Four months have passed yet Dr. Ira “Ike” Jacobson of Palm Beach County Florida remembers it clearly. How he felt and his immediate reaction after seeing firsthand footage and news coverage of the disturbing pogrom against Israeli tourists. The Jewish tourists were attending the local Ajax versus Israeli Maccabee Tel Aviv soccer match in Amsterdam, Holland on November 7th, 2024, when they were attacked and beaten by crowds of Islamo-Nazi Arab thugs waiting outside the Stadium.
Says Dr. Jacobson, “We watched footage of the Amsterdam pogrom on tv with Israeli’s running for their lives, being beaten, or jumping into the river to escape. I woke up the next morning knowing that I needed to go to Amsterdam. At the time, I did not know what I could possibly do to help, and I did not have a plan. I just knew that I had to go to Amsterdam and that it was the right thing to do.” That day Dr. Ira booked a flight.
Schedules, flights, and a plan started to align and on Monday March 24th of this year, Ira left sunny Florida for Amsterdam with an Israeli flag safely tucked into his backpack and only one small poster promoting the rally in his back pocket.
Testing the proverbial waters, Ira took out the “Never Again” rally poster to pose for a photo at his Delta flight’s gate. The response from other travelers? Plenty of stares but no one said a single word. Unfortunately, Jews in the diaspora have become accustomed to the deafening silence and overwhelming lack of empathy from outsiders in the face of antisemitism, the multiple front war on Israel (by Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi’s, Syria, and Iran), the depraved Hamas October 7th attack, and commemorating the Holocaust.
Once in Amsterdam, Ira did not encounter issues or any antisemitism. For one, Ira’s last name, “Jacobson” was always mistaken as a Swedish surname especially by his Uber drivers. Secondly, Ira is now immune to the effects of antisemitism. Since his formative years as a medical resident running with the likes of the JDL, Dr. Jacobson does not fear antisemitism and therefore rarely feels it himself. However, Ira is quite sensitive to the rampant antisemitism on college campuses and on the streets of American cities where fellow Jews are bullied and attacked daily.
“Never Again” Rally
Dr. Ira Jacobson describes the March 28th “Never Again” rally sponsored by Herut of North America as a meaningful, heartfelt, and grassroots gathering of unapologetic Zionists. Ira chose the sidewalk in the front of the Anne Frank House Museum for the “Never Again” rally because it is a special landmark and always surrounded by curious tourists. The Anne Frank House is a well-known Holocaust memorial that requires advance ticket purchase and has a seven-week waiting list! People from all over the world know the name, Anne Frank, and easily relate to a young girl hiding from the Nazi’s with her family in the 1940’s before being turned in by Dutch Nazi sympathizers and then sent to her death in 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Less well known, is that Dr. Jacobson planned the “Never Again” rally to be an intimate and peaceful gathering of community activists joined in solidarity to stand up against antisemitism. It was never meant to put the Anne Frank House in danger or draw negative attention to the museum and Holocaust. Ira kept the details of the rally hush to prevent any counter rallies or unwanted media attention. The one-hour rally brought a small group of supporters together from Holland, Belgium, Romania, the UK, and the USA. There were no posters and no loudspeakers. No political movers or shakers were invited, and no famous movie stars or highly paid professional speakers were hired. Only your average, concerned, boots on the ground no nonsense activist type arrived to hold up the Israeli flag, reflect, and “be” in the moment. The rally’s goal was simple: to show unwavering solidarity with Israel and Jews of the Diaspora.
Ira describes the highlight of the day as having been approached by someone nearby and in a hushed voice being told “thank you” in Hebrew. That witnessing the rally and seeing the Israeli flag held up high in the open made someone other than Ira “feel good inside.” Ira beamed with pride. So, was it worth it? “Yes! We were there for people of Amsterdam, and for all the Jewish kids on college campuses,” said Ira. The “Never Again” rally needed to happen now, four months after, as apathy for the tiny Jewish nation peaks.
The Hague
Ira booked a guided bus tour of the city. The certified guide aka bus driver chatted away and provided anecdotal “facts” about Amsterdam, Dutch tulips, and happy windmills. As the bus approached the Hague and its ICC stop, the UN’s very own notoriously antisemitic, anti-Israel, International Criminal Court, the bus driver announced, “This is where we are going after international criminals like Putin and Netanyahu.” In defiance, an irate Ira purchased a placemat and a magic marker from a nearby tourist shop. On the back of the mat, he wrote – “Israeli Lives Matter!!” He then held it up outside the ICC and kept it visible in one of the bus’s windows for the remainder of the tour.
Not only is comparing Israel’s democratically elected Prime Minister Netanyahu, to Russia’s long-standing Dictator Putin inaccurate; then insinuating that Israel’s defensive actions in Gaza is the moral equivalent to the Russian army’s imperialistic landgrab and invasion into Ukraine, is grossly misleading, harmful, and false. As Ira exited the bus, he turned to the tour guide and said, “You are what I call a “traveling antisemite” and part of the problem. You are a catalyst of antisemitism and one of the reasons why there was a pogrom in Amsterdam just four months ago.” The bus driver dismissed it as he merely repeated what he was “told to say.” It is hard not to compare this age-old excuse used by scores of Polish and other European Nazi sympathizers at the end of the WWII claiming that they were powerless and only did what they were told by their higher ups during the Holocaust. Ira pointed this out to the bus driver.
Ira lamented at the numerous tour buses, filled with eager ears, driving back and forth all day long, seven days a week, spreading fiction along with fact. Tourists are like sponges that readily soak up everything they hear from smiling tour guides, never thinking of fact checking or distinguishing myth from reality before spreading misinformation or half-truths back home to impressionable families and communities, which can all to easily morph into viral antisemitism. Tour guides carry the ability and responsibility to influence hundreds of people. It is a problem that there is no way to track or combat the misinformation and lies being parsed out by these so called “trusted sources of information” like the speaking points shared on the way to the Hague and ICC. Ira insists that this is the reason antisemitism is blowing up and growing exponentially.
What is the one thing most people misunderstand about antisemitism?
Before the 1940’s antisemitism was always about the “Jew.” Now antisemitism especially in the 2020s is not only about the Jewish people but also about the promised land, Israel. Islamists and antisemites alike, want Jews out of their ancestral and sovereign land. Dr. Ira Jacobson points out, “We have this tiny shtickle of land, the size of New Jersey, and it is the most controversial place on earth!” There are 193 countries in the world: 120 of them are Christian countries, 57 are Muslim, 7 identify as Buddhist, 3 are proud Hindu states, and there is one Jewish country. There is only one country in the entire world that can call itself a Jewish State and that belongs to the Jewish people, but the anti-Zionism movement would have us believe that Jews are the colonizers, and that Israel does not have the right to exist. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. And antisemitism is anti-Zionism.
What is next for Ira Jacobson?
On his April 4th return, Ira sat at the airport waiting for his flight and thought about how his life has been a rollercoaster ride since October 7th. He organized rallies at the UN and at the Iranian embassy in NY. He ran a BBQ for IDF soldiers returning from Gaza a mere ten miles outside of Rafah and he packed meals for IDF soldiers leaving for Lebanon. Ira wonders whether the constant movement and helping of fellow Jews is the true definition of Zionism. Or it is just what Herut-niks “do.”
Ira will continue to be part of Herut North America and the Israeli Liaison for World Herut. He is a top Herut North America candidate on the 23rd slate of the World Zionist Congress. Ira feels that his Herut family and colleagues gave him a platform to fight antisemitism and a positive outlet to actively volunteer and create programs for Israel and the Jewish community. Ira does not consider himself “political” however, if elected, he will use his seat with Herut on the World Zionist Congress to increase funding and provide resources and support for Israel’s right to exist, to combat antisemitism, to provide assistance IDF and Lone Soldiers, to facilitate future Aliyah, to augment rehabilitation and emotional support for veterans and Israelis affected by October 7th and the war, to increase educational outreach and community engagement, and to continue to fight for Jewish unity.
Second, Ira will continue to participate on the Boards of Directors for Volunteers for Israel and Heroes for Israel. He will continue to raise awareness and funding for Boots for Israel and continue to advocate for and recruit volunteers to assist the SAR-EL programs.
Lastly, Ira plans to collaborate with The Subcamps of Auschwitz Project. They are a tour group from Krakow whose mission also aims to bring awareness to the various fields and tunnels around the major concentration camps that were used as lesser-known crematoriums. Ira plans to go to Krakow, Poland in September and then visit Israel.
If you are interested in information about how you can help support Israel and combat antisemitism, please email Dr. Ira Jacobson at [email protected].
Written by Talya Helene Ruch
IMAGES PROVIDED BY DR. IRA JACOBSON
Image 1 – Dr. Ira Jacobson at Delta Amsterdam departure gate – 3/24/25. By permission of Dr. Jacobson
Images 2 & 3 – “Never Again” Rally supporters – 3/28/25. By permission of Dr. Jacobson
Image 4 – Dr. Ira Jacobson with Israeli flag outside the Anne Frank House. By permission of Dr. Jacobson
Image 5 – Dr. Ira Jacobson outside the Hague and ICC – “Israeli Lives Matter!! By permission of Dr. Jacobson
Image 6 –Ira wearing his Herut of North America “He-rut-nik” T-shirt. By permission of Dr. Jacobson
