{"id":2359,"date":"2026-11-04T03:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2026-11-04T03:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:08:38","slug":"theres-always-hope-a-new-york-advocate-on-the-fear-meter-the-genocide-lie-and-the-war-we-can-still-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/?p=2359","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s always hope\u201d: A New York advocate on the fear meter, the genocide lie and the war we can still win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Moshe Spern has been on nearly every New York news station this year. Off camera, he has a harder message for the Jewish community.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> By: <strong>Aaron Herman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every Jewish parent in New York knows the feeling, even if we don\u2019t have a name for it. Moshe Spern gave it one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cThere\u2019s always hope\u201d- Interview with Moshe Spern\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hLDS3GkQBYU?start=101&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWe\u2019re constantly on the fear meter of \u2018Can I trust the people around me?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spern, an advocate with United Jewish Teachers, has become one of the most quoted voices on antisemitism in the city \u2013 the New York Post one week, NBC the next. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny at my house,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018What new story came out this week?\u2019\u201d We sat down to talk about why the stories keep coming, and whether anything we\u2019re doing is actually working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What followed was one of the most candid conversations I\u2019ve had since October 7. I\u2019m sharing as much of it in his own words as I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s become glorified\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I opened with the question that drives my work: How did hating Jews become the trending thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spern sees three movements fused into one. \u201cWe have the Free Palestine movement, you have the anti-Israel movement, and you have the antisemitism,\u201d he said. \u201cThe modern antisemitism today is a combination of your old school, hundred years of swastikas and Nazi propaganda, combined now with this new age of being pro-Palestine. This is all wrapped up into one ball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proof was in the picture he had posted that morning: yeshiva school buses in Williamsburg sprayed with swastikas, \u201cF&#8212; Israel\u201d and \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d Buses that carry children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThese are the buses they have to ride\u2026 in a city in which Jews have lived for hundreds of years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhy should any group, regardless of religion, feel the fear that the Jews feel right now?\u201d he asked. \u201cI really do believe if it was any other group, there\u2019d be a lot more outrage.\u201d And then the line that stuck with me most: <strong>\u201cIt\u2019s become glorified to hate Israel. It\u2019s become glorified to hate Jews.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Different rules<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spern\u2019s argument is about consistency. When politicians aimed \u201cChina virus\u201d rhetoric at Asian Americans during COVID, people rightly pushed back. With Jews, he said, the reaction flips: \u201cPeople actually make excuses for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is not asking anyone to stop criticizing Israel. \u201cYou could be critical of Netanyahu, you could be critical of policies, you could be critical of the war strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut those are criticisms of an action. They\u2019re not criticism of calling the entire country genocidal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the genocide charge itself, he argues it fails the basic test: intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThere is no leader ever getting up and speaking to the people and saying, \u2018We must kill every Palestinian.\u2019 It\u2019s actually the opposite.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDeath is bad. Death of anybody is bad,\u201d he added. \u201cAre there mistakes that happen in war? 100%. That\u2019s obviously not the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The mayor who ran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spern was in the crowd at an October 7 memorial when Mayor Zohran Mamdani was booed. I watched it on TV, and his face said everything. Spern saw it up close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI literally saw him run out as fast as he could,\u201d Spern said. <strong>\u201cI actually in that moment felt more safe as an Orthodox Jew than I think he did!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thought it might be a wake-up call \u2013 a chance for the mayor to say the protests had gone too far. It never came. So what would he say with 15 minutes alone with him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cI don\u2019t need you to change your beliefs. But why don\u2019t you ever reflect?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou are the mayor of the largest city with the most Jews in America,\u201d Spern said. \u201cYou have an obligation to our people. You want to have your own personal beliefs as an individual? Great. You\u2019re the mayor of New York City. Why are you talking about Israel all the time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was just as pointed about Jewish leaders who keep meeting with City Hall without results. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to have a 15-minute, 30-minute meeting with somebody,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder then to take that meeting and make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The enemy isn\u2019t only outside<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the conversation turned, and where I think Spern\u2019s message matters most \u2013 for Jews in New York and in Israel alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThis is not a war against Mamdani. This is not a war against the DSA. Those are outside factors. They could easily be defeated if we were united and as one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He described Jewish activists with the same goal who \u201cliterally will not walk into the same room\u201d because of politics. \u201cI don\u2019t know how you combat antisemitism if the Jewish community itself is completely divided,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t combat a Mamdani when you are still dealing with the ghosts of 2,000 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He pointed to the uproar after Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed the Republican in her state\u2019s Senate race \u2013 a move Senator Chuck Schumer called a \u201cdespicable betrayal.\u201d Spern bristled at the language of disloyalty. \u201cThese are the same words that people have used against the Jews,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he insisted on fairness in the other direction. \u201cIslamophobia is real,\u201d he said. \u201cAs Jews, we should go out of our way to make sure that Muslim New Yorkers are protected as well.\u201d His line is simple: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to abandon your people to support other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His conclusion was blunt. <strong>\u201cWe got to wake up and we got to shape up,\u201d<\/strong> he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t, we are going to lose this war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A new hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we finished, I asked whether we\u2019re missing something. Rallies, statements, op-eds \u2013 we\u2019ve done them all, and the numbers keep climbing. Spern admitted that much of the daily work feels like \u201cputting Band-Aids on the problem.\u201d Then he asked me if I was a Star Wars fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Rebel Alliance had no shot at ever beating the Empire, ever. The Jews in Egypt had no shot at ever leaving Egypt.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs long as there is unity, as long as we come together, Hashem will always protect us,\u201d he said. \u201cIn these moments where it seems like we\u2019re losing, there\u2019s always hope. And Star Wars: Episode IV is called A New Hope, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His hope has a face. His wife\u2019s grandmother is Marion Blumenthal Lazan, the Holocaust survivor and author of Four Perfect Pebbles, who still speaks to students. \u201cLook what they did,\u201d he said of her generation. \u201cThey came to America and they rebuilt themselves. The Jewish people, we\u2019re constantly known for rebuilding our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know that story too. My grandmother, a survivor, came to my schools to tell hers. What I took from her is what Spern said next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe hope is that America is not like the history books.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we stop, we kind of give permission for the people to oppress us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the right to live better. We have the right to live not in fear. We have the right not to have to take a double look when we\u2019re walking down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That last line is the whole point. Our children shouldn\u2019t have to live on the fear meter. The way we take them off it isn\u2019t by shrinking. It\u2019s by showing up together \u2013 louder, prouder and more united than the people who want us afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moshe Spern has been on nearly every New York news station this year. Off camera, he has a harder message for the Jewish community. By: Aaron Herman Every Jewish parent in New York knows the feeling, even if we don\u2019t have a name for it. Moshe Spern gave it one. \u201cWe\u2019re constantly on the fear [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[31,1415,490],"class_list":["post-2359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-aaron-herman","tag-moshe-spern","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2360,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions\/2360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewmeplease.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}