Do you remember the first time you felt physically threatened for being Jewish?

I do.

In the winter of 2019, I was speaking at a software conference in Brussels. It was a sunny yet freezing day as I walked near my hotel in the Louise district, an upscale area filled with high-end shops and cafes. It didn’t feel like a dangerous place for an afternoon stroll. Yet, suddenly, I heard someone shout what sounded like a string of expletives. I turned around to see a group of teenagers, roughly between 17 and 19 years old, moving toward me, pointing and yelling.

As they quickened their pace, I hurried to return to my hotel. Words like “Jew” and “Israeli” were increasingly audible, mixed with other unpleasant terms shouted in a blend of English, Arabic, and French. Thankfully, I made it safely back to my hotel, and they did not follow me inside.

Since that day, I’ve encountered other overt incidents of antisemitism. More importantly, I’ve learned a crucial lesson: our collective past is neither distant nor fully behind us. Perhaps the........

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