The family was staying at an upscale hotel in Southern Europe when the son returned to their room visibly shaken. He told his dad about a man who had just spewed insults at him while he was at the hotel’s pool. Parental instinct asked if the teen had been misbehaving, and a tearful reply assured that he had not. Then the father’s eyes fell on the Star of David around his son’s neck. Could it be?
The dad went to the pool and located the man who yelled at his son. “It was not a pleasant discussion,” he wrote in an op-ed piece in the L.A. Times. His suspicions were proven, and he returned to talk with his son about an irrational and degenerate hatred.
“Dylan, you just had your first taste of anti-Semitism,” he said. (LA Times).
Who is the man in this unfortunate father-son conversation? Michael Douglas, the award-winning Hollywood actor.
Drawn to Jewish roots
Several years before, when his son Dylan grew interested in Judaism and began studying for his Bar Mitzvah, Michael was drawn back to his Jewish roots. His father, Hollywood star Kirk Douglas, is Jewish though his mother is not. Dylan also has one parent who is Jewish and one who is not. It is said that without a Jewish mother, a person is not considered Jewish. Michael Douglas notes, however, “I have learned the hard way that those who hate do not make such fine distinctions” ( LA Times ).
Indeed. Anti-Semitism is experiencing a resurgence throughout the world. Douglas noted that anti-Semitism “is like a disease that goes dormant, flaring up with the next political trigger” (LA Times). As Believers, we know that, ultimately, anti-Semitism is a scheme of God’s enemy who fans into flame new rounds of the old hatred whenever conditions present the opportunity.
Douglas cites in his article what he believes are three reasons why we are seeing one of those flare-ups today: 1.) vulnerable world economies, 2.) an “irrational and misplaced hatred of Israel” and those “who blame the people of an entire religion” for Israel’s national decisions, and 3.) the intolerance of radical Islam joined with changing demographics in Europe, noting that Europe’s Muslim population is now over twice the entire world population of Jewish People.
“My son is …fortunate to live in a country where anti-Semitism is rare,” Douglas points out. “But now he too has learned of the dangers that he, as a Jew, must face.” (LA Times). A comment posted by a reader of the article pointed out that, to the contrary, “anti-Semitism is in full swing on college campuses” (LA Times). The commenter cited seeing swastikas carved into wood at a Colorado university and being forbidden as an employee there from talking about the Holocaust at work.
Anti-Semitism is spreading like a cancer. Neither fame nor the finest hotels inoculate one against it. The hatred is ugly, ugly enough for a grown man to, out of nowhere, verbally accost an unsuspecting teen simply for being Jewish.
Douglas shared his belief that speaking up against anti-Semitism is not only the responsibility of political and religious leaders, but also that of individual citizens. “Because if we confront anti-Semitism whenever we see it,” he said, “if we combat it individually and as a society, and use whatever platform we have to denounce it, we can stop the spread of this madness” (LA Times).
Pray for the Jewish People
Yes. And as Believers, we must also pray. Please visit our blog post, “ Twelve Ways to Pray against Anti-Semitism ” and join us in prayer to bring an end to the disease of anti-Semitism.
For more resources about anti-Semitism, stop by our Jewish Voice Ministries website and visit our Store.
