At the Jewish school our children attend, every morning begins by counting the number of days the hostages have been in captivity, and with prayers for their safety. The school’s entrance is festooned with yellow ribbons and a placard expressing hope for their return. On Shabbat, Jewish synagogues across America recite prayers for their release.
Boulder, Colorado – where eight Jews were wounded this weekend in a shocking terrorist attack – is not alone. In countless cities and towns, people march weekly for the hostages, calling for their swift release. In Israel, politicians have deliberately turned the struggle for the hostages into the fodder of polarization and controversy, but Jews across the United States – across streams – are showing unwavering support for the cause and discovering that their connection to Israel runs deeper than they had known or imagined before October 7.
From time to time, I ask myself how well we Israelis understand the depth of our connection to our brothers and sisters in North America. Are we sufficiently grateful for the extraordinary mobilization of so many of them on our behalf – through donations, leadership delegations who have come to Israel continuously under rocket fire, or individuals volunteering in hospitals and agricultural fields amid war? Are we aware of their efforts to influence American public opinion and politicians on Capitol Hill? And do we feel responsible for the fact that, in the end, they are paying a price for their connection to Israel?
The root cause is the ancient antisemitism that rears its head in every generation under a different guise. Still, we Israelis must recognize that every escalation or deterioration in our small patch of land inevitably spills over and affects Jews overseas. While looking for support, partnership, and aid from their non-Jewish allies, American Jews found themselves surprisingly alone.
They had always been there, standing up for the struggles of other minorities – African Americans, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants – from the days when Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, to the social justice movements of the 21st century. Yet, in the last 600 days, they far too often have felt deeply alone. And not just on university campuses.
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Omer Hart, an Israeli student in Boulder, Colorado, organized an evening of support for Israel on campus with Hillel and Chabad.
In the aftermath of October 7, their confidence was shaken – not only in the invincibility of the State of Israel, the distant mother ship, but also in feeling entirely at home and at ease as Jews in America, something most had never felt before. For more than half a century – the golden age of American Jewry – Jews were an integral part of the American dream: its culture, economy, academia and politics. Considered one of the most successful immigrant groups in American history, there is no professional path in which one doesn’t disproportionately encounter Jews. But they have discovered, as the popular podcaster Dan Senor recently described it in an important speech, that they are prominent but weak: serving in key positions, yet lacking power.
Conversations with community leaders reveal a similar analysis. The current wave of antisemitism does not stem primarily from an alarming rise in the number of antisemites – right or left. But they have found each other on social media, and in doing so have managed to move from the margins to a more central place in public discourse. With increased visibility, their audacity grows, and unlike in the past, they now have a dangerous capacity to sway others online.
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Another change is that, until recently, the conventional wisdom was that left-wing antisemitism was expressed in hateful rhetoric at loud campus protests and, at worst, through vandalism, while right-wing antisemitism resulted in deadly terrorist attacks like the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. The two most recent terror attacks have shattered that equation. The fear of violence and terror now comes from both ends of the political spectrum.
The murder of two embassy employees near the Jewish Museum in Washington, and the Colorado attack on Jews marching for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, have deepened the fear and the loneliness that befell the American Jewish community after October 7. For some, their Jewish identity, which was stirred awake on October 8, led them to proudly wear their Stars of David, pins and tags in solidarity with the hostages. Now, that pride is accompanied by the all-too-real fear of physical harm. Our moral obligation as Israelis is to stand by them, just as they stood by us – first and foremost, so that they will know, and feel, that they are not alone.
Tamar Ish-Shalom is a Senior Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and host of the podcast “Jewish Crossroads.” She is a former anchor of Channel 13 News.