Published in The Washington Jewish Week

The news has been bleak for followers of the Jewish faith. On just one page of The Washington Post last week, two stories of Jew-hatred appeared. In Russia, eight Jews were stabbed at a synagogue in Moscow by a knife wielding man yelling “I will kill Jews.” In London, the most prominent radical Islamic cleric in Britain said it was a “religious duty to kill” Jews. In the meantime, the President of Iran is threatening to “wipe Israel off the map.” In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez made the outrageous accusation that descendants of those that killed Christ own more than half of the world’s riches. And then of course there are the Arab states, which have been trying to destroy Israel for the past 58 years in four wars, spewing Jew hatred to their masses.

At a recent annual UN meeting a map was displayed omitting the state of Israel. John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN, wrote in the NY Sun that, “It was entirely inappropriate for this map to be used. It can be misconstrued to suggest that the United Nations tacitly supports the abolition of the state of Israel. Given that we now have a world leader pursuing nuclear weapons who is calling for the state of Israel to be ‘wiped off the map,” the issue has even greater salience.”

More and more of the world want Jews dead – this view emanates from all corners of the earth. No other group has ever been singled out like this. These times are trying yet I am amazed at the complacency of our faith through all this. What are we waiting for? Where are our protests? We need to be proactive – not reactive. Haven’t we learned?

Michael Berenhaus
Potomac, MD