The Jewish Moms of Atlanta are a powerful, all-knowing entity. Need advice on finding a pediatrician or input on which summer camps are good? Go to the Jewish Moms of Atlanta Facebook group. Looking to buy slim cut pants for your boy with no tush, or need a reading tutor or (anonymously) a marriage counselor? Ask the Jewish Moms. They’ll tell you. They’ll know. I’ve seen the JMOA find someone a last minute babysitter in friggin’ California.
Recently, a post on what underwear is the best and where to find it (Costco, of course) garnered 97 comments.
Jewish mothers have opinions. And the group is a place to share those opinions.
A safe place.
A safe place from a world of rising anti-Semitism. Where pictures of swastikas pop up in Facebook feeds on a near regular basis. Where the Ku Klux Klan is marching again. Where people not-so-secretly blame the Jews for what’s wrong with this country.
A few weeks ago, that safe space was invaded when a horrific anti-Semitic post made its way into the group.
Before I go on, I want to stress that this image was not originally posted in the group. It appeared in a regional Facebook group for people to buy/sell items. A member was so horrified she reposted it (to share the horror) in the Jewish Moms of Atlanta group.
So while the Jewish Moms of Atlanta group wasn’t infiltrated in any direct way, the post was a reminder of the ugliness that’s out there. And it hit closer to home than ever before. Because it wasn’t swastikas being painted on a wall someplace far away or a talking head on TV.
No.
This was different. It was local. It was specifically targeting Jewish parents. The same parents who go to each other for advice on all things everything, including, yes, what kind of stroller to buy.
This guy would like to see my two precious, beautiful children dead, and he lives only a few dozen miles away.
So it did more than hurt and it did more than sting. It rocked this Jewish mother to her core. And made me want to do nothing more than squeeze and hug my Jewish children and never let them go.
Eventually (after some good hugging and kissing), I did let them go. Because I had to. I had to let them go so I could let go some of my anger and do something productive with it.
The JMOA had expressed outrage and used their many connections to contact people at the ADL. We went a little further. I contacted friends with media connections who did some additional investigating and turned up a little more dirt. My awesome husband contacted local Jewish publications and national Jewish publications and contacted friends on Twitter to repost the disgusting image. We got vocal and encouraged others to get vocal, too. We didn’t want to hide from this. We wanted to make this disgusting anti-Semite famous.
Finally, enough people reported the post to get it taken down.
But that is not enough. Would we like his account to be taken down, for him to be outed to his employer? Yes. And we haven’t done that—yet. We know he is still out there with his disgusting anti-Semitic views, and we can’t change that. And, what’s worse, is that we know there are so many more like him.
But, we wanted to show him that he doesn’t scare me and that he doesn’t scare our friends. Because we’re tough, we’re smart, and we aren’t scared of ignorant, hate-filled people. We are strong and united and ready to stand up to anti-Semitism in order to protect our children.
Don’t mess with the Jewish Moms.
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