I am writing this column after having tested positive for Covid almost a week ago. Last week was the yahrzeit for my father and at the same time it was the shloshim for my mother. I felt tired the night after the yahrzeit. I thought it was due to the psychological effect of having to deal with both the yahrzeit and the shloshim and a particularly stressful workday. Then the next morning, I had similar symptoms to when I had Covid in the past. I tested and sure enough, was positive.
As I have previously written, I am trying to look at things more positively, as my mother did. If so, I can say that fortunately it did not happen before the yahrzeit, so I was able to lead davening and say Kaddish on the yahrzeit. Also, I was able to get a friend to say Kaddish during the days I was out, and I was able to go to shul on Shabbos day. My symptoms were not too serious, more like a bad cold. I was able to work. It may be good to try to look at everything in a positive light, but there may come a time when a person has to think that maybe things are happening because I am doing something wrong. It is not easy to make that pivot. Are we getting the message? What is the message? These are not questions with easy answers. However, we need to start thinking about them.
We live in a world where what is occurring seems to be counter to what has occurred in the past and our preconceived notions. Israel’s military and intelligence had the reputation of being one of the finest in the world. Yet they were so unprepared for the Hamas attack on October 7. And this past weekend, a large Hamas tunnel, previously unknown, was discovered in Gaza near the Israeli border.
In 1948, after World Warr II, the Jewish people who were decimated in the Holocaust finally had their own homeland so that Jews could always have a place to go if persecuted. It helped the Jews in Arab countries post-1948, who were attacked and forced to leave. My generation grew up in a world where support of Israel in the United States was a given. In America, anti-Semitism was voiced in private except for a few extremists on the left and the right.
A Harvard-Harris poll taken last week showed that this world is gone. The poll showed that the younger the group, the worse they were toward Israel. 60% of 18–24-year-olds (ages of college and graduate students) think that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. 51% believe that Israel should be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians. 51% also blame Israel, as opposed to Hamas, for creating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 60% thought that the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of another 250 civilians can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians. This is also the generation that is very tough as it relates to women’s rights and violence against women. Yet 80 percent of them said that women’s groups have adequately condemned Hamas’s crimes against women.
We Jews are well aware of the history of persecution that the Jews have gone through. Even in the United States there has been a history of discrimination. That message is clearly lost on the 18–24-year-olds.
In response to the question, “Do you think that Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors or is that a false ideology?”, 67% of those between 18 to 24 years old said yes. 53% said that a student who calls for genocide of Jews should be told by the school that they are allowed to say it. If you want to know why there is an uptick in anti-Semitism, you just need to look at these responses.
There may be those reading this column who say that you cannot put too much stock in one poll. Also, some of the answers to other questions are not so bad. If it was only the poll, then you could make that argument. The problem is that the facts on the ground indicate that this is what is occurring in America. College campuses have become a bastion of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic rhetoric, and conduct. Anti-Semitic acts have risen 337% from last year for the period of October 7 to December 7, from 465 to 2031- a record. Two college presidents would have been gone if they had made the same comments about another group like they did regarding Jewish students at the Congressional Hearing. Yet they are given full support by school trustees and will stay in their positions.
Even now, it is still hard to believe that this change has happened so quickly. It is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction and blame it on one group. Besides having to deal with it day-to-day, there needs to be some soul-searching as to why this is happening. This is not limited to religious people. You may come out with different answers, but either way the question has to be asked.
To end on a positive note, I would like to congratulate my friend Orie Shapiro, who have I known for many years, for being honored at the 2023 YIKGH dinner, as well as Shabsie Saphirstein, who participates in so many community activities I do not know when he has time to eat or sleep.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
