A Rise In Antisemitism by Lillee Jean | Op-Ed 2021
- Lillee Jean Trueman
- Mar 14, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 7
When I was 5, my mom would tell me a story handed down, by all Jewish families, and one lesson. It’s simple.
Never tell people you’re Jewish, you’ll pass for being a shiksa.
I was born of strong women and strong families: those who fled the Ukraine, Russia, and German persecution.
In my head, I thought, “Why would I have to hide my origins? I’m Jewish, and Lutheran. I’m not told to hide my dad’s side, where they fled from France, and, they were Lutheran?”
To me at 5 years old, it seemed like two stories one in the same, religion out of question. Just brave people, who would not CONFORM. As time has gone on, it seemed less and less of importance to me, until 3 years ago, a cyberstalker began her crusade to destroy me.
Psychology of Anti-Semitic Behavior
To hate a group of people, just to hate, seems to me like two things: A scapegoat for failure, and a sense of jealousy towards what one has that you don’t.
According to in 2021 to the ADL:
Hostility toward Jews dates to ancient times, perhaps to the beginning of Jewish history. From the days of the Bible until the Roman Empire, Jews were criticized and sometimes punished for their efforts to remain a separate social and religious group — one that refused to adopt the values and the way of life of the non-Jewish societies in which it lived
Due to the fact that Jewish people refused to conform, they were hated, feared, and persecuted. Even enslaved (Obtained 2021 - https://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/goldhaggadahstories/enslave/enslavement.html) in Egypt, because,
“[the]…Pharaoh was still worried that his Israelite slaves would rise up against him.”
5-year-old me, would look at this and say “That’s history!” Almost 20-year-old me looks at this and says, “This is becoming history again…”
What I Have Faced
What I have faced is the normalization of Nazi-like behavior, and the acceptance of hating a religion, and race, just because.
I have faced persecution on a level of beyond petty rumors, but of an actual life force, as an analogy.
Lillee Jean
