There was a conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem last week that received very little publicity - until Israeli opposition politicians decided to politicize it and attack Yair Lapid's speech, claiming that he tried to water down and "all lives matter" antisemitism by comparing it to other forms of hate.
He did nothing of the kind. His speech was short but excellent. His point was that what starts as antisemitism rarely ends there, and it is not only a problem for Jews but for everyone. In his words, "Antisemitism is not the first name of hate, it is its family name. "
On December 27, 1944 my father was a child in the Budapest ghetto. They lived then 600 people in a smaller basement than the hall where you are now sitting. At this point they lived mostly from the meat of dead horses they found on the street. That morning his mother - my grandmother - called him and said, ′′ Tomika, you don't know that, but today is your bar-mitzvah. Your father won't come already," Grandpa at this point already died in the gas chamber at the Mauthausen concentration camp, ′′ I can't bake you a cake ", She continued, ′′ But there's one thing I can do." and she took out a small vial of perf Chanel 5 ". It was the classic perfume of elegant ladies like she was before the war, and only God knows how she kept it intact all these years. Then grandma forcefully broke the vial on the floor and said, ′′ At least it won't be stinky in my son's bar-mitzvah."This story comes with a question: Why?Why did they hate him so much?Why did they want to kill a 13 year old they didn't know. That didn't do anything wrong to them?My father did not write the protocols of the elders of Zion. He was not an international banker. He didn't answer any of the anti-Semitic stereotypes. Why did they want to kill him so bad?The answer is that they did not want to kill him even though they did not know him, but because they did not know him.The anti-Semites always say, ′′ How many of my good friends are Jews ״. The absurdity is that this is probably true. They don't hate the Jews they know, because they know they are human like them. They hate the Jews they don't know, because it's easy to hate people in groups. That's how hate works. The first condition is the dehumanization of those you hate. He's not really a person. He's a faceless group that you can throw all the fears and all the hate and all the prejudices on. The Jew you know loves his children, the Jew you don't know hates your children.So the question is not ′′ which person is the Jew ״, but ′′ what person is capable of hating someone so much that he doesn't know?״ What person is so full of hate and venom and prejudice and racism that he wants to kill children who did nothing wrong to him?For too long we've defended. Too much we thought we should tell the right story about the Jews so that the anti-Semites stop hating us. I want to offer you the opposite option:It's time we start telling the right story about the anti-Semites. It's time we tell the world what we're facing. The anti-Semites were not only in the Budapest ghetto. The anti-Semites were slave merchants who threw slave ships into the ocean water slaves chained in chains. The anti-Semites are the members of the Hooti tribe in Rwanda who slaughtered the Totsi tribe. The anti-Semites are Muslim fanatics who have killed more than 20 million other Muslims in the last decade. The anti-Semites are ISIS, and Boko Haram. The anti-Semites are people who beat young people from the LGBT community. The anti-Semites are everyone who persecutes people not because of what they did, but because of what they are. Because of how they were born.Antisemitism is not the first name of hate, it is its last name. She is anyone who eats hate so much that he wants to murder and destroy and chase and expel people just because they are different from him.The Jewish people rightly expect the world to remember the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the end phenomenon of hate. She is the example of what happens to hate when no one stands in front of her. There was nothing like the Holocaust in the history of humanity. A phenomenon like modern anti-Semitism, which we are facing today, is actually everywhere. To fight her, we need allies. We need to recruit anyone who believes that people should not be persecuted because of their religion, or sexual orientation, or because of their origin or because of their gender. We need to tell them that anti-Semitism will never stop in Jews only. She will always move on. The fight is not between anti-Semites and Jews, the fight is between anti-Semites and everyone who believes in values like equality, and justice and human love.Anti-Semitism is racism, so let's talk to anyone who is against racism. Anti-Semitism is extremism, so let's cooperate with anyone who extremism scares him. Anti-Semitism is xenophobia, so let's recruit anyone who has ever been a stranger to us and tell him, ′′ This is also your war ״. If you don't help us today to fight against anti-Semitism, someone might in the future look at your child and say to himself, "I want him to die.״
The agenda for the 7th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism looks like it was interesting, so my question is why aren't most of the videos and texts of the other speeches and discussions online? I could only find a few sessions.
Opening ceremony and speeches:
Lapid's speech (starts with audio only, video starts around 2:00)
Session about how antisemitism was fought by the Chelsea football club.
