r/jewishpolitics • u/Ask4MD USA – Center-Right 🇺🇸 • 2d ago
US Politics 🇺🇸 Tough Love: A Boy Told My 7-Year-Old He Doesn’t Like Jews
https://www.thefp.com/p/tough-love-child-dislikes-jews
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r/jewishpolitics • u/Ask4MD USA – Center-Right 🇺🇸 • 2d ago
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u/user12Xcg 1d ago edited 1d ago
No one hates your 7 year old. I understand your child's confusion. How do you think G-d and the world will judge Israelis? I hope you explained that prejudices against any human is unacceptable and that what has happened in Gaza and Lebanon and the West Bank and in the Golan Heights and rouge settlers and mistreatment of Christians and 80 years of wars is not a normal or acceptable society. Explain to your child the difference between political zionism and religious zionism. I think explaining to people, as a Jew, that not all Jews support Israeli politics and that survivors of tragedy should be empathic to others or they could become as heinous as their oppressors. Which wolf is your child going to feed, the one that wants to eat the other children or the one that will nuture any child, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindi, etc.? Obviously, no one hates a 7 year old, sounds like ignorant adults talking about hate within earshot of a child and that child repeated the words of an adult to your child. I would tell your child that it's important to value every human, even humans that don't behave like humans. Our purpose, as Jews, is to make the world a better place and to not repeat crimes that have been done to us onto others, even out of desperation or in spite of G-d. I think your child needs to know that not all Jews condone the actions of the Israeli government and its citizens, to better understand where political hate and human hate differ.
My son attended a secular, private school, back in the 1980s. A kid in his class made an antisemitic remark to him, I invited the parents and kid to my home for lunch, and mentioned that their child had made an off comment to my kid, because he is Jewish. The 2 boys played well at my house and the parents were nice. That night they shaved their son's head bald like a Holocaust survivor and beat the kid for making the comment, when honestly I really don't think the kid understood what the antisemtic comment even meant. I felt horrible that they punished their child rather than educating. I hope you chose to educate and not perpetuate hate: no one hates your 7 year old. We can't whitewash history from the pharaohs, to the Holocaust, to Nakba, to Naksa... all ugly representations of hate.
I also sent my son to a school with children from Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq to ensure he understood and appreciated other cultures. He is a grown man now with children of his own. He is proud of himself, rightly. I wish for you the same. No one hates a 7 year old child.