If I Was Jewish

I’m not Jewish, but if I was, I think the first lesson I would teach my children is that life isn’t fair.  How else can a Jewish parent explain to their children the injustice and discrimination they will be forced to face as they grow up?  How else can parents answer questions that have no logical answer?

Why are Jews worldwide held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government? How come Jewish high school students living in Canada and the United States get blamed for the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu?  No one blames Muslim students for the actions of Hamas or Boko Haram.  As a matter of fact, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, politicians both in the United States and Canada advocated for the public not to stereotype or blame members of the Muslim community for the actions of the minority. Yet today, Jews are seen as universally homogeneous.

Why are Jews worldwide held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government?

Why does the term Zionist take on such a derogatory tone?  People resent the idea of a Jewish state, but take no offense of Islamic Republics run under Sharia law. The Jewish State protects women’s rights and recognizes same sex partners, while non-Jews are granted the same legal rights as Jewish citizens.  Islamic Republics treat women as chattel and homosexual behavior is punishable by death, while non-Muslims are treated as second-class-citizens. Despite the obvious imbalance of human rights, Islamic States face little criticism while Israel is constantly bombarded with condemnation.

Why is there only condemnation of the Jewish state? Public demonstrations against Israel are relentless.  How come when Bashar al-Assad in Syria used chemical weapons against his own citizens no one took to the streets?  Why aren’t there demonstrations in support of women’s rights in the Middle East?  What about human rights in China?

Why is the only country on earth whose majority population just happens to be Jewish the only one being referred to as an illegitimate state?

Why do we hear the claim that Israel has no right to exist?  Why is the only country on earth whose majority population just happens to be Jewish the only one being referred to as an illegitimate state?  The reality is that Israel has existed for more than 75 years and is among the older half of all countries in the world.  Countries either exist or they don’t exist.  There is no such term in international law as an “illegitimate” state. So why is this used when describing the Jewish state and no other country?

In 1949, after Chiang Kai-Shek lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong, he moved his government to Taipei. Mao Zedong declared that government an illegitimate entity, yet today Taiwan is universally recognized as a legitimate country.  Pakistan was formed in 1947 as a result of Muslim separation from India.  Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan in 1971 through an armed conflict.  These countries, even those established by violence - once established - become part of the international community and gain acceptance.

Why do people call Israel an apartheid state? How can you be an apartheid state when all your citizens have equal voting rights, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press? How does that resemble the apartheid of South Africa?

Why is Saudi Arabia not called an apartheid state? Freedom of religion does not exist. The government prohibits the private or public practice of any religion other than Islam. Freedom of speech and press are restricted.  It has only been in the last ten years that women have been able to drive or vote in elections.  So why is it Israel that gets labeled?

After the horrendous terrorist attack of October 7th where Israeli citizens were targeted, no one took to the streets to denounce such a barbaric act.  But they did take to the streets and campuses to protest against Israel over a war that they did not start. Many of those same protestors readily acknowledge Ukraine's right to defend itself. But inexplicably deny Israel’s right to do the same.

If I were Jewish, I would wonder why so many people choose to ignore history.  Not all history, just Jewish history.  No one questions the Cambodian genocide, the Darfur genocide, or the Rwanda genocide.  Yet, the largest and most historically documented genocide to ever take place is often up for debate as to whether it happened or not.  Why is Holocaust denial even a thing?  There is only one reason and that is because it happened to Jews.

Israel, a country historically inhabited by Jews is now being labelled as colonizers by pro-Palestinian supporters. Does this not strike people as ironic? The world’s one Jewish nation, with a population of seven million Jews, is being labelled as colonizers by the world’s two billion Muslims. The religion of Islam has colonized 52 countries, yet the Jews and their one country are colonizers.  These facts are there for all to see.  Sadly, people will believe a lie that is continually repeated and accept it as fact rather than ask questions and apply critical thinking.

When one country and one group of people are held to a higher standard than others, one must wonder why?

When one country and one group of people are held to a higher standard than others, one must wonder why?  Everyone publicly agrees that racism and discrimination is wrong, yet antisemitism is systemic.  How do you tell your children that a world preaching tolerance excludes them?

What I Would Tell My Jewish Child

If I was Jewish, perhaps this is what I would tell my child. Jews have been the designated scapegoat of civilization for two thousand years. Every era finds its own justification: religion, race, nationalism, now geopolitics. The packaging changes but the target doesn't. Antisemitism isn't a reaction to what Jews do. It's a pattern so deeply embedded in human history that most people who carry it don't even recognize it in themselves.

If I were a Jewish parent, I would tell my children that you belong to something remarkable, a tradition of wisdom and values that has outlasted every force that tried to extinguish it.

But here is what that history also shows: Every empire that tried to erase them is gone. The Egyptians who enslaved them, the Romans who exiled them, the regimes that built industries around their destruction. All of them are footnotes, but the Jews are still here.

That is not an accident. It is the result of a civilization that chose meaning over despair, memory over forgetting, and morality over convenience. A people who, in the aftermath of the worst atrocity in human history, built a thriving nation, won Nobel prizes, pioneered medicine and technology, and continued to ask the oldest Jewish question: how do we make the world better than we found it?

If I were a Jewish parent, I would tell my children that you belong to something remarkable, a tradition of wisdom and values that has outlasted every force that tried to extinguish it.

That is a legacy worth carrying with pride.