Analysis
October 7 brought Western Jews’ holiday from history to a hard stop
The past year has forced many American Jews to re-evaluate institutions and friends they thought they knew
October 1, 2024 09:33
3 min read
The past year has forced many American Jews to re-evaluate institutions and friends they thought they knew
October 1, 2024 09:33In the wake of the Holocaust, Western Jews enjoyed a holiday from Jewish history. And while that era was already winding down, it found its hard stop on October 7.
The savage attacks in Israel unleashed open celebrations of terrorism and genocidal antisemitism at levels previously unknown in the United States. This forced many American Jews to re-evaluate institutions and friends they thought they knew. As we approach the year mark, I asked four American Zionists how life has changed and what they’ve learned since that Black Sabbath.
Dr. Logan Levkoff, a pro-Israel activist and speaker, reflected: “Jews in the Diaspora have woken up to the painful historical reminder that despite how assimilated you may feel, you are still the ‘other.’ But with that wake up call comes a great sense of pride and the other historical reminder that against all odds, we are still here.”
Meanwhile, visibly Orthodox Jews have had a different experience, according to Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values: “Every person who is visibly Jewish is directly impacted by the environment of hate that is now normal across the country. Last week, I was at the Capitol for a meeting. As I’m walking in, a guy comes in and says, ‘Let me offer you an alternate perspective,’ and he’s wearing a t-shirt that says something like ‘Heroic Hamas.’ How did he know that’s an alternate perspective, that I disagree with him? The answer is that I’m a visibly Orthodox Jew.”
“It’s not necessarily that we’ve learned so much,” Menken continued, “as that we recognise how much this is playing out. We knew this is what antisemitism looked like, how antisemitism gains acceptability, but now you have the [anti-Zionist] Palestine narrative as a case study in how antisemitism is allowed to fester, grow, and develop under a facade of normality.”
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director of AMCHA Initiative, has documented and analysed the normalisation of anti-Zionism at universities. She said that October 7 brought “enormous clarity” to discussions about campus antisemitism, because the problem became so patently obvious.
Rossman-Benjamin shared three lessons from the past year. First, “the speed at which everything happened” accelerated, making it “impossible for us to do what we did in the way we’d been doing it before.” Second, “the universities’ inability or unwillingness to address those [antisemitic] incidents” is the crux of the campus antisemitism problem. Third, hostile academia exacerbates campus antisemitism. For example, a new AMCHA study reports that campuses with Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapters “experienced a 7.3-fold increase in the likelihood of physical assaults on Jewish students.” In fact, Rossman-Benjamin, said, AMCHA found “a strong and indisputable correlation between FJP and every measure of campus unrest.”
Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, has observed all of the past year’s developments as a friend of the Jewish community. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I’ve never had the kind of collaborative, shoulder to shoulder opportunities I’ve had since October 7. It was [initially] hard to get people together and to mobilise,” as Christian Zionist and Jewish organisations had “got fat and lazy.” Moon said that’s improved. “A lot of new WhatsApp groups have formed. All of us who want to mobilise found each other. A bunch of new organisations have come online that are all really active and really clear eyed about the moment we’re in,” which Moon describes as “a fight for Western Civilisation. The Red-Green alliance, the spirit of Amalek — it’s not just coming for the Jews.”
Moon also pointed with concern to a new Economist/YouGov poll showing that only 14 per cent of Democrats sympathise more with the Israelis, while 63 per cent of Republicans do. “That to me is a real rift that has grown over the last ten years, and it’s grown even more over the last year - and after November 5, we’re going to see it grow significantly more.”
So much of the future remains unknown, both for Israelis and Americans. The horrors of Jewish history returned with a vengeance this past year. But Jews also have role models like Avraham the Patriarch, who repeatedly demonstrated faith and courage while facing high-stakes challenges. As Jews head into year 5785 with Israel fighting a multi-front war, hostages still held captive and global antisemitism surging, it’s worth channeling Avraham, while working together and holding fast to Adon Olam’s last line: “God is with me, and I will not fear."
Melissa Langsam Braunstein (@slowhoneybee) is an independent writer in metro Washington