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| Chasidic Jews in Boro Park (JTA) |
Several identifiably Jewish men and boys were attacked in a string of assaults in the Borough Park community of Brooklyn on the same night.
Three of the attacks late Friday night involved the same passenger car over five blocks, the Yeshiva World News reported. Surveillance cameras captured each incident, in which several men jump out of the car and chase Hasidic men and boys. In one incident, the passengers punched a Hasidic man after their vehicle pinned him against a parked car. Victims also were punched in two other incidents.
This follows the arrest last week of a white supremacist that planned to attack a synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado – one year after another white supremacist succeeded at it in Pittsburgh, killing 11 Jewish worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
This is not rocket science. These are more perilous times for Jews in America than at any time in recent memory. But that in no way makes America more antisemitic. Or does it?
Do non Jewish Americans here secretly hate Jews and are now more emboldened than ever to show it? Is the President responsible for that? Has his racist rhetoric and ‘dog whistles’ to white supremacists released that evil genie from the antisemitic bottle?
The answer to all of these questions is no. The American people are clearly not antisemitic. The opposite is true. The President is not responsible for the increase in antisemitism. And the attacks against Jews are not the result of the President’s ‘dog whistles’.
Antisemitism did not begin yesterday. The sad reality is that America has always had its share of antisemites and racists. However, as a percentage of the population they were - and still are minuscule. Nevertheless, they have been aggressively promoting their hatred since America’s founding. Always threatening to do something about it. And on occasion they do.
One of the more famous of which happened back in the 1970s when a group Neo Nazis marched in the heavily Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie. A suburb filled with Holocaust survivors.
Another of which happened in the 1990s one Friday night in Chicago when an antisemite decided to drive down the streets in my neighborhood of West Rogers Park and shoot as many Jews as he could while they were walking home from Shul. There have been many incidents like these long before Trump even had a thought of running President.
Furthermore it is not only here that there has been an increase. Sweden just reported a major increase in antisemitc crimes too. As noted by JTA:
The number of anti-Semitic hate crimes recorded in Sweden rose to a record high last year, jumping 53 percent over the 2016 figures, government statistics show.
And let us not forget what happened in France a few years ago.
Nor should anyone let England off the hook. The leader of one of the two major political parties, Jeremy Corbyn, is as antisemitic as I have ever seen any prominent politician get. Is that Trump’s fault?
The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are not antisemitic at all. As I have said many times. There are so many examples of this, that it would take up an entire book. Not to mention the many personal experiences I’ve had along those lines. It is quite the opposite here. Jews are respected as co-equals with their American brethren by the vast majority of Americans. And in many cases even admired. Studies have shown that Jews are the most popular group in America.
So why the increase in antisemtism? It is easy to blame the President for bringing that sentiment out of the woodwork nowadays. But I don’t buy it. Because the President had nothing to do with what happened in Sweden; or France; or England. Nor with the events that happened decades ago in Skokie and West Rogers Park. And I seriously doubt that the ‘animals’ that attacked Jews in Boro Park last Friday night were spurred on to do so because of the President’s antisemitic dog whistles. Jews have been attacked like that for decades – long before anyone ever heard of Donald Trump in any context other than real estate.
Why is there an increase in antisemitism in the world? I don’t know. Yes, it’s real and it’s happening. That is for sure. But to blame the President for it is too easy. And to say that America is becoming more antisemitic is unadulterated nonsense.
Europe on the other hand? What is happening on that continent speaks for itself. They epitomize the words of Rashi: ‘Halacha He – Esav Sonei L’Ya’akov’. The vast majority of Americans are the exception (albeit a very large one) that proves that rule.
It is with that in mind that I caution the Jewish people not to get overly alarmed by the rise in antisemitism - believing it to be endemic; that Americans are antisemitic at the core; and that it is all coming out now.
Because if one listens to the ADL quote statistics one night make such conclusions. True the increase in antisemitism should make us all more vigilant. But to say that Americans are as a whole becoming more antisemitic is as far from the case as could be. That the ADL cites those statistics without making that clear is in my view a scare tactic with political overtones that in my view is designed to make themselves more relevant.