Author: Hadas Sparfeld

This article was originally published in Arutz Sheva on August 8, 2019.

BDS is even more dangerous than your run of the mill antisemitism. It radicalizes members of all hate movements, and by cloaking itself in a veneer of “political criticism,” this terrorist-led movement conceals its violent roots and vile aims.

Since 2010, the U.S. Department of State has had a working definition of antisemitism, sometimes updating it to adapt to new and often terrifying realities of antisemitic hatred around the world. This week, the definition, as listed on the official website, finally got the updated it needed: one that highlights the dangers of BDS and its vile antisemitism.

Now, the posted definition of antisemitism includes “drawing comparison of contemporary Israeli policy to Nazi policy” – a reaction to the deeply antisemitic rhetoric spread by BDS-supporters that Israel has become a new kind of Nazi state. Not only is that accusation blatantly untrue, it also spits on the memory of Holocaust victims and survivors and furthers the age-old antisemitic trope of Jewish conspiracy and power.

I commend the brave civil servants at the State Department, Secretary Pompeo, and Special Elan Carr for showing once and for all just how antisemitic and anti-American the BDS movement truly is. Though it’s only now being reintroduced in the State Department’s definition, for quite some time many of us have seen BDS for what it truly is: an antisemitic anti-American hate group that threats our way of life and the values we hold dear.

Since its establishment in 2001 by the major Palestinian terrorist organizations, the BDS movement has masqueraded as a nonviolent grassroots human rights organization that aims to “improve” the well-being of Palestinians. Instead of protecting the Palestinians, the movement is laser-focused on economically, culturally, and politically isolating and eradicating the State of Israel, using the model that was applied previously to the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Until recently, the BDS movement has been embraced by many around the world. It was able to hide its true intentions, building alliances with global civil rights groups. It sought protection for its hateful ideas using claims that it had freedom of speech, notwithstanding the fact it openly uses anti-Semitic propaganda that demonizes Jews living in Israel, the only homeland of the Jewish people.

This acceptance allowed BDS to promote hate and incitement to violence against Jews in Israel and everywhere. It’s the same acceptance that has allowed antisemitism to creep its way into public education in California.

In recent years, it has become increasingly evident the BDS movement is – and always has been –a front of Palestinians terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fatah, which are still coordinating the major global BDS activities and have close links to many of its members and groups.

Many have come to understand that BDS is antisemitic. Even before the State Department’s new addition to the definition of antisemitism, they already defined antisemitism as animus toward Jews and cites the specific example of “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” This definition is accepted by governments and organizations fighting anti-Semitism around the globe. Self-determination is recognized as a human right and Israel, the one and only Jewish State is an inseparable part of the Jewish identity.

Thus, BDS by definition is antisemitic – the new addition only emphasizes it. But that’s not all. More and more evidence shows that the BDS movement’s antisemitism not only works to deny the Jewish people the right of self-determination but also drives violence against Jews and others, globally.

The  Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) published a report about the BDS movement’s activities on college campuses, which revealed that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the primary BDS organization on American campuses, associates with terrorist organizations while its members encourage intimidation and violence against Jewish students.

The JCPA report definitively shows that BDS promotes anti-Semitism has been a primary driver of violence and hate crimes against Jews.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government issued a report called Terrorists in Suits, which exposed the BDS movement’s links to terrorist organizations and demonstrated that BDS was established by Palestinian terror groups to eradicate the State of Israel and murder its Jewish citizens by using violent, but “non-military” means.

It provides unprecedented details about how the BDS movement was established by and continues to be financially supported and run by members of U.S. designated internationally recognized terrorist organizations. The terrorists leading the BDS movement are using military terror attacks against Jews in Israel while complementing these activities with non-military tactics to demonize and threaten Jews in Europe and the U.S.

While the antisemitic and violent nature of the BDS movement is just now beginning to become apparent in America, it is much clearer in Europe, where attacks on Jews have risen exponentially with the mainstreaming of BDS’s rhetoric. As a result, the European Union’s Justice and Home Affairs Council unanimously approved a declaration denouncing antisemitism, which focused explicitly on the denial of Israel’s right to exist that is passionately championed by adherents of BDS.

But BDS is even more dangerous than your run of the mill antisemitism. It radicalizes members of all hate movements and encourages violence. Two months ago, Germany adopted a bipartisan motion recognizing that BDS is anti-Semitic and its methods are reminiscent of Nazi-era calls to boycott Jews.  What led Germany to realize the resemblance of the BDS movement to Nazis?

The top German intelligence agency recently published its most comprehensive analysis of the rising anti-Semitism by Islamist extremists in the country addressing the rise in antisemitic attacks committed by migrants from Arab states. The Anti-Semitism in the Islamism ‘early warning’ report acknowledges that the vast majority of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany still come from right-wing extremists, but also suggests that Muslim communities – who are championing BDS in Germany – are a hotbed of hatred against Jews, infiltrated by Islamist organizations and movements and their propaganda—the kind that ferments anti-Semitic radicalization and “forms the breeding ground for violent escalations.”

This isn’t only in Germany. The NY Times recently published an article “They Spit When I Walk in the Street’: ‘The New Anti-Semitism’ in France”—detailing how French Jews are afraid to appear Jewish when walking in parts of Paris. Some supporters of Marine Le Pen’s populist right-wing party engaged in antisemitic rhetoric, yet the main source of violence in France against Jews are Muslim immigrants, many of whom are engaged in extreme anti-Israel activity.

A 2018 Austrian report on antisemitism analyzed “Imported antisemitic narratives” indicates Muslims residents consistently agreed with anti-Semitic statements more than the general Austrian population. About 65% of them agreed “If the state of Israel no longer exists, then peace prevails in the Middle East.”

Centrist and liberal opponents blame nationalist and populist parties in Western Europe for anti-Semitism. Ironically, Jews are far safer in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland — where governments are controlled by right-wing populists.

It’s not just that BDS has co-opted Nazi-era anti-Semitic tactics to perpetuate hate. The movement also bolsters other fringe antisemites, like white nationalists and radical leftists, as evidenced in the recent amicus brief filed in support of the State of Arkansas’s anti-BDS law at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The BDS movement that promotes hate against Jews is not inclusive, peaceful, or humane. It is an insidious push to legitimize antisemitism—the same hatred and bigotry that Europe and America have fought to destroy.

By cloaking itself in a veneer of “political criticism,” this terrorist-led movement conceals its violent roots and its goal of denying the Jewish people the same human rights afforded to other people around the world.

We must use anti-terrorist and anti-discrimination laws to defeat this vile BDS hatred.

We cannot let these hate-mongers destroy our academic, cultural, and political institutions. There is too much at stake – not just for Jews, but for all Americans.

We must act now to protect democracy and American values before it is too late.

Adam Milstein and his wife Gila co-founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation providing charitable and philanthropic services to a wide range of organizations to strengthen the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the U.S.-Israel relationship. Adam sits on the board of several national organizations such as StandWithUs, Stand by Me, and the Israeli-American Council (IAC). Adam is a “philanthropreneur,” and dedicates his time and energy toward pro-Israel and pro-American causes that fight hate, antisemitism, and bigotry on college campuses and beyond. As an active philanthropist on social media, Adam has been included in JTA’s 2019 ‘50 Jews Everyone Should Follow on Twitter,’ Richtopia’s ‘2018 100 Most Influential Philanthropists Globally’ and their ‘2017 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs’, The Jerusalem Post’s ‘50 Most Influential Jews of 2016’, JTA’s ‘25 Most Influential People on Jewish Twitter of 2016’, and The Algemeiner’s ‘Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life in 2015’.

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on July 23, 2019.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Since its establishment in 2001 by the major Palestinian terrorist organizations, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has masqueraded as a nonviolent grassroots human rights organization that aims to “improve” the well-being of Palestinians. Instead of protecting the Palestinians, the movement is laser-focused on economically, culturally, and politically isolating and eradicating the State of Israel, using the model that was applied previously to the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Until recently, the BDS movement has been embraced by many around the world. It was able to hide its true intentions, building alliances with global civil rights groups. It sought protection for its hateful ideas using claims that it had freedom of speech, notwithstanding the fact it openly uses anti-Semitic propaganda that demonizes Jews living in Israel, the only homeland of the Jewish people. This acceptance allowed BDS to promote hate and incitement to violence against Jews in Israel and everywhere.

Abraham Lincoln once said: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” In recent years, it has become increasingly evident the BDS movement is – and always has been –a front of Palestinians terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fatah, which are still coordinating the major global BDS activities and have close links to many of its members and groups.

Many have come to understand that BDS is antisemitic. The U.S.  State Department defines anti-Semitism as animus toward Jews and cites the specific example of “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” This definition is accepted by governments and organizations fighting anti-Semitism around the globe. Self-determination is recognized as a human right and Israel, the one and only Jewish State is an inseparable part of the Jewish identity.

Thus, BDS by definition is anti-Semitic. But that’s not all. More and more evidence shows that the BDS movement’s anti-Semitism not only works to deny the Jewish people the right of self-determination but also drives violence against Jews and others, globally.

Late year, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) published a report about the BDS movement’s activities on college campuses, which revealed that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the primary BDS organization on American campuses, associates with terrorist organizations while its members encourage intimidation and violence against Jewish students.

The JCPA report definitively shows that BDS promotes anti-Semitism has been a primary driver of violence and hate crimes against Jews.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government issued a report called Terrorists in Suits, which exposed the BDS movement’s links to terrorist organizations and demonstrated that BDS was established by Palestinian terror groups to eradicate the State of Israel and murder its Jewish citizens by using violent, but “non-military” means.

It provides unprecedented details about how the BDS movement was established by and continues to be financially supported and run by members of U.S. designated internationally recognized terrorist organizations. The terrorists leading the BDS movement are using military terror attacks against Jews in Israel while complementing these activities with non-military tactics to demonize and threaten Jews in Europe and the U.S.

While the Antisemitic and violent nature of BDS movement is just now beginning to become apparent in America, it is much clearer in Europe, where attacks on Jews have risen exponentially with the mainstreaming of BDS’s rhetoric. As a result, the European Union’s Justice and Home Affairs Council unanimously approved a declaration denouncing anti-Semitism, which focused explicitly on the denial of Israel’s right to exist that is passionately championed by adherents of BDS.

But BDS is even more dangerous than your run of the mill anti-Semitism. It radicalizes members of all hate movements and encourages violence. Two months ago, Germany adopted a bipartisan motion recognizing that BDS is anti-Semitic and its methods are reminiscent of Nazi-era calls to boycott Jews.  What led Germany to realize the resemblance of the BDS movement to Nazis?

The top German intelligence agency recently published its most comprehensive analysis of the rising anti-Semitism by Islamist extremists in the country addressing the rise in antisemitic attacks committed by migrants from Arab states. The Anti-Semitism in the Islamism ‘early warning’ report  acknowledges that the vast majority of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany still come from right-wing extremists, but also suggests that Muslim communities – who are championing BDS in Germany – are a hotbed of hatred against Jews, infiltrated by Islamist organizations and movements and their propaganda—the kind that ferments anti-Semitic radicalization and “forms the breeding ground for violent escalations.”

This isn’t only in Germany. The NY Times recently published an article “They Spit When I Walk in the Street’: ‘The New Anti-Semitism’ in France”—detailing how French Jews are afraid to appear Jewish when walking in parts of Paris. Some supporters of Marine Le Pen’s populist right-wing party engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric, yet the main source of violence in France against Jews are Muslim immigrants, many of whom are engaged in extreme anti-Israel activity.

A 2018 Austrian report on anti-Semitism analyzed “Imported antisemitic narratives” indicates Muslims residents consistently agreed with anti-Semitic statements more than the general Austrian population. About 65% of them agreed “If the state of Israel no longer exists, then peace prevails in the Middle East.”

Centrist and liberal opponents blame nationalist and populist parties in Western Europe for anti-Semitism. Ironically, Jews are far safer in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland — where governments are controlled by right-wing populists.

It’s not just that BDS has co-opted Nazi-era anti-Semitic tactics to perpetuate hate. The movement also bolsters other fringe anti-Semites, like white nationalists and radical leftists, as evidenced in the recent amicus brief filed in support of the State of Arkansas’s anti-BDS law at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The BDS movement that promotes hate against Jews is not inclusive, peaceful, or humane. It is an insidious push to legitimize anti-Semitism—the same hatred and bigotry that Europe and America have fought to destroy.

By cloaking itself in a veneer of “political criticism,” this terrorist-led movement conceals its violent roots and its goal of denying the Jewish people the same human rights afforded to other people around the world.

We must use anti-terrorist and anti-discrimination laws to defeat this vile BDS hatred.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American active philanthropist. He can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @AdamMilstein, and on Facebook www.facebook.com/AdamMilsteinCP.

This article was originally published in Arutz Sheva on July 17, 2019.

Today, anti-Semitism comes not only from the far-right but from the far-left and radical Islam as well. How should Jews respond?

There’s no denying it: anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S. and around the world. From swastikas on UK universities to the attack on Rabbi Shlomo Tawil in Argentina to accusations of dual loyalty in the Halls of the American Congress, anti-Semitism is resurging faster and more aggressively than we’ve seen in generations. As a community, we must come together to defeat it before it’s too late.

As Jews, we’ve lived with the threat of radical groups trying to eradicate our people for centuries. But today, we are faced with a new challenge and a new kind of anti-Semitism.

Today’s antisemitism manifests as a three-headed monster that spews its vile bigotry through the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Islam. Each one of these hateful groups hate Jews for different reasons, but they all pose a real threat not only to Jewish people and to Israel, but also to the US and the Western world. To fight these groups, we first need to understand who they are and what their goals are.

In recent years, North America has joined Europe in witnessing a growing alliance between radical Muslims and radical leftists. Radical Muslims stone women and detest feminism, execute gays, systemically oppress minorities, and disregard basic human rights. On paper, the radical left should be appalled by this ideology, but these unlikely allies turn a blind eye to the tyrants of radical Islam because they share a common hatred for Western influence in the world, pluralistic nationalism, and Jewish power.

This isn’t the first time. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Husseini conspired with Hitler less than 80 years ago. Today, the rhetoric of neo-Nazis and radical Muslims echo one another as both groups continue to spew hateful conspiracy theories and centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes.

The only way to defeat this three-headed monster is to put aside our internal political differences and band together as proud, courageous Jews.

But how? The struggle is two-fold.

First, we must put aside our own political differences and fight the alarming encroachment of anti-Semitism from the extreme fringes of our politics into the mainstream. We must be vigilant, calling out anti-Semitism wherever we see it. We must also educate the public about the dangerous and insidious nature of seemingly minor anti-Semitic comments. We must call out hate wherever we hear it, whether it’s spewed by Louis Farrakhan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib or David Duke.

Second, we must learn all we can about those who seek to destroy us. That means investing in research capabilities and drawing on the latest technology to uncover the anti-Semitic networks online and off. Then, we must use this knowledge to expose their unlawful activities and better protect our Jewish institutions in partnership with law enforcement.

In doing so, we can stop attacks before they occur. For too long we have behaved as if anti-Semitism is merely distasteful, but not a danger. Today, that danger is real. The deadly attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway – and the resurgence of anti-Semitic attacks around the world – make the stakes clear for us all. Anyone who exhibits or espouses anti-Semitism must be immediately called out and held accountable.

Together, as a global Jewish community, we can band together to fight those who seek to destroy us. Jews today are not powerless. We do not have to suffer in silence. Unlike Jewish communities in the past, we have human and civil rights, and the ability to fight back.

We are a proud people with a long memory, and lucky to live in a time with a strong and thriving Jewish state. We no longer have to be afraid and passive. We must switch from defense to offense. To defeat anti-Semitism, we must be proactive and fight this head-on. If we don’t, history shows that the results could be catastrophic.

Despite years of persecution, a few things have always kept us strong: our beliefs, our values, our culture, our history – and over the last 71 years, our Jewish homeland, the State of Israel.

History has shown that anti-Semitism does not discriminate. As novelist Norman Mailer once said, “When the time comes, they won’t ask what kind of a Jew you are.” Nobody asked the innocent Israelis stabbed on the streets of Jerusalem. Nobody asked the congregants in Pittsburgh or Poway.

It doesn’t matter if you go to synagogue every day, every week, once a year, or you haven’t been since you were a child. It doesn’t matter whether you affiliate with one political party or another. And it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself an American Jew, or an American who just happens to be Jewish.

When we see anti-Semites acting out their hateful bigotry, we are confronted with a choice: do we condemn the evil and hope for the best? Do we turn our backs on the future of our people and allow history to repeat itself? Or do we fight back?

About the Author:

Adam Milstein and his wife Gila co-founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, providing charitable and philanthropic services to a wide range of organizations to strengthen the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the U.S.-Israel relationship. Adam sits on the board of several national organizations such as StandWithUs, Stand by Me, and the Israeli-American Council (IAC). Adam is a “philanthropreneur,” and dedicates his time and energy toward pro-Israel and pro-American causes that fight hate, antisemitism, and bigotry on college campuses and beyond. As an active philanthropist on social media, Adam has been included in JTA’s 2019 ‘50 Jews Everyone Should Follow on Twitter,’ Richtopia’s ‘2018 100 Most Influential Philanthropists Globally’ and their ‘2017 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs’, The Jerusalem Post’s ‘50 Most Influential Jews of 2016’, JTA’s ‘25 Most Influential People on Jewish Twitter of 2016’, and The Algemeiner’s ‘Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life in 2015’.

To reach Adam –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/adammilstein

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adammilsteincp/

Email: [email protected]

Originally published in eJewishPhilanthropy on July 3, 2019.

By Adam Milstein

“United we stand, divided we fall.” This common phrase is used to promote unity and collaboration but is often difficult to implement in the world of advocacy, philanthropy, and nonprofits.

For instance, many pro-Israel organizations act to achieve similar – sometimes redundant – goals. Since each organization constantly needs to fundraise and stand above other groups, they find it difficult to work together and collaborate with each other.

In addition, and notwithstanding our community’s efforts to combat the growing Antisemitism in America, there hasn’t been much innovation in the space, and we seem to be doing more of the same.

To change this paradigm, we have to wield Solomon’s wisdom with David’s courage – in what I describe as the 21^st Century Solomon’s Sling: the philanthropic multi-network collaboration model.

Broadly, there are at least four networks that can work together to make a significant impact: philanthropists, researchers and analysts, boots-on-the-ground, and the media. Each organization within each network is completely independent and has a unique and important role. Some members of these networks serve multiple functions, and their activities may overlap with the activities of other organizations within different networks.

Philanthropists share their vision and contribute time, connections, and financial resources to support research teams and on-the-ground activists. This collective vision is shared by researchers, who provide insight and strategy, while on-the-ground activists take action. The media organizations enhance awareness of the network’s results – with policy makers, opinion leaders and the public.

This theory was inspired by the late philanthropist Newton Becker, z”l. He recognized that smaller organizations have the ability to punch above their weight by being nimble and utilizing out-of-the-box strategies – and that philanthropists have the ability to bring unique vision, connections and experience to contribute much more than just a check.

About 20 years ago, I was fortunate to begin transitioning from a full-time businessman to an almost full-time philanthropist. My wife Gila and I, inspired by Becker’s call to “do more than just write a check,” decided to devote most of our time to what I call “active philanthropy.”

Like any successful business venture, we realize that we must be fully committed to our philanthropic investments – not only by contributing financial resources, but also by sharing our business vision, connections, marketing skills, operational know how, foundation staff time, and constant focus on improving the effectiveness of the programs we are supporting. After working for many years with a variety of organizations, we realized there were ways to improve philanthropy focused on Israel and the Jewish people to achieve greater impact.

The multi-network collaboration model integrates these findings and also mirrors some of the lessons I learned as a business. In business, you need to go the extra mile and work harder than your competitors to succeed; in philanthropy, you have to think outside-the-box to solve big challenges. In business, you work with different vendors to perform outsourced activities and must ensure smooth cross-functional collaboration within your organization; in philanthropy, successful long-term nonprofits build synergies and collaborations that complement each other’s unique work to achieve a greater impact.

Two years ago, I resurrected a regularly scheduled meeting for Los Angeles-based pro-Israel philanthropists, once hosted by the late Newton Becker, called the Impact Forum, which puts the multi-network model into practice. It has cultivated a network of active philanthropists who support a network of small, start-up-like organizations. Some organizations are research-focused, some act as boots-on-the-ground, and others are part of the media. By creating opportunities for collaboration between these four networks, we build synergies that drive maximum impact with limited resources.

This success is tangible. The Impact Forum has raised more than $1.6M to fund small and medium size organizations. That money represents a significant percent of these organizations’ annual budget, which allows them to focus on creating impact, rather than fundraising. The Impact Forum has also been an effective platform to connect philanthropists to research teams, media outlets and on-the-ground organizations, and to ensure that organizations work together.

A recent example that showcases this model’s impact is the campaign to substantiate the links between the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Palestinian terrorist groups. First, several researchers, think tanks, and the Israeli government published research reports demonstrating the ties between BDS organizations and U.S.-designated terror organizations. Then, organizations within our multi-network collaboration model distributed the information, reaching state and federal agencies, campus administrations, other institutions, and millions of people on social media. Researchers and activists worked together to show the BDS Movement’s true colors with the assistance of the media, demonstrating how it inspires and supports violence against the Jewish people while masquerading as a human rights movement.

As a result, several State Attorney Generals put a greater focus on enforcing their states’ anti-BDS legislation. They are now leveraging the evidence that the BDS campaign is Antisemitic and aids terrorist groups. Omar Barghouti, the founder of the BDS movement, recently had his U.S. visa revoked. Several civilian lawsuits have been filed against U.S. based BDS organizations that raise funds for Palestinian terror organizations.

The impact is clear: create collaborating networks to defeat our detractors’ networks. We need the unique vision, knowledge, connections, and financial resources of many philanthropists to motivate and empower our networks. This is the most effective way to unite the pro-Israel community and fight anti-Semitism.

The 21^st Century Solomon’s Sling, the philanthropic multi-network collaboration model, isn’t just a model for the Jewish or pro-Israel philanthropic world. It makes sense for all advocacy campaigns that seek to impact the world by shaping public opinion and influencing policy.

Adam Milstein and his wife Gila co-founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, providing charitable and philanthropic services to a wide range of organizations to strengthen the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

To reach Adam:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/adammilstein

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adammilsteincp/

Email: [email protected]

This article was originally published in the Daily Caller on June 21, 2019.

By Adam Milstein

Across the globe, anti-Semites are growing bolder. Each smear is more overt. Each attack is deadlier. Hateful rhetoric once kept to the fringes of society has crept into the mainstream and is now disseminated online and in the halls of Congress.

But when the House tried to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism earlier this year, they couldn’t even get it on the floor for a vote. Instead, a revised resolution was passed 407-23, denouncing both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia “as hateful expressions of intolerance.”

The House resolution, while problematic, was still better than what transpired in the United Nations. Until Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon spoke out and rallied allies, the resolution only condemned Islamophobia, completely excluding anti-Semitism.

These two resolutions show the unfortunate trend of framing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as equivalent phenomena and equal dangers. They are not.

Hatred of Muslims is real and can be deadly, as we saw in New Zealand recently. But as radical Muslim organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as well as federal lawmakers like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have come to prominence in America, so have false accusations of Islamophobia.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 19: Protesters hold placards aloft as they march during the Stand Against Racism and Islamophobia: Fraser Anning Resign! rally on March 19, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. The protesters are calling for the resignation of Senator Fraser Anning, following the statement he issued within hours of the Christchurch terror attacks on Friday 15 March, linking the shootings at two mosques to immigration. Those attacks killed 50 people and have left dozens more injured. The accused attacker, 28-year-old Australian, Brenton Tarrant, has been charged with murder and remanded in custody until April 5. The attack is the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

While anti-Semitism and Islamophobia sound similar, and both refer to prejudicial opinions about minority groups, they are not the same.

A phobia is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses no real danger. Judeophobia is an irrational fear of Jews. Islamophobia is an irrational fear of the Islamic religion or Muslims generally. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, is rooted in hatred, not fear.

“Because anti-Semitism is the godfather of racism and the gateway to tyranny and fascism and war, it is to be regarded not as the enemy of the Jewish people, I learned, but as the common enemy of humanity and of civilization, and has to be fought against very tenaciously for that reason, most especially in its current, most virulent form of Islamic jihad,” said the famed English-American author Christopher Hitchens in 2011.

The late historian Robert S. Wistrich — arguably the world’s leading expert on anti-Semitism during his lifetime — framed anti-Semitism in the context of the difference between an “obsession” and a “compulsion.”

“Compulsion’ suggests being coerced; and I think of anti-Semitism as more inner-driven,” Wistrich said, citing French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s description that anti-Semitism is “not an opinion, but rather a crime of passion; and, in the final analysis, the anti-Semite wants, consciously or unconsciously, to kill the Jew.”

While anti-Semitism is what Wistrich deemed “the longest hatred,” Islamophobia is a relatively novel phenomenon in historical terms. The phrase was first used in the 19th century but became prominent after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 following the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The fatwa not only imposed a death penalty on Rushdie, but also criminalized all the publishers and translators of the book. When Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 for his service to literature, Iran accused Britain of “Islamophobia,” saying its fatwa still stood.

“A stupid term — Islamophobia —has been put into circulation to try and suggest that a foul prejudice lurks behind any misgivings about Islam’s infallible ‘message,’” Hitchens wrote in 2007.

Since then, the Islamophobic label has been used more and more often to deter any scrutiny of any groups or individuals who happen to be Muslim, even when those are advancing radical or harmful ideas, like Iran’s Ayatollahs. The political uses of the term Islamophobia go a long way toward explaining why the Associated Press stylebook barred the term in 2012. In 2017, AP changed their minds and added it back.

Ilhan Omar, newly elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket, arrives for her victory party on election night in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 6, 2018. – US voters elected two Muslim women, both Democrats, to Congress on November 6, 2018, marking a historic first in a country where anti-Muslim rhetoric has been on the rise, American networks reported. Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee, won a House seat in a heavily-Democratic district in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where she will succeed Keith Ellison, himself the first Muslim elected to Congress. (Photo by Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images)

“Islam is not a race … Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not ‘Islamophobic’ to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy,” said Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch-American feminist and former politician who abandoned Muslim faith and is an outspoken voice against female genital mutilation in the Islamic world.

CAIR’s crusade against Islamophobia — and free speech — is particularly laughable, as the organization has even called “Aladdin” Islamophobic.

The prime minister of France Manuel Valls demonstrated a wariness of the political purposes of the Islamophobia charge and refused to use the term following the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.

Calling critics Islamophobic is a very useful way to stifle debate, and Islamic radicals know this very well. Because of the power of the charge, few today are brave enough to take a public stance against radical Islam. As a result, criticism of Islam, Muslims and related matters are censored often in favor of the Islamist.

Chelsea Clinton has experienced this. So have Bill Maher and Dennis Prager. My own opposition to the Iran deal, boycott campaigns against Israel, and support of a petition calling out Reps. Omar and Tlaib for their anti-Semitism have earned me the designation as well.

Today, the unfortunate reality is that any time somebody is brave enough to critique a dangerous ideology, the government of a Muslim country, or even a terrorist network, they’re silenced, shut down, and stigmatized for engaging in “Islamophobia.”

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on June 19, 2019.

By Adam Milstein

Today’s antisemitism manifests as a three-headed monster that spews its vile bigotry through the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Islam.

Antisemitism is as old as the Jewish story itself. As Jews, we’ve lived with the threat of radical groups trying to eradicate our people for centuries. From Egypt to Poland to Persia, the Jews have experienced unbelievable persecution. Today in the 21st century, antisemitism is still alive and growing, even here in America.

Despite years of persecution, a few things have always kept us strong: our beliefs, our values, our culture, our history – and our homeland, Israel.

History has shown that antisemitism does not discriminate. As novelist Norman Mailer once said, “When the time comes, they won’t ask what kind of a Jew you are.” Nobody asked the congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh or at the Chabad of Poway.

It doesn’t matter if you go to synagogue every day, every week, once a year, or you haven’t been since you were a child. It doesn’t matter whether you affiliate with one political party or another. And it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself an American Jew, or an American who just happens to be Jewish.

When we see antisemites acting out their hateful bigotry – as we’ve seen from Pittsburgh to Poway to the halls of Congress – we are confronted with a choice: do we condemn the evil and hope for the best? Do we turn our backs on the future of our people and allow history to repeat itself? Or do we fight back?

For me, the choice is clear.

Today’s antisemitism manifests as a three-headed monster that spews its vile bigotry through the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Islam. Each one of these hateful heads poses a real threat not only to Jewish people and to Israel, but also to the US and the Western world.

In recent years, North America has joined Europe in witnessing a growing alliance between radical Muslims and radical leftists. Radical Muslims stone women and detest feminism, execute gays, systemically oppress minorities, and disregard basic human rights. On paper, the radical left should be appalled by this ideology, but these unlikely allies turn a blind eye to the tenants of radical Islam because they share common hatred for Western influence in the world, pluralistic nationalism, and Jewish power.

Just as the radical Left has a history of vilifying Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish People (and the Jews who support it), the radical Right has colluded with radical Muslims to spread its pure hatred of Jews and the desire to brutally subjugate – or murder – the Jewish people.

This isn’t the first time. Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Husseini conspired with Hitler less than 80 years ago. Today, the rhetoric of neo-Nazis and radical Muslims echo one another as both groups continue to spew hateful conspiracy theories and centuries-old antisemitic tropes.

The only way to defeat this monster is to put aside our internal political differences and band together as proud, courageous Jews.

But how? The struggle is two-fold.

First, we must learn all we can about those who seek to destroy us. That means investing in research capabilities and drawing on the latest technology to uncover the antisemitic networks online and off. Then, we must use this knowledge to expose their unlawful activities and better protect our Jewish institutions in partnership with law enforcement.

Second, we must fight the alarming encroachment of antisemitism from the extreme fringes of our politics into the mainstream. We must be vigilant, calling out antisemitism wherever we see it. We must also educate the public about the dangerous and insidious nature of seemingly minor antisemitic comments. We must call out hate wherever we hear it, whether its spewed by Louis Farrakhan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib or David Duke.

For too long we have behaved as if antisemitism is merely distasteful, but not a danger.

The recent deadly attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway make the stakes clear for us all. Anyone who exhibits or espouses antisemitism must be immediately called out and held accountable.

Jews don’t have to be like sheep led to the slaughter. Unlike Jewish communities in the past, we have human and civil rights, and the ability to fight back.

We are a proud people with a long memory, and lucky to live in a time with a strong and thriving Jewish state. We no longer have to be afraid and passive. We must switch from defense to offense. To defeat antisemitism, we must be proactive and fight this head on. If we don’t, history shows that the results could be catastrophic.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American real estate investor and philanthropist. He and his wife, Gila, founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and he is a co-founder of the Israeli-American Council, where he serves as chairman of the board.

Following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, the prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, refused to use the term ‘Islamophobia’ to describe the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, because, he said, the accusation of Islamophobia is often used as a weapon by apologists for radical Islamists to silence critics. January 11, 2015. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on May 6, 2019.

On March 5^th, 2019 the House was set to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in the wake of a freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s latest hateful comments on Jews and Israel. Unfortunately, that resolution never made it to the House floor for a vote. Instead, on March 7^th, a revised resolution was passed 407-23, denouncing both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia “as hateful expressions of intolerance”.

Around the same time, a resolution was introduced on the floor of the United Nations in response to recent attacks on minority groups, like the horrific murder of 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the slaughter of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life in Pittsburg. Until Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon spoke out and rallied allies, the resolution only condemned Islamophobia, completely excluding anti-Semitism.

The events illustrate how anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are often framed in our discourse: as equivalent phenomena and equal dangers. This framing is both incorrect and problematic.

Let me be clear.

Bigotry, prejudice, and violence must be called out and combatted forcefully – whether it is directed at Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, or anyone else. Those who traffic in this hatred must be marginalized and, when possible, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That said, by definition, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia refer to two very different phenomena – and should not be lumped together as one and the same.

A phobia is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses no real danger.  Judeophobia is an irrational fear of Jews. Islamophobia is an irrational fear of the Islamic religion or Muslims generally.

Anti-Semitism is a race-based ideology, rooted in stereotypes – not based on fear, but ancient hatred. One popular definition, explains: “Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for `why things go wrong.’”

‘Islamophobia’ as a term has existed since the nineteenth century, but became prominent in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa following the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The fatwa not only imposed a death penalty on Rushdie, but also criminalized all the publishers and translators of the book. When Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 for his services to literature, Iran accused Britain of “Islamophobia”, saying its fatwa still stood.

Since then, the Islamophobic label has been used increasingly to deter and ultimately criminalize any scrutiny of any groups or individuals who happen to be Muslim, even when those are advancing radical or harmful ideas, like Iran’s Ayatollahs.

Following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, the prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, refused to use the term ‘Islamophobia’ to describe the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, because, he said, the accusation of Islamophobia is often used as a weapon by apologists for radical Islamists to silence critics.

Like Valls, I have seen how these fabricated accusations of Islamophobia are designed to whitewash, obfuscate, and distract from dangerous and growing radical movements in the Muslim world.

Few stand up publicly today against radical Islam and those who do risk being silenced under the label of Islamophobes. The sword of Islamophobia is wielded to deliberately chill discourse and narrow the public marketplace of ideas. As a result, criticism of Islam, Muslims and related matters are censored often in favor of the Islamist.

Accusations of Islamophobia have been launched at people from Chelsea Clinton to Bill Maher. I’ve even come under attacks as an Islamophobe in response to my opposition to the Iran Deal, boycott campaigns against Israel and my support of a petition calling out Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for their anti-Semitism and ties to terrorism-sponsoring organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

I’ve been determined to speak out on this issue because I see a growing threat of radical movements silencing our freedom of speech on the left, on the right, and among Islamists in this country. Often, they work together.

For instance, vile racist, Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, called Ilhan Omar the “most important member of the US Congress”. The left has embraced the same congresswoman, a woman who espouses anti-Semitism without restraint.

We cannot let accusations of Islamophobia silence us when we confront and defend ourselves against the radical ideologies that exist in some Muslim communities and are now growing in America. Ideologies that undermine our values and seek to destroy our way of life.

I am well aware that hatred of Muslims is a real and dangerous trend across the world. It’s killed innocent Muslim men, women, and children in New Zealand and other countries. But in the past few years, as radical Muslims organizations like CAIR and individuals like Omar and Tlaib have gained more power in America, false accusations of Islamophobia have sky-rocketed.

Today, the unfortunate reality is that any time somebody is brave enough to critique a dangerous ideology, the government of a Muslim country, or even a terrorist network, they’re silenced, shut down, and stigmatized for engaging in “Islamophobia.” 

The Muslim Brotherhood, its Palestinian wing—Hamas, and its American wing— CAIR, are designated as terrorist organizations by many countries around the world. Confronting CAIR, an organization that supports both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas terrorists, is not Islamophobic.

Confronting Omar, who supports CAIR and espouses anti-Semitic vitriol and hatred from the halls of congress, is not Islamophobic.

Confronting Tlaib, another supporter of CAIR, whose fundraisers have called Jews “satanic” and who wrote a column for known anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan’s publication, is not Islamophobic.

Make no mistake: each of these individuals and organizations deserves to be publicly criticized and discredited not because they are Muslim, but because they are contributing to the rise of anti-Semitism, extremism, and hate in America.

I stand in solidarity with Muslims everywhere who face prejudice and discrimination because of their beliefs. Any decent person ought to. Not only because we have a common enemy – radical forces that seek to destroy America – but also because it is the morally right thing to do.

Recently, 19-year-old white supremacist, John T. Earnest, opened fire at Chabad of Poway, killing one Jewish worshipper and injuring three more. The same suspect committed an arson attack against the Escondido Mosque a month earlier. His manifesto cited the inspiration for his attack as the white supremacists behind the New Zealand mosque and Pittsburgh synagogue shootings. All their actions are driven by radical ideologies that make no distinction between Muslim or Jew.

That’s why I will never tolerate hate, including against Muslims. That’s why I will continue speaking out against radical Islam and other extremist movements. That’s why I will not stay silent in the face of phony accusations of Islamophobia. That’s why I won’t let radical forces take away my freedom of speech. And I call you not to stay silent as well.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American active philanthropist. He can be reached at [email protected], Twitter @AdamMilstein, and Facebook.

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on January 27, 2019.

Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred, cultivated across cultures, continents, and centuries by people with many different agendas. It led to the enslavement of Jews in Egypt, forced expulsion during the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms in Poland and Soviet Russia, genocide in Nazi Germany, and near extinction in the Muslim world. This history raises the question: why do so many people over so many centuries hate Jews? What makes Jewish communities such vulnerable targets? Many books documentaries, articles, and encyclopedias have been written about the origins of and reasons for antisemitism. But the real questions, we must ask today, are whether this hatred is exclusively a problem for Jews, and what can the Jewish people do to fight back against and stop this evil?

The answers begin with understanding who antisemites are and what they ultimately want.

Today, antisemitism manifests globally like a three-headed monster, coming from the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Islamists. But a closer look reveals that Jews are not the only the main target of these extremists: each one of these radical movements has a bigger vision for our civilization and their hatred doesn’t discriminate just against the Jews. In Europe, Jews increasingly experience hate and violence from radical Islamists and their allies – from the French-Syrian Jihadist who shot and killed four Jews at a Jewish museum in Brussels, to the random zealot who happened to be a French ISIS member and murdered Jews in a kosher Paris supermarket in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting by his two close friends, which itself was lethal violence against a European satirical newspaper—a literal attack on freedom of speech. In Alexandria, Virginia, James Hodgkinson, a radical leftist attacked a group of congressmen during baseball practice, seriously wounding U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, several police officers, and bystanders. At the same time, extremism on the radical right in America has led to Nazi posters targeting Jewish students and drove Robert Bowers, a white supremacist terrorist to gun down 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Pursuant to the recently-released 2018 ADL Center on Extremism report, domestic Right-wing extremists murdered 50 Americans, more people than in any year since 1995. Only one-third of these Americans were Jews.

Antisemites, whether on the far right, on the far left, or among the radical Islamists, hate Jews for different reasons. However, and most importantly, their hatred is a threat to the core values of American society: democracy, free speech, and freedom of religion. We cannot sit idly by in the face of this imminent threat. It’s not only about the well-being of the Jewish people but about the values at the heart of Western society. Understanding, researching, and documenting these radical movements is not enough to alert the American people and to motivate them to combat the threat. To stop the growing movements of hate, we need to switch from defense to offense. In the past, Jews were not able to fight back. This time around, the Jewish people are better equipped to join our American brothers and sisters, go on the offense and defeat these radical movements. In historical perspective, Jews today have three comparative advantages in the fight against those radical movements: the existence of a Jewish homeland – the State of Israel, the unique strength and resources of the Jewish community in America, the opportunity to establish a large coalition of many communities that share the American values, and finally, recognition of our common enemies.

The startup nation of Israel is the most dynamic and powerful shield that the Jewish people have ever known, a dedicated haven for the Jewish people around the world. Israel is America’s strongest ally and shares our common values and common enemies. We can draw from Israel’s knowledge and strength to combat radical movements here at home by using all legal resources at our disposal to research, analyze, document and act against extremist individuals and organizations that pose serious dangers to our community. We need to become familiar with their agenda, goals, and objectives. We need to expose their illegal activities, learn about their plans, and alert the appropriate authorities, organizations, and media. We must engage the American public to be our eyes, ears, and boots on the ground and create real-time tools to prevent and stop extremist attacks. The Center for Combatting Hate in America (C4CHA), a newly founded watchdog group and action center is bringing these strategies together, leading the charge against violent radical movements in America. C4CHA will diminish the influence of hate groups and bigots by researching their members, networks, and activities, exposing their work to the public, and alerting authorities of imminent threats steaming from radicals and extremists.

It’s about time we stop being passive and risk-averse. We must respond to all violent hate attacks with strength and unity. We should go on offense and join forces with other allies to combat this evil at all costs.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American philanthropist. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on December 26, 2018.

The year 2018 has provided a series of reminders that antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, is alive and well in our country.

On October 27, eleven Jews were massacred in Pittsburgh as they prayed on the Sabbath. It is just the latest in a series of violent attacks that have targeted the Jewish community in recent times, which come not only from the radical right but also from the radical left, and from radical Muslims.

The enemies of the Jewish people don’t only physically attack us from the outside. They have also long worked to divide the Jewish people by turning our own against us. For example, a number of Jewish individuals and organizations have become leaders within the BDS movement, which seeks to destroy the Jewish state.

Jewish self-hatred did not begin with the BDS movement. Isaiah 49:17 says, “Your destroyers and devastators will depart from you.” History is replete with examples of Jews who hated the Jewish people so vehemently that they dedicated their entire lives to its destruction.

Take the new Jewish group IfNotNow, which together with their collaborators Jewish Voice for Peace set its sights on demonizing Birthright Israel – an organization that has helped over 600,000 young Jews from 67 countries connect with their Jewish heritage and with the State of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people.

Last summer, IfNotNow launched a campaign to harass Birthright participants at JFK and Heathrow airports, and planted saboteurs to infiltrate and disrupt Birthright trips, using these stunts to secure slanted media that demonizes Birthright and its Jewish supporters. In doing so, they sought to erode support for a program that made a transformative impact for hundreds of thousands of young Jews – and to discourage participants from accepting this tremendous life-changing gift.

The leaders of IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, who are Jewish themselves, sympathize with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. They present their movement as an anti-occupation group but have never recognized Israel right to exist or the Jewish people right for self-determination.

Along the same lines, some media outlets within the Jewish community are now actively working with explicitly anti-Israel – and in some cases antisemitic – networks, such as Electronic Intifada and Al Jazeera, to attack and demonize pro-Israel leaders and organizations.

It was recently revealed by pro-Israel activist and journalist Noah Pollak that a Forward reporter was using Al Jazeera as a source for a story to smear pro-Israel entities.

It’s despicable that one of the United States’s most storied Jewish papers was working to attack pro-Israel leaders and organizations using material obtained from an Al Jazeera espionage operation, overseen by Qatar, the major sponsor of Hamas and the global Muslim Brotherhood.

The same newspaper has launched a campaign together with Electronic Intifada and Al-Jazeera to attack the financial supporters of the Canary Mission – a watchdog that compiles public statements and social media posts of antisemites and anti-Israel activists who demonize the Jewish state, deny the Holocaust and call for genocide of Jews.

In its 2016-2017 year-end report, Israel on Campus Coalition recognized that exposing and discouraging anti-Israel activists through online platforms such as Canary Mission created a strong deterrent against antisemitism and BDS. By publicly documenting the actions of anti-Israel students, these platforms have created a detailed record of the hate and anti-Semitism present on US campuses.

Enemies of the Jewish people also recognize the profound impact of Canary Mission. A recent article in the pro-BDS publication, The Intercept, was headlined: “It’s Killing the Student Movement: Canary Mission’s Blacklist of Pro-Palestine Activists Is Taking a Toll.”

New York Times bestselling author Edwin Black recently wrote that a generation from now, historians will judge the Canary Mission and others who acted to defend against anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bigotry – and those, such as the Forward, who did all they could to frustrate and obstruct those efforts.

Our Jewish community contains a multitude of diverse advocates and activists, but our strength lies in our support for each other and for the State of Israel, and the knowledge that justice is on our side. Our enemies know there are no one more credible and eloquent individuals to divide and destroy us than Jews who demonize the State of Israel and portray the IDF – undoubtedly the most moral army in the world – as craven war criminals. If we glorify and support the tactics that these hateful Jewish individuals and organizations practice, or even if we stay silent, will be responsible for their “success”.

As was demonstrated by the horrific murder of Jews in the Pittsburgh synagogue, our enemies don’t distinguish between us. Jews who support and serve the work of our enemies should not be allowed to continue to divide and self-destruct us from within.

The pro-Israel community must stand up to marginalize these bigots and their supporters. If we don’t, history shows that the results could be catastrophic.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American philanthropist. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on November 3, 2018.

Last Saturday, we witnessed the deadliest attack on American Jews in history. Eleven members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were violently murdered because they were Jewish. I was shocked by this horror, but I was not surprised.

Antisemitism is as old as the Jewish story itself. We honor the victims of the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah, we remember our struggles as slaves in ancient Egypt on Passover, and we even celebrate triumph over Haman’s plans to slaughter us in ancient Persia on Purim. It’s the terrible truth that we live with the constant realization that radical groups want to eradicate our people and all that binds us together: our beliefs, our values, our culture, our history – and our homeland, Israel.

History has shown that antisemitism can reach us anywhere. As novelist Norman Mailer once said, “When the time comes, they won’t ask what kind of a Jew you are.” It doesn’t matter if you go to synagogue every day, every week, once a year, or never in your life. It doesn’t matter whether you love Trump or you hate him. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Poland or you’re in Pittsburgh, and it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a proud Jew or an assimilated one.

When we see antisemites acting out their hateful bigotry, we are confronted with a choice: What do we do? Do we condemn the evil and hope for the best? Do we stick our heads in the sand and ignore the ever-rising threats? Do we ask the government and other groups to defend us because we are passive or risk averse? Do we turn our backs on the future of our people and allow history to repeat itself?

Or do we fight back? Do we proactively work to fight not just for love, tolerance or even acceptance, but to make it so that our children today, and their children tomorrow, will be prepared and capable to confront antisemites and live safely and freely as Jews?

LAST YEAR, my wife and I traveled to Poland and saw the horrific conditions suffered by the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were built with a single purpose: to exterminate our people.

Our takeaway from the trip was that we must be vigilant, and fight against our enemies.

I previously wrote about how today’s antisemitism manifests as a three-headed monster. This monster spews its vile bigotry through the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Muslims. Each one of these hateful heads poses a real threat around the world. These radical groups work to divide our community to make us weaker and easier to target. We put aside our internal politics and band together, as proud Jews, finding the courage and strength to fight these groups.

How? First, we must closely learn about those who seek us harm. That means investing more resources into research capabilities, drawing on the latest technology to uncover the antisemitic networks online and off-line. We must understand what antisemites are saying, what their plans are and how they operate. We must use this knowledge to expose their unlawful activities and better protect our Jewish institutions in partnership with law enforcement.

Second, we must fight the alarming progress of antisemitism from the extreme fringes of our public discourse into the mainstream. We must be vigilant in educating the public about the evil and the true intentions of antisemitism, whether it is spewed by Louis Farrakhan, Jeremy Corbin or David Duke. For too long we have behaved as if antisemitism is merely distasteful, but not a danger. The attack last weekend made very clear the stakes for us all. Journalists, politicians, celebrities, and business leaders must be immediately called out when they echo antisemitic canards.

Third, we need to utilize the research acquired and to invest more in the physical security of our Jewish schools, synagogues and other institutions. As Jews, we cannot ignore the fact that we are all targets.

Jews don’t have to be like sheep led to the slaughter. Unlike Jewish communities in the past, we have human and civil rights – the right to vote and serve in the government, and the ability to fight back.

We are a proud people with a long memory, who live in the time with a strong and thriving Jewish state. We don’t have to be afraid and passive. We shouldn’t stay beneath the radar to maintain our pristine and nice reputation. We must be proactive and fight this head on.

The writer is an Israeli-American philanthropist. He can be reached at [email protected]