Disease and war have determined so much of Jewish history, but this year they shaped the experience of the global community in ways we have never quite seen before. There were outbreaks of antisemitism shaped by social media in many countries around the world in May when the conflict raged against Hamas.
As the “electronic intifada” drowned out legitimate political protest, over in the physical world anti-Israeli demonstrations strayed into outright hate and even violence. In Vienna one member of the mob shouted: “Shove your Holocaust up your arse!” and in Berlin the chant went up “F*** the Jews.”
At least there was a robustly uniform response from governments across Europe condemning what German foreign minister Heiko Maas phlegmatically described as “people of Jewish faith being held responsible for developments in the Middle East”.
While the second year of the Covid pandemic brought with it the silver lining of Israel being in the international news not because of conflict but its world-leading rollout of the vaccine, this welcome normalisation of the Jewish state was set alongside the sickening exploitation of Holocaust history by anti-vaxxers. From Europe to Australia, strangely influential conspiracy theorists compared life-saving public health policies to Nazism in their rants online and brandished yellow stars at marches as an emblem of their delusional, narcissistic belief in their victimhood.
Political extremism of other hues threatened to enter the mainstream; in France, Jewish presidential wannabe Eric Zemmour offered a xenophobic vision – even flirting with antisemitism – that has gained a great deal of press coverage but for the moment only tentative support in the polls ahead of next year’s elections.
But 2021 also bloomed with hope in the Middle East and nearby states, as the Abraham Accords paid ever-growing dividends. The year had begun with Sudan signing the US-brokered agreement with Israel. In Bahrain, there was the first barmitzvah for many years, while Jews were able to send etrogim from the United Arab Emirates to Iran in the hope of enabling the community there to celebrate Sukkot.
Abroad, the Tehran regime exerted an influence that reached far beyond its borders. In April, the JC exposed the existence of an Iranian network of spies operating in at least 22 cities. Then just last month this newspaper also revealed that an attempt to murder a former Israeli diplomat in Colombia was the work of the international terrorist branch of the mullahs’ notorious Revolutionary Guards.
The BDS movement has exerted a disturbingly increasing influence much to the concern of Jewish communities in the most far-flung quarters of the world. In South Africa, the call for a boycott of “apartheid” Israel has almost become the norm among the political establishment. The reigning Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, was abandoned by her government for defying the mob of campaigners who demanded she pull out of the Miss Universe competition in Eilat.
As the year neared its end, the people of Chile decided against the far-right Jose Antonio Kast and instead chose as president socialist Gabriel Boric, who has called upon Jews to condemn Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. Whether or not that was a matter simply of brutal electoral considerations — Chile’s Jewish population numbers just 18,000, against 350,000 for the Palestinian ex-pat community — concerns will linger over the firebrand leader until he repairs the damage of his past comments.
The year also witnessed the global kehillah reaching out to help non-Jews where calamity loomed. International bodies including Jewish World Watch campaigned to highlight the plight of the Uighurs in China, persecuted in their millions for their Muslim faith.
In Afghanistan, as Kabul fell to the Taliban, a humanitarian effort organised by Rabbi Moshe Margaretten from Brooklyn and the Tzedek Association enabled non-Jewish refugees in fear for their lives amid the chaos to get out before it was too late.
In Australia, Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku died at the age of 101, leaving behind an inspirational legacy of true emunah summed up in the title of his memoir, The Happiest Man In The World. And in Amsterdam a scholar who had been rebuffed in applying to visit the Portuguese Synagogue to research into Baruch Spinoza — excommunicated 350 years ago — was after all allowed to come. A reminder that you should never give up.
