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| Ari Fuld הי"ד |
A former New Yorker whose brother was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the West Bank is begging his Jewish brethren to “wake up” and ditch the land of bagels and lox in favor of the land of milk and honey.
Queens native Hillel Fuld, who moved to Israel at 15, believes Israel is the safest place for Jews — as antisemitic crimes soar in the US.
“Jews, get out now. Get the hell out while you still can,” Fuld warned in an interview with The Post.
The 45-year-old married father of five who lives between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem called the recent spate of violent attacks in his native New York and around the US “heartbreaking” — and labeled last week’s Los Angeles attack at an anti-Israel rally a “legitimate modern-day pogrom.”
“Read the writing on the wall,” pleaded Fuld, whose older brother, Ari, 45, was stabbed to death near his home in Efrat by a 17-year-old Palestinian.
“Nobody has to lecture me on terrorism — I know it.”
He added: “You are no longer safe on the streets of New York or Los Angeles.”
The latest statistics are grim — as antisemitic hate crimes are up 45% in 2024, according to NYPD data obtained by The Post in April — and the emboldened nature of recent attacks, many captured on shocking video, raise more alarm.
Earlier this month, 24-year-old Anas Saleh commandeered a packed rush-hour subway train, demanding that “Zionists” identify themselves, cops said. Survivors of the Oct. 7 attack were trapped inside a downtown Manhattan memorial and having panic attacks in lockdown as a mob outside raged, chanting, “Long live the intifada,” a known call to violence.
“This is literally 1930s Europe,” he said of the shocking subway incident. “It’s scary this could happen in New York.”
The tech guru with a massive social media presence claimed he’s not being “alarmist” when he draws parallels between what he hears about in his native New York City with the dangerous climate his Auschwitz survivor grandmother experienced as a youngster.
Those whose strategy is wait-and-see are in “denial,” said Fuld, noting the German Jews of the 1930s.
“We always say, ‘But we’re the most German people,’” he said, invoking a common refrain about the German Jews who didn’t think the Holocaust – and systematic slaughter of six million Jews – could befall humanity.
Israel Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, told The Post that “obviously” Jews are safer in Israel than the US, especially after multiple US university presidents failed to condemn and control raging antisemitism on their campuses. American Jews must start to consider an exit strategy, he stressed.
“One of the options — and it’s an important option — is a return to the Jewish homeland,” Chikli said.
More than 700 Jews around the world moved to Israel, or made “aliyah,” since the Oct. 7 attacks, according to an Israeli nonprofit.
Fuld insisted he’s not meshugana, conceding that Israel has its problems, especially dealing with the massive security failure on Oct. 7. But the techie stressed that the population — and those charged to protect it, namely the IDF — will always have your back.
In Israel, he said, they know who the enemy is, whereas in New York, they’re masked — literally — referring to the face coverings so many antisemites have hidden behind.
Fuld admitted to hiding his yarmulke with a hat while visiting Times Square recently with his wife and five kids, ages 13 to 19.
“It’s just not worth the risk,” he said. “And that’s tragic.”
Fuld admitted that American Jews pushed back against his haunting harbingers, saying “the world is too civilized to let it happen again,” that “America is not Germany” and that “if we run away, they win,” he recalled of the skepticism.
But his assessment of the escalating chaos isn’t brimming with optimism.
“We know what’s about to happen – and it’s going to happen fast. The genie is out of the bottle,” he said. “Antisemitism will only get worse and worse. Open a history book.
“I would love nothing more than to be wrong,” he said somberly. “But I don’t think I am.”
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| Hillel Fuld |
