A Jewish man who was outside his apartment building in New York City having a cigarette on the first night of Hanukkah says he was sucker punched, leaving him bruised and bloody.
Joshua Merenfeld said he was attacked from behind, with the person yelling antisemitic slurs at him while clubbing and kicking him.
“He sucker punched me, pushed me over, assaulted me,” Merenfeld told WNYW.
Nobody is trying to justify that.
I just don’t like it when people say “it’s not our war”. People say the same thing on social media on posts about the protests for a ceasefire. As long as the US is funding Israel, it is our war.
When I say “it’s not their war” I mean that American Jews are not Israelis and American Muslims are not members of Hamas. Or even necessarily Palestinians. And as a member of one of those groups, I’d like to speak on behalf of both and say we’re really fucking tired of being treated as if we’re foreigners.
It’s very easy for people to conflate Jewish people with Israelis, for obvious, if incorrect, reasons.
It took us almost 2 damn decades to not associate Muslims with terrorists, and all that work went out with the wash water as well.😞
I apologize for how some of us are treating y’all.
People like to forget about the crusades.
Even if you do support Israel, that should be what people are judging you for, not just being Jewish or Muslim.
That is hateful bullshit and should not be tolerated.
Thank you, well said. And, sadly, there are still plenty of people who see a Muslim person walking down the street and view them with instant suspicion.
Unfortunately, being told to “go home” because you’re a foreigner is an integral part of the American experience. It’s happened to literally every group that’s come over for hundreds of years.