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As Antisemitism Becomes Socially Acceptable, Jewish Resilience is More Important Than Ever
People hold an Israeli flag as a helicopter carrying hostages released amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel arrives at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv district, Israel, Nov. 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
I would like to share just a few of the antisemitic incidents that have been reported in the news in the past few days. I know, I know – Jews have no right to complain about being targeted, especially while the Israeli army remains in Gaza and there’s no ceasefire. After all, as Antonio Guterres of the United Nations put it, “it is important to recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” Which means that when a Jew gets murdered, raped or kidnapped – because it didn’t happen in a vacuum, it’s ok. Nevertheless, please indulge me.
Let’s begin with that bastion of higher education, Harvard University, surely now on its best behavior after being disparaged for months over its tolerance of antisemitism on campus. Well, apparently not! Because this week, Harvard’s interim president was compelled to come out and criticize a cartoon that had been shared by pro-Palestinian faculty groups on campus. The controversial image was posted on Instagram, and depicted a hand with a star of David and a dollar sign, holding nooses around the figures resembling Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s former president – a classic antisemitic trope that would have been right at home in the Nazi publication Der Stürmer.
Meanwhile, in Walnut Creek, California, during a city council meeting, an individual suddenly launched into an antisemitic tirade, and no one stopped him. The man, who wore a shirt with a swastika and the words “White Power” on it – which should surely have been a red flag to security! – targeted Jewish council member Kevin Wilk with antisemitic slurs, suggested the possibility of another Holocaust, and then concluded his outburst with a Nazi salute.
And then there were the concerts of Jewish-American musician Matisyahu in Tucson, Arizona, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, that had to be canceled after staff at the venues refused to work on the nights he was due to perform. Matisyahu expressed disappointment over this suppression of dialogue and artistic expression, and labeled the cancellations as antisemitism.
Of course, antisemitic incidents are not confined to the United States. Earlier this week, the leader of Denmark’s Jewish community revealed that there has been a significant rise in antisemitic incidents in the country since October 7th, marking the highest levels of such incidents since World War II. And he said that the rise in Jew-hatred was not just happening in his country. Recent data from his community’s security organization shows that the exponential increase in hatred against Jews – which in Denmark has included 20 death threats made against individual Jews – aligns with similar trends in other European nations. Crucially, it is worth noting that there are only 6,400 Jews in Denmark, in a population of almost 6,000,000 – making Danish Jews just over 0.1% of the population.
And a few days ago, during the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar, Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko faced jeers from parts of the audience after securing second place in the women’s 400-meter medley. The incident occurred as the 20-year-old was providing poolside remarks following the race at the Aspire Dome in Doha. Gorbenko admitted that she had been provided with full-time security to ensure her safety in Doha, hardly a surprise in a city that hosts the political headquarters of Hamas and is home to its leaders, but clearly an indicator that despite the gulf state and Western ally’s claim to be an “honest broker”, the atmosphere there is deeply antisemitic.
I could go on and on, because there are multiple incidents reported every day, and many more that aren’t reported. Jews are now fair game – old, young, religious, secular – in every country across the world. As Jewish social media influencer Montana Tucker said this week, it is now “popular to be anti-Jew.” According to the TikTok star, social media has made antisemitism “socially acceptable.”
But don’t let any of this get you down. The Jewish people are resilient and strong. A Midrashic passage at the beginning of Parshat Tetzaveh offers a deep, allegorical explanation of both the struggles and the strength of the Jewish people, as represented by the olive tree.
The first verses of Tetzaveh describe the process of producing the purest olive oil possible for the Temple menorah. The use of olive oil for this holy duty is no accident, says the Midrash – because the Jewish nation is compared to an olive tree, based on a verse in Jeremiah (11:16): זַיִת רַעֲנָן יְפֵה פְרִי תֹאַר קָרָא ה’ שְׁמֵךְ – “God has called you a green olive tree, fair, with wonderful fruit.”
The Midrash queries this comparison. “Is Israel only compared to an olive tree? Haven’t they also been likened to all sorts of beautiful and commendable trees?” The Midrash lists several other trees used by scripture as an allegory for the Jewish people: vines, fig trees, palm trees, cedar trees, walnut trees, and pomegranate trees. So why is the olive tree considered the primary allegory?
The Midrash explains that “what is so unique about the olive [is that] while it is in the tree, they beat it; and afterwards they bring it down from the tree and it is beaten [again]; and after being beaten, they take it to the press, and they put them in the mill; and afterwards, they grind them, and then they bind them with ropes, and bring stones, and then they extract its oil. So too Israel – the gentiles come and beat them from place to place, and tie them up, and force them into collars, and bind them in chains. And then they repent, and God answers them.”
The Midrash is using the metaphor of an olive tree to illustrate the resilience and enduring faith of the Jewish people. Just as an olive tree goes through a process of beating, pressing, and grinding to produce oil, so too the Jewish people constantly endures suffering and oppression – but in the final analysis, it always leads them to return to God.
There may be other trees that resonate with Jewish identity, but the olive tree is singled out specifically because of the labored process required to produce oil. The evocative allegory emphasizes the idea that through hardship and adversity, the Jewish people’s true essence and faith emerge more strongly, just as the precious oil is extracted from olives through pressure and adversity.
Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain (1855–1926), in his Shem MiShmuel commentary, is troubled by this notion. Why would any nation welcome the “olive tree” comparison? The Shem MiShmuel goes on to offer an enlightening perspective, transforming our understanding of hardship and its role in spiritual growth. He suggests that the comparison of the Jewish people to an olive tree reveals a deeper truth about our inherent nature as a people. Just as the olive contains precious oil that can only be extracted through pressing and crushing, so too, the Jewish people have an inherent potential for goodness and holiness that may require adversity to be fully realized.
The essence of this teaching is not that suffering is desired or that it is the only path to spiritual growth. Rather, it highlights the innate capacity for renewal that exists within us all. The Midrash underscores the idea that change for the better is not about external forces compelling us to act against our will. Instead, it is about those external pressures revealing and refining what is already within us—our core values and beliefs that we may have lost touch with.
If anything has become clear over the past few months since October 7th, it is that we Jews – wherever we are and whatever we have had to endure – contain magnificent olive oil within us, in great abundance and of the highest purity. And the more the antisemites come at us, the clearer this becomes.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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Tourists Stranded in Israel as Sirens Sound, Missiles Fly, Planes Grounded
FILE PHOTO: A worker at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel sits at the arrivals terminal as all flights from and to the airport are indicated cancel, following an Israeli attack on Iran. June 13, 2025 Photo: REUTERS/Tomer Appelbaum
Woken by air raid sirens, hurrying to bomb shelters, scouring travel sites for escape routes — thousands of tourists in Israel have found their holiday plans upended by the country’s conflict with Iran.
Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday, shutting down the national airspace and telling people to remain where they were as the arch Middle East foes traded deadly blows.
The violence has left around 40,000 tourists blocked in Israel, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Airlines are cancelling flights until further notice, leaving travelers to decide whether to wait it out or seek costly detours through neighboring countries.
Justin Joyner, from California, is on holiday in Jerusalem with his father John, who lives in Nevada, and his son. They had expected some possible disruption, with Israel locked in a months-long conflict against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
But, like most locals, they did not foresee a whole new war.
“We didn’t expect Israel to attack Iran. That is a completely different level of escalation,” Joyner said from his hotel in East Jerusalem, which, for the past two nights, has seen Iranian ballistic missiles flash overhead like a rain of meteorites.
“It’s unsettling to feel the shockwaves of intercepted missiles above you, and to take your family down to a bomb shelter. That’s just something we don’t think about in America,” he said.
Dr. Greer Glazer, who lives in Cleveland and was in Jerusalem for a nursing training program, faces a race down 10 flights of stairs in her hotel to reach the shelter when sirens sound — as they have done regularly since Friday night.
“I feel safe,” she said, “but waking from a dead sleep and running to the safe room, that’s been the hardest. My family is scared to death … They think it’s 24/7 destruction, but it’s not like that.”
THE JORDAN ROUTE
Glazer had been due to return home on June 29, but is looking to bring forward her departure. The easiest exit route is via land crossings into neighboring Jordan and then a flight out of Amman airport which has been operating in daylight hours.
Israeli media reported that the transgender US influencer Caitlyn Jenner, who only flew into Israel on Thursday for Tel Aviv’s since-canceled Gay Pride Parade, had left through Jordan.
Hours earlier, she had been photographed drinking a glass of red wine in a bomb shelter. “What an incredible way it has been to celebrate Shabbat,” she wrote on X.
Not everyone is rushing to leave.
Karen Tuhrim is visiting from London to see her daughter, who lives in Tel Aviv. “Within two days of being here, Israel attacked Iran. So now I’m stuck,” she said.
Unlike Jerusalem, Tel Aviv has taken direct hits from the Iranian missiles and Tuhrim has had to dip in and out of her hotel’s shelter. But she said she felt safe and was happy to be near her daughter.
“For me, personally, at the moment, I feel better being here than in London, watching it all on the news, knowing my daughter is here. So, for now, we’re good.”
Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has set up a round-the-clock virtual help desk in English and Hebrew for stranded travelers.
But for anyone stuck here, all the museums are closed until further notice, entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem is barred to non-residents and many shops remain shuttered.
“The streets and shops are empty,” said Jerusalem resident Anwar Abu Lafi, who saw no quick end to the gloom.
“People are yearning for a break, to find something good in this existing darkness. We are deluding ourselves into thinking that the future will be better,” he said.
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4 Killed by Missile in Arab Town of Tamra, Including a Mother and Her Two Daughters
Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance. Photo: David King via Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel was struck by an Iranian missile, tragically claiming the lives of four women from the same family, including a mother and her two daughters, aged 13 and 20.
The missile caused severe damage, nearly collapsing the three- to four-story building where they lived.
Emergency services responded quickly, evacuating 14 injured individuals and providing care for eight others suffering from shock at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Despite the devastation, the community and first responders showed remarkable resilience and solidarity, working tirelessly to assist those affected.
Eli Bin, director general of Magen David Adom, described the scene as one of severe destruction but praised the swift and professional response of rescue teams. Paramedic Adnan Abu Rumi, one of the first on site, emphasized the dedication of emergency personnel in managing the crisis.
Residents like Hamudi, who was injured but survived, shared heartfelt accounts of the sudden impact, underscoring the strength of families and neighbors coming together in difficult times.
The post 4 Killed by Missile in Arab Town of Tamra, Including a Mother and Her Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Sees Peace Between Iran and Israel Soon, Eyes Putin Role
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
Despite evidence that the conflict between Israel and Iran is escalating, US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday that peace would come soon and cited the possibility that Russia’s Vladimir Putin could help.
In a social media post, Trump said there were many unspecified meetings about the issue happening and encouraged the two countries to make a deal. And in an interview with ABC News, he said he was open to Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine and who has resisted Trump’s attempts to broker a ceasefire with Kyiv, serving as a mediator.
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, killing scores.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.”
Trump did not offer any details about the meetings or evidence of progress toward peace. His assertion contradicted comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Saturday that Israel’s campaign against Iran would intensify.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump and the White House were working to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Trump told ABC News that Iran wanted to make a deal and indicated something like the Israel strikes would accelerate that. “Something like this had to happen because I think even from both sides, but something like this had to happen. They want to talk, and they will be talking,” Trump said, according to ABC reporter Rachel Scott. “May have forced a deal to go quicker, actually.”
The United States has engaged in talks with Iran about its nuclear program and Trump has told reporters previously that the talks were going well. But another round of discussions scheduled for Sunday in Oman was canceled after the Israeli and Iranian strikes.
Trump said he and Putin had discussed the situation in the Middle East on Saturday in a call that focused more on that conflict than the Russian war in Ukraine.
“He is ready. He called me about it,” Trump said about Putin serving as a mediator, according to Scott. “We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved.”
Trump, who portrays himself as a peacemaker and has drawn criticism from his political base for not being able to prevent the Israel-Iran conflict, cited other disputes that he took responsibility for solving, including between India and Pakistan, and lamented not receiving more praise for doing so.
“I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The post Trump Sees Peace Between Iran and Israel Soon, Eyes Putin Role first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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