On Tisha B’Av 2024, I fasted for the 66th time. On this day, we are instructed to mourn for our historical losses and the void of not having the holy Temple. I, and I believe thousands of observant Jews, have always found Tisha B’Av to be challenging.
Born shortly prior to the rebirth of the State of Israel and seeing the uplifting reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, I did not feel the absence of the Temple. I fasted, sat on the floor, and read the kinot (elegies). These were mostly physical experiences. The emotional connection to Tisha B’Av was very weak.
This past Tisha B’Av was unique. As a result of the Israel-Hamas war, there was almost no one in Israel who didn’t feel tremendous loss. The security associated with an indomitable IDF, and the control over our destinies, vanished on October 27, 2023. For the last 10 months, we have been constantly occupied with the fate of our soldiers, the hostages, and the 80,000 internally displaced Israelis.
The analogy to the destruction of the Second Temple, with the murder of tens of thousands, the taking of slaves, and the loss of national control is striking. Many in Israel live with a sense of desolation. Our brothers and sisters are bleeding, held in dark subterranean dungeons with little food and diminishing hope.
Our identification with the previous losses memorialized on Tisha B’Av is real and poignant. The recent elegies written by contemporary rabbis and poets struck emotional fibers deep inside. Their words jumped off the pages as we saw the connection to our lives.
Throughout Tisha B’Av morning, podcasts expertly segued between the ancient and the present as we relived the atrocities of Hamas and its evil minions, and the heroic actions of countless Jews to save their brethren. We listened to Dana Cohen from Shlomit, a religious agricultural village on the Gaza border, whose husband Aviad left her and their six children on the morning of October 7, 2023 to protect Prigan, a neighboring secular village that was being overrun by Hamas butchers.
Aviad and his lifelong friend, Reuvan Sasportas, died in each other’s arms but saved Prigan from a massacre. My eyes teared as I listened to Dana speak of her hope for the future, as she raises six small children alone. This and hundreds of similar stories strengthen my conviction that evil is all around us and that we need to be vigilant in fighting those who seek our destruction.
Since October 7, 2023, the world has undergone seminal changes for the Jewish people. In addition to demonstrating the eternal relevance of Tisha B’Av, the massacre has challenged or proven wrong long-held axioms. The proud committed Jew in America, Western Europe, and even Israel has been forced from her/his comfort zone and had to rethink the place and role that Jews, Judaism, and Israel have in the 21st century.
Despite the existence of the State of Israel, its sovereignty, and the IDF, the security of Jews in Israel, and indeed almost everywhere, has been shattered. Although Jews in Israel or America need not fear for their safety in every town, village, city, or state, it is a truism that those who are identifiably Jewish are more at risk today than at any time post-World War II.
Historical records demonstrate that for nearly 3,000 years, Jews were unable to live peacefully in Israel with the indigenous Canaanite nations, the Philistines, Babylonians, Greek Assyrians, or the Romans. Even after exile and dispersion, the Jewish people remained targets of discrimination and hatred. Throughout the Common Era, we were periodically subjected to physical attack and mass murder culminating with the genocidal actions of Hitler and Nazi Germany during World War II.
Many of us, born after World War II and raised in urban America, felt accepted by our non-Jewish neighbors. For us, America was a sanctuary that provided Jews the equality and security that was absent for centuries in Europe. We certainly never sensed we were hated or despised. Jewish Americans were a valued part of the American landscape.
October 7, 2023, and the months that followed, revealed that anti-Jewish antipathy is prevalent throughout America and Europe. It may or may not represent the view of the majority, but it is especially widespread among activist college students and many faculty. Anti-Zionism is the current focus of this everlasting syndrome. But it is simply a resurgence of age-old antisemitism.
The current catalyst for antisemitic speech and action is fundamentalist Islam, which dominates the Arab street. Since the early 20th century, prominent Arab leaders including Hassan al-Banna, Amin al-Husseini, Gamal Nasser, Yasser Arafat, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and Yahya Sinwar promulgated never-ending anti-Jewish, and later anti-Israel, propaganda.
Generational hatred
Ten generations of Arabs have been indoctrinated to hate Jews. To survive, we must understand the depth and power of this hatred and evolve a strategy to confront it.
The willingness of progressives and intellectuals in the West to either support the bigotry and brutality of terrorists like Hamas, or remain silent, is appalling. Jews have been discriminated against in academic societies, rejected by publishing houses, and refused attendance at international meetings.
In analyzing the apparent antisemitism of a growing number of prestigious academic societies and their advocacy for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement, it is instructive to realize that no less a superstar than Albert Einstein and his science were vilified by large numbers of German intellectuals.
As Einstein wrote in Germany in 1921: “An enormous degree of antisemitism prevails here, especially in academia...” Intelligence does not correlate with prejudice; antisemitism is irrational.
HOW SHOULD Jews respond to the insidious antisemitic plague spreading throughout the world? Silence and appeasement are not an answer. What has sustained the Jewish people throughout the ages is the Torah and remaining united. However, achieving unity has always been a challenge. The scattering of the Jewish nation throughout the Diaspora resulted in the fragmentation of our culture and philosophies.
Often, in the face of attacks that threaten Israel, Jews unite against a common enemy. Unfortunately, this unity quickly dissolves. Internecine battles contributed to the destruction of the Temple and such disunity may have been a key contributor to October 7. The future will be determined by our ability to overcome our differences in a civil, responsible manner.
The role of the Jew in the world has not changed throughout our history. Since the time of Abraham, we have been charged to be a light unto the nations. To paraphrase the Torah, through us, they will be blessed. If they attack us, ultimately, they will be cursed.
Despite the challenges, we must remain strong, resolute, informed, and courageous. In the face of continuous hostilities, initiated by our enemies, we must know when and how to battle. Most importantly, as the prophet Jeremiah instructs, we must treat each other with kindness, justice, and righteousness – a cardinal message of Tisha B’Av and the key to our future.
The writer is a distinguished emeritus professor of biochemistry and chemistry at the City University of New York. He lives in Rehovot and has two grandsons in the IDF. The opinions in this article are his own.