Leading up to the 2024 election, it appeared that Jews around the world were entering another one of their many dark periods in history. The October 7 massacre was in itself a horrific catastrophe, but what followed was even more ominous. There was an immediate explosion of antisemitism around the entire globe. Obviously, latent classical antisemitism had simply been lurking beneath the surface just waiting for a spark to be released.
In the Mideast, previously bankrupt Iran, now bolstered with hundreds of billions of American dollars initiated by previous administrations policies, developed a nuclear program, expanded its oil production output and built up an extensive proxy terrorist network to seriously threaten Israel and other neighboring countries, and in the process, became a world power.
In other parts of the world, there were pogroms in the Netherlands, massive hate-filled antisemitic campus demonstrations and attacks, unconscionably biased and hateful media coverage, and a multitude of UN and other world organizations constantly churning out actions and edicts myopically fixated only against tiny Israel. Numerous national and local governments and governmental agencies either encouraged these attacks or turned a blind eye to them. These attacks, both verbal and physical, were always well planned, coordinated and generously funded.
Suddenly, Jews around the world no longer felt safe. They had to hide their identities and carry out their routine daily activities in fear and with caution. This was ominously reminiscent of pre-World War II conditions that eventually culminated in the Holocaust. Even in America, the great bastion of democracy, freedom and tolerance, and usually a haven for oppressed Jews, the future for Jewish Americans started to look very bleak. And America’s once almost unquestioning support for Israel became enmeshed in woke politics and became very contentious and unreliable.
Then almost (?) miraculously, in a sharp rebuke to past policies, a staunch, openly pro-Israel supporter was elected president of the United States in a landslide, along with most votes for both chambers of Congress going to his Republican Party. Instantly, the cloak of gloom has been lifted, and the future for Jews in America and Israel seems once again to be more favorable and less threatening. Although not immediately translatable to the rest of the world, there is at last an expectation now that, with America’s influence, the quality of life for Jews worldwide will also markedly improve.
I think the phrase “Baruch Hashem” is indeed appropriate here.
