Why one non-Jewish woman moved to Israel amid rising antisemitism - interview

Sarah Hildering van Lith, a non-Jewish music industry executive from Amsterdam, has relocated to Israel, stating that escalating antisemitism and hostility in Europe made her feel unsafe.

Van Lith, who holds a doctorate in psychology but has built a career in the music industry, including an executive role at Universal Music Group, described a "deafening silence" from her industry following the October 7 Hamas attack. She noted that despite the attack's brutality, including sexual violence used as a war crime, many music companies and organizations remained quiet. This silence, she said, soon shifted to "hate and an overwhelming avalanche of social media violence where people completely endorsed the brand of Palestine and its terror regime."

She attempted to counter this narrative by bringing the Nova exhibition to music spaces in the Netherlands but found no interest. Van Lith also initiated and authored a code of conduct on gender discrimination for the Association for Electronic Music, aimed at protecting women and gender-based minorities from harassment. This code was endorsed by leading music companies and featured in a BBC Newsroom interview.

Van Lith's decision to move to Israel comes after experiencing what she described as a hostile environment in the Netherlands. Her father survived a World War II camp in Indonesia before moving to the Netherlands, and her mother, a Zionist, studied and worked in Israel before starting a family. Van Lith's personal experiences and her industry's response to events in Israel appear to have been the primary drivers for her relocation.

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The response was an overwhelming, deafening silence, and very soon after, that energy just shifted to hate and to an overwhelming avalanche of social media violence where people completely endorsed the brand of Palestine and its terror regime.