Barbara Adde’s Reviews > How to Fight Anti-Semitism > Status Update

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “Jews have always been the irritant of empires because of our insistence on the dignity of the individual and his or her liberty.”

“The more a society prizes freedom, the more Jews thrive.”

27. Nurture your Jewish identity - and that of those around you.
28. Know that one person can change history. Is it you?
29. Tell your story.

19. Maintain your liberalism.
20. Support Israel.
21. Maintain the David and Goliath paradox.
22. Build community.
23. Do not divide. Multiply.
24. If you find yourself standing alone, know that you are in good company.
25. Knowing when to stand alone depends on knowing exactly what you are fighting for.
26. Lean into Judaism.

10. At the same time. We must fight the anti-Semitism on our own side.
11. Expect solidarity.
12. Stop blaming yourself.
13. Choose life.
14. Never ask of yourself what you would not ask of another minority.
15. Resist hierarchical identity politics.
16. Never, ever forget to love your neighbor.
17. Fight, first and foremost, as Americans.
18. Wherever you are, vote for freedom.

8. Follow the Pittsburgh principle.
Israel is a test of its neighbors as much as its neighbors are a test for Israel. If the Israeli experiment fails, then Islam will have failed, and so will the Christian culture that plays a shaping role in that part of the region.”

9. Praises those who do the right thing.

“But 1,000 voices condemning you- even 10k - will be, I promise you, drowned out when a single person you admire tells you that you are courageous, that you are standing up for what’s right, that you’ve inspired them to do the same. Make sure you are listening closely for the single voice that will mean more to you than the braying mob. Pay it forward by being that voice for someone else.”

5. Don’t trust people who seek to divide Jews. Even if they are Jews.
6. Allow for the possibility of change.
7. Notice your enemies. But even more, notice your friends.

4. Apply the kippah (or Magen David) test.
If you would be uncomfortable wearing a kippah or a Magen David necklace in your neighborhood, you should make a plan to improve your neighborhood or make a plan to leave it.”

1. Tell the truth.
2. Trust your discomfort.
3. Call it out. Especially when it’s hard.

“There has not been a single moment in Jewish history in which there weren’t anti-Semites determined to eradicate Judaism and the Jews. But the Jews did not sustain their magnificent civilization because they were anti-anti-Semites. They sustained it because they knew who they were and why they were.”