Saturday, October 7th. This day may not mean much to you. You may have gone out to lunch or hung out with friends. But for me, it went like this. My mom woke me up in a panic and said “Ella there was an attack on Israel, a bad one.” I came to find out that Hamas, an anti-Israel hate group, marched through Gaza's border and surprise ambushed Israel resulting in the death of thousands. What followed after that was a blur. I scrambled to text friends and loved ones with sentences I never thought I would have to use, and even questioned if they were alive as my tears dripped down onto my phone screen. As most teens do, I opened TikTok to try to calm my anxiety but was instantly faced with hundreds of antisemitic videos.

Antisemitism has been a long-standing issue. However, since the attack on Israel, according to Walter Russel Mead, a professor of foreign affairs at Yale University, antisemitic incidents in the US have increased by 400%. I know many Jews in Northbrook can attest that they have encountered hate because of their religion. This issue should not have a place in the Chicagoland community with over 300,000 Jews, let alone globally.

Holocaust survivor Rodi Glass, featured in Angie Leventis Lourgos' Chicago Tribune article states: “Antisemitism has always been around, but now it’s more on the surface”. Some of you may be wondering what it even means to be antisemitic. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting Holocaust education, defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews” as well as verbal and physical targets towards “Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish communities, and institutions.”

This segways into Lourgos’ findings that social media amplifies hate. Bernard Cherkasov, the CEO of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, says “Even those virtual platforms used by children, swastikas and antisemitic rhetoric have been discovered.” Additionally, there has been an upsurge in antisemitic comments on social media being directly fed into our lives without us even realizing it, with many companies failing to stop these insults or even threats. 

From this spread of hatred, we have seen matching actions locally in my home town Chicago. High-profile workers have been fired for making antisemitic comments, the Jewish hate symbol of a swastika was carved into an elementary school playground, and propaganda was placed on cars, according to the same article by Journalist Angie Leventis Lourgos. 

This uncertainty of not knowing when you may be targeted, you may be the one involved in a hate crime causes us Jews to feel unsettled and even frightened. Many are scared to go out with the religious symbol of the Star of David, or a shirt that has Hebrew letters on it, just because someone may try to injure them for an issue they may not have anything to do with. Kids should not be left traumatized from having to pass armed guards while walking into their Temples. This raises the question of how harmful something must become before people take action.

Since October 7th, I have learned a few things about how to combat this issue. First, adapting to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism allows our government to adequately punish and confine individuals seeking to cause harm. However, we need to stop this problem before it gets too severe. A main conflict is that this hatred is rooted in many thinking they already know the whole issue and aren't eager to learn more, as Walter Russel Mead states. Our schools can help prevent this by providing resources and educating their students on current events and helpful actions to be used in times of crisis. 

Change can happen with one small action. We Jews should be loud and proud about our religion. University of Illinois Chabad leader, Rabbi Dovid Tiechel, has encouraged ‘pro-semitism,’ which is the action of building up Jewish pride. We should wear that Star of David necklace or a religious shirt, and attend events to embrace our Judaism and not hide it. Even those who aren't Jewish can speak up against hate. Everyone needs to take a moment, place themselves in the other person’s shoes, and think about what they are going through. Many use hate because it is the easiest option when we can build stronger communities by learning. I would love to see a world where we can eradicate hate, but for now, it starts with one word of solidarity; pro-semitism.