We live in a time where unity is no longer a luxury — it’s a matter of survival. Opinion.
He wasn’t Jewish by halakha.
But he was Jew-ish.
And that was enough.
Enough to be hated.
Enough to be targeted.
Enough to be shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. — by a man screaming “Free Palestine” as he pulled the trigger.
Let that sink in.
The victim wasn’t an observant Jew. He wasn’t wearing a kippah or holding a flag. Maybe his mother wasn’t Jewish. Maybe his connection to Judaism was complicated. Maybe it was cultural, not halakhic. But that doesn’t matter to his murderer.
It never does.
To the antisemite, there are no shades of Jewish.
They don’t check your lineage. They don’t ask which parent is Jewish. They don’t care if you fasted on Yom Kippur or lit candles on Shabbat. They don’t ask if you agree with Israeli policy or if you’ve even stepped foot in a synagogue.
If your name sounds Jewish, if your face looks Jewish, if you post something vaguely supportive of Israel — you’re guilty.
And to those of you posting “#NotInMyName,” thinking that somehow your public disavowal of Israel will buy you safety or favor — understand this:
The shooter doesn’t stop to ask who you voted for.
He doesn’t check your Instagram for hashtags.
He doesn’t sort out the Zionists from the anti-Zionists, the religious from the secular, the converts from the critics.
He sees Jew-ish — and that’s enough.
Just like in Nazi Germany, it didn’t matter if you lit Shabbat candles or laughed at people who did.
It didn’t matter if you prayed in Hebrew or hadn’t stepped foot in a synagogue in your life.
If your grandfather was Jewish — you were marked.
And you were hunted.
That’s how antisemitism works. It doesn’t care about nuance. It doesn’t care about politics.
It just cares that you’re Jew-ish. And no amount of hashtags will change that.
So if you’ve ever thought:
“I’m not religious. This doesn’t affect me.”
Or, “Only my dad is Jewish — it’s not really my fight.”
Or even, “I’ve distanced myself from Israel, so I’ll be fine.”
Think again.
This is your fight. It’s our fight. Because the people who hate Jews don’t distinguish between denominations, DNA, or degrees of observance. They don’t hate you for what you do — they hate you for what you are.
And while that truth is terrifying, it also holds a strange kind of power.
Because if being Jew-ish is enough to be targeted, then maybe it should be enough to stand up.
Enough to speak out.
Enough to say: if you come for one of us, you come for all of us.
We live in a time where unity is no longer a luxury — it’s a matter of survival.
We don’t get to choose how the world sees us.
But we can choose how we see each other.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s where healing begins.
