Fear not . . .
As Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav once said: “The Whole world is a very narrow bridge, the main point is not to be afraid” — “Kol ha’olam kulo, gesher tsar me’od, ha’ickar he, lo lifa’chaid clal”
To be frozen in fear only traps us and allows us nothing. It has never helped, nor will it ever.
Let’s have a look, further . . .
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I have decided to repeat an analysis (partial excerpt) of recent violent events, which we understand not only as aimed at what many would have preferred to be solely about Israel, but it is now our understanding as targeting the Jewish Community here in the United States. This was once considered to be more of the shared experience of European Jewish communities, but now much has surfaced here as well. I do think it is fair to say that the American Jewish Community is now waking up to this new, rather virulent antisemitism, as having fully arrived on our shores and within our communities. And yes, in contrast to the “Chicken Little Experience,” there is indeed a legitimate feeling of fear that many are now experiencing.
Have a look at the excerpt (clicking the link if you would like to read further). I have a somewhat different perspective, more in keeping with Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, while fully understanding that her considerations and the fears expressed have not only floated to the surface recently, but now have significantly begun to permeate our shared communal discussions. This is “Chicken Little” no longer.
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Analysis Excerpt:
But while politicians debate the best approaches — from designating terror groups to calling for immigration crackdowns — Jewish communities remain on edge, feeling unsafe and unheard.
Perhaps nothing underscores Jewish communal concerns at this moment better than an op-ed, published in The New York Times on Tuesday by National Council for Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz. (unlocked link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/opinion/antisemitism-jewish-attacks-colorado.html?smid=url-share)
“When antisemitism emerges within progressive spaces, cloaked in the language of justice, too often it is met with silence and discomfort, creating echo chambers where dangerous ideas are amplified rather than confronted,” Katz wrote. In response to sounding the alarm about antisemitism in left-wing circles, she said, “we have been gaslit, ignored and told that our fear is overblown, our outrage unjustified. Among many groups that have fought to secure and reclaim civil rights, voting rights and reproductive rights, we have seen antisemitism dismissed as not bad enough to matter, our grief met with cynicism, our safety treated as optional.”
Some Americans waking up to their morning news on Tuesday saw “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” as the Times headline accompanying Katz’s piece. But for the first several hours it was posted, the op-ed had a different headline: “American Jews Are Paying for the War in Gaza” — an approach to both the Israel-Hamas war and antisemitism in America that plays into the dual-loyalty tropes that American Jews have fought long before the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Times quietly changed the op-ed’s headline to the milquetoast “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” — which, while correct, missed Katz’s core point: “At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas’s terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards, and shouted from stages and in the streets. ‘Globalize the intifada.’ ‘By any means necessary.’ ‘From the river to the sea.’ ‘Zionists out.’ These are not simply words; they can be interpreted as calls for violence.”
The Boulder attacker told investigators he wanted “to kill all Zionist people” — not dissimilar from comments made by the Capital Jewish Museum shooter, who declared, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” after gunning down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. The arsonist who set the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on fire said he committed the crime because of what Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the country, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.”
From academia to activism to journalism, there is a reticence in left-wing circles to acknowledge that inciting language around the Israel-Hamas war can have a dangerous impact.
A year and a half ago, Ivy League administrators were pressed on whether “From the river to the sea” was a genocidal chant. The response, given by the since-ousted presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, was that “it depends on the context.”
In this case, the context is the firebombing of elderly Jews calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. Last month, the context was the gunning down of a young couple outside a Jewish organization’s event focused on humanitarian aid in Gaza. In April, the context was the arson of the residence of a Jewish governor on the first night of Passover.
The recent attacks in Harrisburg, Washington and now Boulder are not surprising. They are what happens when ideology-driven activism trumps ethical journalism, when antisemitism becomes a political football and when the boundaries between free speech and calls for violence blur — creating a dangerous and deadly reality for American Jews.
