Dear Friend,

We’ve once again seen the face of evil.

First, innocent magazine staff members were murdered because of a caricature that appeared in a satirical publication. In the twisted minds of the terrorists involved, it somehow made sense to kill people who dared to express an opinion deemed “disrespectful.”

Then, on Friday, 20 people were held captive and four Jews wound up killed in a kosher supermarket. Yoav, Yohan, Philippe, François-Michel—and all the other men and women trapped inside—were targeted in the midst of their Shabbat shopping just because they were Jewish.

Anti-Semitism had reared up its ugly head yet again.

The following morning, Jews all around the world gathered in synagogues and heard the weekly Torah portion. There, we read of perhaps the first instance of anti-Semitism. The children of Israel were living in Egypt. They were not breaking any laws, had not harmed anyone and had no intention of doing so. Yet, Pharoah and his people saw them as enemies. And so the Israelites were enslaved and ordered to be killed; the Egyptians used every means at their disposal to destroy them.

And right there, lies the answer to anti-Semitism. “The more they oppressed them, the more they proliferated and spread.”

They tried to cut us down. We will increase.

They tried to frighten us. We will stand tall.

They hate us because we are Jewish. We will take pride in our identity.

They attacked a kosher grocery. We will cherish keeping kosher even more.

#JeSuisJuif, #JeSuisCacher

The nation of Israel will live on forever.

And to the mourning families in Paris: We share your pain and are crying with you. May G‑d bring the day when all tears will be wiped away from the Earth for good!

The Chabad.org Editorial Team