The other day my Oldest Son attended his first Bar Mitzvah Lesson in order to start learning his haftorah portion. I am very proud of him and welcome the fact that he began the process of becoming an “adult” with all the attended rights and responsibilities of being a member of the Jewish people.

And yet, I am troubled. I wonder what kind of world is coming into existence. As a Jewish adult, what can my son expect to face in the coming years? He will find a Jewish people that have never recovered demographically from the Holocaust. However, he will also find two flourishing centers of Jewish civilization: Israel and the United States. This is something to make every Jew proud.

On the other hand, we live in a world in which anti-Semites in Europe and even in certain circles in the United States are becoming more and more outspoken. My son lives in a world in which after 20 years of negotiations with the Palestinians as well as unilateral withdrawals by the Israelis, the Palestinians remain as intransient as ever. They, as well as their supporters around the globe remain committed to the BDS (boycott, deligitimization, sanctions) campaign. The deligitimization campaign has increasingly become more strident and anti-emetic in its efforts to put forth the case that Israel is a historical mistake and doesn’t deserve to exist. It is a chillingly genocidal notion that has gained momentum and credence in some influential ultra left political and intellectual circles, especially in Europe. The current efforts by the Palestinians to have their state unilaterally declared in the United Nations this September is the most outspoken part of this campaign. In the words of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas, the UN General Assembly voting for the creation of a Palestinian state would "also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice."

So the future is uncertain; however when has it been any different for the Jewish people? However, I know it is only right and a good thing that my son takes his place as a member of the Jewish nation. He will be taking part in a coming of age ceremony that is over two thousand years old. He will become a part of the nation of Israel, a country and a people, that despite all of the enemies it faces, continues to contribute to the benefit of the human race in everything from medicine, bio-technology to robotics, to computer technology, agriculture and more (take a look at the website www.Israel21c.com for some amazing examples).

What will the world look like 30 years from now when he takes his son to his first bar mitzvah lesson? I can’t answer that. I hope the world and the Jewish people will be better because my oldest son will be there.