October 12, 2024 - Day 403 - Would You Hide A Jew?

Thursday night there was a pogrom in Amsterdam. A group of coordinated Uber drivers decided to hunt Israeli football (soccer) fans after the game ended. The visiting Israelis were tracked and hunted on the streets of Amsterdam. They were beaten up, jumped into freezing canals to escape, forced to deny their Judaism or say "Free Palestine". 

Read that again. A coordinated group of Uber drivers tracked and hunted Jews on the streets of Amsterdam... In the year 2024! 

A few stories have emerged from the chaos of last Thursday. 

1. Melhem Asad, from Kasra-Samia in northern Israel, had traveled with friends from Madrid to Amsterdam to attend the Maccabi Tel Aviv match and support the Israeli team. Melham is an Israeli Druze-Arab and when he realized that Israeli Jews were being hunted on the streets he went to go save Jews. Melham saved countless lives that night by running all over Amsterdam, warning groups of Israelis to take off any identifying markers. He would also speak loudly in Arabic to deter the attackers or send them in the wrong direction. Melham worked all night helping his Israeli-Jewish brothers survive. His smart thinking and quick actions saved countless Israelis that night. Melham Asad is a true Israeli hero.

2. I heard a story last night that chilled me to by core. As Israeli Jews were trying to escape the violence of Thursday's pogrom, the Anne Frank house of Amsterdam was opened as a sanctuary safe place. Read that again. Jews had to hide in Anne Frank's house, the one she herself had to hide in, after being hunted on the streets of Amsterdam. I'm horrified. I get that the house is a museum now with full security. I get that Israeli had been tracked and some couldn't go back to their hotels. So a group of Israeli Jews had to hide in Anne Frank's house. I can't believe I just wrote that. Anne Frank's house. 

In the following days the antisemitic attacks on Jews across Europe and North America have exploded in volume, intensity, and frequency. It's been 86 years since Kristalnacht, the catalist that launched the deportation of Jews to ghettos and eventually to be murdered in concentration camps. The Holocaust had officially begun, the final solution. Jews in Europe had to hide from being beaten in the streets. 

At the beginning of this war, in late October 2023 I made my first video about what was happening with the rise of antisemitism globally...and I asked the following question at the end, "Would you hide me? My family?" Over a year later and the hatred and antisemitism has gotten much worse. People are making that actual decision in many places around the world. Would they hide a Jew?

That, my friends, is the question of the hour. If violence keeps rising across Europe and north America, there will be more attacks and pogroms. What will you do when the intifada comes to your door? Will you hide a Jew? Hide that Jew and their family and think of me and my family and how you would help us if you could. The evidence shows over and over again that the violence is rising and spreading like a cancer. I unfortunately predict that it will reach the farthest corners of the Earth before it's stopped. The actual hiding of Jews may be in your future. A real decision of consider. A real risk and a real stance for humanity may be on the docket much sooner than you expected. 

We're in it. These are mimicking the triggers that led millions of Jews, gays, handicapped persons, Gypsies, and more to their deaths. 

Again it all comes down to one question... Would you hide me?