Let’s face it — it’d be foolish to sum up the year 5784 with sentimentality. Many positive things occurred since last Rosh Hashanah, and it’s important not to dwell in pessimism, but I assume if we all condensed 5784 into one word, I wouldn’t be allowed to print it in this paper.
In my line of work, I see a lot of antisemitism.As the Jewish Community Relation Bureau | American Jewish Committee’s (JCRB|AJC) director of education and programs, I am likely more familiar than most with the history of antisemitism and various contemporary manifestations of it.
Resilience. Exhaustion. Pride. Sorrow.
These are some of the feelings I have in late September 2024, nearly a year after Oct. 7, 2023.
To each person who has lost sleep over the barrage of antisemitic words and actions these past weeks and months, feeling uncomfortably not okay at unacceptable acts happening near and far, this is for you.
After last Oct. 7, I was horrified watching the atrocities on the news and reading about how vulnerable Israel became.
This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.
I’ve never felt more like a spy than when I was handed two folders of alien case files at the National Archives in Kansas City.
In Israel, we use different words for goodbye. In most one-on-one conversations, we just say “bye,” like the wannabe Americans we are. The more common phrase, “yalla bye,” is a true testament to the Israeli nature of direct and hasty goodbyes, very unlike the Midwestern goodbyes I’ve become accustomed to here in Kansas City.
On Saturday, June 24, as I walked to our synagogue for prayers [in Cobb County, Georgia], I was greeted by the horrific sight of massive swastika flags. There was a group of agitators shouting antisemitic taunts and holding signs that promoted nasty anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.
