Antisemitism doesn\u2019t always scream. Sometimes it can feel like a subtle chill down your neck \u2014 not quite cold enough to warrant a coat, but unmistakable enough to leave you with a shiver. That\u2019s what it felt like walking through Switzerland last week as part of a visibly Orthodox family.<\/p>\n
We were on a summer trip with my husband\u2019s family, visiting Switzerland for the first time. A group of six clearly Orthodox Jews \u2014 four men in yarmulkes and tzitzit, two women in head scarves, and one gorgeous, giggling baby. Thank God, we weren\u2019t harassed: No slurs and no threats. But we were watched. I felt stares that lingered too long, unsmiling glances that trailed us through the Zurich train station, across scenic railcars, and in gondola lines winding toward alpine peaks.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t overt and it wasn\u2019t loud. And to be fair, we met some warm and kind people along the way. But there were moments \u2014 moments of silence, of subtle chill, of eyes that didn\u2019t look away \u2014 that made me wonder: Is this because we\u2019re Jewish?<\/p>\n
Maybe it wasn\u2019t meant with malice. But it felt like something. A quiet kind of exclusion you can\u2019t quite name \u2014 yet still feel in your bones. It left me unsettled. Was I imagining it? Was I being too sensitive? Did I have a reason to feel on edge? I\u2019m not sure. But maybe.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was my own heightened self-consciousness \u2014 the result of a world where antisemitism is on the rise and being visibly Jewish feels increasingly like walking on eggshells. You scan the room and you read expressions \u2014 wondering if you\u2019re safe, wondering if you\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n
At first, I tried to explain it away. Maybe it\u2019s cultural to be more reserved. Maybe they were curious. But, I told myself, the stares didn\u2019t feel curious. They felt cold. And I felt myself shrinking beneath them. And then came the comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you from Israel?\u201d asked an Uber driver. A man on a bike outside the Lucerne train station asked the same. Harmless, maybe \u2014 until he launched into \u201cthe big war,\u201d \u201cthe conflict,\u201d and what Israel is \u201cdoing,\u201d as if our Jewishness made us spokespeople for a crisis we didn\u2019t raise and hadn\u2019t been prepared to defend. But our Jewishness made us stand out. And somehow, it made us responsible.<\/p>\n
Switzerland doesn\u2019t typically top the list of places where Jews feel unsafe. Compared to some of its European neighbors, it\u2019s considered relatively calm. Still, antisemitic incidents in Switzerland rose by 43% in 2024 \u2014 an unprecedented<\/a> spike. Europe, of course, carries a long, painful history of antisemitism. But the present is no less complicated.<\/p>\n And in the shadow of \u2014 and atop \u2014 the Alps, I kept thinking of Switzerland\u2019s own World War II history. Of its infamous \u201carmed neutrality,\u201d a position that, at times, looked a lot like moral indifference.<\/p>\n Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel once said: \u201cIndifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor \u2014 never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten\u2026In denying their humanity, we betray our own.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a chilling reminder: silence isn\u2019t innocence. Choosing not to take a stance is a stance \u2014 and it says something: Indifference has always protected the perpetrator more than the victim.<\/p>\n Now that I\u2019m home, I find myself asking: What does it mean to be safe, really? Is it just the absence of violence, or also the presence of welcome?<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to say, \u201cAt least nothing happened.\u201d But I think there\u2019s value in naming this quiet discomfort for what it is: a subtle rejection. It\u2019s a reminder that for many Jews \u2014 especially those of us who wear our identity on our sleeves (and heads) \u2014 public space doesn\u2019t always feel like it belongs to us.<\/p>\n And maybe that\u2019s the most chilling realization of all.<\/p>\n If you found this content meaningful and want to help further our mission through our Keter<\/a>, Makom<\/a>, and Tikun<\/a> branches, please consider becoming a Change Maker<\/a> today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antisemitism doesn\u2019t always scream. Sometimes it can feel like a subtle chill down your neck \u2014 not quite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4559,14355,14356,14357,14358,14359,14360,10730,14361,14362,6943,17,14363,14364,1063,14365],"class_list":{"0":"post-22012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-elie-weisel","10":"tag-head-scarves","11":"tag-holocaust","12":"tag-indifference","13":"tag-kippah","14":"tag-modesty","15":"tag-neutrality","16":"tag-orthodox-jewish-family","17":"tag-orthodox-jews","18":"tag-swiss-alps","19":"tag-switzerland","20":"tag-tichel","21":"tag-tichels","22":"tag-travel","23":"tag-world-war-ii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}