64 Comments
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Chana M.'s avatar

Pat, I am a Jew who appreciates your writing and this question, in particular. I don’t know a soul who would hide me. The Wall of Silence I experienced (from those I’d known most of my life)

after Oct. 7 and the murder of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas did double damage at a time I already felt terribly alone and vulnerable in my grief. Not a peep from those whose doors remained closed. You are so right. I just realized you are not Jewish. So I’ll consider you a friend now. Thank you.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Thanks Chana.

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Beki Lantos's avatar

I’ll hide you!

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Chana M.'s avatar

Wow, Beki! I’m stunned, in the best ❤️way. Never imagined…deeply touched. More gratitude than I can express. And profoundly comforted by your presence, as the Righteous amongst us SPEAK!!! This is Courage!🙏🏼

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Alison Cipriani's avatar

About 10 years ago I was dating a man who had gotten his PhD at Syracuse. There was an antisemitic incident there which I don't remember but I asked him to write a letter. I said just the expression of distaste for how the school handled the incident would be helpful to support Jews. I don't believe he ever wrote the letter.

I also asked him in a sort of joking way if he would hide me in his attic when they come to round us up and he didn't reply. I asked again and found that even in an imaginary scenario he couldn't say yes.

I no longer see him, but it was an appalling eye opener.

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Shelah Horvitz's avatar

You got lucky. Imagine if you had married him.

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Alison Cipriani's avatar

Lol! thanks for the laugh

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Almost Over's avatar

My parents and grandparents, refugees from slaughters in Germany and the rest of Europe, taught us that when push comes to shove for Jews, we are alone. So is Israel alone.

There are about 30,000 “Righteous Among the Nations” (non-Jews who rescued or saved Jews) named at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Let’s assume that the number should be 100,000 because some who are deserving are as yet unrecognized. The population of Europe in 1939 was 560 million. Jew rescuers were thus 0.018%. The overwhelming majority of non-Jewish Europeans were thus perpetrators, collaborators, and silent bystanders.

So it remains today.

The reasons (which, Pat, you ably and quixotically explore) are ancient, irrational, compulsive, mutating, seemingly compelling and deeply entrenched — psychologically, spiritually, culturally and politically. Or, as Dara Horne puts it, everybody loves dead Jews.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Sadly true on all points. On a slightly different topic, as others have noted, the number of rescuers in Gaza right now appears to be 0.00%.

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Almost Over's avatar

It’s the same topic🙂 (and essentially the same number).

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HP's avatar

Sorry, but everytime I see Dara Horne mentioned in this context, I feel compelled to point out that she has been proven wrong. Turns out lots of people hate us dead just as much as alive.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Fair.

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Shelah Horvitz's avatar

Or as Eylon Levy puts it, everybody loves Jews dead.

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Carol's avatar

I get the point here, but I am not the kind who would hide. My question is, instead, would you fight beside me? When I was young I would have been ashamed to run and hide from Nazis. Now that I'm old, I have much less to lose, having already had a good life. When I was young in my home town San Francisco, there was a lot of gay bashing going on. We spray painted on the sidewalks GAYS BASH BACK and many of us carried whistles so that if we saw a gay bashing we could call for reinforcements. It worked. During Trump's previous presidency Neo-Nazis marched and tried to beat up people like me here in Portland, Oregon where I now live. I wanted to join the Antifa who were fighting them, but, seeing my gray hair and wrinkled face an Antifa soldier told me to leave the park where the fighting was because I was too old to battle Nazis. I wasn't armed then, because I hadn't anticipated the fight, so I left, but in my heart I disagree with him. Wildly outnumbered and out gunned Israelis showed amazing courage on October 7th, just as Jews did in the Warsaw Ghetto, and I would hope I could do the same.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Brilliant. You’ve given me the topic for another post.

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Carol's avatar

So glad! My personal problem with antisemitism is that I have just about zero flight response to threats. I am all fight, and I know that's not a terrific strategy for attaining peaceful solutions. As a young person I couldn't restrain my violent impulses very well. Now I feel the way Stevie Wonder sings about in "I Wish": "You grow up and learn that kinda thing ain't right/ But while you were doin' it, it sure felt outta sight"

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Patricia Munro's avatar

Sometime during Trump's first term, a former friend of over 40 years declared that she would hide me should I need to be hidden. I politely thanked her and shuddered.

I knew that, despite all that we had been through together in raising kids together, going through very good and very bad times together, she had some core misunderstanding of what it meant to be a Jew and truly stand up for Jews--not defaulting to hiding, which is a form of "you're fine as long as you aren't in power."

Sure enough, when October 7 came, not one word. Not. One. Word. Except to decry the supposed genocide. I tried three times. And then cut ties. I am still bitter that the friendship is over, but I am not sad that she is no longer in my life. And no, she would not have hidden me. Or my children and grandchildren. But she would have found a self-righteous reason not to do it.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Words are chaep.

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ymg's avatar

Too many like that. Too many.

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Jewn Cleaver's avatar

🎯

The biggest heartbreak is that non-Jews have the power to make this Jew-hating fervor socially unacceptable. They don’t seem to get that it’s the silent tolerance of the anti-Jew hysteria that IS the danger. They simply have to pour water on it or show some sign of solidarity and that would go a long way toward making their Jewish friends and neighbors feel less afraid. They did it with BLM, they did it with Asian hate, they do it all the time with their evergreen pride flags. Literally something as small and passive as a lawn sign could potentially save us from true horror, and they won’t do it.

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Liz's avatar

And no one had to be asked to show solidarity. For example #metoo took off without any campaign to join in. But here we are having to ask/beg people to become involved to support a mere 15million besieged Jews.

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Jewn Cleaver's avatar

💯 It's too "controversial" to say "I stand with my Jewish friends."

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Arlo's avatar

For me this is a no brainer. I have felt this way since my teens. How anyone could do different beggars belief. I am not Jewish, and I am also deeply disturbed and saddened by the seeming indifference of those around me. I am the only one in my peer group to speak out (except for my husband). It is a travesty.

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Kip🎗️'s avatar

I’m not a fan of that question/plea, as it gives the antisemitic mob on both sides of the political spectrum exactly what it wants: the victory of causing fear and distress to Jews. But I can understand why some Jews, particularly the elderly, feel that fear down to their bones. All younger and able-bodied Jews need to fight, not run for cover, at least not yet. And yes, the most disturbing thing is not so much the toxic antisemitism but the unbothered silence of so many supposed allies. I don’t get that.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Spot on. As Carol noted below, the question should be “will you fight with me?”

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Ian Mark Sirota's avatar

“The question “Would you hide me?” is less about the belief that the situation in North America could in the near future deteriorate so badly than it reflects, for most Jews, the realization that almost none of their presumed friends have demonstrated anything to indicate that they will stand with their Jewish friends even when the stakes are low.”

I have watched as the majority of my non-Jewish friends have been happily living their lives since October 7, 2023, posting their usual food porn photos, cat memes and the like. That day and everything that has happened since means absolutely nothing to them.

I’ll add this: Maybe we aren’t at the stage where an American (or Canadian) Gestapo is going door to door, looking for Jews. But I don’t think that we’re necessarily all that far away from it, either. Overwrought and hyperbolic? Maybe, but I’d respond to that by pointing out that alone among religious institutions in the West, synagogues need armed guards. JCCs need armed guards. Churches don’t. Mosques don’t. Hindu temples don’t.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Bang on.

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ymg's avatar

Sadly, time for tough jews again.

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kathy's avatar

As usual, Pat, you get it perfectly. To have friends abandon one when the stakes are so low is incredibly painful. Ironically, the two friends who proudly told me separately (unasked) that they would hide me if ever the Nazis came again, both show fury and lack of sympathy even with our fear and uncertainty now when we are actually faced with antisemitism. They obviously don’t have the capacity even for empathy.

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Jane Gordon's avatar

I agree with all of your sentiments, and acknowledge that so far it seems as if only M. Khalil has received due process and was justifiably certified for deportation. He, however, *did* receive that due process, and with his 19 lawyers, the court still decided his deportation was legal and fair. I understand nuance is lost with the current US administration (and to an extent with all of current US discourse) but it remains important to me.

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Pat Johnson's avatar

Yes. Absolutely fair. If he has received due process, done and done. And you are correct that even when the admin doesn’t care aobut it, we still should.

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Penny Adrian's avatar

I voted for Democrats my entire life, but last November I voted for Trump. One of the main reasons I did this is that the Biden/Harris administration was so horrifically passive in the face of genocidal jihadism. I am deeply relieved that Jihadis are finally getting the message that we won't let this happen here. I think much of the anti-Trump hysteria is inspired by his having been coded "low class" by the same elites who enable Hamas. I bought into that hysteria the first time he was president, but I refuse to buy into it a second time. There would have been no 10/7 pogrom - and no war with Hamas -had Trump been re-elected. I am tired of people supporting Israel and the Jews out of one side of their mouths while condemning them with the other. The Democrats practically served the Jewish people up on a platter, and yet I'm supposed to wail and gnash my teeth over Jihadi supporters who ARE getting their due process. Also - if the Dems hadn't been such hapless weaklings and had demanded more action from universities to protect Jewish students, none of these deportations would be happening. I'm not Jewish, but as you say about Trump "First they come for the Jihadi supporters" I say about the Jihadis "First they come for the Jews" Which has more historical relevance?

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Pat Johnson's avatar

You make some absolutely legit points. I think when we are discussing competing civil rights, we almost always come up against this paradox of protecting one group at risk of another — and the counterargument is that, if we don’t protect that one, they will coem for this one. I certainly concur that Jewish people are the most threatened right now and deserve protections to the fullest extent of the law. But it should be within the extent of the law and not employ extra-constiuitonal actions. As some people in this thrrad have noted, some perpetrators have had due process. Fair enough. But I think extreme vigilance is required under this administration to ensure that due process is ALWAYS followed. But, conversely, the law should be enforced to its fullest extent to protect Jewish people and institutions right now. And we sure as hell have not been doing that in Canada.

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Audrey's avatar

Pat, I’d be lucky to have you as a friend, at any time, but more now than ever before. Thank you.

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Gefen Bar-On Santor's avatar

One of the underlying sentiments of antisemitism is that Jews are not worthy of protection because somehow they will always be okay and even if they are murdered, they will somehow always be okay (perhaps this goes back to the resurrection story?). This means that Jews will not be defended when the stakes are high or when the stakes are low. I believe that another manifestation of this underlying sentiment might be that Jews are sometimes overlooked for job opportunities due to the fictional idea that they are "already rich" or that they have an imaginary "network" that can easily "get them" other opportunities. This phenomenon affects not only Jews, but other people who are perceived as "privileged" even though in reality no person can fulfil themselves socio-economically without opportunities--no matter how "privileged" that are perceived to be.

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Yiftach Levy's avatar

Powerful stuff, Pat. Thank you for articulating this.

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michael holt's avatar

I would do anything I could to stand with God's chosen. I don't need to be Jewish to know my duty, and if they want to get to you, they'll have to come over me first.

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