What happened in D.C. is what "Intifada Revolution" Looks Like.
A few weeks ago, I attended a women’s choir concert in Detroit where a friend was performing.
The performance was held in one of the city’s oldest churches, completed in 1845.
I don’t go to church much.
But when I do, my inner art history student comes alive.
I marvel at the architectural details. The stained-glass windows. The massive pipe organs.
The vaulted ceilings and the ornate carvings adorning the highest heights of those ceilings.
The voices of my friend and the women she sang with were so peaceful and at times, so strong.
They floated up to that ceiling.
They sang songs of love, of peace, strength, and resilience.
I had a purse with me.
Others had backpacks and diaper bags.
There was no armed security guard at the door.
A door that was not framed by a metal detector.
No bag was searched.
No one was swiped with one of those wands.
No one was turned away because they were carrying a bag.
Only a collared clergywoman greeted the concertgoers at the door.
How nice.
How completely peaceful.
To my non-Jewish readers here, what’s that like?
What is it like to walk into your churches, your houses of worship, either for services or an event, and not instinctively review where the exits are?
Does your church have an emergency button that goes directly to the police department, just in case?
Does your diocese have a special unit dedicated to security or counterterrorism like Jewish Federations do?
What’s it like to go into a Christian building, a church, or a school, without giving it a second thought?
Because ever since the Tree of Life shooting, and ever since October 7th, this is what Jews have to think about.
What we have to prepare for.
Every event we go to in the Jewish community:
We have to pre-register.
Often, for security, the event location is not given until after one registers.
After your background is screened.
We cannot bring in purses.
Not even a fucking wristlet to keep our credit card or phone.
We are searched.
We go through metal detectors.
Because we know since October 7th it was only a matter of time.
With all the shouts of calls for “Free Free Palestine” or “Intifada Revolution” that were brushed off, week after week, month after month as “free speech,” those words etched fear in our hearts as American Jews that I bet none outside of the Jewish community gave it a second thought.
And here we are.
Just a month or so ago, a man lit the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on fire.
The Jewish governor and his family were inside.
They just went to bed after their Passover Seder.
The arsonist said he wanted to Free Palestine.
And tonight - Two young Israeli diplomats are shot dead in our nation’s capital outside the Jewish Museum
A young man and woman.
They were going to be engaged soon.
He had a ring.
He was going to propose when they got back to Israel.
In Jerusalem.
And the shooter?
He wore a keffiyeh.
When he was arrested, guess what he shouted?
Take a wild guess.
Lutheran ally here, I’m so sorry for all the horrific violence, discrimination and suffering you and the American Jewish community have been experiencing in these past few years, Stacy! Antisemitism has risen to levels not seen since the 1930s in the Western world. It’s all because of a war Israel is fighting to defend itself, free the hostages and liberate Gaza. Killing two Israeli embassy workers won’t free Palestine. It is a deplorable act of hate. RIP Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram! 🇮🇱✡️❤️🌸🌺💐🕯️🕊️May their memory be a blessing!
To all you Pro-Palestine protestors chanting “from the river to the sea!” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution!”, storming buildings, assaulting workers, blocking Jewish students from going to class, assaulting people, etc. this is the result of your rhetoric and actions! Let me be absolutely clear, not a SINGLE Palestinian mother was spared losing her child or home because of your efforts. Not a SINGLE Palestinian child was fed or educated because of your efforts. Not a SINGLE Palestinian man who lost his family and home because of Hamas was spared that because of your efforts.
All you’ve done is make the world a worse place to live and put more hate into it! There is NO justification for what Hamas-ISIS did or October 7th or what these Jihadist Brownshirts and their radical leftist allies are doing right now! You want to free Palestine? Advocate for a two-state solution and peaceful coexistence. Garbage organizations like Within Our Lifetime, Students for Justice in Palestine and the BDS Movement are NOT the answer and never will be!