A Granddaughter’s Challenge: “Why Wouldn’t We Be Safe?”

This pertinent question frames the deepest dilemma for American Jews as a new year arrives along with an international surge in antisemitism

On the last Saturday of 2023, I walked with three of my grandchildren to our neighborhood synagogue for Sabbath morning services. The kids, ages three to seven, took part in the supervised play of the children’s program, then joined the adults for snacks and socializing after the conclusion of the prayers.

On this unseasonably sunny, late December day, our oldest grandchild, first-grader Julia, noticed a seemingly anomalous situation involving the tall, genial, uniformed security guard who had become a familiar face in our congregation. This week he sat at a small desk near the entrance to the synagogue, feasting on bagels and salads, looking out over the lawn and trees at the front of the building while everyone else enjoyed their refreshments in the social hall.

“Why did he bring his food out here?” Julia wanted to know, and I tried to explain it was part of his job. “He’s a guard, and he has to watch what’s going on outside to make sure everything is safe.”

“But why wouldn’t we be safe?” the inquisitive seven-year-old persisted.

And this harmless but pertinent question frames the deepest dilemma for American Jews, as we enter a new year that arrives along with an international surge in antisemitism.

How do you explain to a child who’s currently obsessed with Barbie and unicorn paraphernalia, about the horrors of October 7^th, or the angry demonstrations that decry her people in every corner of the globe?

For her even younger siblings, what do you say, if anything, about the Pittsburgh shooting of more than five years ago that persuaded our synagogue to hire a security guard in the first place?

Is it necessary or appropriate to bring those children up to date on the progress of the horrifying war in which many of their fourteen Israeli cousins are direct participants?

And even if our grandchildren had already reached adulthood, it would still feel impossible to explain the recent outbursts of Jew-hatred in any terms that made sense.

After all, the unspeakably brutal assault on Israeli civilians on October 7^th came from the one part of the Arab world that had gotten exactly what it said it wanted from the Jewish state: the thorough evacuation from Gaza of every Israeli soldier or settler some 19 years ago.

Moreover, how is it logical that Israel’s most implacable terrorist enemy is Iran: a non-Arab nation that has never conducted a major war, or even disputed territory, directly with the Jewish state? In fact, one of the most popular Jewish religious holidays, Purim, tells the story of Queen Esther who became Persian (yes, Iranian) royalty and ultimately worked with the King to destroy an antisemitic plot.

And talking about the difficulty of clarifying the current situation to anyone aged seven—or seventy—there’s the bizarre and twisted logic behind the antisemitic attitudes and assumptions expressed by young Americans in numerous recent polls.

Consider an early December survey conducted by Harvard-Harris polling, indicating that 67% of American citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 agree with the statement that “Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors.” What does that mean for neighborly relations with anyone embracing those convictions, if they happened to find themselves living next door to a Jewish family?

That same poll found a majority (51%) of young Americans who said they believe the “proper long-term solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict is for Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.” Never mind that the Israelis already tried that approach when they abandoned any presence in Gaza in 2005, with results that now horrify all informed observers. Despite Israel’s dramatic economic and population progress over the course of its 75 years of independence, a full 31% of the same youthful cohort expressed the opinion that “Israel has no right to exist.”

Regarding the position of Jews in the United States, another year-end survey in 2023 from Economist/YouGov, asked whether respondents concurred with the statement, “Jews have too much power in America.”  Among all age groups and ethnicities, 16% said they agreed while another 33% declared that they “neither agreed nor disagreed”. In other words, Americans split down the middle—51% to a total of 49%—as to whether or not “Jewish power”, however you perceive it, is legitimate and appropriate.

The shocking aspect of these results involves the nature of the questions themselves as much as the sentiments expressed in the answers. Try to fill in the blank with any other religious or ethnic group pertaining to the belief that “group X has too much power in America” and the statement becomes inconceivable.

Would any reputable public opinion organization dare to ask whether Indian Americans, “have too much power in America”? Consider the fact that the CEOs of Microsoft, Google and Adobe are all Indian-born (Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and Shantanu Narayen), and the Vice President of the United States (Kamala Harris), and two of the leading GOP challengers for the White House (Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy), are the children of Indian immigrants? Imagine anyone with mainstream credibility making the allegation that Blacks, Latinos, women or gay people had “too much power.” Only in the case of Jews are suspicions of conspiratorial intent and furtive domination taken seriously enough to even become a topic of conversation.

As to the question over Israel’s “right to exist”, is there any other nation among the 193 member states of the UN that routinely faces challenges as to its continued existence and origins? Never mind that there are scores of other countries more recently organized and recognized than Israel, with many of them lacking the official Union Nations authorization that Israel received with the partition vote in November 1947.

This history obliterates the argument for some meaningful distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. The latter affliction insists that Jews comprise a uniquely suspect and malevolent segment of humanity, whose individual members deserve neither respect nor fundamental rights. Anti-Zionism simply applies those same hate-based standards to Israel’s position in the family of nations, denying the Jewish state even the minimal acceptance and legitimacy granted to all other countries.

Someday, as part of their ongoing education, our grandchildren will no doubt learn about this history behind an array of contemporary controversies, conflicts and dangers, and begin to shape their own answers to the haunting question, “Why wouldn’t we be safe?”.

As to the precocious, red-haired, perceptive first grader, Julia, she will eventually and inevitably come to terms with the fact that some people around the world, and even here in the United States, feel inclined to dislike her simply because she is Jewish. But one can only hope that by the time she has developed enough to comprehend that situation, the reality itself may already have changed.