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Dear AASECT, The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists,
As usual, my timing has served me extremely well. I was eligible to apply for AASECT certification about 1 year ago. I have been holding off, and I could not figure out why. Today it is crystal clear why I could not move forward with AASECT. There is absolutely nothing controversial about condemning the heinous crimes against humanity that occurred on Oct.7th. People say that words lead to violence, I will double down and say that silence leads to violence.
My name is Shely R Esses, I am an LMFT, and I have been practicing as a Sex therapist for 7+ years. As a Jewish mental health professional who also holds an associate degree in Jewish studies, I have an expert understanding of the undertones and evolution of Anti-Semitism. Silence regarding barbaric sexual violence against Jewish Women, children, the elderly, and Men is unjustifiable. How did we get here?
Four myths have been used for centuries to perpetuate Anti-Semitism.
Myth 1: Jew’s killed Christ.
This myth was used to unite Christians. This Myth is one of the origins of Anti-Semitism. Consequently, in that century, the church, promoted laws against Jews, barring them from farm ownership, religious worship, and intermarriage, and generally stuck Jews in ghettos with limited rights.
Myth 2: Desecration of the Host.
In 1215, after the Church established the doctrine that the flesh & blood of Christ is embodied in the consecrated Host & Wine used during the mass, stories began to circulate that Jews stole, mutilated, or burned the Host to kill Jesus again. Over the next 400 years, Jews were burned at the stake or banished from countries in which they lived due to the accusations of Host desecration. The last Jew accused of stealing a Host was burned to death in 1631. Accusations with corporal punishment of Host desecration gradually decreased after the Reformation.
Myth 3: Blood Libel.
this myth is the belief that Jews use the blood of murdered Christian children while baking the Passover Matza & other religious rituals. Blood libels became increasingly common persisting through the 20th century. This myth was largely responsible for numerous massacres in the Middle Ages + pogroms in the 19th century. A vicious Anti-Semitic campaign was launched in the 1800's in the Russian press against the Jewish community. The most notorious blood libel trial took place in 1913 in Kyiv. Nazi propaganda utilized this myth. The blood libel myth continues to be used in many countries to promote Jew Hatred. It most recently appeared in the Egyptian, Qatari & Saudi Arabian press.
Myth 4: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion One is the most notorious works of Anti-Semitic propaganda in modern times. It professes that there is a secret Jewish conspiracy for world domination. It was written by the Tsarist political police, the propaganda arm of Russia in the 1890s. These protocols were used to incite pogroms against Jews in Russia. in 1920 the protocols were translated to numerous languages. in 1921 Adolf Hitler refers to these protocols in Mein Kampf. As recently as 2006 these protocols were being printed in England, over the objection of the local Jewish community. The Protocols are still advertised in the United States on Amazon.
The eradication of nearly 1,710 years of institutional anti-Jewish teachings is an ongoing process. However, the world's oldest hatred continues to mutate and take old hatred with new shoes. I would highly suggest watching this video by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: https://rabbisacks.org/videos/the-mutation-of-antisemitism/
To truly understand the wool that has been pulled over everyone’s eyes is to look into Operation SIG which is a Russian acronym for Sionistskyie Gosudarstva or “Jewish (Zionist) government” which is funded by the KGB. They funded a widespread propaganda and disinformation campaign as well as direct support (funding, training, arms) for groups declaring Israel their enemy. Around 1967, the KGB started creating media to promote its new narrative of Jews as bogeymen stating:
1) Jews (the Zionists) are responsible for Anti-Semitism
2) Zionist Organizations worldwide engage in espionage
3) Zionism is a trojan horse for imperialism and racism in the third-world
4) The Jews collaborated with the Nazis during WWII
5) Holocaust inversion: make people believe that Israelis are Nazis.
This story does not end there. The KGB helped establish the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1960’s. Yuri Andropov, who was chairman of the KGB in 1967 said, “We need to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel.” The KGB helped draft the Palestinian National Charter and hand-picked the 422 members of the PLO.
Propaganda is a wing of the Jihadi movement and it is thriving in the world of electronic entertainment and social media. Stealthy propagation has been described in ISM (Islamist Social media) as Establishing social programs to discreetly spread the ideology without attracting unwanted attention.
In 2014, Hamas’ interior ministry issued guidelines to Gazan social media influencers for reporting events to their Western following. The Times of Israel published an article on the 10-year-long training (beginning around 2014) that prepared Hamas terrorists for the attacks they would carry out on Oct.7th,2023. The timing of Hamas’ training exercises suggests that after observing the West’s reliance on social media for news, Hamas knew that 10 years of conditioning with the rhetoric would allow them to have their bidding done for them from miles away. Through 10 years of carefully designing propaganda, Hamas brainwashed much of the world into believing that the Jewish state defending itself following the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust should be equated to genocide.
I have a feeling why this was so easy for the majority of Western-minded folks. The very pressing issue of unprocessed guilt and subconsciously and desperately trying to relieve guilt. The claim that Jews are capable of doing what was done to them attempts to equalize everybody. The Portuguese author Jos Saramago, who paralleled Ramallah and Auschwitz, did precisely this. When one calls everything Auschwitz, you deny the Holocaust. As everything becomes terrible, there is no absolute evil anymore. This is a great relief for the unwanted powerful guilt that won’t go away. The final solution to the Jewish question was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was making its way to the Middle East and North Africa. If the final solutions reach in the MENA region is new information to you then you are sorely misinformed.
Who should be held accountable for this insanely horrific plan that wiped out 6 Million Jewish people? Should blame only fall on Nazi perpetrators? What about the bystanders? What about the masses of the previous generation who looked the other way? Either by their inaction during the Holocaust or by accepting Nazi sympathizers and perpetrators back into society after the war? What about the next generation for having accepted their parents, some of whom worked for Hitler’s regime and many of whom were bystanders?
“mass murder made people feel uncomfortable. Being a passive bystander during the war aroused shame and guilt feelings, even if one has not actively cooperated with the Nazis. It raised thoughts about morality, good and evil and the hidden potential of what ‘normal’ human beings could inflict on others.” – Nathan Durst, Holocaust Psychologist and co-founder of AMCHA
Israel is resistant to 1,812 years of nonstop colonialism and occupation. Israel is resistant to the British Empire, the Arab Empire, the Nazi Regime, the Byzantines, the Romans and the Greeks. This is our fifth liberation of Israel during our continued survival story of 4000 years. The people of Israel are the face of resistance to genocide, massacres, dhimmi apartheid, and lies from Arab Colonialism.
Hamas, Iran & Russia, and their axis of power plan to harness the power of existing global antisemitism to incite a global holy war against Israel, and the people of Israel (JEWS) around the world. People in the West have so far been extremely complicit in this planned scheme. Imagine believing that Israel has the upper hand in this vicious and asymmetrical war against the axis of evil. (There are a sheer 16 million Jews in the entire world due to continuous persecution and mass murder)
After the Holocaust, some non-Jewish neighbors and silent bystanders told their Jewish acquaintances who survived something like: "If all Jews would have been like you it wouldn’t have happened. All the other Jews were unworthy."
This is what pushing down guilt looks like, it is also what 2000 years of institutional Anti-Semitic teachings will do.
I will conclude with one thought...
If you believe or have thought to yourself that if the Jewish people keep being targeted then they must be deserving then you are Anti-Semitic or worse dealing with Internalized Anti-Semitism.
With that being said, I truly hope that the leadership of AASECT will be courageous and take a stand against the brutal, inhumane, and barbaric sexual violence against Jewish Women, Children, Elderly, and Men. Rape is NEVER resistance.
With a hopeful heart, Shely. R. Esses, LMFT
Rav Avraham Isaac Kook: There are free men with the spirit of a slave and slaves whose spirit is full of freedom. He who is true to their inner self is a free person, while they whose entire life is merely a stage for what is good and beautiful in the eyes of others, is a slave.
sources:
2)SSI Columbia et al Hamas Interior Ministry (moi.gov.ps)
3)The KGB and Anti-Israel Propaganda Operations, 2019, Informing Science, The International Journal of Emerging Transdisciplinary
4)The KGB and Soviet Disinformation,2016, Ladislav Bittman
5)The 4000-Year Journey in Search of Peace, Danny Taran
Powerful and very very important.