This is not the time for moral equivalence about the Oct. 7 Simchat Torah pogrom in Israel.

Israel is not simply in the middle of a “conflict.” In last Saturday’s massacre, terror group Hamas took more than 1,300 innocent civilian lives, raped and mutilated women and kidnapped babies, families and the elderly into the Gazan abyss, to be tortured and unlikely to be seen again.

It was only a “Middle East event,” as some headlines referred to it, as if gassing Jews in Auschwitz was a “German event.”

It was the most heinous attack on Jews since 6½ million of us were killed during the Holocaust.

The Jewish civilians who were murdered did not die because their country was at war.

They were not merely collateral damage.

It was, as American philosopher Sam Harris calls it, “the intentional massacre of civilians for the purpose of maximizing horror.”

Thankfully, President Joe Biden has been clear in his unequivocal support for Israel. 

Mayor Eric Adams has emphatically stood by New York City’s Jewish community.

But it has been dismaying to see the reluctance of so many local leaders and institutions — particularly our city’s schools and country’s universities — to forcefully condemn the genocidal attacks on ordinary civilians just because they were Jews.

Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Nobel laureate who himself survived the Holocaust, famously said, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Yet there is a palpable reluctance to take sides right now after the highest death count of Jews on a single day since World War II.

The same voices who condemn racism at every level, from microaggression to unconscious bias, are suddenly treating the murder, torture and capture of unarmed civilians as a topic that requires dispassionate nuance.

Every leader in New York, a city with more Jews than anywhere outside Israel, must take a clear and unequivocal stand against antisemitism now, just as they take such a stand on racism.

Our schools must teach about the Holocaust and the rise in antisemitism. They must work to make sure Jewish children are included and have zero tolerance for intimidation of any kind.

To do less is to endorse the antisemitism that fueled the massacre.

Unlike the resolve we saw after 9/11, after the brutal murder of George Floyd, after Russia invaded Ukraine, when every educational, cultural, religious (irrespective of religion) and governmental institution took an immediate and unambiguous stand, this time our email inboxes are nearly empty and the messages that have come through are weak and ambivalent.

Some don’t even mention Israel.

Or Jews.

And very few discuss antisemitism.

These dispassionate messages have headings like “Supporting our Children in a Violent World,” “Tragic events from this Weekend” and “Events in Israel/Gaza.”

Most concerning is that the nation’s largest school district has not accurately explained the magnitude of what has happened to our school community.

The attack was not condemned. Unequivocal support was not offered to New York City’s Jewish families, who are heaving in pain.

Last weekend’s “events” were not in Israel and Gaza: The terrorist attack by Hamas was in Israel.

Nor was the violence attributable to a “history of conflict in the region.”

It was a massacre on the Jewish people and a threat to their existence. 

We must be clear that last weekend’s attack was not part of a war but an act of sheer terror and bloodthirst perpetuated by the terrorist organization Hamas on a minority.

(Globally, there are just 16 million Jews. There are 2 billion Muslims.)

Those who say the dead Israelis had it coming because of “settler colonialism” betray both their ignorance and bloodthirst — and would likely have found a reason to justify those exterminated in Nazi death camps.

New York City Jews have spoken out against racism, homophobia, Anti-Asian hate and gun violence.

We are devoted to our diverse and multiethnic community.

We believe our diversity is our strength. 

And yet on Friday many frightened Jewish parents asked daughters to remove their Stars of David necklaces and their sons to remove their kippahs.

Some Jewish schools have had to shut their doors due to terror threats.

There are increased security and makeshift barriers in front of synagogues and Jewish day cares. Children are afraid to go to school and many city parents haven’t sent them.

Is this a case of “Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it”? The history of Israel — a tiny, pluralistic democracy founded after the Holocaust, just 75 years ago, as a home for the Jews — is long and complex.

But anyone who has seen the images from Saturday — the killing, raping and capture of civilians — should be able to recognize unadulterated evil.

It should not be hard to condemn it, and antisemitism, in clear language that shows the world that Jewish Lives Matter.

Natalya Murakhver is co-founder of the nonprofit Restore Childhood.