JERUSALEM, Israel – Political leaders, commentators, and global experts gathered last week for a conference seeking to stem the tide of hatred against Jews.
Sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, the gathering was the second annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism. Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli sounded a clarion call.
He declared, “This conference seeks to banish political correctness, to call a child by its true name, and to mobilize all essential forces in the ideological and physical fight against the modern heirs of the Nazis, who are now committing horrific massacres against Kurdish minority in Rojava, Syria, against innocent civilians in Iran, and against Jews and Christians across the globe.
Chikli added, “This is not merely the fight of the Jewish people. It is the fight of the free world against the imperialism and tyranny, the tyranny of fanatic Islamism against mass slaughter and rape, against horrifying barbarism and its attempt to buy off influence and decision makers worldwide. We will not be silenced in the face of these atrocities, and we will not allow Islam or Nazism to achieve its goal. Never again must it be more than words, and let it be all action and let it be now.”
Two of the speakers addressed the worst anti-Semitic attack since October 7th, 2023, the attack on a Jewish celebration of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, last December.
Chabad Rabbi Yehoram Ulman of Bondi told the conference, “I stand here as a man who has buried loved ones. For us, antisemitism is not a theory. It is not a policy debate. It is not a headline. It is an empty seat at the Shabbat table. It is a voice that will never be heard again.”
The rabbi added a personal reflection, saying, “The attack in Bondi took my beloved son-in-law. He took members of our community, good people who contributed so much to the community: parents of young children, spouses, a ten-year-old child; Jews who lived with dignity and love for humanity. So when we speak today about antisemitism, we have to understand that to us, it is not academic. It is painfully, unavoidably real.”
Scott Morrison, former Australian prime minister, followed Rabbi Ulman’s remarks, stating, “The place to which Jewish people once fled has become a place many Jewish Australians now fear. This is a desecration. We are a broken-hearted nation. But for our Jewish community, we are a nation that has broken its promise to them, a promise of safety and freedom from persecution and fear.”
Morrison added, “The late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks warned that when antisemitism becomes violent, it represents the first and clearest sign of a civilized civilization in crisis, and that the hate that begins with the Jews does not end with the Jews.”
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Filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza brought a spiritual perspective.
“One of the things I’d like to focus on is an understanding of antisemitism that roots it in the cosmic battle between God and the devil, between good and evil,” D’Souza explained. “I think that the secular understanding of antisemitism, which is rooted in things, like envy toward the Jews, as a very successful group that gives a partial explanation for antisemitism, but I think very inadequate. You need to add the spiritual dimension to get a fuller understanding of the depth of evil that we’re dealing with.”
