Fighting Antisemitism, Staying Proudly Jewish

A few weeks ago, the ADL published its 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in the United States. From our local experience and preliminary data, we knew it’d be bad. How bad it was, precisely, shocked even me.

In 2022, the ADL tracked 3,698 antisemitic incidents, and that was a then-new all-time high. By comparison, 2023’s 8,873 incidents made 2022 look like a cakewalk. For a long-term comparison, consider that we hadn’t even broken 1,000 incidents per year until 2016; we only first broke the 2,000 mark in 2019; and we only passed 3,000 in 2022. Consider this: The quantity of incidents just in 2023 is about equal to all those in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 combined. For those who don’t think we’re in a crisis, the data clearly suggests otherwise. 

Last week, we officially learned the international numbers were not much better. From a global study put out by the ADL and Tel Aviv University, we witnessed that countries showed increases from 2022 to 2023 as follows:

Argentina:       427 —> 598
Austria:             719 —> 1,147
Brazil:                432 —> 1,774
France:             436 —> 1,676
Germany:        2,639 —> 3,614
Italy:                   241 —> 454
Mexico:            21 —> 78
Netherlands:  69 —> 154
South Africa:  68 —> 207
UK:                     1,662 —> 4,103

With all this in mind, let’s not mince words: The situation is dire. However, I’d like to offer you the final reflection from Professor Uriya Shavit’s foreword to the report:

The fight against antisemitism is existential and essential. In a highly polarized Jewish world, it is a source of unity. Despite that, and in fact, precisely because of that, an important reminder is in order. In relative terms, Jews have contributed to science, technology, philosophy, and culture more than any other people in history. Jewish heritage is a source of great pride and inspiration for Jews and non-Jews alike. Let us fight antisemitism with rigor and determination. At the same time, let us not allow that fight to define who we are. [The emphasis here is my own.]

This is much the same type of message that Dara Horn and other Jewish leaders have broadcast for some time, and it was also essentially the theme of the benediction I gave at last week’s Yom HaShoah commemoration. While we rally alongside those like the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (in their newly reinvigorated “blue square campaign”—logo above) to respond to external threats, we need to double down on recognizing the internal beauty of who we are as a people. If we forget that or lose pride in ourselves, the fight against antisemitism might ultimately be irrelevant.