“This is something that’s been going on all my life”: Content creator Shloime Zionce addresses antisemitism in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community

Shloime Zionce, a YouTuber, podcaster, and the Foreign Affairs correspondent for Ami Magazine, a publication geared towards Orthodox Jews, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about the misconceptions against identifiable Jews, and the horrific statistics of violent antisemitic attacks against them.

“People tend to think that Hasidic Jews don’t work, they just sit and study and pray all day. Some people do that, but for most of us, we work very hard to support our families and to contribute to society,” he said. 

In addition to his own online content, Mr Zionce is widely known for starring in Peter Santenello’s popular YouTube series about Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, which has racked up millions of views. Mr Zionce said that participating in the series helped him to learn more about his own community, such as the multitude of communal services offered.

Speaking on the antisemitism that his community faces, Mr Zionce said: “Obviously, antisemitism is ugly wherever and whenever it happens. Unfortunately, it seems that, statistically speaking, the people who are the recipients of the worst and most violent beatings are generally Haredi Jews or Hasidic Jews. 

“These are people who are most visibly Jews, with the big kippahs (skullcaps), beards, peyos (sidelocks), black hats, black suits, et cetera.”

The content creator said that “This is something that’s been going on all my life,” adding that “there are definitely periods of time where things get worse, and things get better. For some reason, it goes in waves. Right before the [COVID-19] pandemic, there was a terrible wave. Every single day, people were being beaten in the streets, and then it kind of quieted down a little bit. Now it’s getting a little bit intense as well.”

Mr Zionce turned his attention to how his community has been responding to the attacks.

“Antisemitism has existed for thousands of years, I don’t think it’s going to go away any time soon. But we do try to keep our communities safe. We have different organisations. There’s Shomrim, which is a local patrol organisation. 

“The police try to help as much as possible, and we are just trying to call it out as much as possible to make sure that it doesn’t happen but unfortunately, this is just a part of life for Jewish people.” 

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.