I am Jewish

I remember reading a book about journalist Daniel Pearl. When he was captured by Al-Qaeda in conjunction with other terrorist organizations years ago, he was made to say the following before his beheading:

“My name is Daniel Pearl. I’m a Jewish-American from Encino, California, USA. I come from, uh, on my father’s side the family is Zionist. My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We’ve made numerous family visits to Israel.”

Daniel Pearl was murdered for two crimes – being American but also being Jewish. Like many of the just over 15 million Jewish people around the world last week, I was horrified by Hamas’s massacre of innocent Israeli citizens last week. A better word to describe it would be a pogrom – violent attacks on Jewish people by those that are non-Jews. I was woken at 7am on Saturday by a text from one of my closest friends who was in Israel. He said that he was fine, but was in a bomb shelter near the airport just outside of Tel Aviv. I looked at the news immediately and sat with horror at what was happening to my people.

Part of me never thought that I would see this but part of me wasn’t altogether surprised. I’ve been to the Middle East. I’ve been to Israel during a war (also unprovoked). It gave me a small taste of what the citizens of Israel deal with daily. Although I knew at some point something would happen, I never imagined this pogrom – this horror. Women raped and then slaughtered or kidnapped. Children raped and murdered. Young Israelis at a rave hunted down and slaughtered with some kidnapped. Women bleeding from the crotch because they had been raped so many times being paraded in Gaza. A prone women – her body at an odd angle suggesting that she was dead being spit on by men in Gaza and then being driven around like a prize.

Tired of this yet? It goes on. Pregnant women cut open with their babies cut out – both left to die. Israeli soldiers murdered, stepped on and also beheaded. Most shocking and terrifying? Babies and young children slaughtered (just like the beautiful little girl in the photo), beheaded, burned alive or not – I guess it doesn’t matter. A father crying tears of joy and grief saying that he was happy that his beautiful, 8-year old daughter was dead instead of kidnapped because of the horrors that would have been inflicted upon her.

I know you are going to say but what about the Palestinians. There is absolutely a difference between Hamas and Palestinians. Hamas’s leaders live in luxury and safety in Qatar while they leave their citizens in squalor in Gaza. Hamas leaders siphon money that is meant for aid and use it to fund their lifestyle and terror attacks. Hamas wants the young Palestinian population poor and hopeless because when you have nothing else to lose, you will do the unthinkable. Think I’m making this up – think again – it’s finally out there in some Western newscasts. Hamas and the corrupt regime of terrorists leading Iran are the worst things to ever happen to the Palestinian people. Add in the Iranian people, the Lebanese people subjected to Hezbollah and of course Syria.

So what does all of this have to do with me? I am Jewish. I grew up with Jewish parents. I am a Zionist simply meaning that I support the right of Jewish people to self-determination in their indigenous homeland of Israel. It doesn’t mean that I hate anyone. It doesn’t mean that I think that the Palestinians don’t deserve their own country – it simply means that I support Israel’s right to exist and honour the history that dates back to the Old Testament.

It is important for me to write this, because as a minority, I’m shocked at the Antisemitism that I’m seeing both in Canada and around the world. Large gatherings of people saying “Fuck the Jews. Gas the Jews”. “All Jews should die”. “You deserved the Holocaust.” This is just a small taste of what is happening. This is scarier, in a way, than what is happening in Israel. We don’t have an army to protect us here.

Personally, I know people that are afraid, but I refuse to live in fear. I will not change my life to cater to terrorists and terrorist supporters. That is exactly what they want. My mother’s father, my grandfather, survived a pogrom, but never spoke about it. My mother had rotten vegetables thrown at her and was called a dirty Jew. I’ve been called a few names in my time and encountered Antisemitism of my own. My grandfather was strong, my mother was strong, and now it’s my turn. I won’t be silenced. I also won’t hate even though there are people who hate me and want me dead simply because I am Jewish. I know that people will fatigue of this war, just like they fatigue of others, but I can’t stay silent. Silence is complicity.

If I can change one person’s opinion, just one person who will see that I’m not a demon, because I’m Jewish, and that we are not evil, I will have accomplished something.

With that, let me introduce myself:

“My name is Jill Schneiderman. I’m a Jewish-Canadian from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On my father’s and my mother’s side, the families are Zionist. My father was Jewish, my mother was Jewish, I’m Jewish. My family follows Judaism. I’ve made two visits to Israel to start, but I will travel there again in the future because Israel will never be destroyed as long as one Jewish heart beats.”