Hanukkah and the silence of neighbors

From the beginning of our history as Jews, people have wanted to kill us. This happens so often, we create holidays to celebrate the times nations tried and failed. At Passover, we celebrate Egypt’s failure by drinking four glasses of wine and finding creative uses for unleavened bread. At Purim, we were so happy at Esther pwning Haman, we’re encouraged to get drunk. Hanukkah is another one of those holidays we celebrate our survival with donuts, lights, and spinning tops.

The Shoah is another story of Jewish survival in the face of brutality, but we will never celebrate it with food and drink. The deaths were too numerous, and the suffering was too great. But the most painful part of the Holocaust wasn’t the brutality of the Nazis. It was the silence of our neighbors.

It is a silence we’re hearing again.

Where was the outrage from the former president’s party when he had dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes? Or when Marjorie Taylor Greene talked about “Jewish Space Lasers”? Why do so many sit silently or nod their heads in agreement to hoary, shop-worn canards about globalism, secret cabals, and adrenochrome, which has become the modern-day blood libel? Have they forgotten what President Reagan said?

And let me add, in the party of Lincoln, there is no room for intolerance, and not even a small corner for…