How to Act in a World Hostile to Jews
Recalibrating the way we think about our surroundings
It used to be hard to imagine what it was like to be a Jew in Russia in the nineteenth century or in Poland in the 1930’s. Most of us don’t know much about day to day life as a Jew in Syria or Yemen or Iraq, back when there were large numbers of Jews living in those places. The experience of living in Canada and the United States has left a lot of us complacent about our status as equal citizens in these places. It’s a sense that led many of us to set our Jewish identity aside to some extent and to sign up for other causes, whether it be women’s rights, world peace, or saving the environment.
Image: Poster for “A Forgotten Exodus” by Marcel Prins
On Saturday night we attended a movie called “A Forgotten Exodus” a film by Marcel Prins. The film was screened at our synagogue as part of a series curated by our friend and Canadian Zionist Forum contributor, Fred Litwin. “A Forgotten Exodus” contains interviews with eight people who were born in Arab countries. Each of them recounts the harrowing circumstances that led to their departure from the country of their birth, along with the rest of the Jewish community. Interviewees were from Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, and Syria. The common theme of their stories is that Jews lived with a perpetual sense of insecurity, knowing every day that they were at risk of violence or abuse. While that was the normal condition of life, conditions grew much worse in each place, leading to an exodus of Jews from countries where they and their ancestors had lived for hundreds or thousands of years. We highly recommend taking the time to watch this film if you have the opportunity.
The normalized sense of insecurity described by the people in the film, would have been hard to imagine a year ago, but it is much easier to understand it now. Whether on the nightly news or on line, every day brings a reminder that the sense of belonging we have felt all our lives in the countries of our birth can no longer be taken for granted. Whether it is the “Free Gaza” graffiti adorning a building we walked past today, or the steady drumbeat of apologetics for terrorism on television or on line, the message that Jewish lives don’t matter seems to bombard us wherever we turn.
Reacting to this has become a challenge. The sense of outrage we feel at each new insult starts to become a kind of numbness when the same thing occurs day after day. It’s easy to become disheartened or demoralized, and that is no doubt what our enemies want us to feel. But instead we find ourselves developing a harder crust and approaching the world we inhabit with a sense of wariness and a readiness to confront hostility. It occurs to us that this is the way the world felt to our ancestors in Eastern Europe and to the Jews who lived in Arab lands. As we carry on with our lives we recall that for many generations, our ancestors had to put up with similar conditions.
Ceasefires Holding
To our great joy, four women were released from captivity by Hamas on January 25. They were all soldiers, captured from the base at Nir Oz where many other unarmed women soldiers were massacred on October 7. While Hamas released the four women, they violated the terms of the ceasefire by not releasing Arbel Yehud, a civilian, before releasing the soldiers. As a result of this violation Israel delayed opening the roads to northern Gaza to allow civilians to return to the northern part of the strip.
Image: Israeli female soldier hostages Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev and Liri Albag paraded by their captors in front of a crowd in Gaza City prior to their release, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar) —————-Source: Times of Israel
While it seemed for a while that the ceasefire was crumbling, the happy outcome of this dispute was that Hamas agreed that they will release Arbel Yahud on Thursday, along with two additional hostages. As a result, the number of people scheduled for release by next Saturday, February first, is now twelve, rather than the ten originally agreed to when the ceasefire began. Israel opened the roads to northern Gaza Tuesday morning and Hamas released the list of phase I hostages who are living and those who are dead. To our sorrow, eight of the hostages were reported to be dead, meaning that a total of 25 will be returned alive, and the bodies of eight more will be returned for burial, if the first phase of the ceasefire holds for the full six weeks.
In Lebanon, Israel secured an extension of the deadline to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon from January 27 to February 18. On January 27, Times of Israel published this report claiming that members of the Lebanese army are collaborating with Hezbollah, which is undermining implementation of the ceasefire agreement, and reducing our already limited confidence that the Lebanese army is willing or able to fulfill its part of the bargain.
While Israel and Lebanon agreed on the extension, Hezbollah called on civilians to return to their villages in southern Lebanon. Israel warned them not to do so. Walid Jumblatt, the veteran leader of the Druze in Lebanon said publicly that Hezbollah should turn its attention to politics. The new Syrian regime claimed to have turned back attempts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. Israel continued to discover violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah.
Other News
In Syria, Israel announced its intention to remain indefinitely in the former demilitarized zone, including the summit of Mount Hermon, which gives them broad visibility over the surrounding territory. They also said that they would promote good relations with friendly communities in the area, particularly the Syrian Druze, who are closely related to Israeli Druze living in the Golan.
President Trump was touting a proposal to relocate people from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, prompting rejection of the idea from the respective governments. The people moving into northern Gaza were reportedly being screened by a force consisting of Egyptian and American contractors, as per the ceasefire agreement. The aim of the screening was to keep heavy weapons out of northern Gaza, although armed Hamas troops were observed moving north with the civilian population.
We look forward to the promised release of six more hostages in the next five days. As of today, Hamas is holding 90 hostages which is an ongoing war crime.
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Russia had been violently antisemitic always. I do remember when, at the end of war, a room in our two bedroom apartment, the remnant of a large home divided into two apartments during the war, was requisitioned by the occupying Russian army. By comparison with others we were lucky: we got a lovely couple with a 6 months old infant girl. The husband was the phys ed master of the regiment and the wife the head nurse. His name was Yeffim but everybody called him Fima. He told my mother that he was Jewish and then put his index on his mouth and said: Shhhh, do nor repeat this. And in more recent years a friend who is an MD told me that the only reason she managed to get into medical school is because her mother was able to obtain papers for her that she was not Jewish.... No more said... There is nothing new under the Sun when it comes to antisemitism...
I haven't watched the documentary that you mentioned concerning Jews from Arab lands. I watched a different one recently, "Forgotten Expulsion: Jews From Arab Lands" directed by Martin Himel. It was a learning experience in its own right. But yes, unfortunately we can now empathize with the insecurity and fear that they felt due to, as you put it, "knowing every day that they were at risk of violence or abuse. Solidarity with other Jews is reassuring but doesn't serve as protection. Thank you again for providing clear up-to-date info on the Middle East.