We are not ok! We being Jews (the 90+ percent of us at least who value Israel and the true meaning of Zionism). Jews the world over feel scared, alone, frustrated, angry, hurt, betrayed, torn, ostracized, unseen, unheard, othered, politically homeless, battered, dehumanized, terrorized, traumatized and exhausted…so extremely exhausted. Since the horrors to which we awoke in the early morning of October 7, 2023, we have had no time to mourn our losses. Organized protests materialized before Israel had time to assess the damage, to treat the wounded, to bury the dead…let alone mount a counter-attack. And somehow, every day has been worse. Collectively we have run out of shoes that could possibly drop. We have withstood a driving rain composed of the entire footwear inventory of Manolo, Christian, Jimmy, Sal, Birkenstock, Phil, the good Doctors Marten and Scholl and even Al Bundy…and yet, tomorrow it will be Crocs, or stupid Kanye kicks, or Adidas, or perhaps the 12 million shoes the Nazis confiscated from the Jews they murdered.
We are not ok! We being Jews defined above vis a vis anyone and everyone that fits into one of the following categories (most of you probably don’t notice that anything has changed and have made it clear that you don’t care even if you do…and IDROS isn’t sure this can ever be forgiven):
- Non-MOT friends, close co-workers, extended family or good acquaintances (people we see often through our networks, hobbies and shared experiences) who have not once made a personal attempt to comfort us, ask how we are, lend support, allow us to vent, check in on us or otherwise show us they are true friends and allies since October 7.
- Non-MOT philanthropic types in our networks – you know, the do-gooders, volunteers, progressives, social-action types – whom completely abandoned/ignored the plight of Jews and Jewish women since October 7, and whom allow antisemitic and antizionist hate to fester in and among the noble social justice circles/causes we all used to frequent…if not, quite often, even found and lead; who tried to explain what Zionism or antisemitism or Judaism is or isn’t to Jews and/or non-Jews; and who use, encourage and/or permit double standards when it comes to Jews and Israel in all they do, say and write.
- Non-MOT politicians, media personalities/columnists/influencers, celebrities, musicians, educators, leaders of non-profits and global philanthropic efforts, deans of colleges and universities, CEOs of companies, and other public facing figures who wield some power, influence and following in their community, their jurisdiction, their state, country or the world – and who have used any anti-Jewish or anti-Israel propaganda, libel (colonizers, apartheid, genocide), tropes, hate speech, have reposted any of same to social media, have been biased in coverage (employing double standards, parroting misinformation and unverified or terrorist sponsored sources, platforming known antisemites, using whataboutisms and all lives mattering/all forms of hatred cliches, etc), worn triggering accessories like the keffiyeh or the red hands pin, pushed conspiracy theories, explained or rationalized Jew-hate, antisemitism and Zionism to Jews and a broader audience, gaslit Jews, failed to enforce laws, rules or codes creating unsafe environments for Jews,
- MOTs in the previous category – and shame on you (yeah you, Jon Leibowitz, Mandy Patankin, Ein “Reich” Binder, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Seth Rogen, Ilana Glazer, Noam Chomsky, Ben Platt and many others)
- Antizionist MOTs in the first 2 categories – whether you have been radicalized by your progressive circles, the biased media, your Qatari funded professors and/or even your family, you disappoint us most of all.
- MOTs who allow themselves to be tokenized, in any of the previous categories and all other unmentioned categories.
We are not ok! We being Western democratic society. There is a rot. Whenever Jew-hatred rises to levels even greater than the baseline absurd we have come to accept as a people (over millennia of “same shit, different empire/tyrant/despot”), it is a signal of societal collapse. And with the Epstein files looming over billionaires and politicos across the political spectrum, never-ending war across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, AI threatening to take over the world and render most of the workforce obsolete, scams and fraud rising to ubiquitous and obscene levels, social media corrupting, radicalizing and plaguing our youth (and adults), higher education bought and paid for by nefarious foreign actors, China and Russia choking us on propaganda, anti-vaxxers controlling government health agencies, oligarchs with more money than most countries’ annual GDPs, mental health crises, school shootings, exponential increases in costs of living relative to income, the epic failure of the American health system (and the costs of insurance), radical Islamists and their allies using Western freedoms against us to embed, grow and undermine our values and freedoms, rampant overmedication, morbid obesity, lack of empathy, too many streaming services, and political leaders and potential candidates on both sides of the aisle that have no business leading a Denny’s at 3am let alone our great nation.
We are not ok, but we are resilient and proud. And we will continue to blaze our trail and make the world a better place. And while there is no “ok” in Jew nor in Israel, there is a “We Are.” WE ARE! We have stared down the barrel of this gun too many times throughout history…but WE ARE, and WE always will be.
Thanks for reading.
Shabbat Shalom!
IDROS
idontrollonshabbas 