Rant #3,034: Fight Fire With Fire

OK, as you all now know, I have COVID.

But luckily, I have a mild case of it—certainly less virulent than what my sister and my wife had—and at this point, the doctor was right, over-the-counter aspirin is all I need to get back to normal.

That regimen is working, and I feel that by those two calendar points that I am looking at—December 22 when I am not contagious anymore, and December 27, when I should be free and clear of this for good—each date will be met on my road to recovery.

So I am managing right now, with this thing acting more like a cold than anything else at this point.

So let’s move on to something else, a topic that I would have addressed had I not gotten this early holiday gift from hell—

Anti-Semitism in the world and what we can do to fight it and knock it on its tuckis.

I read yesterday that since such incidents are up to record levels this year, a number of my fellow Jews have decided that to not draw attention to their Jewishness, they will not put up their menorahs in their windows, as is the tradition during Hanukkah.

They believe that the very presence of the menorah—and the lights of the candles—will almost act as a beacon for those who want to spew hate, and thus, they believe that this year, they will still light the menorah, but its lighting won’t be done in front of any window, so they will keep their beliefs to themselves.

To my fellow Jews who are doing this, I have this to say to you:

BAH HUMBUG!!!!

By deciding to keep your holiday private, you fools are feeding into the very Anti-Semitism and hate that you are trying to lessen the chances of happening, because you are making believe that you and your families don’t exist as they are, as Jews in this country and this world.

This country has the second largest population of Jews in the world, and in particular, Brooklyn and Long Island have the largest cut of the Jewish population in New York State.

To hide your religion and its lights—which should serve as a beacon of hope, not of negativity, during this time of year--simply feeds into all of those who hate Jews, deny the Holocaust existed, and blame the Jews for every ill that hits upon us.

I think part of the problem, as I have alluded to here today and in previous Rants, are the Jews themselves.

Many of us have so assimilated into the “norm” in the country and this world that we have forgotten who we really are, forgotten who our ancestors were, and in turn, forgotten the struggles that they went through to exist as Jews in a non-Jewish world.

You certainly see that in the entertainment business, where Jews sing Christmas songs with glee, but only bring up their own Jewishness when it serves them, often monetarily.

You see it within families, where Jews send their own brethren “Season’s Greetings” cards rather than Hanukkah cards … or send no cards at all.

And you certainly see it in the way certain current high-profile Anti-Semites, who have somehow come to the fore of our culture, have been pretty much accepted as who and what they are.

When Kyrie Irving promotes Anti-Semitism by putting up the link to a heinous video perpetuating every Jewish stereotype imaginable, he pretty much gets a pass by his fellow players and many fans, who claim that his punishment—missed games, a written apology, and meeting with Jewish leaders—was too harsh.

Even the commissioner of the NBA—who is Jewish himself—states that the player “is not an Anti-Semite,” even though it is unclear whether his apologetic thoughts—which had to be forced out of him, seemingly with forceps—were his own or written for him by his agent.

And his team, the Brooklyn Nets, playing in the heart of the borough’s Brooklyn community, is supposed to hold symposiums on inclusion—not on Anti-Semitism, specifically, but on inclusion, which while these meetings will certainly include the discussion on relations with the Jewish community, will not focus on that very topic.

We have had other communities that have been pummeled in one way or another, but when their situation is spoken about to search for answers to eradicate it, the focus is on that group and how to help it get through these incidents.

With Anti-Semitism, the laser focus should be on that subject, and nothing else, but it rarely is. The talk of Anti-Semitism is often enmeshed with talk of other such acts, and while those acts are heinous, fighting Anti-Semitism is a unique topic and should get a platform of its own.

And I think that that, again, has to do with my fellow Jews themselves, many of whom are so assimilated into our American culture that they do not take Anti-Semitism seriously.

The government doesn’t either, as Jews are not listed as an oppressed group by the government that we voted into office.

Blacks, Asians, women, LGBTQ, and others are on that list, but Jews are not, even though Anti-Semitic acts are rising at record levels.

Please explain this to me.

I could go on and on and on about this, but let me just say this in finishing up this discussion:

If you want to hide who you really are, if you want to hide your menorah during Hanukkah, that is your choice, and we live in a free country, so you can make your own choices without recrimination.

But if you have that right, then I also have the right to call you cowards … cowards who play into the hands of every Anti-Semite that there is.

When my family moved from Queens to Long Island in 1971, during our first Hanukkah in our new environs, someone through a rock through our front window, not only breaking the window, but toppling our menorah.

We reported the incident to the police—who in those days, simply listed it as a “teenage prank” and would do nothing else to those involved—and most importantly, we put the menorah back into the ledge of the window and lit our candles as it nothing had happened.

So, more than 50 years ago, we were not going to be cowards, afraid to practice our religion in our own home and own community.

Flash forward to the cowards of today—

And somehow, by your actions, even though you are Jews yourselves, I think there is a bit of Anti-Semitism inside of you, too, a bit of hate and a bit of being ashamed of yourselves, by your actions.

My family’s menorah sits proudly in our window, and will be lit up with glee during Hanukkah.

No Anti-Semite is going to stop that from happening; it makes my family’s resolve even stronger to celebrate our holiday the way we want to celebrate it,

Light those lights!