Andros
Kraken
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2020
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I am a proud Jew. I wear a chai necklace outside my shirt and a bracelet with a prominent Magen David on my wrist. A sticker of an Israeli flag decorates my backpack, and my luggage tags display my business card with the Jewish Community Center logo.
So it was with sadness and a bit of shame that I found myself covering up my Jewishness at certain points this summer as I traveled through Europe. I didn’t do so out of lack of pride, but out of concern for my safety and the safety of those traveling with me.
We spent three weeks traveling through Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and England. It was an awesome trip full of warm and friendly locals and rich, interesting history. Each of the places we visited hosts a proud Jewish community, though many members are feeling under siege right now.
In Copenhagen, Palestinian flags hung in many windows, and anti-Israel graffiti was all over the public parks. In Stockholm, the Israeli Embassy bowed out of this year’s Pride parade due to safety concerns. In Edinburgh, “Free Palestine” was scrawled on many of the Fringe Festival posters, especially when the artist had a Jewish-sounding name.
In Oslo, an anti-Israel rally took place right outside the Nobel Peace Center museum, where anti-Israel books filled the bookstore. Indeed, they prominently displayed a manuscript written by Gandhi in 1938 in which he advised Jews to only engage in unarmed resistance, confidently predicting that through “… non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope.”
After the scale of Nazi brutality became fully known to the world, Gandhi’s views were heavily criticized for their naivete and insensitivity. But at the Nobel museum, his catastrophic misreading of reality is being promoted today.
So it was with sadness and a bit of shame that I found myself covering up my Jewishness at certain points this summer as I traveled through Europe. I didn’t do so out of lack of pride, but out of concern for my safety and the safety of those traveling with me.
We spent three weeks traveling through Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and England. It was an awesome trip full of warm and friendly locals and rich, interesting history. Each of the places we visited hosts a proud Jewish community, though many members are feeling under siege right now.
In Copenhagen, Palestinian flags hung in many windows, and anti-Israel graffiti was all over the public parks. In Stockholm, the Israeli Embassy bowed out of this year’s Pride parade due to safety concerns. In Edinburgh, “Free Palestine” was scrawled on many of the Fringe Festival posters, especially when the artist had a Jewish-sounding name.
In Oslo, an anti-Israel rally took place right outside the Nobel Peace Center museum, where anti-Israel books filled the bookstore. Indeed, they prominently displayed a manuscript written by Gandhi in 1938 in which he advised Jews to only engage in unarmed resistance, confidently predicting that through “… non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope.”
After the scale of Nazi brutality became fully known to the world, Gandhi’s views were heavily criticized for their naivete and insensitivity. But at the Nobel museum, his catastrophic misreading of reality is being promoted today.
