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The Secret to Crushing Antisemitism

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The Secret to Crushing Antisemitism

To battle evil, we first must understand its source, and then tread carefully so we are not sucked into the vortex of hate.
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Antisemitism
One of America’s premier Jewish scholars in Torah and Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson is one of the most sought after speakers in the Jewish world today, lecturing to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on six continents, and serving as teacher and mentor to thousands across the globe. Rabbi Jacobson founded and serves as dean of www.TheYeshiva.net, teaching, via the web, one of the largest Torah classes in the world today, with thousands of students globally. Over the last 20 years, Rabbi Jacobson traveled to hundreds of communities, schools, and universities across the globe, educating and inspiring people of all backgrounds with the relevance and depth of Torah and Judaism. You can email him at: [email protected].
Chana Weisberg is host of the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories podcast and curator of advanced learning experiences on Chabad.org. She lectures internationally on issues relating to women, relationships, meaning, self-esteem and the Jewish soul. She is the author of six books. Her latest book, Shabbat Delights, is a two-volume series on the weekly Torah portion.
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Binyamin Aryeh July 25, 2025

My law school is highly anti-semitic. There are classes and other important events scheduled only on Shabbat. Jewish students are tempted to go frei in order to get into those classes. The school cafe serves Halal food but not kosher food. We close down every Friday in honor of the Muslim sabbath but (before I brought the ADL in) we had to take all of our midterms, finals, mandatory practice exams, etc. on Saturday mornings from 9-12. Tutoring was offered on Shabbat. Our Mock Trial Team tryouts were on the first night of Pesach from 7-9 PM.

I brought the ADL in and they were able to get the exams moved from Shabbat to a weekday, but we never got our kosher food. And all of our graduation ceremonies are still on Shabbat mornings.I was not even able to attend my own graduation, and my loved ones and friends were unable to be with me on my graduation day.

So my question is: how does one deal with such overt anti-Semitism, especially when most of the administrators are secular Jews? Reply

Eliezer Zalmanov for Chabad.org July 27, 2025
in response to Binyamin Aryeh:

This sounds like something local rabbis and community leaders need to get involved with. If your campus has a Chabad, that would be the obvious first address. If not, perhaps getting in touch with students at over schools who are dealing with similar issues can help come up with a solution. Reply

Binyamin Aryeh July 27, 2025
in response to Eliezer Zalmanov:

Thank you. The local Chabad will not get involved. The Reform and Conservative rabbonim will not even talk about this issue. The other local law school, about 30 minutes away on the highway, has a Hillel and so does not have this problem. Rather than help us, they say we should just get in the car and drive to them on Shabbat. The national Hillel will not provide a Hillel at our law school because the other law school Hillel is supposed to cover my school, too.

I feel so sad. I have been working with our deans for over five years trying to get this settled. I am very troubled that the Dean and most of the other associate deans who put all of this into play are secular Jews. They tell me that Jewish students who insist on keeping kosher and Shabbat are creating trouble for themselves; if we would only be good little secular Jews, we would not have any problems. Resisting a Gentile population is one thing; resisting the dominant secular Jewish population is something else. Reply

Lina Leykina Staten Island April 12, 2025

Dear Chana Weisberg,
Thank you for working on such a complex issue such as antisemitism. Antisemitism has been something I never learned how to handle despite growing up in the most antisemitic part of Ukraine. Rabbi Jacobson gave such a powerful, yet beautiful perspective on it. I wish I learned what he said 50 years ago. Reply

Jodi Nicastro Stony Brook March 24, 2025

Chana,

Thank you for bringing Rabbi Jacobson back for this most important topic especially today! Reply

Bracha Goetz Baltimore March 17, 2025

WONDERFUL!!!! Reply

Marcia Naomi Berger San Rafael March 7, 2025

Terrific interview with sterling insights from Rabbi YY Jacobson. I was impressed by his explanation about why we should remember Amelek, the holocaust, etc. We should not make that (antisemitism) the focal point of our Jewish identity, but a reminder to stand up for ourselves proudly as Jews who are here as G-d's emissaries and not appease or apologize to antisemites. Reply

RJ NY March 6, 2025

I have a question, how do you relate to haters on social media? I have been following Jewish content creators for many years and since October 7, I get verbally attacked in comments by “trolls”.- basically these are antisemites who look for Jewish content creators (like I just follow moms living the mom life) and then attack everyone in the comments. When I report these comments to Facebook or Instagram, they say it doesn’t go against their community standards! I stand up and fight back with facts, but it’s exhausting and so negative. Yet I find I can’t sit back and stay silent against such antisemitism. What advice do you have about this? Reply

Yehoshua March 4, 2025

The secret to this is Ahavat Chinam. Also If more people Converted to Juidaism. There would be no antisemitism. The custom to push away converts started because of the Romans. Ect.
Onkelos for example Converted all the soldiers who came to capture him. And they gave up!
Plus you have the Ten lost tribe, probably the Scandinavian’s. Ect.
Most people don’t want a Jewish lifestyle. But many actually do. Reply