I watched this past month as the living hostages, after enduring nearly two years of horror, were returned to their families. And yet, while I felt a deep sense of relief, I still had a pit in my stomach. Pretty quickly after their release, I was hearing people in my community and beyond saying, “our fight was over.” I cannot stress enough that this couldn’t be further from the truth. And no–I’m not talking about the upsetting truth of Hamas illegally keeping the remains of Israelis in their tunnels. I’m talking about the gradual resurgence of common, widespread antisemitism.

Most Jews have seen October 7th as a tragedy for strictly the State of Israel. I encourage them to look at the bigger picture. Not only was October 7th a massacre of twelve hundred innocent civilians, but a starting gun in a race to see who could disparage and harass the most Jews. It was the start of a movement — not of positivity and hope, but of hate and discrimination.

According to the ADL, over three thousand antisemitic incidents were documented in the US in just three months after the attacks. That exceeded annual totals spanning decades. In the UK, the Community Security Trust (CST), an English-based institution dedicated to protecting Jewish communities, documented that the October 7 Hamas attack “charted the immediacy and scope of the rise in anti-Jewish hate.” CST recorded a record high of incidents in the UK in 2023 (precisely 4,296). These incidents occur in neighborhoods, households, schools, and playgrounds — not just outside the usual targets of synagogues and Jewish schools. Hundreds of universities in the US, UK, and beyond have been turned into battlegrounds with encampments spawning on previously tranquil campuses. At Columbia, swastikas were etched on dorms while Jewish students were intimidated, doxxed, and harassed. According to the ADL, 83% of Jewish college students have witnessed or experienced antisemitism since October 7th, while 25% took increased security measures. Not for being activists or having a controversial point of view. Just for being Jewish.

Not only were there antisemitic incidents blatantly committed, but we saw the normalization of libelous phrases such as “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada.” This normalization of extremist rhetoric isn’t limited to fringe activists, instead reaching the political mainstream. Numerous American and European politicians have held signs with those exact phrases at protests and riots, symbolizing not only their negligence and insensitivity but also their lack of knowledge on geopolitical histories and support of biased perspectives. This normalization is further documented by the rise to power of politicians such as Zohran Mamdani, who, despite now being the mayor of millions of Jewish civilians, has refused to condemn the October 7th Hamas attack (calling it resistance), and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Additionally, he has promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the IDF, saying “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,”  a statement that echoes the dangerous trope of baselessly holding Jews responsible for global police violence and surveillance. He has used stories of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to justify the phrase “globalize the intifada" (which is essentially a call to action for terrorism against Israelis and Jews).

Mamdani's rise to power, while troubling, is just the face of the issue. Instead of recognizing the obvious radical rhetoric he is promoting, the Jewish community has faced difficult debates about how to respond effectively. We have argued with each other about the scale of the issue instead of fighting it to its face. What did we expect to happen? For him to lose? For a miracle to happen, and suddenly millions of voters would change their minds?

​I wish this issue were confined to NYC. Sadly, it isn’t. Across the world, Jews have tucked in their necklaces with Magen Davids, taken off their kippot, and brought pistols to synagogue. We talk about being proud to be Jewish — but often only within the confines of our homes, in a country where we have historically felt safe. Those days have been over. And why? For just one example, near my home, in Skokie, Illinois, kids near my age and in my community, aged 13 and 15, were attacked while peacefully playing basketball. Jews were chased down, as other teens fired gel pellets at them, screaming antisemitic tropes and trying to get them to run away. Mind you, Skokie is one of the most Jewish-populated areas in the entire United States. If antisemitism is happening there, why should Jews in other places feel safe? And don’t even get me started on the stabbing in Manchester, where tragically, two Jews were killed on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.

This is the moment. The normalization of antisemitism cannot be more obvious to the Jewish population. We have seen what we are capable of with the outpouring of advocacy after the hostages were taken. Now more than ever, we need the same levels of outreach, if not higher, against widespread antisemitism. I call on each and every one of you to fight. Do not back down. Stop supporting or turning a blind eye to politicians who ignore hate against Jews. Stop throwing up your hands and saying “oh well” when you see misinformation being spread about Jews in your school. We all must act now before change is irreversible.

In the past, Jews have been able to persevere through persecution despite the heavy genocides against us. The destruction of the temples, the Holocaust, and October 7th, just to name a few. Despite surviving all of these tragedies, we must not think that just because we have been able to scrape through in the past means we will get a free pass now. Just as we fought tirelessly for the hostages’ safe return, we must now fight tirelessly for the safety, dignity, and future of every Jew, everywhere. One of my favorite phrases, which I took a picture of when walking to hostage square a few years ago, captures what our mindset needs to be: “Our wounds are centuries old, but so are our resilience and strength.” So post, advocate, and educate — and never hesitate to seize the moment.

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