Jewish Response to Anti-Semitism

"Anti-Semitism is in decline both in North America and Europe –despite shrill accusations to the contrary," stated Rabbi Yoel Klein, a spokesman for Jewish Response. The statement comes on the heels of the recent car torching (on Friday, Nov. 11) in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Midwood in Brooklyn. Swastikas were found painted on benches nearby.

"Unfortunately, incidents like this still occur, but with less frequency," Rabbi Klein continued. "By and large, anti-Semitism is a thing of the past. Jews here in Brooklyn live in peace with their gentile neighbors.

"Furthermore, most of the anti-Semitic acts that do take place here, as well as in Europe, are due to confusion in the minds of the perpetrators between Jews and Israelis. Those who object to the policies of the State of Israel often assume that all Jews support those policies and thus feel justified in taking out their anger on Jews in general.

"In light of this, we have to thank those Jewish organizations that are active in disseminating literature and information demonstrating that actually, a large percentage of Jews, especially Orthodox Jews, objects to the very existence of the State of Israel as a sovereign state. Certainly these Jews cannot be held accountable for whatever the State of Israel does. As this message reaches an ever-widening audience, anti-Semitism declines and loses credence as an ideology.

"It may not be a coincidence that this latest hate crime took place in Midwood, parts of which are in the Ninth Congressional District. Despite the fact that it is a heavily Democratic district, two months ago Republican Bob Turner beat Democrat David Weprin in a dramatic upset election. Many pro-Israeli Jews portrayed the election results as 'a message from Jews to President Obama' that he is not sufficiently supportive of the Zionist state. The truth is that most of the traditional Jews in the district voted for Turner because they objected to Weprin's views on the gay marriage issue. But because many in the media followed the Zionist lead and made Zionism the issue of the election, anti-Israel groups were given the pretext they needed to claim that Jews in general are disloyal to America and seek to manipulate America to serve Zionist interests.

"Ironically, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who is now so vocal in decrying this hate crime, was one of those who spread the myth about the election. In late September, he even went so far as to give NY9 voters credit for Obama's staunch pro-Israel speech in the United Nations. In the immediately aftermath of the election, however, Hikind himself stated that the marriage issue was the main driving force behind Jewish votes for Turner.

"This incident serves to drive home the lesson that we must be careful what we say. Clarifying Jewish opposition to Zionism and Jewish loyalty to our country is the best way to reduce anti-Semitism," Rabbi Klein concluded.

This entry was posted on November 15, 2011 at 12:53 PM and has received 70 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

On July 30, 2011, the New York Times, in its continuing effort to spotlight Jewish people and the Jewish religion as the driving force behind all things controversial, published an article by Andrea Elliott entitled "The Man Behind the Anti-Shariah Movement" which points to a " little-known lawyer, David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew, with a history of controversial statements about race, immigration and Islam", as that man; thus giving the impression to thousands of readers of that publication that this individual, who is in fact acting on his own beliefs, represents the position of the Jewish community when in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

"The Jewish people were exiled from the Holy Land and commanded to follow and respect the laws of the countries in which they reside." said Rabbi Yoel Klein, of Jewish Response. "To give the impression that the Jewish community has taken a position to support or to oppose Shariah is misleading and damages relations between Jews and Muslims and is an outright fallacy. Authentic Jews follow the laws of their country as established by lawmakers for the good of all people."

An earlier New York Times article by Jennifer Peltz published on December 26, 2008 entitled " Jews Fear Madoff Case Stokes Hate" also attempted to divert attention from the actions of an individual into an issue of Judaism and anti-Semitism. (See http://www.jewishresponse.com/blog/client/index.cfm/2008/12/31/Madoffs-Securities-and-Investment-Fraud)

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 7:13 PM and has received 127 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Not long ago, it was reported in the media that a Jewish boy, son of a prominent French rabbi, was assaulted in a Paris train station by an anti-Semitic youth. The story was touted as proof that French Jews live in constant danger, particularly from their Muslim neighbors. President Nicolas Sarkozy was compelled to apologize publicly to the Jewish community, and promised that there would be no more such incidents. France is home to about eight million Muslims and only half a million Jews. According to the media, anti-Semitic incidents in France rose between 2008 and 2009 by 75% - from 475 to 832.

However, Rabbi Yirmiyahu Menachem Cohen, chief rabbi of Paris for the last four years, declared in an interview with the Brooklyn-based Yiddish newspaper Der Blatt that these stories were completely unfounded. He personally spoke with the rabbi whose son was supposedly beaten, and learned that the "anti-Semitic assault" was nothing more than a brush with a drunken man, which left his son without a single scratch.

Furthermore, Rabbi Cohen said he has never encountered any anti-Semitic violence in France. He uses the subway system every day without incident. Paris is home to a community of about 200,000 Jews, of whom about 200 pray in Rabbi Cohen's synagogue. Rabbi Cohen believes that the rumors about rising anti-Semitism in France were deliberately spread by pro-Israeli media outlets, in the hopes of spurring more Jews to leave France and settle in the State of Israel.

According to Rabbi Cohen, most of the Jews in Paris are of Sephardic descent, and, ironically, many of them are former Israelis who left behind the Zionist "paradise" to seek a better life in France.

Rabbi Yoel Klein, spokesman for Jewish Response, remarked that the word anti-Semitism is not really an accurate term for hatred of Jews. Actually, Semites include many non-Jewish peoples as well: all those descended from Shem, son of Noah, comprising about one-third of the world. Arabs, who trace their ancestry to Ishmael, son of Abraham, are certainly Semites. Similarly, the descendents of Esau, brother of the patriarch Jacob, are Semites. According to Jewish tradition, Esau's descendents today, the Edomites, are the Italians living in and around Rome.

Historically, Jews never had a war against Ishmael, and during the Jewish exile, violence against Jews was almost non-existent in the Muslim lands. For two thousand years, the Arab countries were a safe haven and shelter for Jews. Similarly, Italians have no history of hating Jews. As early as Talmudic times, the Babylonian rabbis expressed their preference to live under Esau's empire (Rome) - see Talmud, Gittin 17a. It was Germany, known in Hebrew as Ashkenaz, one of the sons of Japheth, Noah's other son, which perpetrated the Holocaust. Germany's ally, Italy, played no role.

However, Rabbi Klein continued, the word anti-Semitism may indeed be a good description of the propaganda being spread today regarding French Jewry. Those who claim that Muslims hate Jews and that French Jews are in danger are really attacking all Semites - both Muslim and Jewish Semites. They are unjustly accusing the Muslims of persecuting their Jewish neighbors, and they are frightening Jews into moving to the State of Israel - where they will certainly be in truly great danger.

This is part of a long-term Zionist scheme to empty out the world of its Jews, and bring them all to the State of Israel. To this end, Zionists seek to provoke agitation and anti-Semitism in every land where Jews live. The Zionist founder Theodor Herzl was the first to put this plan into writing: "It is essential that the sufferings of Jews. . . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-Semites shall be our best friends (Diary, Part I, pp. 16).

In the 1920's, the Zionists began writing that Jews have no place in Germany. Although this was not the position of the majority of German Jews, who opposed Zionism and were loyal Germans, the media gave the Zionist view great publicity, influencing Nazi ideology and policy.

After World War II, the Zionists targeted the surviving Jews of Europe for immigration. They intervened in America to make sure these Jews had nowhere to go but Palestine.

After establishing their state in 1948, they set their sights on Sephardic Jewry - the Jews living in Arab countries. They fooled some of them, such as the Yemenite Jews, into leaving their homes by encouraging the belief that the age of the messiah had arrived. Others, such as Iraqis Jews, were frightened into fleeing their homelands by bombs secretly placed by Zionist agents in the synagogues. Today, almost no Jews remain in Arab lands where there were once millions.

In the 1970's, the Zionists began to target Russian Jewry. In the decades that followed, more than a million Russian Jews settled in the State of Israel.

Starting ten years ago, the Zionists saw that it did not serve their political interests to have Jews in France, so they decided to burn a fire under their feet to get them to leave. The Zionists need their intelligence, their property and their blood to contribute to the their war against the Arabs. Ariel Sharon made a special trip to France to convince French Jewry to come to the State of Israel. Fortunately, his efforts did not bear fruit; Jews stayed put in France.

America is their next target. They know American Jews are comfortable now, but they hope for a wave of anti-Semitism that will sent us running to their doorstep. Yishai Fleisher, a talk show host at Israel National Radio and co-founder of pro-immigration organization Kumah, said so explicitly: "The next major frontier in aliyah (immigration to the State of Israel) is North America and the western countries like England and France... Western aliyah is up and it will continue to rise because of the great fuel of aliyah in England and France, anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, in North America, ideological and religious aliyah is what we can expect, unless some unexpected anti-Semitic wave hits the region." Indeed, Zionist strategy has not changed since Herzl.

In contrast to G-d's plan to spread Jews all over the world for their survival (Talmud, Pesachim 87b), the Zionists wish to bring them all to one place, where they can all be attacked at once, G-d forbid. Thus they are doing the anti-Semites' work for them. The Jewish people must wake up to see the cancer that is growing on its body.

The body fights off most diseases using antibodies developed from previous exposure or from vaccines. The body has been trained to recognize its enemies and fight them off. However, cancer is much more dangerous because the body doesn't recognize it as an enemy and cannot fight. Identifying one's enemy is the first step toward victory. May G-d help Jews to open their eyes and see who their enemy is.

Judaism teaches respect for all monotheistic religions, and especially for Muslims, who are descended from Abraham, ancestor of the Jews. The Torah says that when Abraham was forced to send away his elder son Ishmael, lest he influence Isaac to worship idols, G-d told him, "Do not worry about the boy, for those among Isaac will be considered your descendents. And also the son of the handmaid (Ishmael) I will make a people, for they are your descendents" (Genesis 21:12-13). G-d promised Abraham that although at present Ishmael was guilty of misconduct and could not be allowed to influence Isaac, his descendents would one day repent and believe in one G-d. Then they would deserve to be called a people, bearers of the legacy of Abraham. This prophecy was fulfilled with the advent of Islam.

Furthermore, Abraham did not actually forsake Ishmael; our Sages say that he visited him often and taught him the tradition of welcoming guests. To this day, Arabs are known for going to great lengths to welcome and protect their guests. The Arab world is greatly respected in Jewish tradition and religion.

On the other hand, just because a Jew is descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not entitle him to call himself a Jew. Judaism is not racism, granting preferred status to Jews simply because of their lineage. A Jew must be worthy of the name. The founders and leaders of the Zionist movement, who were atheists and deniers of the Torah, are not true Jews. This is why the Torah says, "For those among Isaac will be considered your descendents" - not all of Isaac's descendents, only some of them, those who have clung to Judaism throughout the generations.

The Book of Psalms (50:20) says, "You speak against your brother; of your mother's son you speak evil." The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah 6:9 and Tanchuma Pekudei 7) interprets "your brother" to refer to the nations most closely related to the Jewish people, the Ishmaelites and the Edomites. "Your mother's son" refers to Jews. Thus we are forbidden to speak badly of them just as we are forbidden to speak badly of other Jews.

"Jews aspire to live in peace with their neighbors in France and everywhere else," concluded Rabbi Klein. "We deplore those who spread false rumors with the intent of sowing hatred between Jews and Muslims. Our message to these evil conspirers is: you will not have the last laugh on the day when G-d's kingdom will prevail, as the Torah says, 'For He will avenge the blood of His servants and exact vengeance on His enemies' (Deuteronomy 32:43). Let us hope that whoever reads this wakeup warning will survive this evil plot, and may our eyes behold His return to Zion with mercy."

This entry was posted on July 3, 2011 at 8:51 PM and has received 232 views. There are currently 4 comments. Print this entry.

"G-d chose you to be His treasured people from all the peoples on the face of the earth." (Devarim 14:2)

Anti-Semites sometimes claim that Jews are racists and supremacists because they refer to themselves as the chosen people. But this defining of Jews by race is an error and in no way reflects the true Jewish belief. Membership in the Jewish people is not dependent on race. For the Jews, peoplehood has always been defined only by acceptance of the Torah. In the words of the famous philosopher Rabbi Saadiah Gaon (882-942), "This people is only a people through its Torah." Any Jew who rejects the Torah is not part of the Jewish people. Any individual of any race can become a Jew and be part of the Jewish people. Thus it is clear that the term chosen people is a misnomer and a more proper rendering would be chosen religion.

But this still leaves much to be explained. What is the chosen religion? What was G-d's purpose in choosing a particular group of people who had particular beliefs?

Judaism teaches that man's purpose in this world is to recognize G-d as his Creator and to thank G-d for creating him. Before He created man, G-d already had angels who sang His praises, but He chose to create humans, who despite being hampered by their own physical needs and surrounded by a world of distractions, and despite not perceiving His existence directly, would believe in Him and praise Him. The world is like a factory full of amazing machines, each one with a purpose in keeping the factory running. But what gain, what profit does the factory Owner get out of it? Those people who believe in Him and praise Him.

After creation, G-d waited for the right people to come along, people through whom He could teach the world about its purpose. At first there were enlightened individuals - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - who understood on their own that the world must have one all-powerful and benevolent Creator. G-d appeared to them and spoke to them.

But this was not enough. G-d wanted to give His law to a large group of people, who would then live by this law and thereby teach the world about G-d's greatness. He chose to give His law to the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, who had been the first to proclaim G-d's existence to the world. Abraham's descendants continued to believe in what their ancestor had taught, and they stuck with it despite the adversity of Egyptian slavery. G-d called them the "people I have created for Myself, so that they might speak My praise" (Isaiah 43:21). This was their function on earth.

However, no one should make the mistake of thinking that G-d was choosing one race and their descendants for all time, for better or for worse. The Jews in ancient times were a very numerous nation. What happened to all descendants of those Jews? The answer is that many Jews have gone lost - left the Torah behind and assimilated into other societies and cultures. They may have Jewish blood, but when we speak of the Jewish people we do not mean them. Just as many have left the Jewish people, many have joined. Some of the greatest names in Jewish history have been converts: Zipporah, wife of Moses; Rahav, wife of Joshua; Ruth, great-grandmother of King David; and Onkelos, compiler of the most authoritative Aramaic translation of the Torah. Great Talmudic sages such as Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Meir were descended from converts. The Talmud even says that the entire purpose of the Jews' exile and dispersal over the face of the earth was so that converts should join them.

So we see that the Jews can really be defined as those individuals who chose G-d, not a race or ethnic group chosen by G-d. To those individuals who chose Him, G-d gave laws and teachings to show them how to spread His word and His praise in the world.

Many people know about Biblical verses like the one quoted at the outset of this article, which proclaim that G-d chose the Jews from all the nations. What they might not know is the following verses, which show that the choosing is a two-way street:

"You have chosen G-d today, to be your G-d, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, commandments and ordinances, and to listen to His voice. And G-d has chosen you today to be a treasured nation for Him, as He has spoken to you, and to keep all His commandments." (Devarim 26:17-18)

Let the anti-Semites clarify their position. If they are against a particular race, let it be known to them that Jewry is a religion, not a race. Those of Jewish extraction who do not practice Judaism are not to be considered Jews at all. They may use their Jewish identity or even parts of the Jewish religion to further their own agenda, but they are not Jews, neither are Jews responsible for their actions. Thus, for example, the Bolshevik revolution may have been led to a large extent by men who were born Jewish, but since they were atheists who fought ruthlessly against their mother religion, they were actually not Jews. They were even further from Judaism than Christians or Muslims, who believe in the Creator.

On the other hand, if their complaints are directed at the Jewish religion, they have a legitimate right to make their arguments heard and receive substantive answers from Jews. But that is no longer anti-Semitism - hatred of particular people. It is a religious doctrinal debate.

Anti-Semites often allege that Jews are greedy and money-hungry. Of course such people exist among all races and creeds, but those among the Jews have been mostly weeded out. Why? For centuries, Jews lived under Christian persecution, and were forbidden from having all but the most menial occupations. Any Jew who was greedy by nature had only to convert to Christianity in order to move up in the world. And there were many who did - otherwise we would have a much larger number of Jews today. Given the Jewish people's large numbers in the ancient world, there should be billions of us today. But Jews today are those who chose G-d - not those whom G-d chose - and chose Him above all other material concerns.

Another common anti-Semitic tactic is to focus on the Zionist movement, criticize it and then lump all Jews together with the Zionists. This distortion is particularly painful because Zionism has embraced some of the key concepts of anti-Semitism: that Jews are incapable of coexisting with gentiles around the world, and that Jews must therefore have their own country. In fact, true Judaism teaches the exact opposite: Jews are to be loyal citizens of their countries and must live in peace with all their neighbors. Zionism is a departure from Judaism and it is wrong to hold traditional Jews responsible for what Zionists do.

We hope this elucidation of the concept of the chosen people will help our readers understand better who Jews are and what they stand for. May we see the day of the redemption, when all nations will join in serving G-d together, as the prophets says, "For then I will change the nations to a clear speech, that all of them will call in the name of G-d, to serve Him with one shoulder." (Zephaniah 3:9)

This entry was posted on October 24, 2008 at 11:13 AM and has received 424 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Throughout history, the Jewish people has been threatened by nations wishing to destroy it for various reasons. As dissenters from the majority religions of their countries, they were subject to religious persecution. As a minority group they were made a scapegoat for the problems of times. During most of history, the Jewish people was represented and defended by Jews who loved their own people and made saving their brethren the highest priority.

In the twentieth century, however, matters took an unfortunate turn. New leaders arose who proposed to rescue the Jewish people using hitherto untried methods. They proposed sweeping solutions whose end result was more power for them and more danger for the Jewish people. Organizations arose to defend the Jewish people, but they have contributed to anti-Semitism instead of reducing it.

Alarmed by the current rise in anti-Semitic sentiments and hate crimes around the world, a number of New York Jews from various circles have decided to come together and take action.

"We feel a strong sense of our peoplehood, and a responsibility to do something to reduce the danger our people is currently in," said Leo Greenbaum, one of the founders of the group. "We feel the Jewish people will be best served if we return to the days when preserving life was our highest priority."

With that in mind, they have founded Jewish Response. The goal: to foster better Jewish-gentile relations by spreading mutual understanding. Unlike the larger, more powerful organizations, Jewish Response says it will not engage in finger-pointing and vilification campaigns. Its writers and spokesmen will focus on the substance of the debate, not on the people involved. They will undertake to explain the Jewish Torah and Talmud to the gentile world, in the process clearing up misconceptions fostered by anti-Semites.

The organization's first major project will be its website, www.jewishresponse.com.

"We look forward to the day when Jews can live in peace and security with non-Jews in all parts of the world," said Greenbaum. "Our activities are a small step toward that end."

This entry was posted on October 3, 2008 at 12:41 PM and has received 502 views. There are currently 8 comments. Print this entry.