12 | FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 

guest column
Standing United Against Hate
I

magine there are three 
islands. On each island 
resides a group of habitants 
who respect, like, and admire 
each other. They work together 
to protect their 
culture and way 
of thinking.
An option 
exists for the 
dwellers to 
visit the other 
islands — though 
— from what 
they’ve heard, why would they? 
The others on the neighboring 
islands appear to be self-interest-
ed, absorbed in their own way 
of thinking, failing to see what 
potential lies beyond their own 
island. And yet — each of these 
islanders has a way to visit the 
other island. They have a boat 
available yet choose not to use it. 
Rather, they choose to stay with 
their own kind, where they find 
comfort in the familiar.
Are you — yes, you — the 
reader, on your own island? 
How comfortable are you to 
travel to the next island over 
— not necessarily to explore an 
alternative way of thinking — 

but at least to understand it? The 
simple act of understanding has 
the potential to breed empathy, 
and that empathy has the poten-
tial to breed a mutual respect.
We’re all too familiar that 
many in the world have a 
deep-rooted hatred and dis-
dain for Jews. Reform Jews, 
Conservative Jews, Orthodox 
Jews, Sephardi Jews, Ashkenazi 
Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Jews of 
color, straight Jews, gay Jews, 
and the list goes on. One thing 
is for certain — if you’re Jewish 
— a Jew-hater hates you.
The American Jewish 
Committee (AJC) released 
the results of its “State of 
Antisemitism in America” 
survey. A few of the takeaways, 
according to the survey:
Forty-one percent of U.S. Jews 
surveyed said the status of Jews 
in America is less secure than a 
year ago, up from 31% in 2021. 
One in five American Jews feel 
somewhat or very unsafe when 
attending Jewish institutions 
because of antisemitism. And 
one in four American Jews ages 
18-29 who have experienced 
antisemitism online reported 

that the encounter made them 
feel physically threatened.
Jews have enemies here in 
America and around the world. 
Antisemites are united in their 
hate against us. The rhetoric and 
blatant antisemitism spewed 
from both the far left and the far 
right are virtually indistinguish-
able. It’s time we as Jews stand 
united against those spewing 
such hate and vitriol.
The Jewish Community 
Relations Council/AJC — 
Detroit (JCRC/AJC) has inter-
faith friends and partners from 
all walks of life — Black, white, 
Christian, Hindu, Muslim, 
Chaldean — the support we 
have in the greater Metro 
Detroit community should 
make us all proud to live in such 
a melting pot of diversity.
And yet — even with support 
from our friends from other 
beliefs and walks of life — many 
of us manage to stay in our own 
silos, fearing to engage with 
those who we radically disagree 
with.
The AJC findings should 
act as a unifying force among 
American Jewry. The survey 

doesn’t cite political ideologies, 
branches of Judaism, or the race 
of the respondents. The statistics 
are clear — Jews from all walks 
of life, with many ways of think-
ing, fear antisemitism and its 
ever-growing presence here in 
America.
With that in mind, I think 
it’s time we take that boat that 
has been docked for far too 
long and travel to the neigh-
boring island. What would it 
look like if AIPAC and J Street 
leaders broke bread together, or 
IfNotNow and ZOA folks held a 
joint community forum?
As outlandish as those exam-
ples may seem — they’re neces-
sary for us to survive and thrive 
as a Jewish people. As Jews — 
especially in light of the most 
recent AJC survey — we must 
stand together against the hate 
that is permeating our society. 
And we can’t stand together if 
we’re looking at each other from 
across the water.
Let’s hop on that boat. It’s time 
to come together. 

Sam Dubin is assistant director/director 

of media relations at the JCRC/AJC.

continued from page 10

Sam Dubin

the United States and most of 
Europe? 
They could have imagined 
none of this. So, even in these 
worrisome times, let’s use the 
upcoming 75th anniversary of 
Israel’s creation as an oppor-
tunity to change the nature of 
the conversation we have about 
Israel. To be sure, the conflict 
with the Palestinians is grinding 
and heartbreaking, and it does 
deserve attention, but it is not 
the story of what Israel is. The 
Israeli rabbinate’s reprehensible 
treatment of non-Orthodox 

Judaism is important and needs 
to be addressed, but it, too, is 
not the story of Israel. 
The story of Israel is, plain 
and simple, the story of the 
rebirth of the Jewish people, the 
re-creation of a thriving Jewish 
people in its own land, speaking 
its own language, living accord-
ing to its own calendar, produc-
ing its own great works of liter-
ature and celebrating thousands 
of years of Jewish tradition. 
Of course, we are worried. 
Some of us are disappointed. 
Still, what we need to do is to 

weep, not in heartbreak, but 
in celebration and thanksgiv-
ing. We dare not be satisfied 
or unconcerned, but we have 
to marvel at everything that’s 
been created. We need to revel 
in the success of a country that 
was founded in order so that 
the Jewish people could leave 
the horrors of the middle of 
the 20th century and every-
thing that came before it in 
the past, never to forget, but 
without allowing it to define 
us. We created a state to create 
a new Jewish future. And we 

succeeded. 
These are some of the themes 
that I look forward to address-
ing when I have the privilege of 
visiting Congregation Shaarey 
Zedek April 14-15, an invitation 
for which I am deeply grateful 
and a visit to which I much look 
forward. 

Daniel Gordis is Koret Distinguished 

Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem, 

and author of the forthcoming Impossible 

Takes Longer: 75 Years After Its Creation, 

Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams? 

(Ecco/HarperCollins), to be published in 

April. He will be Scholar-in-Residence at 

Congregation Shaarey Zedek April 14-15.

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