Anti-Semitism and knowing when it may be time to leave

[sky121]

With all the various attacks on Jews recently I've been thinking about the real growing risks of anti semitism in the US and around the world.


After the Pittsburgh shooting I really started thinking... Will there be this one event or one moment when I'll feel like it's time to get out of here.     I started wondering if we were watching the beginning events that we'd one day look back on as signs it was time to go.


I hope not but of course with all our history and as a Jew I can't put those thoughts out of my head completely.


Sitting in the airport in Frankfurt right now I popped my head up to the News and saw the following:
"Hate Speech, Anti-Semitism surging in Germany"


 I hear about anti semitism across the globe on a daily basis lately. But seeing this, about Germany specifically- while I also happen to be sitting in this country, really gave me this very uneasy feeling deep inside my gut.


And I'm not sitting here scared that anything is going to happen to me. Anyone who has passed through Frankfurt airport knows most people are super friendly. I happen to fly Lufthansa a lot and my German seat mates are always good company.

But I can't ignore that feeling deep down.



A few minutes later I looked up and saw the following headline "Anti Semitic hate crimes surge in the US"  and kind of just rolled my eyes at it all.

But still, in the back of my head, I keep wondering. - Will I know when it's time to leave?

[sky121]

A separate thought:
I recently read Exodus by Leon Uris-

It really gave me a whole new appreciation for how much people risked to get to Israel.
How they fought for it. How they helped build it into the thriving country it is today.

But mostly what really struck me was the fact that after the war so many people had no country to go back to, no land that belonged to them. Nowhere that they belonged to. Except for Israel.   

And Gd forbid if things got bad- I'm not saying there is no country that would take in a Jew but it really cemented in me how Israel is our home. It's the one place we can always go.

It's the one place that if we had to run away that's where we could run to.

Was just a whole new appreciation for it.

[ChaimMoskowitz]

I read the stories about ELAL and the Israeli news media and have to wonder. Is anti-Semitism less in Israel than in the US?
Do you really not feel safe in the US? Our country is in a terrible place if this is true.

[a good yeshiva bachur]

I read the stories about ELAL and the Israeli news media and have to wonder. Is anti-Semitism less in Israel than in the US?
Do you really not feel safe in the US? Our country is in a terrible place if this is true.

for other reasons as well...

[sky121]

I read the stories about ELAL and the Israeli news media and have to wonder. Is anti-Semitism less in Israel than in the US?
Do you really not feel safe in the US? Our country is in a terrible place if this is true.

Day to day I don't personally walk around feeling scared, no. But I'm starting to be more and more concerned.


And you're right. There def is a certain sense of anti semitism in Israel.
Unfortunately/fortunately in bad times Jews have each other's back. 


It's why when things are 'bad' in Israel people are nicer to each other day to day then when times are good.

[ChaimMoskowitz]

CNN just had a 20 minute segment on this problem.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/?fbclid=IwAR3dzZPC3J3TRaqRD8Yeplmv7OitgN0fRWaa0FvSSaEgduBeFbrv-ok_BLc

[incendia]

Moving to Israel probably won't make you safer. Statistically you are more likely to get hurt or killed in an Anti-Semitic attack there than in the USA.

Chance of being a victim of gun violence probably goes down.

[sky121]

Moving to Israel probably won't make you safer. Statistically you are more likely to get hurt or killed in an Anti-Semitic attack there than in the USA.

Chance of being a victim of gun violence probably goes down.

At this point, that may be true.
The question arises when things get "bad enough" I think.

[ChaimMoskowitz]

Chance of being a victim of gun violence probably goes down.

I sure hope so.

[S209]

CNN just had a 20 minute segment on this problem.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/?fbclid=IwAR3dzZPC3J3TRaqRD8Yeplmv7OitgN0fRWaa0FvSSaEgduBeFbrv-ok_BLc

Wow. That Is scary. Not gonna lie, I’ve been having that ominous sense of foreboding as well.. it’ll probably pass soon, but still...

[ChaimMoskowitz]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/they-got-me-i’m-afraid’-swastikas-spray-painted-on-a-jewish-professor’s-office-at-columbia/ar-BBQeFqe?ocid=spartandhp

[shwarmabob]

All the hand-wringing aside, we are probably living in the best times in history. Do you want to make aliyah? B"H, but go for a positive reason.

[S209]

All the hand-wringing aside, we are probably living in one of the best times for Jews in modern history. Do you want to make aliyah? B"H, but go for a positive reason.

FTFY. True. Doesn’t mean we’re completely safe. At the time, Germany was the best place in (modern) history for the Jews.

[shwarmabob]

FTFY. True. Doesn’t mean we’re completely safe. At the time, Germany was the best place in (modern) history for the Jews.

You are never completely safe. You added "modern history", I wrote "best times in history".
Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were not modern, nor were the crusades of the Rhine valley. The list is endless.

Nevertheless, the Jews who complain the most are usually the ones whose Jewish identity focuses almost exclusively on the Jewish experience during the Shoa. They will find anti-Semitism everywhere. If they kept Shabbos, Kashrus, etc and attempt to raise a Jewish family, if they learned a bit of Torah, perhaps they would be able to focus their identity in a more positive fashion. It's quite obvious that the US is not anti-Semitic otherwise how do you account for the 70 percentage intermarriage rate. Unless they look at every argument they have with their spouse as a manifestation of anti-Semitism.

[S209]

You are never completely safe. You added "modern history", I wrote "best times in history".
Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were not modern, nor were the crusades of the Rhine valley. The list is endless.

Nevertheless, the Jews who complain the most are usually the ones whose Jewish identity focuses almost exclusively on the Jewish experience during the Shoa. They will find anti-Semitism everywhere. If they kept Shabbos, Kashrus, etc and attempt to raise a Jewish family, if they learned a bit of Torah, perhaps they would be able to focus their identity in a more positive fashion. It's quite obvious that the US is not anti-Semitic otherwise how do you account for the 70 percentage intermarriage rate. Unless they look at every argument they have with their spouse as a manifestation of anti-Semitism.

Bayis Rishon was the best time for us in history

[gozalim]

how do you account for the 70 percentage intermarriage rate. Unless they look at every argument they have with their spouse as a manifestation of anti-Semitism.

more than many of them will admit

[yesitsme]

A non jew driving in front of us (on the BQE heading to the Verrazano bridge) smashed into the divider AKA crash barrier, the car involved looked like the one in picture, and our vehicle side swiped that car, here we go traffic jam on the BQE (rarely happens) a car passed by opened the window and started yelling "You Jews suck you drive without licence and that's what happens" and zipped off, just saying

ברוך שעשה לי נס במקום הזה

[yesitsme]

https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1068278817527975936

[ChaimMoskowitz]

This isn't JS so can we keep him out of this thread?

[aygart]

This isn't JS so can we keep him out of this thread?

All he did was link NYT