“Globalize the Intifada” Was Never Just a Metaphor |
A couple of days ago, in Australia, fifteen people were murdered on the first night of Hanukkah. As the death count was still rising, friends and colleagues were reaching out with sympathy, checking in on me, horrified by this latest tragedy.
But in their voices, I heard a dangerous misconception. They see this as a tragedy for the Jewish community. They see it as a “Jewish problem” to be mourned by Jews and solved by security guards at synagogues.
They are missing the point. In fact, this mindset has already yielded disastrous results. For the past two years, we have witnessed a disturbing pattern of cancellations. Jewish lectures, cultural events, and gatherings have been quietly shut down by institutions claiming they “cannot guarantee safety” or fearing that a Jewish presence “will cause a riot.”
Let’s follow this logic to its conclusion. If the mere presence of Jews is treated as a provocation that invites violence, the solution inevitably shifts from protection to exclusion. We are establishing a precedent where safety is achieved through invisibility. But history warns us that when a society asks a minority to hide for their own good, we are confusing the victim with the problem. If we reach the point where we sanitize the public sphere of Jewish presence to avoid conflict, we will not........