On a day when the world usually joins Jews across the world in marking Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — we “feel quite alone,” Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, told this page Tuesday.
He was referring to the public reaction by many in the United States and across the world to Israel’s response to the invasion of its homeland by Hamas-led Palestinian military groups on Oct. 7, 2023, in which more than 1,100 were killed and more than 250 kidnapped. The reprisals by Israel have killed — according to Hamas numbers — more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Where Jews locally and across the country frequently stand in solidarity with groups seeking civil rights, “they’re not standing with us,” Dzik said. “They’re on the opposite side. We feel alone and scared. Our friends have gone in a different direction.”
Fortunately, the local Jewish Cultural Center and local Jews have not seen the violence and protests that have marked colleges campuses and other public places as the Hamas-Israel war has raged. And they have felt the support of evangelical Christians.
Nevertheless, Dzik said, the local Jewish community is worried “that history could repeat itself.” They’re not concerned about Nazi gas chambers that contributed to the murder of some 6 million Jews between 1941 and 1945, he said, but they’ve already seen that the number of unsafe environments across the country has swelled.