Antisemitism crisis must be faced
Israeli journalist fears everyday discrimination even more than major incidents
Veteran Israeli journalist Elad Simchayoff says the Jewish world faces a watershed moment in dealing with rising hostility.
Simchayoff, who has been reporting from Europe on the recent violent antisemitic riots in Amsterdam, believes 7 October has transformed the relationship between diaspora and Israeli Jews.
“Up until October 7, we’ve seen acts of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israelism as something that always had an excuse,” he said at the Zionist Federation of Australia biennial in Melbourne earlier this year, where he was a featured speaker.
“It was easier for us to see it as something that was affected by an outside reason. It might be the government, it might be political landscape” Simchayoff said.
However, he argues that the response to Hamas’s attacks has stripped away these rationalisations.
“After our people were massacred, raped, injured, abducted, and still people were marching out in the streets calling for the destruction of Israel, calling for the genocide of Jews… it’s something that we cannot move forward from. This will leave a dent for many years to come,” Simchayoff said.
He is more concerned about the long-term impact of smaller, everyday incidents of discrimination than the large events that make the news.
“What troubles me is the more minor incidents,” he said, citing examples of Israelis being refused service at bars upon showing their ID, or taxi drivers ejecting Jewish passengers.
“Having to change our daily lives, having to change our routine, having to think twice whether we will speak in Hebrew… That is the thing that I think can really change the way that Jewish communities conduct their lives,” Simchayoff believes.
Reflecting on his experience of 7 October from London, the journalist described the surreal disconnect of watching the horror unfold while the city continued as normal.
“The dichotomy here was just mind blowing. It tore me up inside,” he said.
Yet despite the challenges, Simchayoff sees the potential for stronger Jewish unity emerging from the crisis.
“October 7 has given an opportunity to reshape, to reinvent the connection between Jewry in the diaspora and Israel,” he said, noting increased mutual understanding between Israeli and diaspora Jews.
“We’ve seen amazing initiatives from Jewish diaspora and Jewish communities sent to Israel… There’s some sort of blood connection that wasn’t there before, or at least was a little bit forgotten before October 7,” he said.
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