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It was February 2017, and we were walking around the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City after vandals had toppled nearly 200 headstones.

Aroesty, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League at the time, was teaching me about Jewish traditions, such as leaving a burial site without a headstone for about a year while the family mourns the loss of a loved one. The headstone is put in place in a later ceremony.

“May her memory be a blessing,� Aroesty said as we passed by the burial site of somebody she knew.

It’s a phrase many Jewish people use when offering condolences. I had never heard it before, or maybe it just hadn’t registered. But it seemed like an uplifting way to remember the recently departed.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists killed about 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of others, there has been a lot of mourning among Jewish people.

Rabbi Daniel Bogard says the events that day “just put me on the floor.�

“I have so many Israeli friends and family members who were directly connected to somebody who was murdered and kidnapped,� says Bogard, who, along with his wife, Karen, is a rabbi at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis. “It just is a gut punch and hasn’t stopped hurting.�

I met Bogard a couple of years ago, when he was advocating for the rights and dignity of transgender children. He and his wife have a transgender child. He’s also been an advocate for gun safety laws, and he’s become active in various other causes on the left side of the political spectrum.

That’s one of the reasons the uptick in antisemitism since Oct. 7 has caused him such pain. The rise of antisemitism on the right during the presidency of Donald Trump prompted Jewish synagogues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on extra security. But now, the antisemitism that Bogard feels is coming from the left. He says it’s spurred in part by some American politicians, including U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a progressive Democrat from St. Louis whose vitriol toward Israel has been condemned by local Jews.

“As an American Jew, it’s been pain in a surprising way,� Bogard says. “The antisemitism that has been spiking is significant. I still am worried that the bullet that’s going to kill me is going to come from a right-winger. But the hate I’ve encountered in the past few weeks has been almost exclusively from left-wingers.�

Bush has faced a storm of criticism for calling Israel’s military campaign “ethnic cleansing� and accusing the country of “atrocities� against Palestinians. She has responded by pointing out that she has condemned Hamas and antisemitism and accusing her critics of spreading misinformation.

Bogard shares Bush’s concern for the people of Gaza, and the humanity of both Palestinians and Jews. But he fears that her attempts to demonize Israel is a direct contributor to the rise in antisemitism on the left. And that has put progressive Jews in America in an uncomfortable place with people who have been historic allies.

“There’s a through line that connects Donald Trump and Cori Bush when it comes to antisemitism,� Bogard says. “It presents Jews not as being small and less than, but it holds up Jews as being immensely powerful and controlling.�

This week, a group of 30 Jewish organizations, including rabbis from across the political spectrum, penned an open letter to Bush, encouraging her to tone down her criticism of Israel and to be careful of contributing to antisemitism.

“Rep. Bush has established herself as an outspoken leader for Palestinian rights, dignity, and safety. Her language carries weight among her supporters. It is even more important that she speaks with the care and empathy she claims to extend to all people by not sharing falsehoods that foster antisemitic hate,� the letter reads in part.

For Bogard, there has to be room to seek justice for all people without contributing to the scourge of antisemitism (and Islamaphobia), no matter which side of the political aisle is contributing to it.

“We’ve got to find a way to bring dignity to all the people of this region,� he says. “Palestinians deserve justice. But there is a vitriol and a presumption of Israel’s guilt in all things that leads to real security needs for American Jews. It’s alienating. It feels like these justice-seeking spaces don’t feel safe for Jews right now.�