Thread by @DGreenbaum

Thread: My grandparents came to this country fleeing persecution. They came here bc it was safe to be a Jew. Bc their children could walk on the Street with a Magen Dovid or a kipa and not fear for their lives. They moved to this country bc their own countrymen wanted them dead.

I want to believe in American exceptionalism. I used to believe that this country would be the exception to the rule. That Jews would ALWAYS be welcome and safe. I’m not sure I believe that anymore.

You look at what’s happening in New York, with jews being assaulted outside kosher bagel stores. In LA, with jews being assaulted in sushi spots. These are liberal cities. These are beacons of progressivism, of inclusion. They cherish diversity. Up to a point, it seems.

Where is the outcry? Where are the calls for activism and intersectionality? Hath a Jew not eyes? If you prick us, do we need bleed? Why is it that we are left out of the matrix of support? Why is it that we, who have been persecuted for *millenia* are considered privileged?

It’s because finally, with the re-creation of the modern state of Israel, we decided we were done being jews with weak knees. Done being sheep led to the slaughter. Done being tossed out and persecuted with no army and no champion to say, hey, wait, no.

And it turns out that even the most progressive among us don’t like a Jew who is strong. Don’t like a Jew who can say yes, I have been persecuted, but no more. I won’t accept it.

Growing up in Berlin, my oma wasn’t allowed at the zoo. She wasn’t allowed at the park. She wasn’t allowed in certain cafes. She wasn’t allowed to forget for even one second that she was “other.” Thanksgiving was a religious holiday for us. We thanked this country for saving us.

For ensuring generations of Apfels and Lasts and eventually Greenbaums and Davises. We were taught this country was different. Things would never go wrong here. Jews could be ourselves here. We weren’t guests, but citizens. Not visitors, but a people with permanence.

Never in my life did I doubt that. Never. Not during the intifadas or during 9/11 or during Marjorie Taylor Green’s accusations of Jewish space lasers. Not during Poway. Or Tree of life. Not until now.

We are watching our brothers and sisters be targeted for the slaughter. We are watching the world be silent. No, worse than silent. We are being told we have done wrong. We deserve this. It’s our fault. Don’t blame the victim, says our culture. Unless that victim is a Jew.

And then the targeting came here. Because of course it was going to. Across cities in Europe and America civilized people are calling for our death. For us to be raped. For us to be slaughtered. Contributors to major networks are tweeting they wish Hitler were here.

And once again, the world is silent. The Hadid sisters have more than 4x as many Instagram followers as there are Jews IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. We are screaming for help and no one can hear us because influencers with no knowledge or understanding of what’s going on are convincing

Impressionable people of absolute falsehoods. I look at my husband and I tell him that when my grandmother left Berlin, everyone thought she and her parents, Omi and Opi, were insane. They told them they were crazy to leave. What about your business. Your things. It’s not so bad

It’s been worse. To be a Jew is to be persecuted. Why go? Everyone who told them that died. No. Everyone who told them that was killed. Murdered, brutality, by the people who “were not so bad”

I feel crazy thinking these things, let alone tweeting them. Can I really be saying this? Will that ever happen here? No concentration camps and gas chambers, but the same utter disdain for Jewishness, for Jews, the same commitment to eradicate us from planet?

I don’t know. I believe no. I still believe in American exceptionalism. I still believe this country is different than the places jews have lived before, for millenia. Different than Iraq and Syria, where our brothers were cast out. Different than Yemen and Iran. Different than

Germany and Lithuania and Poland where they were slaughtered. Different than Babylonia and Ancient Rome. Different than the Ottoman Empire. Different than everything. I still believe in American exceptionalism. But my faith is being tested. And it’s shaky. It’s not absolute.

Pls be better. Be the America my grandparents escaped to. Be the country that cherished the tired the poor and the huddled masses. Be the country that isn’t afraid to embrace particularism, even as it cherished multiculturalism. Be the country that sees right and wrong and can

Distinguish them. And say so out loud. Be the country that’s safe for me, and for my family, and for us all. God bless America. God bless Israel. עם ישראל חי