How do you raise a child to feel proud, rooted, and secure in their Jewish identity while knowing that visibility can sometimes bring risk – an empathetic look at today’s mental health toll caused by antisemitism.

By Bev Moss-Reilly

Antisemitism is often spoken about through headlines, attacks, protests, security alerts, and rising statistics. All of those matters, and all of it is real – but there is another side to it that is quieter and often far less visible.

It is the emotional toll carried long after the headline fades.

It is the exhaustion of always being alert.

It is the hesitation before entering shul, the pause before sending a child to school, the decision about whether to wear a Magen David openly, and the internal calculation of what feels safe today.

For many Jewish people, the strain is no longer limited to one place. It is not only about Israel. It is not only about a synagogue in one city or a violent outburst in another. It is global, personal, and cumulative.

An attack in Sydney can shake a family in Johannesburg. Gunfire at a synagogue in Toronto can unsettle a Jewish teacher in London.

Hostility in Belgium, harassment in Massachusetts, online hatred, campus intimidation, graffiti, threats, and the growing normalisation of anti-Jewish rhetoric all contribute to the same emotional reality. Safety begins to feel fragile, and daily life becomes heavier than it should be.

This is where the mental health burden deepens.

Antisemitism does not only wound in dramatic moments. It settles into the nervous system. It can leave people hypervigilant, anxious, emotionally drained, angry, grief stricken, numb, or unable to relax fully even in ordinary settings. Some struggle with sleep. Some become more withdrawn. Some avoid public Jewish spaces. Others push themselves to keep functioning while carrying an invisible level of tension that slowly chips away at wellbeing.

For parents, the burden can be especially painful. They are not only managing their own fear, but also trying to protect their children from it without pretending the danger does not exist. That balancing act is exhausting. How much do you say. How much do you shield. How do you raise a child to feel proud, rooted, and secure in their Jewish identity while knowing that visibility can sometimes bring risk. Even when parents say very little, children often sense the unease. They hear changes in tone. They notice extra security. They pick up snippets of conversation, phone calls, headlines, and the tension in adults around them. Children do not need every detail to feel that something is wrong.

Teachers and school staff carry another layer. A Jewish educator is not simply doing a job in an emotionally neutral environment. They may be teaching children while processing their own distress, concern for family members, or anxiety about the wider climate. They may be expected to create calm, safety, and continuity for learners while silently holding their own fear and fatigue. The same is true for rabbis, communal leaders, volunteers, and those who work in Jewish organisations. So many become emotional anchors for others while rarely being asked how they themselves are coping.

There is also a uniquely Jewish depth to this pain. Current antisemitism does not enter an empty room. It lands in a people with memory. For many Jewish individuals and families, today’s hostility can stir inherited grief, historical awareness, and intergenerational trauma. Even those who did not personally live through earlier atrocities may carry the emotional residue of stories, silences, losses, and collective memory. That does not mean Jewish life is defined only by suffering. Far from it. Jewish life is rich with faith, humour, continuity, learning, family, and resilience – but it does mean that present threats can reverberate more deeply because they touch old wounds as well as new ones.

One of the hardest parts of this experience is minimisation. Many Jewish people are not only distressed by the hostility itself, but by the way it is sometimes dismissed, rationalised, or explained away. When fear is minimised, the psychological impact often worsens. People may begin to feel isolated, unseen, or reluctant to speak honestly about what they are carrying. Validation matters. Being taken seriously matters. Emotional safety is not created only by guards, gates, and cameras. It is also created by being believed.

So how can we assist.

We can begin by recognising that this is a genuine mental health issue, not only a political or social one. Chronic vigilance, fear, and exposure to hatred take a toll. Jewish individuals and families need support that is culturally aware, compassionate, and free of judgement. They need spaces where they do not have to explain why they feel shaken by events happening far away, because those events do not feel far away emotionally.

Children need calm and honest conversations, not silence and not overwhelming detail. Parents need support in helping children feel safe without denying reality. Schools need trauma aware approaches that make room for emotion, routine, reassurance, and mental health care. Teachers need support too. So do rabbis, youth leaders, and all those expected to hold communities together.

Communities can also help by creating spaces of warmth and grounding. Prayer, music, movement, ritual, learning, shared meals, support groups, counselling, and simply being together all matter. These do not erase the reality of antisemitism, but they strengthen emotional resilience without demanding emotional suppression. There is a difference between resilience and pretending not to hurt. Real resilience allows room for fear, sadness, anger, and weariness while still making healing possible.

Professional mental health support should also be normalised. There should be no shame in saying that the strain has become too much, that sleep is suffering, that panic is increasing, that children are struggling, or that one feels constantly on edge. Trauma does not always announce itself dramatically. Sometimes it shows up in irritability, withdrawal, tears, overthinking, headaches, digestive upset, exhaustion, or a quiet sense of dread that never fully switches off. These responses are human, and they deserve care.

Jewish communities have always understood the power of showing up for one another. That matters now more than ever. In a world where hostility can flare in multiple countries and where fear travels instantly across borders, one of the most important things we can do is protect emotional wellbeing with as much seriousness as we protect physical safety.

Because when fear settles into everyday Jewish life, the answer cannot be silence. It must be compassion, awareness, support, and the steady reminder that no one should have to carry this weight alone.

About the writer:

Bev Moss-Reilly is a Jewish freelance content writer living in South Africa with a deep and heartfelt focus on mental health, emotional wellbeing, trauma, grief, and the unseen struggles people carry every day. Through her writing and her Mental Health Packs, she aims to bring comfort, awareness, compassion, and practical support to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Her work is rooted in empathy, dignity, and the belief that nobody should feel alone in their pain, especially in times of crisis.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

SA government acts decisively against US and Israeli diplomats – but greenlights despicable Iranian embassy transgressions of SA law

By Lawrence Nowosenetz

Early in April 2026 the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in South Africa posted on its social media platform on X the following:

“The U.S. Regime is implementing the policies of the Zionist regime.”

Accompanying the post is a digitally created image of a rat wearing a kippah or yarmulke (Jewish religious head covering) pointing forward while riding atop a large eagle in flight. The caption to the image bore the text “Who holds the reins?” and the subtitle “The U.S. seeks to implement the policies of Israeli Zionists.”  The rat has peyyot (curly sidelocks worn by Hassidic Orthodox Jews) and the kippah has a large Magen David (Star of David)

The symbolism is unmistakable and we have seen it before. The rat wearing a kippah represents Jews and the bald-headed eagle is associated with the USA. The eagle, a traditional symbol of American power, is shown being ridden and directed by the rat. The message is that Jews as a people covertly control and direct American foreign policy. This is a classic antisemitic conspiracy trope with deep roots in Nazi propaganda.

In Nazi Germany, the portrayal of Jews as rats was a central component of dehumanisation propaganda used to justify persecution and genocide.  The deliberate choice of a rat wearing identifiably Jewish religious clothing removes any ambiguity about the target of this imagery. It is classic Nazi era propaganda art.   There can be no evasion or dishonest obfuscation about the rat referring to Zionists and not Jews.  The traditional peyyot or sidelocks of the rat evoke the centuries old European ghetto Jew stereotype, beloved of antisemitic caricatures.

An international working formulation of antisemitism was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) by 35 member countries in 2016. It has been accepted by numerous governments and institutions such as universities.

The definition includes:  

“Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective, such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”  

The depiction in images of Jews as rats is specifically mentioned in the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA definition.

Historically, the Nazi propaganda imagery using rats to symbolise Jewish people is well known as a powerful depiction of antisemitism. A propaganda film in 1940 “Der ewige Jude” (“The Eternal Jew”) a work produced under Joseph Goebbels contained lengthy comparisons of Jewish people with rats, particularly their association with disease, filth, and vermin.  This process of dehumanisation was calculated and formed the ideological basis for the Nazi genocide.  As early as 1927, prior to the “Final Solution”, the Nazi publication  “Der Stürmer”, depicted the fumigation of rats as akin to Jews.

Hate speech is outlawed in South Africa.

Section 16(1) of the Constitution which provides for freedom of expression explicitly excludes:

(a) propaganda for war;

(b) incitement of imminent violence; or

(c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”

Furthermore, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 prohibits:

The publication or communication of words, or the display of any image or symbol, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be hurtful, to incite harm, or to promote or propagate hatred on the basis of, inter alia, race, religion, or ethnic or social origin.

DIRCO, the South African foreign office has not been reluctant to sanction foreign diplomats for far less. After US Ambassador, Reuben Earl  Brigety in 2013   publicly stated that South Africa was supplying arms to a Russian ship at the Simon’s Town naval base, DIRCO handed him a demarche expressing its utter displeasure. The US Ambassador had to issue an unreserved apology for failing to follow diplomatic channels.  In 2026, US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell was issued a demarche by DIRCO for criticising a court ruling declaring the chant “kill the Boer” is not hate speech.

DIRCO declared Israel’s Charge d’Affairs Ariel Seidman persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave South Africa. The reasons cited by DIRCO were unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practices by failure to inform DIRCO of visits by Israeli officials and insulting the State President on official Israeli social media platforms, thereby constituting a challenge to South African sovereignty.

None of these actions and statements were incitement, hate speech or religious dehumanisation.

Iran has been weaponising antisemitism as an incitement to terror against Jews worldwide since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power.  Over the last 47 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has waged a relentless war against Israel which it calls the “small Satan” and the USA which it calls the “Great Satan”. This war is both physical and political. It has built a network of terror in the Middle East through the Houtis in Yemen, Hamas in the Palestinian areas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, in the Sahel territories of Africa and worldwide.  Iran has been implicated in various terrorist attacks internationally, notably the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires killing 85 people and injuring 300 others.

Antisemitism and Nazism are at the core of the Islamist regime of Iran. Three state sponsored Holocaust cartoon contests have been held in Iran:

in 2006, 2016 and 2020. 

Featured were Jewish blood libels, conspiracy theories and praise for Hitler.  In 2020 an official poster was published calling for the “Final Solution” against Israel.

The Iranian regime seeks to use violence, repression and terror to seize control in the world and impose political Islam. Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1373 aimed at fighting terrorism after 9/11, the response by the world, save for the USA, has been weak.  Appeasement by the West has proved ineffective and it will be the next victim if it does not take a strong stand. This begins with condemnation of the images such as this war propaganda post.

The historic targeting of the USA by Iran prior to the current war cannot be overlooked. Iranian militia or groups backed by Iran have killed US soldiers multiple times in the Middle East. These include the 1983 barracks bombing and attacks in Iraq and Syria involving drone strikes. The US attributes decades of terrorism against US civilians to Iran.

In our era of non-racism and human rights, international human rights organisations are duty bound to call out this racist hatred and mobilise public opinion among democratic and freedom respecting nations.  This is a red alert to these defenders of humanity to expose this image as inciteful of hatred and to prevent further acts of random violence against Jewish communities, synagogues and organisations worldwide.

About the writer:

Born in Pretoria Lawrence Nowosenetz obtained his BA at University of the Witwatersrand and LLB at the University of South Africa. He has been admitted as an Attorney in South Africa and as an advocate in South Africa. He practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar and worked as a human rights and labour lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre a public interest law firm. Lawrence was Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and completed professional internship in the USA. He was a a labour arbitrator and mediator, part time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panelist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement. He was a member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Pretoria Chairman. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the Hight Court, South Africa. He now lives in Tel Aviv.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

10 November 2025 – At The Car Wall / Nova Memorial and more on The Israel Brief.

11 November 2025 – The late Hadar Goldin laid to rest after 11 years and more on The Israel Brief.

12 November 2025 – President Trump requests pardon for Prime Minister Netanyahu and your headlines in The Israel Brief.

12 November 2025 – Former hostages testify at the UN. Warning: Sensitive content. This and headlines in The Israel Brief.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Israel’s extreme-right leadership is failing not only this generation but future generations.

By Peter Bailey

The foremost responsibility of every government is to act as the guardian of future generations by ensuring the long-term viability and security of the state. The major concerns of the government of the State of Israel seem to be directed at the short-term future of the governing coalition, rather than the long-term future of the country. Since  the October 7 attack, with barbaric  atrocities committed by Hamas, followed by  Israel’s predictable subsequent military retaliation, a multitude of complex emotions have been unleashed in Israel, as well as within the Jewish world globally.  Amidst the fog of war and an ever-increasing concern about the fate of the hostages, another  kind of hostage drama sees  Israel’s prime minister voluntarily held hostage by politicians on the extreme right  of his coalition, inhibiting his  ability to effectively govern Israel.   

The inevitable decision to invade Gaza had the full and unequivocal support of the Israeli public, but as the war against Hamas in Gaza unfolded over almost two years, elements of doubt and disquiet began to surface in many minds. While several hostage recovery deals have taken place, elements within the governing coalition began latching on to United States President Donald Trump’s fanciful idea of turning Gaza into a Riviera-type holiday resort. Trump’s plan meant that the residents of Gaza would have to be temporarily housed elsewhere, while his unlikely  plan unfolded. The hard right in the governing coalition immediately read occupation and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza into Trump’s outlandish proposal. Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader Ben-Gvir was very quick to ensure that his prized prime ministerial hostage, Benjamin Netanyahu understood clearly that any deal to end the war would end the coalition, forcing an election.  The reality here is  a strong likelihood that Netanyahu would no longer be the prime minister, reducing his court appearances to be like those of any other accused in a criminal case, sans the deference and special treatment accorded to him as prime minister. The bizarre determination to keep the war in Gaza on the boil with the Knesset  Members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party continuing to support him, while he caves in to the demands of the far right, sets the scene for the dilemma of conscience with regard to morals, ethics and loyalty affecting many Israeli citizens. 

While 47 hostages, 20 or 22 alive and at least 25 are confirmed dead, the stakes for releasing the hostages, even if it means ending the war, have never been higher for most Israelis. Similarly, for prized political hostage Benjamin Netanyahu, the stakes are at an all-time high. He has to stay in power to retain his VIP accused status, with the kid glove treatment that goes along with it. His personal political lifeline is to keep the war going, with an ever-increasing number of troops facing a deadly urban terrorist foe, while the living hostages remain subject to the whims of their cruel captors, who have no respect for the captives’ lives or wellbeing. Keeping the war going creates all kinds of challenges for Netanyahu, least of all being an outward show of being committed to the endless hostage negotiations being moderated by Qatar, Egypt and to a lesser extent the United States. The hostage families and other critics within Israel believe the government is not showing sufficient flexibility in the negotiations in an effort not to reach an equitable conclusion, freedom for the hostage captives and an end to the war. The reality is that Netanyahu, taking his own hostage status into account, does not have the political maneuverability to be flexible in the hostage negotiations. 

The Trump Administration has been placing an ever-increasing degree of pressure on Israel to commit to a cease fire agreement, while the coalition government is doing its utmost to delay such an eventuality. The current deal on the table, presented by the U.S., puts Netanyahu on the spot. Refusal to negotiate will anger his friend and ally Donald Trump, negotiating in good faith and bending to Trump’s demands will alienate his political captors, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, leaving him very little wiggle room. It would seem that the creative solution he, or his advisers, came up with had the potential to kill two birds with one stone. Give flesh to Trump’s threats of “all hell breaking loose” on Hamas by taking a calculated risk with a precision military strike on the Hamas leadership in their safe haven in Qatar. The prize, a potential breakdown in negotiations without angering the U.S.  looked inviting, while a collapse of the negotiations would keep Ben Gvir and company smiling. The jury is still out on the end result of the attack  

Being a former South African who lived through the 40 years of National Party rule with government politicians judging loyalty on the degree of support given to the ‘Nats’, despite all the attendant dangers. The identical situation is unfolding in Israel, with those not supporting the right-wing government line being labelled as “traitors”, so similar to South Africa between 1960 and 1990. Zionist identity is being redefined in that those who question the extreme Revisionist line being taken, are declared to be unpatriotic at best, and anti-Zionist anti-Israel leftists at worst. The original Left Right political divide where the left-wing traditionally favoured progressive social policies through government intervention, while the right-wing sought individual liberty through limited government intervention, has become totally blurred in Israel. Israelis who favour some form of accommodation with the Palestinians, not necessarily two states, are labelled as leftists. Those who call for the annexation of Gaza, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) are the new right wing, who also see civil liberties as being discretionary and subject to government intervention, the exact opposite of classic right-wing beliefs. 

Many Israeli citizens, myself included, have spent countless hours writing articles, answering criticism in foreign media and defending Israel however and wherever possible. We consider ourselves ardent Zionists and defenders of the State of Israel. The reality that more and more of these ardent traditional  Zionists are questioning their determination to defend an Israel that is becoming increasingly indefensible. The majority of Israeli citizens accept that there is no widespread deliberate starvation in Gaza, but at the same time, many are beginning to understand that there is a hunger and potential human rights problem, which requires honest acknowledgement and intervention. With the  viciously barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks on 7 October in the background making this exceedingly difficult, Jews and Israelis must never allow themselves to be lowered to imitate the inhuman and inhumane standards of the terrorist.  We must  continually bear in mind that Hamas are vicious  terrorist murderers and not freedom fighters, while striving  to maintain our own high Jewish ethical and  moral values. This does not make those who maintain Jewish standards traitors, but rather labels those who call for the halting of aid and enforced starvation as Jews who do not fully subscribe to Jewish laws and morals as to how we are expected to treat our enemies.    

Added to the disquiet over the way the war is being waged is the manner in which the hostage negotiations are being conducted, as well as the attempts at partisan appointment of officials to critical senior positions in the Judiciary and the Security Establishments.   There is thus great concern about many aspects of life in Israel, from the attacks on the judiciary to an unequal military draft system with financial rewards to Yeshiva students for not doing military service, while reservists are expected  to serve ever-increasing periods fighting in Gaza or elsewhere, causing long-periods of separation from their families, many with young children adding thus adding unbearable strain as well as financial concerns.  Here again, any criticism of the unfair and unjust systems in place, labels the critics as “unpatriotic leftists” and even “traitors” to Israel. 

Having said all this, let me  clarify  that criticism of the current right-wing government is not criticism of Israel, but rather the democratic right of the citizens of  Israel to object to what they find  abhorrent and totally unacceptable in everyday government policies.

*Feature picture: Troubling Triumvirate.  Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister in the Defense Ministry.

About the writer:
The writer, Peter Bailey, a military history buff, was a Major in the South African Army Reserve before making aliyah in 2013.  He is the author of two books: Street Names in Israel; and Men of Valor: Israel’s Latter Day Heroes. 

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).