The year is 1938: European Jews, leave now - opinion

Madrid is still considered a relatively quiet place for Jews. In Europe, they call it the "Uber index," a simple measure: when you order a ride in Madrid, the driver's name is likely Javier, Jose, or Ricardo. In Barcelona, however, your driver will be Ahmed, Mohammed, or Jihad. When I met with Dan Poraz, Israel’s chargé d'affaires in Madrid, he explained the context behind this index.

"Look, there are Israeli WhatsApp groups here – one for game tickets, another for babysitters, and here's one for antisemitic incidents in Madrid."

This last group is filled with random hate toward Jews. On the wall of a Jewish-owned restaurant, someone scrawled in Spanish: "Zionists out."

As I scrolled, I saw a red triangle next to the graffiti – the symbol used by Hamas in their Telegram groups when bragging about targeting "Zionist pig soldiers." This triangle is even on the official Twitter account of Spain’s Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego. Check it out; she supported Hamas's actions after October 7, in case you were wondering.

As we parted, Poraz said, "My grandfather left after Hitler rose to power, fled to Israel, and survived, and here I am."

Today, he is the only protected ambassador in Spain. Europe 2024. Welcome.

Amsterdam pogrom

The Amsterdam pogrom couldn't have timed itself better, occurring exactly on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938. What poetic historical vision for the Muslim hooligans in the Netherlands. The pogrom ended without casualties, making it all the more dangerous. We, the Jews, are addicted to peace. Experts in wiping bloodstains and moving on. In Israel, a Tel Aviv restaurant goes back to buzzing three minutes after explosions light up the sky. It's the secret of our survival, and our disaster.

The lynching of Jews has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. During Operation Guardian of the Walls, former Israel Space Agency chief Avi Har-Even was burned alive in Acre’s Effendi Hotel, Jews were beaten, and their homes were set aflame.

On October 7, it was refined further, and we haven’t fully absorbed the extent of the horror even a year later. Now, this plague is being exported to Europe. In these times, this isn’t a convergence of scenes but an accumulation.The problem is that we Jews move forward while looking in the rearview mirror. It’s our specialty. We tell ourselves we’re learning – until the next crash.

With a backpack, you hesitate at the door Kristallnacht is known as a pivotal event, a historical milestone commemorated across the continent. Well, one might think. About 400 Jews were killed then, a third of the number murdered in the Simchat Torah massacre.

If you asked a Jew in 1938, they’d say that Kristallnacht must never happen again. A committee would debate how to prevent the next Kristallnacht, not how to prevent the Holocaust. And the signs were everywhere: the rise of Nazism, the Reich laws, Nazi propaganda, and Kristallnacht, concentration camps, and labor camps. But it didn’t help. The first extermination camp was established only three years after that night, in 1941, in Chelmno.

Europe 1938

On Kristallnacht, police were instructed not to interfere with the rioters, and firefighters refrained from extinguishing the flames, sometimes even stoking them. Sound familiar? After that horrific night, Jews were forced to pay for the damages inflicted by the Nazis, providing "humanitarian economic aid."

Luckily, they weren’t asked to send relief trucks to the rioters. Those who didn’t pay were deported and murdered. When the German insurance company representative was called to a meeting, they found that Jewish-owned store windows alone were insured for $6 million.

In response, Nazi official Goering told Heydrich: "It would have been better to kill 200 Jews instead of destroying so much property." After Kristallnacht, the Nazis understood that killing Jews would meet with weak international response, and the road was clear. On the world's blood exchange, Jewish stock traded at steep losses. 

Those who understood fled: in November 1938, around 300,000 Jews lived within the old Reich’s borders, but by the war’s outbreak, only 185,000 remained. Forty percent of the Jews understood and left. But we must not avert our gaze from the sixty percent who stayed behind. We must not be like them today.

So, you embark on the journey. The first rule in strategic management during an election campaign is not to become addicted to numbers. Sometimes your candidate leads, but a closer look at support rates and satisfaction indices shows he’s going to lose. Sometimes, it’s the opposite: he’s lagging, but the momentum is on his side.

What’s happening in Europe tells the story clearly. No more data, warning signs, or academic analyses are needed because the momentum is clear, and the conclusion screams: Jews of Europe – flee now.

Since Israel’s founding, it was the one that needed Diaspora Jews. Their support was political, economic, and moral – they were our insurance policy. That has changed. After October 7, it’s clear that Israel is the insurance policy for world Jewry. If Israel, God forbid, does not survive, their time is running out. But this policy is also limited: what is happening these days on the aging, increasingly Muslim continent no longer requires contemplation; it requires packing.

Come home, now

I continued from Madrid to Lisbon and met with Israel’s ambassador to Portugal, Oren Rosenblat. "Whenever I lecture to Christian audiences," he said, "the question ‘Why do you refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah?’ always comes up." And this is in a church that invited him out of support for Israel. He explained that they rely on a New Testament verse quoted at funerals, stating that only those who believe in Jesus will inherit eternal life. Regrettably, the Jews still refuse to accept Jesus.

"It’s been ingrained in Sunday sermons for 2000 years. The antisemitic ideas of the Church flow in their veins and have merely been updated in recent years. They find it hard to let go," he sighed.

In our rearview mirror, there’s so much blood, fire, and smoke – it’s time to look forward. Our brethren on the other side of the sea need to come to Israel, this time before it’s too late. A million new Jews who will come to Israel will be the proof that history doesn’t have to repeat itself and that the 1930s can transform into an era of salvation and prosperity for us.

Let's allow the Europeans to enjoy all that goodness alone; come home.

Moshe Klughaft is an international strategic advisor, former advisor to Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu  and Natalie Bennett.