Israel and the Jewish people continue to give so much to the world to make it better, to save lives.

And no, this isn't an arrogant post about how we're better than everyone else, no human, no nation, is perfect and all humanity was created in God's image. 

Being aware of our flaws is engrained in Jewish culture, the Bible is very clear in its portrayal of our greatest leaders, warts and all, we have no perfect saints or flawless prophets to place on pedestals, their humanity and foibles are a fundamental part of our national epic and the Gemara is just as clear that our sages were not perfect individuals. 

But we are a people who's culture and ethos have led us to contribute breakthroughs in science and medicine out of all proportion to our tiny size. "The Chosen People" is often flung at the Jews like a supremacist slur, and yet what that "chosen" means is a sense of duty and responsibility, an emphasis on creativity and learning, to being a positive example, to doing our part to make the world better. 

Our commitment to education, literacy and tikkun olam helped our people throughout the ages to rise above our lowly status as the world's most persecuted outcasts, reviled by many, exiled, expelled, confined to ghettos, discriminated against in by university quotas at various times and in various places, barred from guilds and professional associations, demonised with blood libels, kept as second and third class citizens because we were so often strangers in a strange land, subjected to pogroms and massacres.

I'm not saying anything new here, but I feel like right now these are important things to remember, both for Jews and for the other nations of the world where so many right now are in the thrall of a new wave of anti-Semitism and a new blood libel that once again scapegoats the Jews as bloodthirsty babykillers.

Across the West this anti-Jewish scourge is driving Jewish scientists, doctors and scholars from their positions, trying to banish Jews from academia, boycotting Israeli universities and research centres, blocking the publishing of research by Israelis and Jews from scientific journals, calling for a boycott and shunning of the Jewish state and all associated with it.

So intent are many on this hate fest that they don't seem to care who or what they are rejecting when they turn Israeli scientists in to outcasts and push diaspora Jews out of academia and professional forums.

Not because we are better than anyone else, but because our culture is so devoted to life and making the world a better place and we have proved our value to humanity as a whole with the wealth of knowledge and scientific breakthroughs we have contributed despite being such a tiny nation.

How many lives will be lost if Israelis and Jews are barred from research projects and from publishing their findings? How many lives could be saved or improved by allowing Israelis and Jews to present their research at international conferences, to be guest lecturers a prominent research centres, to join international collaborations on all kinds of medical and scientific challenges as they have until now?