Engage non-Jewish allies to help get rid of anti-Semitism
This letter is a response to the JNS article “Yad Vashem’s Holocaust-awareness programs tackle 21st-century anti-Semitism” published in the Jan. 10, 2019, edition of The Chronicle. Throughout my life my family and I faced anti-Semitism in a variety of ways, including the examples below:
Just after my beautiful, French-born, Jewish bride Rosette moved to an apartment outside of Wilmington, Delaware, a friendly neighbor took her aside and asked if she converted to marry me. That’s presumably because of the stereotype that Jewish women could not be that good looking!
When I was the first Jewish president of a nonprofit social agency, I was telephoned by the executive director informing me a purchase was made of a computer at a favorable price because the seller was “Jewed down!” When I expressed dismay at his comment, he response was, “Did I say something wrong?”
In other example, a disgruntled client of that agency telephoned with a complaint and guessed that I was Jewish. The client continued with a crude, insulting anti-Semitic rant. I stopped listening and hung up the phone while the client was still mid-rant.
I believe that stereotypes held by many are now on the rise again, here in the United States and especially in Europe. We cannot get rid of anti-Semitism by ourselves. We need to have our non-Jewish allies to speak up, not only after we suffer from horrific murders and anti-Semitic rants
Sol Koenigsberg
Overland Park, Kansas
