The veneer of Western tolerance lulled many liberal Jews into a false sense of security.
We believed we didn’t need a safe haven in case the world turned on us once again because society had outgrown previous generations’ deep-seated antisemitism.
Growing up in suburban Jewish communities, many of us participated in Holocaust education programs such as the March of the Living, in which teenagers spend a week touring concentration camps before spending a week in Israel. Holocaust education exposes young people to atrocities so they remain vigilant lest these horrors be repeated.
But this prophylactic, collective PTSD seemed unduly burdensome.
Some of us decided the horrors of the past had created a paranoia among Jews around antisemitism.
We couldn’t understand how the Holocaust happened, and we didn’t believe anything like it could happen again.
Oct. 7’s events and the world’s reaction to it destroyed that illusion.
We now see how the Holocaust happened, how the world let it happen and how it could happen again: We witnessed it in microcosm.
Liberal Jews marched with black leaders during the civil-rights movement.
We put Black Lives Matter signs in our yards after George Floyd’s murder.
So we were horrified when Chicago’s Black Lives Matter chapter posted an image of a paraglider with a caption declaring its allegiance to Palestine.
Hamas paragliders descended upon the Nova music festival for peace and mowed down hundreds of young, unarmed civilians.
That since-deleted post was nothing other than a celebration of the murder of innocent Jews. Apparently Jewish lives don’t matter.
Progressives rightly condemned anyone who said, “The death of George Floyd was regrettable, but he was on drugs at the time,” or “All lives matter!”
But Oct. 8, they were all saying, “What happened yesterday was bad, but this is what decolonization looks like,” or “Free Palestine — from the river to the sea!” — code for the elimination of the only Jewish state.
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They would not unequivocally condemn the intentional slaughter of innocent Jews.
Nearly the entire world rallied around the Palestinians in the immediate aftermath of 10/7. Let’s not forget this was before any Israeli military response.
Committing the most heinous atrocities since the Holocaust seemingly garnered worldwide support — for the perpetrators.
Most commentators online denied the extent of the horrors, said such barbarism is the natural consequence of Israeli policies or both.
The United Nations secretary-general rationalized 10/7. It feels as if most of the world kicked us when we were down.
To say this has been a rude awakening is an understatement.
Every Jew I know has been shaken to the core.
We’re a generation that, for the most part, takes our lack of religiosity as a point of pride and naïvely believed we’re human beings before we’re Jews.
But the rest of the world doesn’t see our humanity apparently.
It doesn’t bat an eye when we’re slaughtered. It blames us for it.
We have taken note. The Holocaust ended 78 years ago, but we no longer have the luxury of downplaying antisemitism.
Jewish sovereignty is as necessary as ever: The existential threat of extermination is once again a real and present danger.
This epiphany has had a profound effect on us Gen X Jews.
People who hated sitting through synagogue growing up are joining congregations for the first time.
Atheist Jews are saying prayers for the first time in decades, not for faith in their efficacy but because they’re the words our people have spoken for thousands of years.
Liberal Jews who generally reject nationalism have newfound pride in the modern miracle that is Israel.
My wife is not Jewish but loves Jewish values, culture and history.
In an act of solidarity she joined me in getting a Star of David tattoo on our right ring fingers.
It symbolizes a commitment to and celebration of Jewish values, culture and history.
It is an act of defiance against a world that cheers when we are slaughtered.
As a people, we have been here before, and the story did not end well. “Never again” is now.
But the overriding difference is: Am Yisrael Chai! The nation of Israel lives!
Kenneth Blake is a former Brooklyn special-victims prosecutor who teaches government and critical thinking at St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma, Calif.
