Exactly six months ago I stood outside the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, not long after 11 Jews were killed in prayer.
In the past six months since, reality hasn't changed and as the latest attack on a Jewish synagogue in California last week proves that. Pogroms against Jews, physical violence, anti-Semitic cartoons and allegations of dual loyalty have been part and parcel of Jewish history for hundreds of years.
Now anti-Semitism is on the rise and is spreading like wildfire. When I was appointed as Israel's consul general in New York, I did not think that such a position would include walking on sidewalks that had been spray-painted with swastikas. I did not think this was possible in 2019.
We often think of the Holocaust as a unique event in history that happened in some parallel and extreme universe, or as the famous Holocaust survivor Ka-Tsetnik testified in Adolf Eichmann's trial: "It was a different planet."
But that belief is wrong. Anti-Semitism has never been eradicated but unlike the Jews in the 1930s, we have experience and we know how things can rapidly escalate. That is why our duty to fight anti-Semitism is now greater than ever.
Modern anti-Semitism has taken on new forms. It is not always in the form of outright hatred. It doesn't always make itself heard and often disguises itself as anti-Zionism or anti-Israel sentiments, which have become increasingly popular. But it is nevertheless as dangerous and we must stop it at all costs.
The perpetrators of the recent anti-Semitic attacks, just like the Nazis, could not care less whether their victims were secular, Orthodox, Conservative or Reform. Today, more than ever, we must stand together as we fight anti-Semitism.
Holocaust Remembrance Day should have us reflect on our history and learn the obvious lesson: malignant anti-Semitism must be crushed and eradicated at its infancy. We must double our unrelenting effort to battle the anti-Semitic beast as it rears its ugly head.
We must strengthen our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora and Israel is duty-bound to fight anti-Semitism, its causes and its destructive consequences. As citizens of Israel, we must think about how we can bolster the bond between Israel and Jews around the world and foster this alliance, especially in these tough times.
