Targeting Jews

he brazen and horrifying attack last Thursday on Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky, a Chabad emissary serving in Boston, stands out amid the rising number of antisemitic incidents that are plaguing the United States.

Noginsky was sitting on the steps outside the Shaloh House, which was in use as a summer camp, when 24-yearold Khaled Awad allegedly approached him with gun in hand and demanded that Noginsky take him to his car. Noginsky began to run, but not before Awad stabbed him eight times.

Luckily, Noginsky survived the attack and is listed in stable condition and “in good spirits,” according to Rabbi Dan Rodkin, executive director of Shaloh House.

Noginsky’s brother, interviewed Sunday on KAN News, said it was clear that his brother would have been abducted and killed if he had entered the car.

The reaction to the attack, which the ADL said “sent a shock wave of fear and anxiety throughout the community,” was swift and unequivocal. Hundreds of people attended a unity rally in Boston on Friday morning.

“We have to recognize that antisemitism is on the rise, and we need to hold people accountable when they do this so that they are made an example of,” Boston District Attorney Rachael Rollins said at the vigil.

“I don’t think there’s a member of our Jewish community who did not hear about this stabbing and think to themselves, ‘Oh my God, it’s happened here in Boston,’” added Marc Baker, president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, who just returned at the week’s end from a solidarity trip to Miami to support the Jewish community there in the wake of the Surfside condominium collapse, continued the trend of Israel comforting the plight of Diaspora Jews. He called Noginsky and assured him that Israel is committed to fighting antisemitism around the world.

“When a Chabad emissary is stabbed outside a Chabad building, you don’t have to investigate too hard to identify that it is a clear case of Jew-hatred,” Shai said.

Last week, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) called on the new Israeli government to establish a task force to combat antisemitism.

In its annual assessment of the Jewish world to Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday, the JPPI noted the dramatic rise in antisemitism in the US and abroad.

“The rise in antisemitism has been increasingly driven by entities on the Left which hope to delegitimize Israel and its right to self-defense,” former JPPI co-chair and former Middle East envoy ambassador Dennis Ross said. “When we add to this a surge in antisemitism on the Right, the outcome is that over half of US Jews now feel less secure than they did five years ago.”

JPPI president Prof. Yedidia Stern recommended that Israel “take decisive action to protect Jews in the Diaspora from this ugly wave of antisemitism.” He proposed a task force that would monitor the extent of the phenomenon, develop tools for combating it, set overall policy and launch initiatives visà-vis foreign governments, Jewish communities and other relevant entities.

It is clearly needed. Secure Community Network, the US organization that advises US Jewish communities on security matters, said it recorded an 80% spike in antisemitic acts in May amid Israel’s 11-day war with Hamas.

Among the acts of antisemitism it listed were “Acts of vandalism from Oregon to Virginia, synagogue desecrations from Illinois to Arizona, reports of people having bottles thrown at them, children’s playgrounds being daubed with swastikas in New York and Tennessee.”

On May 21, five leading Jewish organizations published a letter to US President Joe Biden, suggesting that his administration take six specific steps to combat the rising attacks: publicly condemn them; appoint a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department; reestablish the position of a White House Jewish liaison; convene a meeting with White House officials and Jewish leaders to discuss antisemitism; preserve former president Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order classifying antisemitic discrimination as a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; and provide funding to enhance security at religious institutions.

With antisemitic attacks and incidents once again becoming common on the American landscape, it’s more vital than ever for both the US and Israeli governments to take more active roles in stemming the tide.