Chabad couple calls for strengthening Jewish identity after murder of UAE rabbi
Much of the Jewish world was shocked by the recent murder of the Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates last weekend.
One married Chabad couple based in New York, Daniel and Raizel Namdar, shared their views on the challenges of living a Jewish life amid growing global antisemitism.
The social media influencers emphasized that their message is to embrace and strengthen a positive Jewish identity.
“They're always trying to portray attacking the Jews with the excuse of Zionism,” Daniel said. “I feel like this attack on Rabbi Kogan represents something much deeper. The fact that they attacked an emissary of the Rebbe, which is a representation in their eyes of the Jewish people, exposes that they're just after the Jews, they hate the Jewish people and what Judaism stands for," he assessed.
"The answer to hate is actually just being stronger in what they hate, and they hate us for being Jews. So we just need to be stronger Jews," Raizel argued.
"We are here to transform the world by adding light. How do we trace away darkness? If the room is dark, you just flick on a candle, you flick on the light because that is the way that we need to respond – with positivity, with light," they stated in their video message to their global audience.
Despite many challenges ahead, the Namdars remain cautiously optimistic about the future.
"Once we started the channel as a family channel, we had a comment that was really strong for us. Someone had commented, 'I used to hate Jews until now and now that I'm following your family and I see what Jewish life is really about, I can't hate Jews anymore,'" Raizel recalled.
She said it was "very powerful for us because this is what we're here for. These are the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. These are the values of the Torah."
Despite their life-affirming and positive outlook, the couple is no stranger to antisemitism, both online and in person. Raziel recounted an incident in Vietnam where a stranger harassed her and her young children.
"It was very traumatic for my son. He's a little three-year-old," Raziel said, "so it's definitely something that is there and prevalent and we can't ignore it, and we have to be smart about it. I think the answer is not to let the antisemitism get to us. We have to do and double down,” she pledged.
Daniel framed the current wave of global antisemitism within the historical context of Jewish resilience and survival against overwhelming odds.
“They might want to crush our souls and kill the spirits of the Jewish people and our bodies,” he assessed, “But if they haven't learned from the past, we always stand up, we always rise."
"We have to keep going for those souls that we've lost, for all the souls in Israel as well. That's our mission. That's what we need to do. We need to keep living for them.”
Antisemitism has long been viewed as a primarily Jewish problem. However, in September, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt stated that a growing number of countries realize that hatred against Jews is ultimately a societal problem with global implications.
The threat of antisemitism has been particularly evident after the Hamas Oct. 7 invasion and massacre last year, which was followed by a rise in terror attacks on Jews worldwide.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
