(CNN)In the weeks leading up to Chanukah last year, my ten-year-old son said, rice field. He wanted a Jewish star necklace. That was a pretty soft question, so I quietly let it go.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what to think of the idea of him wearing his Jewish faith in public. Not that I was embarrassed or ashamed, just the opposite. I have always been very proud of my Judaism. A mezuzah is displayed outside the door of the house according to Jewish custom. But wearing a Jewish star never occurred to me, much less for my young son.
I have never bought one.
Later, midway through his eight days of Hanukkah, my son asked somewhat shyly if I got the only thing he was asking for, the Jewish star. . I admitted I didn't have one and asked him why he wanted one. said he wanted to wear the symbol of his faith. He told me he was a proud Jew.
I was stunned to hear this come out of my young son's mouth. I can't believe how proud he is of his religion, that it has been followed and practiced by generations of my family for thousands of years. I was impressed.
I immediately thought of my great-grandparents and my aunt. Hungarian Jews were not particularly observant, but were murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
I thought of my grandparents. Her grandparents escaped the Nazis and miraculously made it to the United States just two months before Pearl Harbor was attacked. They became patriotic Americans and never took for granted their ability to practice Judaism freely.
I didn't know enough to make those connections, so my son asked to take the cloak away.
So I answered yes. Got a Jewish star and a matching chain.
What I didn't say, I was ashamed to even admit to myself, was that my little son showing the world that he was Jewish made me nervous. That's what it means.
} Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy to Monitor and Fight Anti-Semitism, arrived for our interview wearing a beautiful gold Star of David necklace.
When I asked for a solution to curb hatred of Jews, Lippstadt, a world-renowned expert on anti-Semitism, suggested wearing Jewish stars more often. He said that he began to wear Anti-Semitic attacks began to increase.
"If I walk into a room, someone may not know it or be able to identify it," Lipstadt said, referring to the fact that she was Jewish. 48}
"And with anti-Semitism on the rise, I want to say: Here I am. This is me." Jeff Cohen, one of four congregantswho were taken hostageby a man who made anti-Semitic remarks during a congregational Sabbath service, said: I'm talking like this. As a result of his experience, he wore a skullcap, or yarmulke, more often.
``I'm not going to hide. If you don't know, you know... It's easy to believe every stereotype, every rumor, every conspiracy theory," Cohen said. Like everyone else we spoke to, we emphasized how important it is to be educated and speak up. He hears or sees something that reminds him of metaphors and prejudices against Jews.
It has been over half a year since his son got the Star of David necklace. He wears it every day — sometimes under his shirt, sometimes outside for everyone to see. He says he's never had a negative problem.
When I asked him why he liked wearing it, he simply replied, "That's my identity, Mom."
In his one-hour special on CNN that explored the rise of anti-Semitism, my colleagues and I spent months working with experts, law enforcement, and victims to normalize hate. I talked about a modern phenomenon that
Normalizing Jewish practice and pride has proved to be one of the antidotes to prejudice.
