No one said being Jewish was supposed to be easy; and as the fictional Tevye implored to the Boss in Fiddler on the Roof, in the face of impending pogroms, “I know we are the chosen people, but for once could we just be a little less chosen?”. That sentiment feels truly relevant to our collective experience over the past three years.

Jews have endured thousands of years of tragedy, hardship and attempted eradication. In Ireland, the majority of Jews arrived following pogroms in the late 1800s. They came with nothing, but prospered and became a vibrant, well-liked part of Irish society.

Sadly, the pogroms they escaped heralded a far greater danger to Jews in Europe. At least in Ireland they were safe. Given the current hostility we are experiencing in some quarters, it is ironic Ireland was one of the safest places in Europe for Jews during the Nazi era. This does not mean the wartime government was sympathetic to the plight of the surviving Jewish refugees. The door was firmly dúnta.

The apotheosis of the historical scourge of anti-Semitism, with the elimination of 60 per cent of Europe’s Jewish population, led to the fervent hope it would render this most ancient of hatreds obsolete.

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However, although they did not manage to eradicate us, anti-Semitism did not go away. Like the herpes group of viruses, it sat largely dormant, waiting for the right moment, the right vulnerability, to re-emerge.

Never could we have imagined the indescribable horror that once again would afflict the Jewish people on October 7th, 2023 – and as in the Holocaust, it was not only Jews who were slaughtered. This act........

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