“If they say they want to kill you, then they will” – Reverend Jesse Jackson

What a fitting introductory quote from a man who had a controversial struggle with antisemitism.  Jesse Jackson taught us a lesson that like a poisonous weed, antisemitism always lurks and finds a way to take hold.

In my last post, I tackled the problem facing Jewish camps in Ontario, Canada. The result was private emails from past presidents of various Canadian Jewish voluntary organizations who faced the same scrutiny as we did at Camp Moshava at the beginning of the 21st century. One email reminded me that JNF most recently lost its charitable status in Canada.

The horrible event of October 7th was the manifestation of Reverend Jackson’s quote that if someone says they want to kill you then you’d better take them at their word. 

Recent history has shown us that Israelis and Jews are quite resilient when tragedy strikes, such as the too many bus bombings during the First and Second Intifada, the suicide bombings in our marketplaces, on our beaches, hotel killing in Mumbai and tragedy in South America and Bulgaria.  Zaka comes and cleans away the human remains, we bury our dead, we sit shiva for a week and we try to move on to live a semblance of a normal life.

But the events that have been ongoing since October 8th is striking to our very core.

We know that the so-called spontaneous First and Second Intifadas were not spontaneous at all.  The same is true for the international demonstrations that spontaneously erupted the day after October 8, 2023.

They were organized by various factions of Hamas and funded by Iran.

I am a true believer in the expression “there is no such thing as a coincidence”

And now they are coming after our children.

The attack on the Jewish camps in Ontario via the Ontario Camp Council is an experiment by Hamas and Iran to see how successful they can be in attacking our youth.  If they are successful then it will be a model for future attacks globally, as in “globalize the intifada”.

The attack on the Jewish camps in Ontario is a “dog whistle”. If successful then they will pounce. 

 “If they say they want to kill you, then they will”

So for us this has to be a call to action.

In 1992, Bonnie Raite won a Grammy for her song “Something to Talk About” where she sang about everyone talking about and knowing two budding lovers. For Jews, since the world is talking about our summer camps as training camps for the IDF, maybe we should give them something to talk about.

In 1968, The Jewish Defense League (JDL) was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane and a group of young Jewish activists in response to perceived threats against Jewish communities. The organization was known for its commitment to protecting Jews from anti-Semitism by any means necessary. 

The JDL emerged during a time of rising anti-Semitism, with its first demonstration occurring at New York University, where members protested against Nazi sympathizers.  The group advocated for a militant approach to Jewish self-defense, emphasizing the need for Jews to protect themselves and their rights.

My Call to Action is to enhance the camp experience for Jewish camps all over the world in three ways. 

First, there should be a program led by Hatzalah to teach the campers basic emergency medical skills such as CPR, Heimlich, splint setting and basic first aid.

Secondly there should be a program teaching the kids the Israeli self defense system, Krav Maga.

Third, the kids should be taken out of the camp, with the parents’ signed permission, to a gun range to teach them gun safety and basics.

As far-fetched and extreme as it may sound, we are living in a new age.  We are living in the post-Columbine, post-Sandy Hook, post-Parkland and post-Tree of Life era. Our children are not safe at university and now they are being threatened at our summer camps.

In 1968, the NRA came out with an outrageous advertisement claiming “Guns Don’t Kill People. People Kill People”.  Since that time we have been drawn into the abyss.

I have composed a different advertising campaign using a similar theme, “Guns Don’t Kill Jews. Terrorists Kill Jews.”

There are those who may say that this is an extreme view and hopefully they are correct.  

But the dog whistle has been blown showing the location of Jewish camps.  

A pin has been placed on Google Maps.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)