A Bad Comparison

An op-ed in the Jewish Press by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld asks that very question. (And he is not the only one I keep hearing expressing thoughts like this.)

Although he asks the question in the broader context of Western societies, he lumps the US in right along with European countries. That too is a bad comparison.

With respect to Europe, I tend to agree with him. As I have said many times, it is my strong belief that most Europeans have been weaned on the milk of their mother’s antisemitism. It is in their blood and has been for centuries.

Which is why the Holocaust was so successful. Western European countries like France could barely wait to assist their Nazi occupiers in rounding up French Jews and delivering them into Nazi hands to do with them what they wished. I don’t think there is that much of an attitude change among French natives. Or any other European country. True, their governments officially reject antisemitism as policy.  Nonetheless, there are disgusting long term antisemitic symbols of  antisemitism on public display in some European nations that are ignored or ‘explained away’ by their national leadership.

It has long been my contention that America is different. 

Yes, there is still plenty of antisemitism here. All we have to do is look at what happened in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago. And the many other antisemitic acts like it in other cities. But the violent versions of it are sourced in tiny little ‘White Supremacist’ groups like the Neo-Nazis and the KKK. Often perpetrated by a single individual. That antisemitism has increased in recent times is of not a function of increased numbers. It is far more likely the result of a few of them being more emboldened to act on it. 

It might be true there are a lot of Americans that harbor negative stereotypical images of us. But that hardly compares to the ugly racism often expressed about black people - even if it isn't acted upon. I frimly believe that even that level of racism is is held by a relatively small  minority of Americans. Most Americans support the protesters goals.

I have demonstrated more times that I can count why I believe America is not an inherently antisemitic country. I am not going to repeat myself here.  

I do however take issue with Dr. Gerstenfeld’s complaint. It is almost racist to ask the question in the op-ed title: 

There is absolutely no comparison to be made here. To quote the late Joe Aaron publisher of the now defunct Chicago Jewish News, ‘Jews have never had it so good’. 

There may have been a time where Jews suffered the same kind of fate that a black man suffered recently exposed in a smartphone video. He was ganged up on by a few racist whites and threatened with a noose. But it happened far less to us and has probably hasn’t happened in over 100 years. Certainly not since the Holocaust. 

We are not persecuted in this country anywhere near the way black people are. Never were. To suggest that there ought to be the same sort of outcry about that - comparable to those protesting racism seems to me to be selfishly ethnocentric. Does not Dr. Gerstenfeld see what the rest of America sees? Did he not see what happened to George Floyd? Or the many other innocent black people that have been harassed and killed because of their skin color? 

And while that is still going on, how many Jews have been through anything remotely like that in recent times? Where are the videos of that? I doubt that any exist. There is no such thing as ‘Driving while Jewish’.

The antisemitism that Dr. Gerstenfeld references is perpetrated by radicals of all types. Yes, black antisemitism does exist. You don’t have to look too far to find it - as noted yesterday. The Marxist founders of BLM are clearly as antisemitic as they are anti America. To use that as proof that our plight is anywhere near the plight of black people is in my view an insult to the people legitimately protesting the kind of racism that keeps harming and sometimes killing them!

This of course does not mean we shouldn’t fight antisemitism wherever it rears its very ugly head. Of course we should. That’s why we have organizations like the ADL and the SWC. Antisemitism can be deadly too. But it is not the same as the racism black people experience. Which happens all the time. With the ubiquity of smartphones, that so easily record these events, the entire world can witness them. 

That is not the case with us. there are no videos like that of us. The violent death at the hands of a racist cop that black people like George Floyd experienced can now be witnessed in numerous smartphone videos taken by witnesses. What about what happened in Pittsburgh? All it took was one rabid antisemite to kill 11 people there. 

So Please! Let us not make comparisons like this. It does not become us as a people charged with being a light unto the nations.