Am Y’Israel Chai t shirt - would you wear it?

[Cleaningupthemess]

I bought one from Amazon. It’s written in Ivrit. I’m not sure if I dare wear it out the house though. I live in a large multicultural northern city. I have Jewish friends and friends from other religions and most are atheists. I just want to feel I stand alongside what my late DPs, DGPs, to live somewhere safer and not suffer persecution. I also want to stand alongside Jews throughout the world who want the same. I’m 100% Ashkenazi Jewish but a total atheist. But especially since 7th October I feel ‘protective’ about a safe place for Jewish people and to my Jewishness in general. With the T shirt being in Hebrew, I imagine not many people out and about will even realise what language it’s in. Am I going to be making myself a target?

I’ve stopped wearing anything obviously identifying, which includes several hoodies/T-shirts so they’ve just become stuff I wear in the house.

i feel like a lot of people recognise non Latin alphabets quite easily? They don’t know what they say obviously but they can pick out Russian, Chinese, Hebrew etc. I’ve had abuse when it has been recognised last year hence not wearing anything like that anymore in public at least for a while.

your mileage may vary, basically judge off your town and where you would be going in it (and depressing to say this, but make sure to have something you could easily throw on top even on a hot day if you felt worried at any point)

Rid. Thanks. It’s so sad isn’t it. I think I’ll stick to wearing it round the house.

I agree, people will recognise the script even if it said something like "I love cats" and that could make you a target. It's terrible but that seems to be the way (would be interesting to see the reaction to a T-shirt with a slogan written in Russian characters. Not as bad would be my guess).

Well I decided to return it as can’t really justify buying something to only wear it around the house. Amazon have processed it and said there’s no need to return the item . So looks like I will be wearing it indoors. I feel so sad it’s so unsafe to wear it round and about. We are back to my DPs and DGPs experience of not daring to draw any attention to their Jewishness.

I wouldn't wear it outside, but wish I had the boldness. Sometimes DH runs in a t-shirt with Hebrew, but only through fields so doesn't meet many people.

If I saw someone wearing an Am Israel Chai t-shirt I would be delighted, it would really make me happy, but unfortunately I'm too cowardly to do it myself.

I can’t decide if I’d be brave or stupid if I wore it out. Possibly both. Good on your DP, although I guess if he’s running it would be harder for anyone to read even if they did pass him.

I think it depends a bit on where you live! Where I grew up there's 0% chance I'd dare to wear one. It'd definitely be stupid. When my (very religious) brother visited our home town last year with his young children, they all removed their kippahs to be on the safe side 🙃

The town I live in now, a very mixed area but where Jews are the largest minority present, I'd feel a lot braver about it. There are still posters of hostages with their eyes ripped out and my friend caught someone on camera doing the Hitler salute to her mezuzah etc but there is still some form of "safety in numbers".

Hitler salute to her mezuzah etc

i think I’m so passed rage at this point and just want to sit in a corner and cry.

It is such a sad reflection of the times we live in that this question even needs to be asked

It’s all such a tragic mess. I think for the first time in my life I’m getting a taste of why my relatives were all so guarded and why my DF would never raise his voice above a whisper if he said the word ‘Jewish’ or ‘Jew’ once he’d left the house. My DGP used to walk to our house after shul on Saturday and when he got to ours, took his yarmulke out his pocket and put it back on. I never really thought about that as a little girl, but now I totally get why he did that .