Fascinating #IMTHATJEW Viral Video Fights Anti-Semitism

By WRN Editorial Staff --
16 Oct 2015 --

Writer puts together video that “puts into words what every Jew around the world has been feeling.”

In a video posted to Eitan Chitayat’s Facebook page on Thursday, he compiles 5 minutes of clips that span politics and culture over many decades. The voiceover of commentary explains the life of a Jew, experiencing bullying and stereotyping, but also highlighting the joys of their culture and the successes of famous Jews such as Ben Stiller, Natalie Portman, and Nobel Prize winner Francois Englert.

The video, which declares #IMTHATJEW, aims to take a stand against hatred towards Jews, perhaps shocking people who didn’t know “[insert famous person here]” is Jewish. He is urging the Jewish people to stand up and remember that they’re all in this together.

My name is Eitan Chitayat. And #IMTHATJEW
This has been simmering with me for a while.
And I’ve been wondering when…
Posted by Words by Eitan Chitayat on Thursday, October 15, 2015

“We’ll get through this because we love life and we’re strong and smart and funny and beautiful and talented and resilient and educated and hard-working and positive and so much more.”

Chitayat is the founder and creative director of Natie, a creative agency. He’s also a blogger for The Times of Israel.

22 hours after its posting, it had been viewed over 466,000 times and shared nearly 20,000 times.

The following message accompanied the video posted to Facebook:

My name is Eitan Chitayat. And #IMTHATJEW

This has been simmering with me for a while.
And I’ve been wondering when would be the right time to let it out.

The time is now.

Last year, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre went down in France, radical Islamic terrorists entered a kosher supermarket and gunned down innocent Jewish shoppers who were just out to buy some groceries. They were killed because they were Jewish – no other reason. The world remained largely silent.

And look at anti-Semitism now. It’s 2015 and it’s everywhere you look. In the streets. In the media. In the classroom. It’s practically en vogue.

Is this really what we’ve come to?

Lest any Jew forgets – because of all the violence directed at us, the hatred, the incitement to harm and kill, the vile words, the missiles, the rockets, the knives, the rocks, the deafening silence of the world that we all feel right now – we should be proud of our heritage, accomplishments and spirit. Just like anyone else on this planet. And we shouldn’t be shy about it.

Rise up, speak up and keep your chins up. We’ll get through this because we love life and we’re strong and smart and funny and beautiful and talented and resilient and educated and hard-working and positive and so much more.

We’re okay. In fact, we’re more than okay.
We rock. And here’s a little reminder.

Love and peace to all.
#IMTHATJEW

———–
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– Bob Dylan
– Elena Kagan
– Richard Dreyfuss
– Jack Black
– Alan Greenspan
– Drake
– Ed Koch
– Gabriel Macht
– Golda Meir
– Randy Savage
– Moses
– Billy Crystal
– Lou Charloff
– Asaf Goren
– Ben Gurion
– Mark Spitz
– Jeremy Piven
– Yael Arad
– Michael Bloomberg
– Sergey Brin
– Larry Page
– Howard Stern
– Sheryl Sandberg
– Shia Labeouf
– Mark Zuckerberg
– Bar Rafaeli
– Rachel Weisz
– Peter Sellers
– Alicia Silverstone
– Billy Joel
– Adam Levine
– Roman Abramovich
– Abba Eban
– Manuel Valls
– Steven Spielberg
– Jesus Christ Superstar
– Bernie Madoff
– Adam Goldberg
– Joan Rivers
– Paul Newman
– Judge Judy
– Menachem Begin
– Yitzhak Rabin
– Sammy Davis Jr.
– Amar’e Stoudemire
– Ben Stiller
– Jeff Goldblum
– Larry King
– Sacha Baron Cohen
– Arthur Miller
– Albert Einstein
– Sigmund Freud
– Ruth Westheimer
– Monica Lewinsky
– Francois Englert
– Carl Sagan
– Ilan Ramon
– Paul Rudd
– Jonah Hill
– Seth Rogan
– Andy Samberg
– Mel Brooks
– Jerry Seinfeld
– Bill Maher
– Larry David
– Scarlet Johansson
– Gal Gadot
– Natalie Portman
– Carrie Fisher
– Haim Topol
– Joseph Gordon-Levitt
– Amy Winehouse
– Ed Milliband
– Bernie Sanders
– Matisyahu
– Stephen Fry
– Sara Hurwitz
– Leonard Cohen
– Leonard Nimoy
– William Shattner
– Daniel Pearl
– Pope Francis
– Dalai Lama
– Sarah Silverman
– Madeleine Albright
– Mark Knopfler
– Yoni Netanyahu
– Yitzhak Rabin
– Families of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel
– Gene Simmons
– Yuri Foreman
– Liev Schreiber
– Eli Weisel
– Shimon Peres
– Coen Brothers
– Harvey Weinstein
– Beastie Boys
– Simon and Garfunkel
– Rina Wertheim
– Lucian Freud
– Ralph Lauren
– Nigella Lawson
– Adam Sandler
– Woody Allen
– Harrison Ford
– Lenny Kravitz
– Madonna
– Dustin Hoffman
– Benjamin Millepied
– Kirk and Michael Douglas
– Jon Stewart
– Gene Wilder
– Pink
– Winston Churchill
– Franklin Roosevelt
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Jim Henson
– Bill and Melinda Gates
– John Lennon

https://t.co/ExoiWFo5dA #imthatjew THIS IS BRILLIANT!!! #IStandWithIsrael
— Melissa (@rockdrool) October 16, 2015

.@echitayat I wanted to say thank you for trying to make the world more aware, tolerant and accepting. #imthatjew
— Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo) October 16, 2015