BIRTHDAY UPDATE 04/03/2025
Yesterday was my birthday. It was a good day, topping off a very satisfying year. And while I could not be more proud of our latest work at Tikkun Now, my wish for the coming year is that our docket wasn’t quite so full. Don’t worry, Passover is lurking around the corner, ready to remind me to stop kvetching. It’s not only my generation’s turn to fight antisemitism, it’s our obligation to win.
So, why post now? We’ve blown through several holidays and a US Presidential election with ample fodder for commentary - and comment I did, though after this piece on my old mentor at BU, Angelo Codevilla, whom I had the privilege of studying International Relations with for four years, I’ve taken a hiatus from outside contributions to focus strictly on Tikkun Now projects. I’ll get to the macro events that drive our work, but recent highlights include:
Tikkun Now supported Luc Bernard’s update of the Holocaust Museum in Fortnite. Similar partnerships are underway with Roblox, which is also a hot mess of antisemitic activity. It’s equal opportunity: if a user is going to meander into a White Power recruiting space, they might as well be able to mosey into a Holocaust Museum too. We’re launching an October 7th Museum & Memorial in Roblox this summer. Here’s hoping your kids aren’t playing the games long enough to venture into this manic world.
Tikkun Now is working with the Holocaust Museum of Greece, leveraging their meticulous curation to amplify Sephardic stories around the world in other Holocaust Museums. After a long, COVID-induced wait, construction of the new museum has broken ground and will be the largest Holocaust Museum in Europe, kicking off with a traveling exhibit on Ladino culture.
Tikkun Now partnered with the National Museum of Korea (NMK) for their guidance on creating an immersive digital gallery with the Israel Museum. The NMKs digital offerings are overwhelmingly beautiful and sophisticated, but after reading their mission, we knew it was something Israel should emulate. Israel agreed: Through the universal language of images, the Immersive Digital Gallery inspires every visitor-regardless of age, nationality, or background knowledge-to become newly interested in the exhibited artworks and artifacts and to feel more familiar with Korean (insert: Israel) cultural heritage. By bringing the treasures of the museum’s collection closer to visitors, the Immersive Digital Gallery aims to connect exhibits, sites and people as well as bridging yesterday with today.
As for the macro catalysts, let’s first highlight an issue that everyone seems rather blasé about. I submit that within the next two years, a new term will be coined, something like the “Great Jewish Migration.” Jews are moving: we’re not just pivoting our kids’ college applications, but physically moving away from epicenters of hate, whether these places are traditional Jewish stalwarts or not. Data is unemotional; it doesn’t lie. And we have enough data post-October 7th to confirm emigration trends are increasing. Take a look around if you live in a place like London, Paris, LA, NY, Toronto or Montreal, because in the next two years, your cities are going to look different. Tikkun Now is already fleshing out an exhibit, and looking for partners, because this story must be told.
Secondly, I had a frustratingly obvious revelation: we are losing because we are meeting the haters on their terms. We are on our heels, reactively fighting half-baked ideas, allowing ourselves to become distracted. Antisemitism is just an idea. That’s the key. It’s a dirty, nebulous idea that mutates like a virus to stay alive. It spawns ancillary ideas that morph into other sub-battles that vacuum more of our precious time. Instead of producing our own ideas, and trying to proactively wage a counter-war, we waste time with our dictionaries and history books, trying to explain what words actually mean; we waste time trying to explain the Bible, which they’ve likely never read it; and we waste time trying to convince people to like us, when that’s a fool’s errand. It is inefficient to appeal to a hater’s humanity. So let’s stop, refocus, and start being efficient: let’s focus on the drivers of this hater, not the idea of it. In the words of the ever-witty Lee Kern: we are not at war with guns - we are at war with the people wielding guns. We are not at war with antisemitism - we are at war with the people wielding antisemitism. How foolish we must look to our enemies Iran and Qatar; to have us swinging a sword to try to kill the fog of ideas they pump our way rather than going after them. Stop fighting antisemitism. Fight our enemies. Tikkun Now is not a government entity and certainly doesn’t wield a sword, but it can support the battle in the virtual world, which feels just as real - if not more real - to a lot of youths.
Thirdly, we need a reminder of who our enemies are and where they operate, because the circle is widening. The waterline isn't in Europe. It’s deep into other continents. While we focused on DOGE, tariffs and national policy changes, Assad fell. His demise should have been met with a crack of thunder, not a whisper. Al-Julani shed his ISIS bad-boy baggage by simply updating his name, and so the expansion of Hamza Bin Laden’s Islamic Army went unchecked. There’s a steady shift underway, with Somalia, Mali, and then Burkina Faso, as the next chips likely to fall to the Caliphate. But who’s watching Africa, right? And in Asia, via their Indonesian partners, savvy Gulf state investments are trying to turn the tide of public opinion. Korea is a major cultural influencer and longtime supporter of Israel and the Jews. They admire the Jewish “havruta” study method so much that they literally teach the Talmud in school, to emulate that style of learning. So you can imagine my dismay at seeing white power symbols (yup, White Power, in Asia) and pro-Hamas images in the street markets. Cheap tchotchkes, fresh on the scene, testing out the market. More than any place I’ve ever seen, Koreans love trends, so if something - whether it is a symbol or slogan - is hot and catches, look out. We need to do everything we can to solidify our relationships with traditional Asian partners and supporters. In the case of Korea, with their artistic bent and brilliant deployment of Samsung technology, I’m hopeful that they can shepherd Israel to the heights of digital storytelling, and we can bolster their cultural relationship.
As for the head honchos of this mess, Iran and Qatar, they continue playing a long game of distraction. We’ve recently seen Qatar snuggling up on the runway with the Saudi Crown Prince, a shocker in its own right, as well as delivering a Masterclass in rebranding via Tucker Carlson and Steve Witkoff (whom I don’t think is fooled by their bluster, but just wants to strike a deal). Our friends in Iran are playing an even more sophisticated game of chess, which has brought them closer to a curious bedfellow, Islamic Jihad. Talk about a friendship to bemoan! It makes one miss the good ole days of Shia-Sunni tension that kept the heat off Israel and the West. I struggled to reconcile how Shias and Sunnis could find common ground, when only one could control the eventual caliphate, until I heard a worthy explanation from Syrian commentator Rawan Osman: Sunni Saudis control the heart of Islam with Mecca and Medina. But what if Shia Iran, via funding Sunni Jihadis in Israel, took control of Jerusalem, Islam’s third most important city? It would give them a religious foothold and finally, the ability to contest the Saudi hegemony on Islamic orthodoxy.
As for the best take on Islamic Jihad’s motivation, I defer to Sarah Adams: Hamza bin Laden is not just smart, he’s brilliant. Unlike his father, he’s impatient and moves with startling speed: the majority of the entities formerly known as (or still operating by, to mislead) al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood are now the Islamic Army. They have a local chief, but they operate under Hamza’s caliphate banner. So, while Iran fuels hate and distracts, the Islamic Army gobbles up more caliphate territory. The West does itself a disservice by treating these as disparate groups. Their unity is terrifying and can only be countered if the West is diligent and united. On the heels of today’s latest tariff news, I’m going to say that’s a long shot in the short term.
Am Yisrael Chai,
Kelly