I’m Jewish. I’ve watched intently as the antisemitic alt right has grown in prominence during and after the presidential campaign. Breibart.com gave the haters a voice, orchestrated by Steve Bannon, Breibart’s executive chair. Trump retweeted some of the alt right’s garbage because he liked the way it sounded. After his election, he made Bannon his closest advisor, making Bannon the most powerful man in the White House except for, or maybe including, Trump himself. An exultant group of alt righters gathered in D.C. after the election, ending their celebration with a speech by Richard Spencer who exalted white people using language reminiscent of the Third Reich. He ended his speech with, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail Victory!”

But through all that, I honestly wasn’t very worried that antisemitism would rise to the level of a serious problem. I’ve been focused on the very real threats to Muslims and Hispanics whose daily lives have been harmed and whose feeling of safety within our country has been imperiled. Worrying too much about antisemitism as I sit on my reasonably safe, secure societal perch has felt a bit self indulgent. Sure we’re seeing some visible signs of hatred toward Jews, but it has always been there hiding just under the surface, and watching it peek its ugly head out of the cess pool where it lives didn’t seem too consequential.

Until now. Now, following the desecrations of Jewish cemeteries and the bomb threats called into Jewish Community Centers across the country, including our JCC here in Tucson, it’s beginning to look real. I’m still trying to keep it in context. The Trump administration’s moves against immigrants and Muslims are a far more immediate, day-by-day concern. But I’m no longer unconcerned about the threat of antisemitism.

If a few headstones were knocked over at a Jewish cemetery, that would be awful, but it could be nothing more than a couple of drunk kids acting like idiots. Knocking over a hundred headstones takes time and planning. You need an organized group of people, some keeping watch while others work their way systematically through the gravesites and do their damage. And when another hundred headstones are knocked down in another city, that feels even more like a coordinated attack.

Anyone can make a bomb threat. One or two isolated threats can be the work of a few idiots. But to target a large number of Jewish community centers on one day, then target more a few days after that, feels more like the work of an organized group of people committed to spreading anti-Jewish hate.

The purpose of the cemetery desecrations and the Jewish community center bomb threats is to strike fear in Jews in the U.S., to make people worry about their safety, the safety of their friends and loved ones and the safety of the Jewish community as a whole. Though no one has been harmed yet, these are acts of terror, without question.

We need to be vigilant on a number of fronts now that Trump and his supporters are in the White House. We need to do what we can to help and protect the most vulnerable members of our community whose day-to-day lives are in immediate jeopardy. On any given day, the pressure on Muslims already living in this country or those who want to come here can increase, and the war on immigrants and others living in their communities can be ratcheted up. I don’t think the same level of concern is warranted for the safety of Jews in the U.S. But given the events over recent days and weeks, people, Jews and others, need to be watchful.

This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2017.

11 replies on “Is Antisemitism Rising to the Threat Level?”

  1. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take a lot now days for someone to give into their hate. These people see a thousand and one reasons to hate certain groups based on any number of demographics.

    When it comes to singling out Jewish people, it may be more about something they rationalized in their twisted thoughts based on something they once heard because when you get right down to it some haters are just not very original in their thinking — it is kind of an “occupational” hazard for haters, who after all don’t really have to think — that’s why they hate, its easier than the alternative.

  2. Seems like this should be the first group to investigate – leftists. Every day they show their hatred and contempt for Christians.

    Ive never been shouted down throughout a time of prayer like that, Chaplain Sprague told me. Ive never been in a situation like that. Its sad there wasnt honor and respect for God.

    But they became absolutely unhinged when he concluded his prayer in the name of Jesus.

    Wow, they booed the name of Jesus, Cassidy said in remarks reported by the Times-Picayune.

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/02/27/town-hall-agitators-explode-at-name-jesus.html

  3. These acts of hate directed at the Jewish Community are not, in my opinion, expressions of Antisemitism but expressions of Antizionism ; a result of the establishment of a Zionist State in Palestine and the continued Occupation and Usurpation of Palestinian Land by a Zionist Government.

    On November 26, 1947, James Forrestal, Secretary of Defense, stated to J. Howard Mc Grath, Senator from Rhode Island:

    “…no group in this country should be permitted to influence our policy to the point it could endanger our national security.”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951)

    Secretary Forrestal was referring to enormous political pressure that the Zionist Jews (including Felix Frankfurter and Louis Brandeis of the Supreme Court) in this country were placing both on President Truman and on the political process, generally, for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

    President Truman, himself had serious misgivings about such a state and initially opposed its’ creation:

    “The creation of a Jewish state…would cause a third world war…The government of Palestine should be a government of the people irrespective of race, religion or color.”(Michael Cohen, Truman and Israel, 1990)

    This view was reflected by non-Zionists Jews in this country who also feared the creation of a Theocracy (Jewish State) in the Palestine. In an editorial in the New York Times:

    ..”Many of us have long had doubts concerning the wisdom of erecting a political state on a basis of a religious faith”(quoted in The Forrestal Diaries, 1951)…”the decision is fraught with great danger for the future security of this country.”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951)

    A Jewish State in the Middle East was established, with US support, on the basis of a Jewish terrorist organization, the Irgun, led by former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The Jews considered themselves “freedom fighters”.

    We can begin to effectively neutralize the animosity within the Moslem Community with a recognition of the historic character of Palestine as representing the common heritage of Christian, Jews, and Moslems; that the United States rejects claims for the completely autonomous political and cultural development of any one religious/cultural group in Palestine; that Christians, Jews, and Moslems have a cooperative, co-equal, semi-autonomous share in the political and cultural development of Palestine.

    The United States must re-evaluate and re-formulate our Foreign Policy in the Middle East. If we have not the rectitude and courage to undue the injustices to the indigenous people of Palestine, the possibility of the use of weapons of mass destruction may involve this country in a Religious War of self-destruction.

  4. Francis exhibits perfectly how leftists, liberals side with radical islamic extremists at every opportunity. Side with them to exterminate infidels or be the subject of their hate.

  7. And out of the wood work they crawl and comment here. While condemning a state based on religion, as they clamor for the US to be based on their religion, they forget the very reason the pilgrims fled from a state run religion. The very basis for this country is freedom of religion, of speech, of the right to over-throw a government that is not for the people, by the people. Bannon is the greatest evil to ever enter the WH, backed by the dark money of Koch Industries. The vile cabinet in the WH and the salesman front man backed by Russia, are actively and openly declaring war on America. The terrorists are in the WH, encouraging hate and praised by David Duke. These attacks are the work of Bannon and his backers to foment fear. Do not fear! Stand tall and firm! Vote to get checks and balances back into our government. Only we can be the ones to let this happen. Be the force that says, NO!

  8. Given the spate of Trump “hate crime” hoaxes that popped up after the election, I would withhold judgment on this. This may be the work of anti-Semites, or it may be a twisted attempt to gin up sympathy. I find it interesting that the FBI is reporting today that most of the telephone bomb threats against U.S. Jewish centers have originated from overseas.

  9. Francis, lets have a multi-religious state because that worked so well in Lebanon.

    I’m sure eliminating the Jewish state will result in Arab/Muslim nirvana as currently illustrated by ISIS.

    It’s wrong to have a theocracy only if it’s Jewish, right, because there are no other theocracies in the Arab world, right? I mean as an American Jew I have every right to go to, say Saudi Arabia, and practice my religion, not!

    You surely must know that the creation of the State of Israel was based on much more than the activity of Irgun and that the UN created and sanctioned Israel as a state/nation. Also, that Israel is a democracy with constitutional guarantees for all its citizens and, however imperfect Israel is, it is a far sight better and freer than most of its neighbors. When I went to Israel some years ago, I was able to visit all the major religions’ religious sites. If I had visited Jerusalem under prior Jordanian rule, that would not have been possible.

    Finally, Justice Brandeis did a heckuva lobbying job on President Truman from the grave he occupied since 1941.

    In all seriousness, it would do much of the Arab world good to recognize Israel as that would go a long way to creation of a separate Palestinian state as well as Arab/Israeli cooperation against their common adversaries, ISIS and Iran.

Comments are closed.