On September 5th the Jewish Holiday Rosh Hashana starts the Jewish New Year. It’s the time of the year when we make ourselves into brand new people for the upcoming year and decide where we really want to go with our lives. In the same spirit, organizations once in a while renew their vision and strategy to stay relevant in an ever-changing world.

For a decade or so, antisemitism in America has changed. It no longer comes primarily from white supremacists, although their antisemitism has twice struck lethally in the past three years. Today, antisemitism in America comes primarily from society, which has turned progressive. It targets Zionism, the movement that brought the Jewish people back to Israel, their land of origin where they have been ethnically cleansed. Zionism is not colonization, as the progressive movement calls it, it is the most successful decolonization project ever. And unlike white supremacists, progressives call Jews ‘white’ and therefore ‘privileged’ and ‘oppressors’, solely based on their skin color (although a significant number of Jews are of color), erasing the Jewish experience of being a persecuted and murdered minority throughout history and ignoring that even today it is not safe to wear Jewish symbols. The gay Jewish progressive author Ben Freeman describes this in his remarkable recently published book: ‘Jewish Pride. Rebuilding a People’.

The American Jewish establishment organizations, who receive the bulk of the budget to keep the American Jewish community safe and vibrant, have failed. They have ignored the antisemitism from the Left for too long. Now it is systemic and hurting the Jews in America. The Jewish establishment organizations became part of American systemic anti-Jewish racism. Whether it’s the Anti-Defamation League that refuses to speak out against Black Lives Matter’s antisemitism The Black Lives Matter movement and anti-Semitism (jns.org), or the American Jewish Committee that partners with the Muslim Brotherhood organization Islamic Society of North America Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council Launches Digital Initiative to Counter Hate and Division | AJC. Islamic Society of North America (globalmbwatch.com). And there are many more examples.

Dear God, on this Holiday of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, let the leaders of the American Jewish establishment organizations make a new beginning. Please let them return to their main mission: to protect the American Jewish community, their culture, and their love for Israel. Let them read Ben Freeman’s book, after or even during the Holiday prayer services. Or have them listen to my interview with Ben for my weekly podcast about antisemitism, Never Again Is Now Podcast on YouTube, in which Ben explains so brilliantly how we can end the progressive antisemitism. And if the Jewish leadership stays complicit in the coming year, then please make us redirect their funds to courageous and proud leaders like Ben Freeman.

I wish all my readers a healthy and happy New Year, in which they renew their spirit of ending antisemitism and supporting Israel.

Evelyn Markus

Author Evelyn Markus

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