Thank You For Being Decent?

June 1, 2026

The rally against antisemitism in central London, May 10, 2026- Instagram

I’ve spoken to many people recently, both Jews and non-Jews, who are amazed by how quickly much of the world seems to be reverting to medieval style antisemitism. All while still finding the energy to innovate new forms of Jew hatred (you ‘d think that would be impossible at this point, after millennia of hating The Tribe).
From recently defeated¹ republican antisemite Thomas Massie, who cemented his stature as a solid competitor to people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens as a serious leader of right-Jew haters by commenting during his concession speech “I would’ve come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede. And it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv,” to democrat congressional candidate Maureen Galindo promising² to toss “Zionists” (meaning: Jews) into an internment camp (meaning: concentration camp), while stating said camp “will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” to a foiled terrorist attack³ on a “Jewish institution” in Los Angeles, to the usual, and fully imaginary, nonsense about “Nakba day,” led by the usual suspects⁴ (meaning: liars), and more! It has been quite another intense period of anti-Jewish activity.
And once again, I am barely scratching the surface. There were also anti-Jewish demonstrations in Flatbush, Brooklyn (where my father grew up). Far more than what any of us would have recognized in the past as a “peaceful” demonstration, these were violent and made the 1977 neo-Nazi march⁵ on Skokie, Illinois look, almost amateurish, and hazily old-timey.
There was an incident⁶ in which hundreds of Muslim men, also in Brooklyn, descended on Bnos Leah Prospect Park Yeshiva, a Jewish girls’ school, to “pray” right outside its walls. In the usual “yeah, right” moment – despite having over a hundred mosques in Brooklyn, these men claimed that they were “merely” the overflow crowd⁷ from a nearby facility.
   That also happened on the above mentioned “Nakba” day.
   During this same period there was a warning⁸ about the turn to antisemitism from film director Laszlo Nemes (director of the multiple award winning 2015 Auschwitz drama “Son Of Saul”) presenting his case, in part, by pointing out even he cannot get a U.S. distribution deal for his latest film. Given the level of respect for the filmmaker – it is strong evidence⁹ of a global shift in attitudes toward Jews.
   Meanwhile, as I have said so many times in the past – one of the constantly alarming (although, not even slightly unexpected) aspects of all of this is that most of the world, a la its usual custom, does zero, nothing, efes, to show any significant support for the Jews worldwide.
   Yet, occasionally, a celebrity non-Jew, politician, or social media type, will utter a few perfunctory words of support. Which is nice. Just: nice. It’s not ground-breaking, it’s not shocking, and it’s not something that should elicit any gratitude, much less massive expressions of gratitude, almost always in the form of “Thank you so much, celebrity X, for standing with the Jewish community!!!!!”
Hooray.
The first thing that always mystifies me about this behavior is that “celebrity X” is never going to see the plethora of comments on countless social posts like this. What also consistently mystifies is the fact that so many of us react to these small gestures by behaving as though (or forgetting) that none of us should be thanking other human beings for acting like decent human beings.
It’s bizarre, and forgive me, it telegraphs weakness. WHY do we feel compelled to effusively thank people for not wanting to murder, engage in violence, libels, lies, and every other negative activity against us which we see on a near daily basis at this point?
“Hey thanks Bob, for not being a Nazi. I really appreciate that. That really means a lot to me. I know that I can’t possibly make this up to you, but how about if I buy you dinner for saying that murdering me is no bueno?”
What the hell is that?
It is sad & ridiculous.
This entire concept has driven me CRAZY for years. I can’t conceive of thanking someone for doing nothing but talking, and even then just saying the things that we all used to take for granted as “de rigeur” for people living in a society.
If some lowlife tries to rob you at gunpoint, while a bunch of onlookers do nothing, but someone else comes along later and says “You know, that mugging was rough. That guy shouldn’t have done that, that was wrong – as a matter of fact, I condemn it.” Would you sit there vomiting gratitude, or would you look at this person thinking “Are you serious? Thanks pal for stating the obvious, but I was just mugged at gunpoint and I need to do whatever I have to so that it doesn’t happen again.”
We would not (at least most people would not) be saying “Thank you SO MUCH RANDOM GUY I DON’T KNOW. How can I possibly repay the immense awesomeness you showed me by acknowledging that being robbed at gunpoint is bad, and that it should never have happened in the first place?”
Of course, if someone actually risks their own well-being to intervene in a mugging – they do deserve some level of gratitude.
Not to pick on anyone, but I recently read an articletitled¹⁰ : “The most moving thing at the antisemitism rally? The non-Jews who came.”
The author seemed thrilled that people from “Iranian activists to churchgoers and feminists, thousands of non-Jewish allies joined Sunday’s event.” The event in question was one of the very few big rallies, anywhere, since October 7, 2023, in support of Jews and the Jewish community. The overt excitement about it is itself proof of the rarity of large public shows of support for the Jewish community.
The word “allies” has become associated with left-wing causes in an attempt to find commonality between groups that have none. So transgender people are supposed to be “allies” of one armed Muslim albinos because that is the way the woke left keeps it’s hordes believing that they are all unified in some grand, virtuous scheme to rid the world of homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, catophobia, myopiaophobia, and everything else that they can exploit as a cause to continue their war on normative Western society.
Included in that number were large numbers of left wing-Jews, many of whom, to their great credit have woken up to the fact that none of their feminist, BLM, gay, etc. allies were there for them from Oct. 8 onward, and in fact, regularly categorize “Zionists” as the main bogeyman for all of the ills and sins they imagine the West to be a bastion of.
But, I sincerely do not question that the author meant well. The article went on to talk about the attendees need for decency, and their horror in the aftermath of October 7, and, especially – the need to feel “safe.” I have no doubt that all of them are sincere and mean well.
There were Iranians, Christians, gays, and even something called “Feminists Against Antisemitism.”
Hakuna matata, baby.
The article just kind of fizzled out after paragraph after paragraph enthusiastically detailed the diversity credentials of the people present. Why “the most moving thing” at this rally was the attendees was never genuinely explained.
To be clear, demonstrations can be effective if they are held regularly and at the right time/place. But it is childish to believe that a single demonstration means anything. And it is FAR more childish to believe that the best part are the non-Jews in attendance because they meet the requirements of woke diversity mandates.
Non-Jews at pro-Jewish rallies are great. Jewish action and unity on display at any rally is better.
We all know why that sentiment is so common: fear. It is scary to think that we as Jews are, mostly, on our own in the fight against those who hate us. People want to believe that we “need” allies, particularly now, but the problem with that mentality is that we have never had large numbers of non-Jews as allies. Huge throngs of people never show up at the last minute to beat back the “bad guys.” So I don’t understand why we would think that this time is different. It is not. I had hoped that, in the aftermath of the Shoah, America (and possibly Britain), were different. They are not.
We have fought this fight before and, if we have to, will again. No matter what – we always win, we always survive, and we always thrive. So being scared to acknowledge that we are on our own is irrational.
Most importantly, we have what no other nation has – an unshakable connection to Hashem. That faith, and trust, creates an understanding that the most irrational aspect of antisemites is that they never understand that they always lose, and always will. One of the most rational aspects of the Jewish nation is the understanding that Hashem is always with us.
While trust needs to come first, history makes that fact clear. That knowledge is the real, primary, and last reason why, as Jews, we should never live in fear.
The correct attitude was displayed in a different article¹¹written almost at the same time. Ruthie Blum gets it right (again) when she expressed a similar attitude and asserted that “Bill Maher deserves praise, not gratitude, for telling the truth about Israel.” After Maher went on a long rampage defending Israel. Maher is a Jew obviously, but the sentiment is the same.
She writes that “Jews shouldn’t need to treat intellectual honesty as heroism. Nor does it behoove us to grab any morsel of sympathy with the hunger of a hostage.”
I wish I had written that.
Blum also points out that “As worthy of praise as Maher might be for his wise and witty words, however, something is disturbing about the elation they elicited. It’s one thing to give credit to those brave enough to tell the truth about Israel and antisemitism. It’s quite another to be grateful for it.”
Exactly.
Never be afraid. Never give up.
Am Yisrael Chai.