Driving by mosques and synagogues, protected by police cars parked in front of their entrances over the past month, I was reminded that there is a mezuzah on the door frame of my home. A mezuzah is a small decorative case that holds a prayer and placing it on doorposts has been a proud Jewish tradition for thousands of years.
But now I was wondering if it was visible to anyone standing on my porch. I couldn’t believe that these thoughts crossed my mind.
Antisemitism has increasingly been on the rise over the past few years with the Anti-Defamation League recording an over 316 percent increase over the past year. Is this surprising? No, it’s been here for over 3,000 years. But now with social media, we get to see it in all its putrid shades of hatred and ignorance.
It’s like an indolent cancer that erodes through our social norms, metastasizing into our consciousness, obliterating what unites us as human beings. It grows on misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. It feeds on the souls of the uneducated and the disenfranchised who shout out answers to questions and situations that conveniently fit into slogans and chants. But these are not benign words. Just the opposite — they accelerate malignant intentions to harm and kill.
I thought I knew Jewish history and understood the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East. I was wrong. After the events of Oct. 7, I quickly realized that I did not fully grasp the complexities of this convoluted history.
How can we expect students on college campuses to know what is accurate when they are bombarded through social media and by organizations that may be funded by terrorist groups that Israel is an apartheid state and is committing Palestinian genocide, even though Muslims and others constitute an estimated 26 percent of the Israeli population?
And when university leaders stay silent when “respected” professors and student groups spew vitriol and violence? What is the basis for this? Is it truly about concern for Muslims and, if so, where is the uproar over the 350,000 killed in Syria, which is predominately Muslim, during its civil war, or the 230,000 who fell to conflict and disease in predominately Muslim Yemen?
Is it just easier to blame Jews than to truly tackle what is behind these atrocities?
Throughout history, antisemites have made Jews the convenient scapegoats for global disasters. To address the rise of this campus unrest, the Senate recently passed legislation denouncing antisemitism at institutions of higher education and “urging” staff to take action. Education based on facts to counter the insidious invasion of antisemitism is a common sense first step. Imagine this: universities actually provide safe spaces and scholars to teach and lead respectful and honest discussions.
Many view this war as Israeli aggression against Palestinians rather than as a global war on terrorism. Citizens from over 30 nations were savagely murdered or abducted by Hamas, a terrorist organization much like al Qaeda and ISIS. This is not just Israel’s fight for survival, but also a call to action for human rights, including to “free” Palestinians in Gaza from a terrorist organization that has destroyed their lives. No one, except Hamas, wants to see innocent people killed in this battle.
What is Israel supposed to do? If the events of Oct. 7 happened on our shores, what would the United States do? Will the world step up in the future when Hamas and others attack the rest of civil society who support freedom and human decency? Will Jews be blamed for being the root cause of this as well?
A war against terrorism and antisemitism is much like a war against cancer. It needs to be fully detected and removed. We always try to use scalpel precision to protect surrounding tissue, but sometimes, it can only be done with debulking and other extreme measures. People may suffer from some collateral injury and scarring, but many lives are eventually saved.
Saralyn Mark, M.D., is the founder of SolaMed Solutions LLC, host of the podcast, “Always Searching,” and founder of iGIANT (Impact of Gender/Sex on Innovation and Novel Technologies). She is the director of health innovation for Star Harbor and a former senior medical and policy adviser to the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and NASA.