Amanda Greenberg: A Jewish woman in suburban Philadelphia — one year later

We are one year out from the barbaric terror attacks of October 7th in Israel. Since then, Jews around the world have been under attack, including right here in the suburbs of Philadelphia. 

As an openly Zionist Jewish woman, raising visibly and openly Jewish children, I constantly have my head on a swivel. I have to be aware of my surroundings at all times, especially when I have my children with me. We’ve had slurs and curse words said as we walk by and even screamed at as we put up hostage posters. Antisemitism, here in the suburbs of Philly, is at an all-time high. 

The nation watched as the local universities and their administrations openly displayed their antisemitism over the last year. Institutions where the Jewish community has been integral in building and funding have turned their backs on us and refused to protect us, like they do for any other minority or targeted group. Unfortunately, it’s not just institutions of higher learning that have displayed their filthy antisemitism in public. Many local school districts and private schools have jumped on the bandwagon and have tried to disguise their antisemitism as DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). 

According to believers of DEI, Jews are “white” and are, therefore, oppressors. Never mind that the Jewish people come in all colors, from all over the world. While the United States has the largest population of “white” Jews in the world, about 40 percent of the world’s Jews are non-white. I’m a mixed-race, Jewish woman so I don’t totally fit into either category. Over 55 percent of Israel’s population is non-white with 20 percent being Arab. These non-white people of Israel hold seats in the Knesset (parliament), Supreme Court, local and national offices, and so many other roles in Israeli society — so much for the accusation of a colonialist/apartheid state. In the U.S., Jews are accused of being racists, colonizers, participants of genocide and a plethora of other false, bigoted terms. 

After a year of crying out for our people to be freed from Hamas captivity and for Iran and its other proxies constant attacks on Israel, we are tired. Fortunately, as Menachem Begin said to Joe Biden in 1982, “I am not a Jew with trembling knees.” 

I have attended rallies for Israel, for our hostages and for the Jewish people of the diaspora. My family, and millions of other Jewish families, will no longer keep our heads down and just try to be left alone. We are not standing down. We will not stay quiet in the face of antisemitism. Jews from across the religious and political spectrums have come together over the last year for our common goal of living freely as Jews. We are showing our children what the new wave of Zionism looks like. 

While I still cry myself to sleep many nights worrying about the hostages and our family and friends in Israel, I look at my children and see the future of the Jewish people. I see children who are proud of who they are, where they come from, and of the history of the Jewish people. I see them loving their faith and culture while continuing to live in the melting pot that is the suburbs of Philadelphia and thriving. Most days I worry about how my young children will cope with the growing antisemitism as they grow older and become more independent, but I’m comforted by the local and global Jewish community and our visible, non-Jewish supporters like Douglas Murray, John Fetterman, Richie Torres, Elise Stefanik, Brian Mast, Mosab Hasan Yousef, and others. 

With the Jewish people in America being targeted more than ever as anti-Jewish hate crimes have risen 360 percent since October 2023, I’m grateful for groups like Canary Mission and The Deborah Project who seek to document and educate about antisemitism.

Then there are many other terror-supporting, antisemitic groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (not Jewish and not for peace), Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Within Our Lifetime, If Not Now, and The Party for Socialism and Liberation. These deplorable organizations have shown the country the depths of Jewish hate. 

Most of these groups have ties to and funding from Qatar and Iran. Along with these groups receiving funding from Qatar and Iran, so do many of the universities around the country. With so many of today’s teachers being indoctrinated by institutions of higher education who get funding from terror-supporting nations and import professors from those nations, it’s no wonder so many teachers in K-12 also harbor antisemitic views and have been given license to spew that in their classrooms and on their public social media accounts without repercussions. Even school board members who oversee districts in the suburbs of Philly have openly displayed their antisemitism. 

One would think that with such pervasive anti-Jewish hate spewing out from our K-12 schools and higher education, our Jewish governor would stand up for the Jewish people in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, he has not. Neither has the Biden-Harris administration. We are on our own. Yet, millions of American Jews will continue to vote for Democrats who won’t protect them in word or deed. Sure, there is antisemitism on both sides of the political aisle, but it is pervasive and ever-mounting from the Democratic party. This isn’t only in terms of American Jews, but also in how Israel has been treated, spoken about and dealt with by the democrats. Finally, Israel is circumventing the U.S. administration and doing what needs to be done to protect her people and has made not only Israel safer, but the world. I pray that Israel continues to decimate Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the head of the snake, Iran. 

As we honor the one year anniversary of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, my family and I will continue to pray for and cry for the hostages and their families. We will say one last kaddish for those who were brutalized, raped, tortured and murdered on that day. We will celebrate the Hebrew birthday of American hostage, Hirsh Golberg Polin, who was recently executed by Hamas terrorists in one of their terror tunnels. He would be turning 24. We will continue to support and express gratitude for the politicians who speak out about and work towards exposing antisemitism in all forms in the United States. Most importantly, we will continue to live as proud, Zionist Jews who pray daily for peace. 

Amanda Greenberg is a Jewish mother and teacher who resides in the southeastern Pennsylvania suburbs.

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15 thoughts on “Amanda Greenberg: A Jewish woman in suburban Philadelphia — one year later”

  1. As an American I have a question about your support of Trump. I am very concerned about the following statements made by Trump.
    1. “If I don’t win this election – and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because if 40%, I mean, 60% of the people are voting for the enemy – Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years,” Trump told the crowd.”
    Response by the Anti-Defamation League
    “Preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential election loss does zero to help American Jews,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.”

    2. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

    3. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

    Does this sound like someone American Jews should vote for or someone who is going to cause a Progrom?

    1. I don’t understand your confusion. He is right. Israel has been under constant attack under the Biden Administration, as a result of Biden Harris releasing $90 billion to Iran, which they use to fund their allies in the region to attack Israel indirectly.
      Donald Trump also moved the embassy to Jerusalem, as many previous Presidents had promised to do, yet failed to deliver on.
      The ADL reported that at least 1,200 antisemitic incidents occurred on US college campuses over the past year, representing a 500% spike from the previous year’s data in the same category and Jewish people all over the world watched as progressives in leadership roles, elected officials and the media defended them.

      1. There is no confusion when it comes to Trump. He is a former President and current candidate who has made repeated antisemitic statements about American Jews including that American Jews will be the reason he will lose the election. Given his presence on social media and what he caused on January 6th it would take a matter of minutes for him to start a Progrom at a national level.

        There were 1200 antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2023 and there were 7673 that did not take place on a college campus. A far more disturbing number.

        Trump moving the American Embassy was nothing more than a PR stunt. I am far more concerned about Trump and the extent to which he is using American Jews as a potential scapegoat. Because I live in America, not Israel.

      2. Oh and by the way. Israel has been under constant terrorist attacks long before Biden became President. Specifically since 1952, when the PLO was formed, when Eisenhower was President.

  2. Sadly, for America, we have a sizable portion of our population, with an attendant captured political party that has adopted hate as their rason d’etre and will not change their interpretation of reality, no matter the evidence. I can well understand the fear the Jewish community lives with daily, such fear is the grandchild of Russian pogroms and Nazi activities. The most maddening thing about those who chant and hold signs is that they have never been subject to the atrocities they accuse the nation of Israel and the Jewish community of. They will never smell the bodies or see the blood or hold the broken bodies that are the result of their hate mongering. It is time to stand against these merchants of hate. 🎉

    1. You’re right, “Sadly, for America, we have a sizable portion of our population, with an attendant captured political party that has adopted hate as their rason d’etre and will not change their interpretation of reality, no matter the evidence”.
      That party is the Trump Party, which has forever changed the Republican Party, for all of the wrong reasons.

      The protests on college campuses are nothing compared to a Republican Presidential candidate openly making antisemitic statements, hosts known antisemites at the White House for dinner while President, and is incapable of saying that White Supremacist groups are bad. Trump will abandon Israel just as fast as he will Ukraine if he is elected.

      Because you are not Jewish you will never hear the stories of antisemitism from your own family that Jewish immigrants, their children and grandchildren lived with. Or their great grandchildren live with today live today.

      Trump will abandon Israel just as fast as he will Ukraine if he is elected.

  3. The point of my commentary was to express my concern that antisemitism has become more prevalent in today’s America than ever before. It began in the early years of the 20th Century, picked up steam in the 1920s and became a hidden force in the ’40s and “50s. This was aided and abetted by the print media, primarily by the “newspaper of record.” In my opinion, once the “Progressives” took control. antisemitism became politically mainstream, and the Democratic Party became its home. Not surprisingly, given its history. In my opinion, it is dangerous to be a Jew in America, I’m just surprised there has not been a “Kristallnacht” yet. Just as my closure, rather than Trump-bashing, I posit that nothing can more antisemitic than trying to impose one’s quaint notions of how to conduct a war on your ally by making demands as to what to do, how to do it and then threatening to withhold military assistance. I’m surprised and somewhat frightened that America does not seem to grasp that Israel, and all Jews are only the beginning, America itself is the next target.

    1. What you are trying to do is blame Progressives with dog whistle statements like “an attendant captured political party” and “newspaper of record”. While refusing to admit that it is Trump who as President and as a current candidate
      has made repeated antisemitic statements. So does that make Trump a Progressive? His social media presence has caused multiple problems some of which I have listed and another is his constant claims, even to this day that he won the 2020 election.

      I am more concerned about Trump and his repeated anti-sematic statements about American Jews,
      because I live in America, not Israel. When he loses he has already positioned American Jews as the reason why it happened. Which will lead to progroms and a Kristallnacht in America, not Israel.

      1. Judah,
        What is a woman? Too difficult for you or the author? I digress.
        What is antisemitism? Semites is a very old word for a group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians.
        At one time it might have had a connotation of race, when that word itself was used to designate national and cultural entities. It has nothing whatever to do with race in the anthropological sense that is now common usage.
        It is not reasonable to subject a well-intentioned commentator such as George Knoll with abusive lies and spurious notions. Dog whistle is a tired word or expression used in a figurative sense. The list? You know who is on the list: the costal elite and the communists. You wish it was limited to a race or religion… but it is not that type of thing.

        1. What list am I on and what will happen to those people on the list?

          What abusive lies and spurious notions did I subject well intentioned commentor George Knoll to?

  4. I know that “dog whistle” is code for accusing someone of holding views that are contrary to one’s dearly held leftist beliefs. I think it is a symptom of the corrosion of American society that Trump is blamed for everything that is going wrong and has not been able to be fixed by the current gaggle of incompetents attempting to govern by ideology and not problem solving. This approach is one of the best ways to hate, you can scapegoat, always blame ethnic group, religious sect, racial group and all the marginalized people in society for the fact that you suck at governing, as my father would say: “couldn’t find their butts with both hands and a map.”

    1. Dog whistle means a “subtly aimed political message which is intended for, and can only be understood by, a particular group.” Just like how only dogs can hear a dog whistle. When you make statements like “an attendant captured political party” and “newspaper of record” you are trying to hide what you mean, i.e. a dog whistle.

      You and others have claimed that Trump will be the best person to protect the Israeli relationship with the U.S. Therefore American Jews should vote for him. In spite of the fact that Trump has made multiple antisemitic statements threatening American Jews and has relationships with known antisemites.

      Why would American Jews want to vote for someone like this?

    2. “This approach is one of the best ways to hate, you can scapegoat, always blame ethnic group, religious sect, racial group and all the marginalized people in society for the fact that you suck at governing,” I don’t see Vice President Harris claiming that Hattians in Ohio are eating cats, Jews who don’t vote Democrat are disloyal, making fun of people with disabilities, making peace deals with terrorist groups like the Taliban, that Mexico will pay for the border wall, that they won the 2020, election, or that she will put her political opponents on trial.

      So who are you referring to?

  5. Not trying to hide anything, just want to not be uber-level “in your face.” Didn’t seem to work so I will be “in your face” by stating the newspaper “The New York Times and the Political Party, The Democratic Party. The in my opinion: the newspaper has been antisemitic since the mid 1920s along with being Stalin’s apologist with the employment of Walter Durant. The Democratic Party has been the party supporting slavery since Andrew Jackson and concurrent with that antisemitic. The home of the “Dixiecrats” and the KKK.

    1. I have yet to see a statement from the Democratic party that they support slavery and the KKK. The “Dixiecrats” became Republicans in the 1960’s as the party moved away from that stance. The mid-1920’s were 100 years ago and Walter Durant’s reporting was debunked by other NY Times reporters at the time he wrote the articles.

      Trump has not only made antisemitic statements, he has double downed on them and embraced them. His political allies and party leadership refuse to address these statements and so do you.

      Why should American Jews vote for a person who attacks them?

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