Amsterdam attacks on Jews a dire sign

The response to the recent horrific events in Amsterdam of the attacks on Israeli soccer fans should have been one of clear moral clarity. Instead, Amsterdam’s mayor has astonishingly downplayed the severity of what took place, suggesting that the term “pogrom” is being manipulated for propaganda purposes.

Reports reveal premeditated acts of violence, including coordinated efforts to hunt Jews, physically assault them, and humiliate them in ways reminiscent of the darkest chapters of history. To question the use of the term “pogrom” in the aftermath of these attacks is to divert attention from the real issue — rising antisemitism in Europe and beyond. Leaders must confront such hatred with unequivocal condemnation, not dilute its significance with semantic debates.

My heart is sick with grief over what happened in Amsterdam. The horror is partly over what happened: innocents chased by madmen wielding knives, run down by vehicles, and thrown into canals. Some were beaten unconscious; others were forced to speak anti-Israel slogans or to plead with their attackers that they were not Jewish.

“Pogrom” is a Yiddish term derived from a Russian word that literally means devastation, with a root meaning of “after thunder,” but it has a very specific and terrible legacy in Jewish memory. On Easter Sunday, 1903, a pogrom in Kishinev — now Moldova’s capital, Chișinău — subjected the community to a massacre as local antisemites rampaged through the city, slaughtering and raping dozens of Jewish innocents. This became the galvanizing event of the 20th century for Jewish activism, helping inspire Theodor Herzl’s urgent Zionist project to empower and protect his suffering people by fighting for sovereignty and a homeland in Israel.

The Amsterdam pogrom occurred days before the anniversary of the 1938 Nazi persecution called Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. German Jews fled to the Netherlands as a refuge. They could not have known what awaited them. In 1942, the Nazis began mass deportations of Jews to killing centers in occupied Poland, primarily Auschwitz, assisted by the city administration, the Dutch municipal police, and Dutch railway workers. This is the context for the Dutch King Willem-Alexander’s agonized comment to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog: “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”

Since Hamas committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, 2023, bigotry and hatred have sometimes been mainstreamed as allegedly mere opposition to Israel’s war of self-defense. Anti-Israel activists have tried to normalize slogans like “Globalize the Intifada,” referring to the wave of suicide bombers who massacred more than 1,000 Israeli civilians between 2000-2005.

As Canadian Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman so eloquently noted of the Amsterdam attacks, “This is what ‘globalize the intifada’ looks like. Don’t look the other way.”

Only through strengthening the connections between well-meaning people and communities can we be sure that this event is understood, condemned, and not repeated.

Every day, I read new details that make me want to weep. We now know that antisemitic conspirators organized a “Jew Hunt” on the messaging app Telegram well in advance of the violence, bringing ruffians from far outside of the city to participate in the bloodshed. A former teacher at the Hamas-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency helped orchestrate the ugliness. Amsterdam taxi drivers even played a major role in the brutality.

Historically, violence towards Jews is a canary in a coal mine, a warning that society is spinning madly out of control. There is one main difference between now and the dark times that led up to World War II: today, there is a strong Jewish state in Israel, that was able to provide resources during the ferocious attacks and to send rescue aircraft to bring people home after the beastliness ended.

These are the times to listen to our neighbors. For Jews, it’s a time to build bridges with our friends in other communities. If you’re not Jewish, you should know that your Jewish friends are not all right. It’s time to take action — to speak up and to actively listen to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. If you see us, support us, and we are safe with you, let us know. And let the world know that the normalization of antisemitism must end.

History tells us that what starts with the Jews doesn’t end with us. Step forward as our allies, and help us confront the darkness so that we can restore a world of empathy, healing, and light.

Bernstein is the co-founder and CEO of Spark Family Offices.