Mechayeh is the Yiddish word one uses to express relief. This is how the US deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism Aaron Keyak describes the State of Israel. The 38-year-old diplomat, who wears a knitted kippah, is rather fluent in Hebrew and is married to Avigail – an Israeli-American whose family has lived in Jerusalem for many generations. Kayak has served in a multitude of positions in the Jewish–Democratic world, with the most recent one being the Director of Jewish Engagement for Joe Biden's presidential campaign in 2020.
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In late 2021, when Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt was appointed as the administration's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, he was tapped as her deputy. In an interview with Israel Hayom this week ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Keyak calls antisemitism "the world's oldest hatred." He adds, "Whether or not there's a rise or fall in antisemitic attacks, and in any given moment, beneath the surface, antisemitism simmers. And it's always there."
Keyak has made it a habit of his to celebrate Passover in Israel every year, and our conversation takes place just toward the end of the holiday. As we discuss, the funeral for Lucy Dee – who was murdered along with her two daughters in the Jordan Valley – is held. Kayak shares with me his disgust with the brutal attack.
"When you talk about a terrorist, gunning down a mother and her two daughters execution style just while they're trying to drive home, it's, it's horrific. It's inexcusable. The United States stands in mourning with the Israeli people, and especially that family when it comes to such horrendous terrorist attacks. And there's no excuse no justification whatsoever. We could have a conversation about military engagement and conflicts that erupt but this is just horrific. It's unimaginable. It's every father's worst nightmare. Of course, it's antisemitic when terrorists target a car that they believe to have Jewish drivers or Jewish passengers and gun them down. Again, execution style. There's also just a fundamental lack of humanity...it's just the worst of humanity."
Q: The attack didn't just happen out of thin air. There is incitement in Palestinian Authority textbooks and there is the pay-for-slay stipends to terrorists and their families. Is the PA an antisemitic entity?
"When we talk about antisemitism, we talked about antisemitic acts and antisemitic rhetoric, going up to a car that you believe to have Jewish passengers in and executing them in cold blood is antisemitic. So we talked about certain actions. Holocaust denial and distortion are antisemitic. Also, for example, Holocaust denials. We called out PA President Mahmoud Abbas when he talked about 50 holocausts [Israel supposedly carried out against Palestinians]. We're concentrated on ensuring that governments, wherever they are, understand what antisemitism is, we're not cardiologists, we don't look in people's hearts, to see what they believe; that's between them and their god or their cardiologists, but we speak out on action. We talked with a wide variety of folks, including UNRWA about textbooks and antisemitic texts in the textbooks. When you're teaching math, and you talk about teaching arithmetic with Jews as dogs, that's clearly antisemitic. There's a lot of antisemitic texts throughout the region, in textbooks, and that's something we've been we've been working on, and we've made some progress in some countries. There's this powerful organization IMPACT–se. We work closely with them on identifying antisemitism in textbooks throughout the region. And we do raise it in our bilateral conversations with all the countries that have those texts."
Keyak concedes that when it comes to antisemitism, things have worsened in the US.
"As you probably know, our office was founded – or actually was created by Congress in 2004 – with an explicit international mission. So when our office was created, it was created to look at antisemitism abroad. Of course, there was antisemitism in the United States and so forth, but it's not at the level that it is today. So our mandate and the funding that was appropriated are to look outward at antisemitism elsewhere. Unfortunately, the line between international domestic antisemitism is continuously blurred, especially when it comes for example, to online antisemitism…President Biden announced an interagency process on antisemitism in December." According to Keyak, this was the first time such a presidential directive has been issued in the US.
Q: Have you also felt the rise in antisemitism?
"I've already said in interviews over the past few years, that it's the first time in my life that I feel at times unsafe as a Jew in America. I think I've started saying that four or five years ago. And that doesn't go away. Jews are being attacked daily on the streets of Brooklyn just for being or just for appearing to be Jewish, just for being Jewish. And when I take my daughter to shul the first thing we do after I sit down and before I put on my tallit is scope out the exits in case the worst were to happen. It's just something that is now ingrained in the daily life of Jews throughout America and throughout the world as well. Antisemitism unfortunately is on the rise throughout the world. And America is not immune to that. But we live in a time where there's an office like ours, with someone of the stature of Ambassador Lipstadt, we have a Secretary Antony Blinken who has a personal history with this issue and takes it seriously and has spoken passionately about it."
Q: Many US Jews have been buying apartments here in Jerusalem just in case. Have you considered doing the same?
"The short answer is no. But I am not naive to the history of antisemitism that Jews in any country may have to leave at a moment's notice. Just looking back at the most recent, most horrific form of antisemitism – the Holocaust –sometimes you can forget how comfortable German Jews were in the 1920s and 30s.
"Germany was a leading country on medicine, on engineering, and the arts. I bet most Jews in Germany in the 1920s could never have envisioned what happened just 10 years 10 or 15 years later. So while it's the first time I've ever felt unsafe in America, I still feel safe. But the Jewish community, Jews throughout the world and throughout history have to be eternally vigilant.
Q: It looks like you are drawing comparisons between Germany 100 years ago and what is happening in the US today.
"No, no…I'm not making a comparison between the two. The fact is that there are plenty of examples throughout history where the Jewish community is flourishing in a given country, we see it in the story of Pesach: Jews were flourishing and we had Jews at the highest levels of power and Jews felt safe. But then there came a Pharaoh that did not know the Jews. And so there always has to be this understanding of history and that antisemitism will continue but we must remain steadfast in the fight against it. Because we know those who hate us or aren't gonna give up."
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