It has been a very rough time for the Jewish people as of late.
Last week, during what should be one of the most joyous times of the year, the week of Chanukah, we saw numerous attacks on Jews just for the “crime” of being Jews.
In Australia’s Bondi Beach last Sunday, a father-son team of terrorists massacred innocent Jews, some of them children, just for celebrating the first night of Chanukah.
The day prior, a shooter opened fire on a Brown University classroom where an economics final exam review was taking place, and, while we don’t know for sure as of this writing what the shooter’s motivation was, the professor who teaches that economics course is also a faculty associate of the Judaic studies program.
Furthermore, in New York City, which has the highest Jewish population in the world, an Orthodox Jew was stabbed in the chest on Tuesday by an assailant who allegedly said right beforehand that “I’m going to kill a Jew today.”
As well, two Jewish young men were harassed on the New York City subway by two suspects who allegedly yelled “f*** the Jews” and “I’ll kill you.”
Of course, this scourge of antisemitism didn’t start in the last week. In the one-year period since the October 7 massacre, there were over 10,000 antisemitic attacks in the U.S. alone, which is the highest number recorded in a single year.
All for the crime of Jews being Jews.
Of course, we should know and be grateful that we live in a country that has in its DNA a love of Judaism going all the way back to the Founders. And, under the presidency of President Trump, we see the U.S. taking the most pro-Israel positions in its history.
That being said, history rhymes, and we have no guarantee that tomorrow will stay the same.
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In light of this sad fact, how do we Jews stay vigilant and, while we hope we never have to face it, always be prepared for the worst?
The holiday of Chanukah is actually the perfect time to delve into this, as the story behind the Festival of Lights is one of courage and never being afraid to be a Jew, even in the face of a massive Greek empire that sought to destroy every vestige of Judaism it could and bring every Jew into the empire’s Hellenistic way of life.
As the great Dennis Prager likes to say, courage is the rarest of all human traits. Very little good could be done on this earth without courage. But if we were to name one trait that exemplified the Jewish Maccabee army in its fight against the Greeks, courage would be the one. The example of the Maccabees is our example for today, over 2,000 years later.
We must never be afraid to be who we are and unapologetically be proud of being Jews. We must, to quote the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, be “Chazak Ve’ematz,” meaning “be strong and courageous.” The Torah gives us a blueprint here for how to live as Jews throughout history. We must always be bold and proud of who we are, and never apologize for it to anyone.
To quote Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement, “[A] little light dispels a lot of darkness.” We must be bold and make our light as bright as possible, and never cower and let our flame disappear into the darkness of the times.
This is also a message of the Menorah of Chanukah, as we increase our light each night.
We must also remember that, while we should be as responsible for others as we can, we should never rely on others to save us. We should be arming ourselves and taking classes to make sure we are trained in order to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our fellow coreligionists.
We must be able to protect ourselves, our families, our schools, and our synagogues, because the threat is real. And we must be able to take responsibility for protecting ourselves and fellow Jews.
To quote the late former Chief Rabbi of Britain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “Be a leader. Walk ahead. Take personal responsibility. Take moral responsibility. Take collective responsibility. Judaism is God’s call to responsibility.”
Because “never again” is not just now, it is always.
Like the Maccabees 2,000 years before us, we must continue to always be proud of who we are, always be bold, never apologize, and never back down.
Jeremy Frankel is a Jewish American freelance writer who has worked with many media publications. Follow him on X, Truth Social, GETTR, and CenterClip.
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