10/7 to 10/27
Terrorists to my left, Neo-Nazis to my right, here I am: stuck in the middle with Jews.

We’ve reached the end of another October, which means that here in Squirrel Hill, our Jewish community is experiencing a unique nexus of mourning, faced with the surreality of both the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the United States.
It’s poignant that these two events connect in time, as they bridge two distinct realities of Jew-hatred in the world. The attack on the Squirrel Hill congregations encapsulates the traditional antisemitism of the conservative right: white nationalism, “great replacement theory,” Holocaust denial and/or disdain that Hitler didn’t finish the job. One might even say that it exhibited the “right” kind of antisemitism, as in the type that’s generally agreed upon by modern society as unacceptable, and the kind that is acceptable to publicly denounce.
The massacre in Israel, in contrast, exposed the “wrong” kind of antisemitism, the kind that we were never allowed to acknowledge: the deeply ingrained Jew-hatred of the far left.
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The irony is that both bigotries operate from the same root: a desire to dehumanize Jews, with the goal of then laying rational framework for extermination. Society doesn’t dismiss these threats as frivolous when they come from the antisemitic right. When Neo-Nazis say they want Jews dead, we take them at their word. It’s an agreed-upon truth that such groups should be reviled for their Jew-hatred, which fortunately isn’t up for discussion in civilized society. However, a disturbing pattern has emerged within said “civilized society,” where those who are able to condemn the evil in such men’s calls will, in the very same breath, condone identical calls from their parallels across the political spectrum. As a result, we had the unbelievable insult of those who easily condemned the 10/27 murders later glorifying 10/7’s own only five years later.
So the questions remain: Why is one hate recognized, while the other is unable to be addressed? One black and white, but the other gray? One simple fact, yet the other requires “context?”
How can Holocaust revisionism remain unacceptable, yet Holocaust inversion be heralded as trendy truth? Why is it morally appropriate to decry supporters of Nazism, but inappropriate with supporters of terrorism? What is the difference between praising Hitler’s genocide of Jews and Hamas’ attempt? Does anyone think that there is legitimate disparity between calling for Jewish slaughter because of white nationalism versus Islamic fundamentalism? If not, why treat the crystal clear “intifada” any differently than “gas the Jews?”
Perhaps the most critical dilemma: Why does so much of the world have such excruciating difficulty in calling out what is demonstrated time and time again — that the left is more than capable of its own brand of bigotry?
Even more importantly, why is it so utterly essential to hide it?
To answer these questions, one must address what the far left simply refuses to, and what makes its antisemitism so much more insidious than that of the far right: its fundamental nature of concealment and manipulation. As with all bugs (or features?) of the far left, no member is allowed to expose and discuss them, lest one be expelled from good liberal graces and labeled an intolerant conservative. This is standard procedure for leftist rot of misogyny, racism, and clearly antisemitism.
Though the far right is more than content to proclaim its Jew hate proudly and loudly, the left’s movement relies on concealment of both reality and agenda in order to successfully manipulate its audience. Jews are relabeled as Zionists and antisemitism is repackaged as anti-Zionism for more easily accepted slander. Others’ crimes against Jews are projected back onto us, and we are blamed for fighting back against others’ attempts at our very extermination.
But concealment also makes it easier for a strain of antisemitism to survive across nations and for generations. Anything obviously in the open, like the far right’s stark method, can be addressed and is more likely to be squashed. Contrarily, a concealed problem cannot be addressed and therefore never solved. And so keeping antisemitism hidden in the sewers of the far left has allowed it to not only continue, but grow, evolve and fester under society’s ignorant surface, waiting for the time when it could proudly rear its toxic head, in public, en masse. That culmination is what is playing out around the Western world today.
Setting an empathy trap by disguising bigotry as a movement for social justice aids in promoting popularity among masses and ensures longevity. Doing so also hides inherent flaws of the left within faux goodwill and humanity. It provides the gift of espousing all desired hate under the security blanket of the “right side of history” and the guarantee of social immunity from criticism of moral failing. Because let’s be honest: The ideological far left doesn’t actually want safe spaces from intolerance; it simply wants a safe space to practice its own brands of it.
This all helps to hide other unsavory realities, starting with the truth that for the liberal hypocrites calling out the antisemitism of conservative offenders, like 10/27, it is less of a condemnation of the actual hate as it is simply a condemnation of the perpetrator — that is, less of a problem with those being victimized as with the ideological enemy doing the victimizing. Combined with the fact that so many are desperate to fill an internal emptiness with something that promises to supply much desired purpose, and the appeal of an outlet for both worldly and personal loathing, this movement might come a little too close to having to admit the following: that they might have more in common than stomachable with the Nazis they base their entire identities around despising. For those who actually have the global and self-awareness to reach this realization, that’s something that must never be acknowledged.
All of these predispositions to antisemitism and bigotry at large must be denied and hidden at all costs, as their mere existence is a liability to the far left. To have such faults be publicly exposed would not only tear apart the strived-for reputation of a timeless beacon of benevolence, but it would fatally tarnish its credibility in agenda. For its dedicated followers, to admit a fall of liberalism would risk shattering the crucial identity of always being safely on the right side of everything. And for Western society, such a dark acknowledgement would be a crashing down of a much needed worldview that uplifts a pure ideological ideal and hides the fact that it is possible for moral rot to infect supposed progressiveness as well.
But this ideal has already come crashing down, whether others choose to acknowledge it or not. The simple existence of acceptable antisemitism is an inarguable symptom of decline. Just as the individual antisemite is always concealing an internal void, a society’s infection of antisemitism always reveals a rotting hole of moral and ethical failure, no matter its political roots. The West should be more concerned about genuinely addressing these fatal flaws than continuing to bury them, and at a certain point, will be forced to take accountability for such tolerance of preferred intolerance.
This has no doubt been an extremely uncomfortable realization for many after last October, but it’s an ever-growing sinister truth that needs to be faced, with finality. While it may be impossible to eradicate antisemitism, it’s essential to ensure all varieties are exposed as equally egregious, with no type given the benefit of silence. Choosing to ignore the discomfort of such knowledge leads only in one direction, which we all witnessed this past year.
The lights are all on, and the cat is out of the bag. There can be no more pretense that Jew-hatred is only a product of a single side while anniversaries are forced on us to remember the hate of both. Jews simply no longer have the luxury of friends only calling out bigotry from comfortable avenues. And in the decaying state of this world, neither should anyone else.
For those who place any value in consciousness, facts and humanity, and not just when it applies to one side of the aisle, it’s past time to begin denouncing hate that stems from any side, any party, any ideology, and not simply from that which one already comfortably opposes.
And for those who have any true concern for the safety and well-being of Jews and society as a whole, confronting and exposing this long concealed reality is the only way to ensure that everything which caused the world to say “never again” truly never happens ever again. PJC
Sarah Kendis is a musician living in Pittsburgh.
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