Next week the world will be given a profound demonstration of resilience under unimaginable circumstances.
And a media blackout may succeed in silencing it.
On July 1, Jerusalem will host the opening ceremonies for the 22nd Maccabiah Games, the first to be staged since the bloody and unprovoked Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023.
Thousands of athletes from all over the world will compete in the 13-day event sometimes known as the Jewish Olympics — a misnomer, because people of all races and religions take part.
It should be a joyous celebration of athletic prowess in a Middle East scarred by relentless war and the constant threat of missile and drone attacks.
The games, attracting a wealth of competitors second only to the Olympics, have been played since 1932, even before the founding of the Jewish state.
They’ve endured through global depressions, a world war and the Holocaust.
Against all odds, they’ve survived — like Judaism itself.
So why has almost no one on this side of the Atlantic heard of them?
You’d think there’d be cheers, fireworks, media hype, sponsorship deals.
You’d expect American news outlets to be clamoring for images of our warriors getting ready to rumble for the red, white and blue — along with the blue and white.
You’d be wrong.
When it comes to Maccabiah, there’s almost complete press silence — even when a sitting US president attends, as Joe Biden did in 2022.
Why?
The answer is as old as antisemitism itself.
My daughter is making the journey to Israel next week to compete in rugby (after taking home the gold with her field-hockey team four years ago).
But instead of scheduling TV interviews as she packs to join nearly 1,000 Americans and up to 10,000 other athletes in the Holy Land — crickets.
The silence is teaching her a grave lesson about hatred.
The vacuum speaks volumes: It amounts to erasure.
Her father and I have had to explain that all things connected to the Jewish state are either widely condemned by the woke media, or simply ignored.
The examples are endless.
This month actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, a rare Hollywood supporter of Israel, risked career homicide — and earned my deepest respect — by daring to appear in an ad hawking high-end Israeli real estate.
It’s the kind of elegant endorsement common among film types (think George Clooney’s partnership with Nespresso).
But while such celebrity deals may evoke amusement, they almost never spur unhinged explosions of vitriol — except, apparently, when Israel is involved.
Gwyn’s ad caused online ghouls to erupt in unbridled and false accusations that she was promoting “genocide.”
They even invented the term “Gwynocide” to bash her, something I’d find funny if it weren’t so pathetically twisted.
Legendary comedian and entertainment giant Jerry Seinfeld also found himself at the blunt end of the online cudgel this month.
While exiting Madison Square Garden after a Knicks championship game, Seinfeld was ambushed by an anti-Israel streamer who goaded him to say, “Free Palestine.”
“It doesn’t exist,” Seinfeld accurately responded. (Go Jerry!)
Unsurprisingly, lefty Rep. Ilhan Omar piled on abuse, calling his words “disturbing,” “dangerous,” and “genocidal” — but failing to address whether Palestine, in fact, exists.
Topping the haters is New York City’s socialist, Israel-despising chief executive.
At a June 18 campaign rally, Mayor Zohran Mamdani unleashed an unhinged rant, branding the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its supporters “monsters.”
He whipped out the old saw about wealthy Jews plotting government control, then disgustingly accused AIPAC of spending “millions in dark money” to ensure pro-Israel candidates win congressional seats in November’s midterm elections.
“Now is the time of monsters,” Mamdani proclaimed, standing alongside lefty Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a slate of progressive candidates at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre.
“These monsters take many forms today,” he continued — including “in AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”
Mamdani’s remarks were so incendiary, many feared they would further ignite the violence already rampant against New York’s Jewish communities.
“Well, I’m an AIPAC supporter,” said Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me.”
Yet the mayor is partly right: Monsters do take many forms.
They live in those who promote blood libels like “genocide” to destroy the careers of those who support Israel.
They lurk among cowards who use the internet to promote violence against Jews.
They prowl coffee shops and food co-ops to blindside Jewish customers and members with sneak attacks.
Monsters work to erase young athletes who are proud of America — and of Israel, too.
Monsters can even take the form of mayors whose hatred is so all-consuming, no Jew is safe.
The post Monsters DO take many forms — and Jewish athletes find out who the real ones are appeared first on New York Post.
