53 Fall 2024 What the progressive left in the United States lacks in numbers, it has made up for by casting a long shadow on the body politic. Its voices are loud, boisterous and doctrinaire. Some of its leaders are apologists for Hamas, and some, as we have seen, are deniers of its atrocities. Many want to weaken Israel by denying it the weapons to defend itself. And many, like Bowman, have no hesitation to traffic in traditional antisemitic tropes, like “AIPAC money,” which, through social media, spreads hatred at the speed of a keystroke. All that said, sometimes our best friends are the neighbors next door, the folks in the next office, a caregiver, or the person on duty at the reception desk in your condo building. On October 7 and in the days that followed, I received several notes from non-Jewish former classmates of mine going back to the first grade, who wanted to know how I was doing, and who expressed their total support for Israel in its fight against the terrorists who brought about the atrocities whose images will forever be seared in our minds. That brought a measure of comfort, but also the stark realization that the politicization of antisemitism presents an unprecedented challenge to the Jewish people. We need to rise to the occasion, on multiple fronts. It will require more than a measure of unity of purpose, a goal that has often eluded us. And it will mean a communal mastery of the new information technologies that have been used so devastatingly in this year of upheaval and chaos. Are we up to the task? n Daniel S. Mariaschin is CEO of B’nai B’rith International.
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