Rabbi Ilan Meirov, Director at Chazaq, spoke Friday at the Arutz Sheva summit in Queens, New York, about how to fight antisemitism and strengthen Jewish youth.
Thanking his listeners for attending and Arutz Sheva - Israel National News for organizing the conference, Rabbi Meirov admitted, "I'm not so well-versed in Israeli politics, but I do spend a lot of time on the ground" working with youth.
Though Israel is now a leader in technology, medicine, and security, and that the Torah world is thriving, "for some reason, anti-Semitism is growing at a rapid pace. I don't think we've seen this kind of hatred. Hashem mishmor since the Holocaust."
"What do we have to do to fight antisemitism? What is the key?" he asked, though he noted, "Your enemies, the worst enemies, come from within."
"As one that's dealing with so many public school students, after October 7th tragedies, I saw with my own eyes, so many public school kids, college students, their love to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel - ed.) was unbelievable. Their want to reconnect to their heritage was tremendous.
"But then, suddenly, here we are two and a half years later, and many of these same students are embarrassed to openly be defined as Jews. They're trying to hide their identity, or even worse, they've become self-hating Jews."
According to Rabbi Meirov, "The most important job, not just as a rabbi, but politicians as well, is to make sure that their people are proud of their heritage. If we're not going to take it upon ourselves to educate our youth, not just in Israel, but here in America, to be proud of our heritage, then, G-d forbid, the liberal values are being thrown into us, in the public school system, through social media, it's going to hit our children in a very strong fashion."
"There's a concept of peace through strength, we all know about that," he said. "But I'm also a big believer in peace through education."
"I think this is our main mission, to give education, to teach the truth, to teach them what's really happening on the ground. And it's one thing to try to show the elected officials what's happening and getting them the support, it's another thing to teach our youth.
"I think this is our job, not just as rabbis, but as community leaders, as politicians, to make sure the youth know what it means to end all hatred, and to know what the truth is really all about," he concluded.