10 | JUNE 17 • 2021
essay
Are We Being ‘Jews of Silence’ Once Again?
W
e have spoken up
for every cause
but our own, but
if you think antisemitism
could never happen here,
take a look
around.
In the 1960s,
the Communist
Party cut the
Russian Jews
off from the
Jewish people.
They prohibited
them from wearing tefillin
or celebrating b’nai mitzvah
or expressing support for the
State of Israel.
They intimidated and
imprisoned them. And the
Communist Party governed
with one big antisemitic lie:
The Jews are the enemy of
the workers.
When my father, Elie
Wiesel, visited, the Russian
dissidents would ask him
eagerly: How many in
America are marching for us?
And my father would be too
ashamed to tell them how few
there were. He wrote a book
about it called The Jews of
Silence. Many thought he was
referring to the Soviet Jews,
who had to study our sacred
texts in hushed secrecy.
But he was referring to
us: the American Jews who
refused to speak up for their
Jewish brethren across oceans
and borders.
Today, we are still victims
of a terrible antisemitic lie,
one that well-intentioned
progressives who care
about justice have too often
swallowed. This big lie seeks
to turn the fire of the racial
justice movement against its
earliest supporters: The Jews
are White; the Palestinians
are Black.
The inconvenient truth for
our haters is that the Jewish
people are not the enemy of
the workers. Or of people
of color. Or of social justice.
And that the modern Jewish
nation has sought peace with
its Arab neighbors since
before it was created in 1948.
ISRAEL IS ‘PROGRESSIVE’
The truth is that when half of
our number finally governed
themselves once again in
their ancestral homeland of
Israel, they built the socialized
health care system that Bernie
Sanders dreams of.
The sons and daughters of
the Ethiopian Jewish com-
munity, airlifted out of Africa
by Israel in the 1980s, are
reaching the Knesset and the
Eurovision stage. LGBTQ
Arabs can follow their hearts
and their faith freely in
Israel, and an Arab political
party is a kingmaker in this
year’s elections.
The truth is that Hamas
endangers civilians,
Palestinian and Israeli, just
to feed hatred. Their goal is
the total eradication of the
State of Israel.
And now, once again, too
many of us have shamefully
become the Jews of Silence.
We have spoken up for
every cause but our own.
It is time to shed our
silence and speak with a
loud voice.
If you have been silent
because you feel Israel can
take care of itself, think
again. Your voice matters.
Just weeks ago, Hamas fired
thousands of rockets at Israeli
population centers with the
express intent of maximizing
civilian deaths. Iron Dome is
why there aren’t thousands
of murdered Jews. Some in
Congress are clamoring for
the United States to defund
it.
If you have been silent
because you feel Israel can
never have security without
peace, then commit yourself
to peace. And while you
build this critical common
ground with our Palestinian
cousins, speak up for Israel,
which has given up land
in the name of peace, most
recently with disastrous
consequences in Gaza.
If you have been silent
because “antisemitism could
never happen here,” then take
a look around. It is no longer
just the Lubavitch asking,
“Are you Jewish?” to help you
do a mitzvah. Roving gangs
of anti-Israel demonstrators
in New York and Los Angeles
are asking the same question.
They brandish knives. They
throw fists, bottles and
hateful words.
And if you have been
silent because you felt you
stood alone, I promise you
that you are not alone. More
than 30 years ago, my father
and other leaders of the
Jewish community convened
a quarter of a million of us
and our allies in Washington,
D.C., to show solidarity with
Soviet Jewry on Freedom
Sunday.
It is now our generation’s
turn to speak our truth:
Neither the millions of us
here in the United States
nor our Jewish brothers and
sisters in Israel are going
anywhere. We will not bow to
terror.
At the height of this most
recent conflict, President
Biden defended the dream
of a two-state solution and
directly spoke against the
hatred at the core of the
Hamas charter, saying, “Until
the region says unequivocally
that they acknowledge the
right of Israel to exist as an
independent Jewish state,
there will be no peace.”
I am grateful to President
Biden for standing with the
Jewish people.
Now it is our turn. Let’s end
our silence and join him.
Elisha Wiesel is the son of Marion
and Elie Wiesel.
Elisha Wiesel
PURELY COMMENTARY
SHACHAR AZRAN/ISRAELI-AMERICAN COUNCIL
Elisha Wiesel at a rally for Israel
and against antisemitism in
Lower Manhattan, May 23, 2021.