Jew Jitsu

Did the universe knew I had decided to emerge from my Blogging chrysalis in order to transcend into a weekly writing butterfly once more? Because I promise I could have delved deep into my soul for a whole plethora of topics to write about without needing traumatization or harassment to take place. I, for one, do not need to suffer for my art. Yet, for some reason, I was the target of an onslaught of truly disgusting antisemitic rhetoric. According to the ADL (anti-defamation league), antisemitism incidents are at an all-time high, skyrocketing up 361% since the attacks on October 7^th 2023. So I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised at the vitriolic drivel aimed my way, but it was still disheartening to read. And it was all over an extremely trivial, throw-away comment.

I almost never comment on random posts of people I do not personally know on the internet. I witness firsthand all of the time how comment sections can become a cesspool of circle-jerking where someone makes one bold comment and the rest of the beta cuck boys glom on like flies to a pile of shit. People strive for inclusion and to be part of the club, lest they be targeted next, not realizing that no matter which way you spin it, you are all fighting to be on top of a big ol’ pile of doodoo. Controversial Jiu Jitsu athlete, Gordon Ryan, shared a post mocking another Jiu Jiteiro on ways to deter white supremacists from training at your academy. There was an incident a few years ago, where a young gentleman came into our gym, and when he changed into his shorts, there was a giant, (looked home-done) shakily-lined swastika tattooed across his thigh. At the time, our academy was much smaller, and we had to roll in groups of three due to space constraints. Our professor purposely put him in a group with myself (Jewish), and another member, who is Black Hebrew Israelite and was wearing a rash guard with Hebrew symbols. It was a rough couple of rounds for him, and he never came back. I am still astounded by the audacity of this individual to have that hate symbol so brazenly emblazoned and out in the open.

I made like a 2-sentence comment regarding that incident, and then I went to sleep. When I woke up, I had at least 30 replies with people saying how it didn’t happen, I only know how to ‘lie’ since I am a Jew, Black Hebrew Israelites do not exist (as well as a few hateful remarks about him being Black), I should have had the “Nazi” beat me up because I deserve it being a Jew, all Jews deserve to die, and dozens more basically insinuating horrible things and wishing me harm or death. All from fellow members in Jiu Jitsu, a sport that I love where I have always felt included and never experienced bigotry or prejudices before. I started to reply that it was a 100% true story, that the guy in question was a fairly small guy and I was a 4-stripe purple at the time of this occurrence, and ask why people were so angry that I was regaling a true story. But then, I just deleted my original comment and blocked the post. The most important thing when it comes to preserving my mental health is protecting my peace. If it no longer serves me, or if it feeds my insecurities rather than starving my despairs, I eliminate the root cause in its entirety. I won’t lie and say that it didn’t hurt my feelings to see how prevalent the hate was, or how proudly people were to publicly type spew forth such disgusting comments, but I would rather focus my attention elsewhere.

When it comes to being Jewish, my family did not partake in any sort of religious upbringing. My father had a Bar Mitzvah, but my triplet brothers and myself were never sent to Hebrew school, nor raised with any sort of religious undertones. In fact, we grew up celebrating Christmas. I did my ancestry a few years ago, and my results were 100%  predominantly Eastern European Jewish stemming from the countries Romania, Armenia, Poland, Russia, and Austria. In fact, my mother’s father (my paternal grandpa), had a deeper olive complexion because of that Middle Eastern Bloodline. I, just like I am sure rings true with most people, am proud of where I came from and the family members that preceded me. But if I were asked how I identified, it would be as American. I am an extremely proud American and know what a privilege it is to live here. So be told I deserved to die because of who I was born to, is baffling quite honestly.

These conflicts in Gaza have been going on for a millennia. I think it’s horrible to see reports on the countless innocent victims and hostage situations. I would never condone violence of any kind to innocent people. I am not Israeli nor Palestinian, I have only learned of things going on over there from whatever the media decides to report on or tell us, and anyone who remains open to learning about issues understand the biases media can help facilitate in order to create conjecture. The problem with internet culture, is people without firsthand accounts, or without any dog in the fight, are screaming their viewpoints and support for the primary purpose to virtue signal to the masses about how kind, golden-hearted, and liberal they are. It’s the latest hot topic to show off to the world that you are one of the good people who condemn anything ‘evil.’ Whether it’s symbols in your social media handle, or quips in your bio, you proudly metaphorically rip open your shirt to reveal a Superman ‘S’ underneath so that everyone knows how heroic you are when you can’t even name what river and what sea you’re shouting about. And if you come across a profile of anyone who is Jewish, religiously or ethnically, you attack. Conflating Jewish identity with the policies of the Israeli state risks feeding antisemitic tropes.

Let me be clear, I am not a fan of any of it. I also understand that I have much to learn on all of the differently distinct puzzle pieces that form a complete picture about what is occurring. I do not ever like to speak on topics I am not fully educated in, and I love to learn, so I am always willingly to listen and discuss and explain. I do not believe there is any place in this world for people to verbally attack another because of how they were born. The hive mind of being another person to join in on the verbal onslaught is a dangerous slippery slope. Heaven forbid you have a dissenting comment from the masses, and you risk becoming the next target of disgusting hate. There are good and bad people of any race, of any religion, of any profession. To pretend that everything is always black and white, or always good and bad, is confining yourself to a limited world viewpoint. Be the person who does what is right, even when it is not popular and not the easy choice. And most importantly, quit perpetuating hate; it is a monster that gets hungry the more you feed it, until it devours this world whole. Its only weakness is it can be vanquished by love, as darkness can never drive out darkness, only light can do that. Shine bright.