South Florida Jewish Americans

Woody Allen on antisemitism today...

Woody:

“You know, I always thought the greatest advantage of New York was that you could be neurotic and nobody noticed. In other cities, if you talk to yourself, they send you to a doctor. In Manhattan, they offer you a magazine column.

Yesterday I went out to buy salmon. Incidentally, salmon is probably the only stable Jewish tradition that has survived Babylon, Rome, and my relationships with women.

I was walking through Brooklyn thinking about death. Not because I’m a philosopher. Just because I’m over ninety now, even though originally I had planned to make it only to seventy.

And suddenly — a crowd outside a synagogue. At first I thought some famous psychoanalyst was speaking there. In New York, people will stand in line for hours to hear why everything is their mother’s fault. Jews already know that without attending a lecture.

But no. They were shouting something about the ‘intifada.’ And you know what surprised me most? The amount of energy those people had. Where do they get it? After climbing two flights of stairs, I’m already mentally drafting my will. Meanwhile, they’re ready for a revolution before even having a decent cup of coffee.

One guy was yelling about ‘decolonization.’ My God. When I was young, colonization meant Aunt Frieda taking over our sofa for three months and refusing to leave. Now suddenly it’s a Zionist conspiracy.

Modern antisemitism has become far too intellectual. In the old days, people just hated us. Straightforward. Efficient. Today, no.

Today some guy in a scarf — who looks like he writes poetry about his own beard — explains, using Heidegger and Nietzsche, why the existence of Jews is itself a form of aggression and a threat to humanity.

And I stood there thinking: at least in the old days, the people beating us up didn’t have graduate degrees. Now the organizers of pogroms have diplomas from Columbia University.

Then a girl beside me said, ‘We’re against Zionism, not against Jews.’ That’s like my ex-wife saying, ‘I have nothing against you. I’m just against everything you say, do, feel — and especially against sleeping with you.’ Same meaning.

And then someone shouted, ‘Zionists are N***s!’ At that moment I felt my grandmother spinning in her grave fast enough to power part of Queens.

My grandmother, by the way, lived through actual N***s. She hid in a basement in Poland with a man who coughed so loudly the Germans could’ve found them just by following the bronchial acoustics.

And now some kid from an elite university — whose greatest trauma is getting a cold Starbucks coffee — explains to me what fascism means.

These really are astonishing times.

Today people talk like they accidentally swallowed a university library. Nobody says anymore, ‘Sorry, I’m an idiot.’ No. Now they say, ‘I’m deconstructing the dominant narrative.’

Listen, I grew up around Jews. We don’t deconstruct narratives. We create narratives.

I got home and turned on the television — because when you have anxiety, television always seems like a terrific idea. It’s like treating alcoholism with a vodka martini on the rocks.

There was Roger Waters again, explaining the world. Aging rock musicians always frighten me when they start sounding like paranoid men who see conspiracies every time a black cat walks by.

Then Kanye West appeared. When I was growing up, crazy people at least looked crazy. Wild hair, oversized coat, pigeons, conversations with trash cans. This guy just wears a black mask and says he loves Hi**er. And that’s when I realized: humanity has progressed a long way — from ‘Never Again’ to ‘Well, let’s discuss the nuances.’

And the politicians? Politicians say, ‘The situation is complicated.’

No.

Complicated is explaining to a Jewish mother why her forty-year-old son still isn’t married.

But when a crowd outside a synagogue is chanting ‘Death to Zionists,’ that’s not complexity. That’s a remake. And not even a good one. No original script, but an enormous social media budget.

And what really frightens me isn’t the radicals. I’m used to radicals. I lived in 1970s New York. Back then, anyone who distrusted tap water and washed fruit with soap was considered radical.

What frightens me is how quickly normal people start acting as though nothing is happening. Human beings adapt unbelievably well. Even when a Jewish girl gets her hair pulled or a boy with sidelocks gets blinded with strobe lights.

We get used to everything. War. Hatred. Coffee costing nine dollars. That last one, by the way, only with enormous difficulty.

That night I lay in bed thinking: maybe humanity simply shouldn’t be given free time. Because the moment people get bored, they either try to save the world, kill each other, or start podcasts about the benefits of conflict.

And yet… if tomorrow there are once again people outside a synagogue shouting about the death of Zionists, I’ll go out there. Not because I’m brave. I’m the kind of person who once fainted during a blood test. But because Jews have waited too many times for madness to disappear on its own. It never does. It just puts on a suit, enters a university, and opens a TikTok account.

Still… first I’ll eat my salmon. I’d rather not die on an empty stomach. My Jewish mother never would’ve approved of that.”

NEW: Video from Brooklyn shows Muslim men praying on the sidewalk directly outside Bnos Leah Prospect Park High School, an Orthodox Jewish girls’ school, with a mosque reportedly about one block away.

The issue is not whether people have the right to pray in public. They do. The issue is whether a group prayer line outside a school entrance obstructed sidewalk access and created an obvious safety concern for students, parents, and pedestrians.

Religious freedom is protected. Blocking access outside a school, especially one belonging to another religious community, raises fair questions that should not be dismissed.

I was going to cry when I read this SPEECH from the PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL Benjamin Netanyahu, but at the end I said, "Glory to the God of Israel"

Let's read together:

Mr. Netanyahu said:
Only 70 years ago! The Jews were taken to slaughter like sheep.
🔵 60 years ago!
🔵 no country. No Army.

Seven Arab countries declared war on the small Jewish state, only a few hours after its creation!
🔵 we were 650,000 Jews against the many millions in the Arab world!

There was no strong IDF(Israel Defense Forces).

No powerful air force to save us but only brave Jewish people with nowhere else to go.
🔵Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia all attacked at the same time.
🔵the country that the United Nations gave us was a 65 % desert.

🔵 35 years ago! We fought the three most Powerful armies in the middle east, and we swept them in six days.

We fought against various coalitions of Arab countries, which had modern armies and many Soviet weapons, and we have always beaten them!

Today we have:

🔵 a State (Country)
🔵 an Army,
🔵 a Powerful Air Force,
🔵 A State-of-the-Art Economy with exports worth billions of dollars.
🔵 Intel - Microsoft - ibm & many high-tech companies develop cutting edge products in Israel
🔵 our doctors receive awards for medical research.
🔵 we make the desert bloom, and sell oranges, flowers and vegetables all over the world.

🔵 Israel has sent its own satellites into space!

🔵 three satellites at the same time!
🔵 We are proud to be at the same rank as:
🔵 The United States, which has 250 million inhabitants,
🔵 Russia, which has 200 million inhabitants,
🔵 China, which has 1.3 billion inhabitants;
🔵 Europeans - France, Great Britain, Germany - with 350 million inhabitants.
🔵 the only countries in the world to send objects into space!

🔵 and say that only 60 years ago,
🔵 we were led, ashamed and hopeless, to slaughter!
🔵 we have experienced the smoking ruins of Europe,
🔵 we have won our wars here in Israel with less than nothing

🔵 we built our little "Empire" from nothing.

Who's Hamas to scare me?
🔴 to terrify me?
🔴 you make me laugh!
🔴 Passover was celebrated;

Let's not forget what Passover is:
🔴 we survived Pharaoh,
🔴 we survived the Greeks,
🔴 we survived the Romans,
🔴 we survived the inquisition in Spain,
🔴 we have the pogroms in Russia,
🔴 we survived Hi**er,
🔴 we survived the Germans,
🔴 we survived the Holocaust,
🔴 we survived the armies of seven Arab countries,
🔴 we survived Saddam.
🔴 we will survive the enemies present

Think of any time in human history ⚠

Think about it, for us, the Jewish people,
🔷 the situation has never been better!
🔷 then let's face the world,

Let us remember:
🔶 all nations, empires or cultures
🔶 who once tried to destroy us,
🔶 no longer exist today - while we still live!
🔶 Egypt?
🔶 Babylon?
🔶 the Greeks?
🔶 Alexander of Macedonia?
🔶 The Romans? (does anyone still speak Latin these days? )
🔶 The Third Reich?

And look at us

🔵 The slaves of Egypt,
🔵 The People of Moses
🔵 The Nation of the Bible,
🔵 We are still here,

And Hebrew is still the official language of the State of Israel today:

🚩 from the time of the Bible and now!
🚩 Arabs don't know yet,
🚩 but they will learn that there is a God.
🚩 as long as we keep our identity, we are forever.

So forgive us for not worrying,
🔶 not to cry,
🔶 not to be afraid.
🔶 things are fine here.
🔶 they could certainly get better,

However:
🔴 Don't believe the media,
🔴 they don't tell you alot of good things about Israel
🔴 celebrations continue to take place in Israel,
🔴 people continue to live,
🔴 people keep coming out,
🔴 people continue to see friends.

Some claim our morale is low.
🔵 so what?

Only because we mourn our deaths while our enemies rejoice in the blood shed & war.

🔵 that is why we will win, in the end.

The God of Israel created the Heaven's and the Earth.
The Guardian of Israel never slumbers or sleep! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Forward this speech to the whole community,
💙 and to people around the world.
💜 they are part of our strength

Share on your walls with your friends 💞💟💖

Shared from Jewish Projects