The Update That Almost Didn’t Happen

This is the update that almost didn’t happen but not because what I wrote about in Maybe It Is Time To Start Over though it had some influence.

No I got caught up in other things and thought about going to bed earlier than normal but I felt a thought catch my eye.

Something related to A Different Kind Of Yom Kippur and the a couple of pictures in it along with a quote I included “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”

That alongside the let go of your anger from here jumped out at me and I decided to spend a couple of minutes tip tapping away at this keyboard.

I feel like I have lived a dozen lives since August but that is because of a couple of moments that made me stand up and look around.

Stand up and acknowledge it wasn’t time to just ask hard questions but to act upon them and so I have.

There have been some painful moments since then but I have also been reminded of the truth of the quote above. Yeah, I know I don’t live at Hogwarts, but I have found aid from people because I was willing to ask.

Change Is Painful But Important

I was asked if this is a metamorphosis and I said I don’t know. That wasn’t me being insouciant or difficult, I don’t know if that is the correct word.

Primarily because these changes have been underway for quite some time so whatever evolution is taking place is well on its way and I think metamorphosis is too strong a word for this.

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I came across a blog post I wrote in 2005 about the evolution of antisemitism or more accurately comments I made about what Daniel Pipes said.

Rather disappointed to say that my almost 20 year old comments feel relatively current, though I do think things are worse here than they were then.

I am far more concerned by what feels like a lack of answer to the questions I asked at the end and wonder if we let our comfort blind us.

I can’t say that I found anything in there that I rabidly disagree with. His assertion that American Jews have been living in a Golden Age here in the states for the last 60 years makes sense.

America may not be as tolerant as we would like, but for the most part it has been outstanding and there has been little reason to worry the way some of our grandparents and great-grand parents did in the old country.

Pipes discusses the situation in Europe and again I agree that things are not nearly as good as they could be, and in some places (France) they are just downright ugly.

The big question to me is the one we all ask. What can we do to root out the problem, how do we stop it’s promulgation and what can we do to affect change now.

I’ll follow up by saying I don’t think it is too late to effect change or that it is impossible but the progression of time without real action hasn’t helped us.

We should have been far more active at pushing back against the nonsense we saw after the first Durban conference and the advent of BDS.

The mess at the universities is a real issue and requires some help. I still think about the piece Rachel Fish wrote for The Free Press and The reality behind the campus encampments.

There is another piece I read recently that provided more numbers that I think are worth digging into but I am blanking on the name of it.

If it were an hour earlier I might search for it but it is pushing midnight so I’ll let it go for the moment.

Instead I’ll say I think there is a loud minority that is being funded by bad actors and that we have an opportunity to help reshape and refocus the discussion.

That is of paramount importance because if we let the loud minority set the narrative we’re going to continue to fight an uphill battle.

There are facts that can be used to help influence beliefs and we ought to work on presenting and educating based upon those.

It is a far more effective way than trying to use a stick. That doesn’t mean we won’t need the stick at times, but it should be used strategically.

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Anyhoo, I’ll wrap this up because I do have a couple of things to attend to before midnight turns to 1 AM or later.

But I’ll finish by saying change may be frightening, but it can be a really good thing too. I suspect I might walk away wondering why I didn’t do some of these things several years earlier.