“There is no place for antisemitism in the State of Colorado.”
Governor Jared Polis spoke briefly last night at Temple Emanuel in Denver to a standing-room only crowd commemorating the first anniversary of the terrorist massacre and hostage-taking incursion into Israel staged by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
More than 100 hostages still remain unaccounted for, still captive in Gaza’s sprawling tunnels and Hamas’ extended terror networks.
More than 2,500 people were in attendance for the event, hosted by JEWISHcolorado and 30-some-odd other local Jewish organizations, billed as “10/7 Commemoration: From Darkness to Light.”
Led by JEWISHColorado President & CEO, Renée Rockford and Brandon Rattiner, Senior Director of their Jewish Community Relations Council, the event featured family of survivors of the NOVA music festical massacre as well as addresses by Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Noam Weissman, Executive Vice President of OpenDor Media and the site JewishUnpacked.com — a media outpost focused on providing “nuanced insights by unpacking all things Jewish,” through videos, podcasts, articles and educational materials.
And while Gov. Polis’ stance was clear, the theme that Weissman brought with his speech was one every single person in attendance needed to hear — that our collective identity as Jews is one built on hope.
“Hope is active. Optimism is passive. Hope takes courage. Hope is a verb,” Weissman said in his charged, energetic address to the congregation, which also included other local politicians like District 6 Representative Jason Crow (D), District 4 Representative Greg Lopez (R), and District 7 Representative Brittany Pettersen (D).
The halls of Temple Emanuel served as an unforgettable exhibit of the tragedy — and triumph — of our extended Jewish community impacted by the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
All-in-all, it was the most uplifting experience I’ve had as a Jew in what has been the most difficult year of my life as one.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jews the world over have faced a tsunami of antisemitism — often disguised as some nebulous misnamed platform of “anti-Zionism” — that has not been seen since the Holocuast.
According to a statement released by the Anti Defamation League on Oct. 6: “There have been more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the year since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, according to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) preliminary data. This is the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year period since ADL started tracking in 1979.
“These newly released figures, from Oct. 7, 2023 to Sept. 24, 2024, represent an over 200-percent increase compared to the incidents reported to us during the same period a year before, which saw 3,325 incidents.”
It’s safe to say those numbers are likely unreported. I’ve personally been on the receiving end of dozens of antisemitic attacks via social media, a handful of verbal assaults out in public, and haven’t taken the time to report those those to the ADL myself. Additionally, just last weekend I was out for a ride on my motorcycle and was recognized from a recent interview I gave to Andrew Callaghan, host of Channel 5, a very popular YouTube show. A man in a Prius pulled up next to me and shouted, “Hey, you’re that ‘Zio’ from Channel 5!”
“ZioNIST,” I corrected him, as “Zio” is an epithet coined by KKK former Grand Poobah Nutbag or whatever David Duke.
“Y’all deserve to die!” the man shot back at me.
I invited him to take his best shot. He ultimately declined.
This is not new for me. I’ve received death threats throughout my career as a journalist, including the time I got a postcard mailed to my home with a picture of the ovens at Auschwitz and a hand-scrawled note on the front of it that simply read, “Wish you were here.”
But in the last year, the unabashed, unceasing torrent of hatred aimed at Jews has been unprecedented in my lifetime. People are quick to blame Israel’s current 7-front war against Iran and its puppet terror proxies as though that’s somehow a valid reason for this behavior. It’s not.
And while this shouldn’t be necessary, let me define yet again what it means to be a Zionist. A Zionist is someone who believes in the right of Israel to exist as the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people. Hard stop. There are Zionists across the political spectrum — ranging from those like myself, who always supported the Labour Zionist party of Golda Meir and also believed in a two-state solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict — to far-right Zionists like those of the Likud Party.
The fact that the word has not only become an epithet on its own, but is now used consistently by the far left and pro-Hamas/Hezbollah/Houthi/Iranian terror supporters in the west to refer to any Jew who doesn’t wish to join their ranks as a valid target for violence is pure antisemitism — just as much as former President Donald Trump’s statement that if he loses the election, it’ll be the Jews’ fault as well.
From a Reuters article quoting Trump’s address to the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington on Sept. 20:”’If I don’t win this election — and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because if 40%, I mean, 60% of the people are voting for the enemy — Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years,’ Trump told the crowd.”
Meanwhile, many on the far left refer to POTUS candidate Kamla Harris as “Killer Kamala” continuing their alliterative pedantry they started with their “Genocide Joe” quips, because she has the audacitiy to recognize the United States’ important relationship with Israel and rightly refer to groups like Hezbollah as terrorists.
There’s no doubt that none of this will abate any time soon — and certainly not before the 2024 Presidential Election. But lemme tell ya:
I’m getting real tired of being your political football.
