It’s now socially acceptable to tell Jews how to think and feel about their own religion…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wish October 7th never happened.

Obviously, my main reason is had those massacres not occurred, the war in Gaza wouldn’t have happened (at least not currently). Thousands of people on both sides of the conflict would still be alive.

But there’s another, slightly more selfish, reason that I wish this war never started and why I pray it ends as soon as possible. It’s the troubling increase in antisemitism throughout the West, which appears to get worse each day that the war continues. I never in my lifetime imagined that it would get this bad.

One of the key features of this brand of antisemitic hate that we are currently seeing is the ease with which non-Jews now feel entitled to tell us how to think and feel not only about this conflict, but about ourselves. Such actions include the following:

• Demanding that we classify the IDF’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide” or a “holocaust,” without regard to what these terms actually mean.
• Telling us that if we do not vote a certain way, it goes against our best interests. This phenomenon has echoes of language used before the election leading to the Great Orange Upset of 2016, just not necessarily directed towards Jews. It carries the following connotation: you are too stupid to know what’s good for you — so we must tell you.
• Twisting around the…