News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Pride And Anxiety: 23 American Jews on choosing to wear their Jewishness

American Jews talk about wearing their Jewishness, as a response to rising anti-Semitism.

I normally wouldn’t post something form the Forward. Honestly, I believe that they are usually more a part of the problem than the solution. This article really resonated with me though. I asked my parents for my first “Chai” when I was about 12. Then I asked for a Magen David. The reason was that the chain on the Chai was too long and people couldn’t see it. Older people warned me, a kid, not to wear it because they came from the generation that was taught that your Jewishness was “private.” Except my dad, a WWII vet, a guy who grew up dirt poor during the depression, in Brooklyn- ALWAYS sore his Chai, every day of his life, and never cared who saw it. My family was also very close to two Survivors who lost everything in the Shoah. They had numbers tattooed on their arms. They had no choice in whether they had to “wear” their Jewishness.

That was almost 40 years ago. A few years ago, I bought a hipper looking Magen David. It mostly sat in a drawer. Lately I’ve been wearing it, very visibly, more. A lot more. I have NEVER shied away from expressing my Jewishness in many ways over the years. That includes walking through the streets of Paris with a kippah on after I was warned not to. If people don’t like it: TOO BAD. I’ve been called a “heeb,” a “kike,” an “f’ing Jew,” and more and have been in several “unpleasant” situations. I don’t care. Am Yisrael Chai baby. Being scared and appeasing them NEVER has worked, won’t work now, and will never work. Be Jewish, be proud, never ever be afraid, be brave, trust in Hashem, and never, ever, no matter what, hide who we are.