than the last—but that is true of every religious persuasion and it has nothing to do with our peoplehood.

Jew is in our DNA! It is built in. As a Jew, you/we have certain responsibilities. We take care of our own. If one Jew is in trouble anywhere in the world, every Jew is in trouble everywhere in the world.

This is not a heritage of fear. It is an incredible history of survival and excelling. It is a heritage of pride and honor. You carry that with you from the day you are born. Jews came from all over the world to fight for the establishment of the Third Jewish Commonwealth in our own land. We succeeded and have shocked the world with more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country. (Name one from a Muslim nation). Our Jewish nation is the Tech Start Up envy of every other nation including the U.S.

The Jews who stand with Arabs on college campuses are just dumb. They do not know their history or have the pride to which they are entitled. They voice untruths about Israel and are damning themselves and every Jew in the world. Does Israel make mistakes? Of course! They are a democracy—which is sloppy in its very nature (look at the U.S.)

If this younger generation does not seek out their heritage and wear it proudly on their sleeve, they are committing a sin against their own people. Every word spoken, action taken, false videos and yes, false news on Facebook against Israel is against every Jew.

Those who demonize Israel—demonize every Jew. How many of the Jews among them have been to Eretz Israel, seen Arab women and men side by side with Israelis in the marketplace? How many have taken a cab with an Arab driver and asked him about his life in Israel?

Education helps. But you have to start with who you are and realize the pride of being a Jew. The rest is only commentary.