AVRUM'S BLOG is hosted and authored by me, Avrum Rosensweig, the founder and president of Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian & Relief Committee. I am also a writer, artist and a father.
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B'shalom, Avrum (avrum@veahavta.org) 
Pesach/Passover is upon us. Happy Pesach. Be free.
Over the last two years, I have called for a community mobilization plan that would include every Jew, and many non-Jews, in a movement to strengthen the Jewish position in the world and fight anti-Semitism.
This entity needs to be both institutional and grassroots in nature, involving major Jewish organizations and smaller less-funded NGOs.
My idea is to create a local (and ultimately a worldwide entity) plan that would oversee a strategy to fight anti-Semitism, and would increase positive and purposeful interaction between Jews, Muslims, Christians and all peoples.
This second piece is of utmost importance as it highlights the core of undercutting Jew hating in our world. I believe very strongly many non-Jews appreciate what Judaism is all about – a peaceful intelligence with a focus on civility, Godliness and activism. Good organizations in town involved in educating non-Jews about our people, will tell you that given the chance many gentiles will break bread with us as they are curious about our ways, Torah and our preponderance for learning. This would marginalize the card-carrying anti-Semites.
Is this always the case? No. But for those who subscribe to the rabbinic belief that, Esau hates Yaakov – that anti-Semitism will always exist and cannot be modified or adjusted, I think the reality is otherwise. To encourage this point, read Rescue in Denmark by Harold Flender, a book about the population of Denmark’s spontaneous organization into a resistance group that rescued almost all of that country’s Jewish community. Non-Jews will fight for us especially if we encourage their friendship.
I have received e-mails from people who have read my articles on this idea. The messages varied from: doesn’t this already exist (There is no overall plan to involve every Jew) to how do I get involved. Israeli Ami Isseroff wrote me saying Aliyah is the answer but “we cannot walk the little old lady across the street if she does not want to go.”
Some Rabbis have met with their members about such a plan. This is positive.
I have also heard from organizations involved in fighting anti-Semitism, some of whom insisted I was undermining their activities. One Jewish community worker told me I was denigrating his organization. Nonsense.
You are doing good work but defending the Jewish people cannot be in the hands of a few Jewish community professionals, the government of Israel and IDF. It must be spread around as numbers are required to make massive ‘on the ground’ change, over time, and so you and I can breathe a breath of control into our future. We are a small malleable people and therefore can organize affectively.
We are the Jewish people. We have survived for thousands of years because of our unbridled independence, our refusal to lie down, our de-centralized communities and because of a promise from God.
Along the road, however, we have lost many of our members because of anti-Semitism. It is our obligation to do what ever we can, in their memory and for the sake of our Jewishness, to slow down the ‘oldest hatred’ and maybe even stop it.
Pesach is a holiday when we remember our slavery, and celebrate our freedom. Anti-Semitism attempts to enslave us. Fighting it, with everything we got, is pursuing freedom. Let’s be free. We are all hungry for this, so we must all come and eat. Chag Samayach. Happy Pesach.
Please tell me your thoughts on this idea. Thanks.
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