What the hell happened to American (and Canadian) Jews?

I grew up in a small town outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We had one Synagogue. I struggled with my religious upbringing – at times, I could care less about kosher/shabbat and at others I went all in. I participated in the conservative youth movements – USY, Camp Ramah in the summers. I loved those experiences. I was the president of my Jewish student’s union at university. We protested. We had debates with the Muslim Student’s union. We stood up. So, my question is quite simply – what the hell?

Since the war, the racists came out to play. They could not be clearer – they do not just hate Israel. They hate Jews. They are making our people scared. Firebombing schools, graffiti and vandalizing Synagogues, marching through Jewish neighborhoods. Our kids do not want to identify as Jews on most campuses today.

People are taking off their kippahs, taking down their Mezuzahs, tucking in their Magen David chains. Not all – I have seen some notable examples of our brothers and sisters standing up. Mostly the younger ones or the much older. But the middle? Same with our co-religionists. There was a headline recently in the Times of Israel – 10 Leading US Jewish Groups denounce Trump’s campus crackdown. Who are those leading US Jewish Groups? Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, National Council of Jewish Women, etc. Really? They said that Trump’s campus crackdown makes Jews less safe. Really? What the hell? Have they been to a campus? The American Conference of Cantors? Don’t they have kids on campuses somewhere? How is it OK that they must walk through checkpoints of people screaming at them as Nazi’s, river to the sea, genocide, every trope in the book?........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)