The following essay about Antisemitism was written by Marlo Spielman, a middle schooler, enrolled in City Congregation’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Students spend a year and a half researching their heritage, values and beliefs, and write on a Jewish subject of their choice, their major project; an example of this last component can be seen below. The process improves both the student’s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as his/her self confidence and overall maturity.
In the early 20th century, during the time of the Russo-Japanese war, the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was expanding his army. The Tsar chose to draft largely Jewish men, because he wanted Jews to be controlled and sacrificed. One such unlucky Jewish man was drafted, and moved into the army barracks. With little resources and a disregard for soldier’s lives, being sent to fight in the Russo-Japanese war was practically being sent to one’s death. He was determined to avoid participating in this death trap, and he devised a plan to escape to America.
He lay awake for multiple nights in the barracks, observing patterns in the guards’ movements. One night, he layered his clothing and a second blanket in his bed to make it appear that he was still sleeping there. He then snuck out, escaping the army and traveling into the night. He made his way to a wealthy uncle’s house nearby, and disguised himself in fancy clothing as a wealthy gentile. Before long, the police showed up. He simply sat at the dining table, irritated that his meal was interrupted, as they searched every room of the house, and left empty handed.
The reason the police failed to find him is because they had a specific stereotype in their minds about a Jew’s appearance and mannerisms—and it certainly could not be the tall, blue-eyed wealthy man sitting right in front of them. Because of the police’s short-sightedness, the man was able to escape his uncle’s house and board a boat to America. And that man was Abraham Siegel, my great-great grandfather.
Antisemitism is the hostile discrimination against Jews. In biblical times, Jews were persecuted because of their monotheistic beliefs. After Christianity began parting from Judaism and evolving as a new religion, anti-Jewish hatred began because of the refusal of Jews to accept Jesus Christ as their messiah. Over the next two thousand years, antisemitism continued to curdle and grow—through pogroms, expulsions and ghettos, culminating in the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, with the generation of the Holocaust now passing away, people are beginning to downplay and even completely deny the Holocaust. Antisemitism is on the rise again.
I’m deeply thankful that my great-great grandfather, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, was let into America, considering that a large number of other Jews —including other relatives on both sides of my family—died in the violent Russian pogroms.
My other great-great grandfather, Chaim Shmulewitz, immigrated to America from Poland in 1913, planning for his wife, Esther, and his newborn daughter, Minna, to follow. But Esther was afraid to cross the Atlantic with an infant, and decided to wait until Minna was a few months older. Eventually World War I broke out, making it impossible to leave. When Minna was five, Cossacks came to their house. Cossacks were Russian and Polish soldiers who would ride into Jewish villages to attack Jewish families and burn their homes. Minna ran to hide in her closet, which was really just a curtain. One of the Cossacks saw her, and jabbed his sword at the curtain. Luckily, Minna was so small the sword didn’t reach her and she was able to make it out safely. Two years later, after the war ended, Minna and her mother left for America.
Much of my family, along with its history, was lost in the Holocaust. Though Chaim left Poland for America before World War I, many of his family members did not. When the Holocaust began, it was too late. Nearly all of his family was murdered. Chaim lost his two sisters and his two brothers, all of his nieces and nephews, and all of their children. Many lives were cut short by the gas chambers and Nazi brutality. But this is just my family. Millions of other Jewish families were exterminated by Nazis during the Holocaust. I hope that this account honors them and inspires others to fight against antisemitism and all forms of hatred.
Many of my family members have experienced non-violent antisemitism. Those responsible for these acts may be unaware of, or simply do not understand, what harm they are inflicting—but this doesn’t make what they say okay.
When my Aunt Lana was in third grade, during the 1950s, she was walking home from school with her friend, Ellen. She lived in Ludington, a small town in Michigan, where there were only two Jewish families. Out of the blue, Ellen turned and pointed her finger at my aunt and said, “You killed Jesus Christ!” She was surprised, but not confused as she knew Ellen went to the Nazarene Church and that they taught this antisemitic myth that has persisted for centuries. My aunt replied with “Oh don’t be silly, Ellen, I wasn’t even born then.” Lana didn’t feel threatened, she just thought Ellen was ridiculous. But my aunt stopped having sleepovers with her from then on.
My grandfather Marty grew up in an apartment in the Bronx and lived there for 18 years. Most of the people living in his building were Jewish, and he knew all of them. On the day he moved out of the apartment, one of his neighbors spray painted “GOOD RIDDANCE JEWS” on the window in the hallway. It was a shock for him to learn that he was hated by someone who knew him for all those years.
Both my aunt’s friend and my grandfather’s neighbors acted on antisemitic beliefs, showing that even people who knew them personally held bigoted and discriminatory views towards them.
My grandfather Marty was drafted into the army in 1963. He was stationed at a post in South Carolina where black and Jewish people often faced hatred. One of the men in his barracks discovered my grandfather was Jewish, and my grandfather noticed he was staring at his forehead. He asked why, and the man replied, “if you’re a Jew, then where are your horns?”
The myth that Jews have horns, practically equating Jewish people with the devil, is extremely harmful. But where does this myth originate? The idea began because of a mistranslation in the Hebrew Bible. When describing Moses’s face beaming brightly after being in God’s presence, the Latin phrase “sent forth beams” was misinterpreted as “grew horns”, and became a widespread notion that all Jews had horns. This small mistranslation became a huge lie and stereotype reinforced by antisemites for centuries.
My mother also grew up in Ludington, the same hometown as my Aunt Lana. Unlike Lana, my mother grew up in the only Jewish family in town. This meant she was the only Jew in her entire school. In 7th grade English, my mother heard her classmate talking to another kid and saying, “he Jewed me down”, which means to bargain for a cheaper price. The phrase is rooted in the antisemitic stereotype that Jews are cheap and stingy with money. My mom whipped her head around and looked at him, and he was surprised, seeming to not fully understand what he had said. My mom had never heard the term “Jewing someone down” before. But even though she didn’t understand what the phrase meant, she knew it wasn’t right.
In 2010, during my aunt Lana’s time as U.S. Section Chair of the IJC, her Canadian counterpart was a man named Joe Comuzzi. He was an antisemite. He told two staff members, “We have too many Jews at IJC. We just got rid of Herb Grey, and now they send us Lana Pollack.” (Herb Grey was a prominent member of the Canadian Jewish community.) Comuzzi generally refused to meet with Lana, with the exception of one private meeting where Comuzzi said, “Lana, I never said we had too many Jews, I just said we had too many beany heads running around here.”
Growing up in New York, I’ve been lucky to not experience antisemitism directly. Since it’s a progressive city with a large Jewish community, it’s been a generally safe space for Jews throughout its history.
Unfortunately, I have personally experienced antisemitism. About a year ago, I was in an online game when the topic of Christmas came up. I had explained that I was celebrating Hanukkah. One player, in particular, began to heil Hitler, make reference to the Holocaust and threaten to hurt me. I was so scared at that moment, I didn’t know how to respond. This was one of my first real experiences with antisemitism. I had never before been singled out and discriminated against for being Jewish. I wanted to say so many things. I wanted to say I did nothing wrong, that being Jewish didn’t change who I was as a person. I wanted to understand why they thought this way. I tried talking to them, but soon realized that there was no point. This is what they had been taught their whole lives, there was nothing else I felt I could do, so I logged off.
Other Jews have not gotten off so easily, with vandalism at their synagogues, and even deadly massacres, as in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. But what is causing this increase in antisemitism? There have been multiple factors: social media, the pandemic, and Donald Trump among others. Even though his daughter converted to Judaism, Trump encouraged and winked at ugly stereotyping, about Jews and immigrants and anybody who wasn’t a Christian white male. He socializes with Holocaust deniers such as Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. Kanye West is an openly antisemitic rapper who has tweeted threats to Jewish people, created merchandise resembling swastikas for his presidential campaign, and has made anti-Jewish remarks in multiple interviews. With both Donald Trump and Kanye having so many followers, especially online during the pandemic, many felt encouraged to propagate the hate online throughout quarantine. Once quarantine lifted, we saw a lot more physical antisemitism on the streets after the buildup that happened while everyone was confined to their homes. It’s important that something be done to combat this spike in violence towards Jews.
Hatred is a human disease that takes on many forms. When a Manhattan gay bar was vandalized, when Joseph Borgen, a Jewish man, was assaulted on New York City Streets, when George Floyd was suffocated to death by the police and the Atlanta spa shooting that killed six women of Asian descent — this is all the same disease. To fight antisemitism, we must fight all forms of hatred. We must come together as a community to protest against those who hurt others for not fitting into their personal “norm.”
It’s important to be proud of who you are, no matter your religion, your gender, your race, or the people you love. Judaism is about the pursuit of truth, and a celebration of the best in humanity. And though they are difficult to achieve, these should be universal ideals. We can help others around us by lifting them up and educating those who are ignorant. We must speak out, and lead by example.
