Recently, I received a phone call from my Bubby’s younger brother, Sol Waxman. Over the years, we have had a number of conversations about the pogroms his parents went through in Europe after World War One. However, this time my Uncle started the conversation by telling me that the Anti Semitism that his parents fled from is now affecting his children and grandchildren as well. Recently, he told me, his granddaughter had  visited Spain and Portugal and out of fear, she felt a need to hide all Jewish symbols. So it appears that Anti Semitisim, the age-old scourge, has made quite a comeback recently. As the Jewish people are in the midst of one of the most important wars in modern Jewish history, perhaps now is a good time to step back and reflect a bit upon this conundrum: Why is it that they hate us so much?

So in order to deal with this question, we need to divide Anti Semitism into three categories: 1.) Secular Anti Semitism 2.) Religious Anti Semitism 3.) Modern Day Anti Semitism in the wake of the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

While some Anti Semites will justify their venum with silly cliches ( e.g. why are all the Jews rich, or the Jews are responsible for Korona or other forms of blood libels), in truth there are some deeper dynamics at work here.

1.) Secular Anti Semitism:    The motivation for Secular Anti Semitism was probably best expressed by Hitler in his best selling work “Mein Kampf”  when he condemns the Jews for imprisoning the world in the “shackles of the soul”. Secularism, by its very definition, desires a world devoid of divinity ( chalila) and the subsequent moral........

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