The Most Efficient Way to Fight Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has a long history that will never end. It only change faces and manifestations, but the profile of the actors stays mostly the same, both on the right and the left.

I was looking to read How to Fight Anti-Semitism not waiting to discover anything new, but curious about exactly what the title say. After all, some compare it to infamous 1930s, but the tools we have at our disposal are different. Also, there is something else that was not before, called the state of Israel, where the Jews can be protected when there is no safe haven left.

And what a lesson of fight this book is! Without being apologetic, without forgetting the difficulties the Israeli democracy is going through, without leaving behind any single aspect of religious Jewish life and identity.

This book resonates completely or partially with the experience of many Jews in Europe and America: keeping your identity hidden, even change your name for being left alone in your anonymity, hiding your religious identity signs (kippa, Magen David, tzitzit) for avoiding being aggressed, keeping quiet about what one thinks about Israel by fear of not being labelled 'Zionist'. From the right to the left, strong identities, which set apart from the majority are considered dangerous and treated accordingly. But how was it in the time of Queen Esther, the assimilated Jew at the Persian court who saved the murder of fellow Jews from Haman who couldn't stand them staying apart?

When you know who you are, you know what you are fighting for. This is how anti-Semitism is fought, with the mild yet sharp weapon of knowledge and education. Educate your critical thinking and be able to express your concerns in a reliable, coherent way. It is about time that more and more people give up the mentalitiy of the woman being raped accused for being her fault because dressed immodestly.

The 'how to' part takes only one chapter from the book - which I had in audio format, narrated by the author, but to be honest, even without this otherwise important chapter it's obvious how exactly one can fight anti-Semitism. I've seen reviews mentioning that the book fails to mention how to do that fight. Wrong. If at least once, or twice, or many times you've been victim of anti-Semitism you can easily figure out what it is all about. The story is already there. A story that concerns both Jews and non-Jews, Christians and Muslims. They always start with the Jews, but rarely ended with them.