Those on the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides of the current conflict in Gaza do not agree on much. While one group views the Israeli military’s actions as a legitimate act of self-defense, the other sees it as a continuation of Israel’s oppressive policies toward the Palestinian people.
But if there is one issue on which both sides should, at least, theoretically agree, it’s that the targeting of Jews writ large, in the United States and elsewhere, is unacceptable and must be roundly condemned. And yet, in a terrifying and disheartening turn of events, Diaspora Jews are finding themselves under attack, and at times, even blamed for the violence and harassment perpetrated against them.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists crossed the border from Gaza into Israel and massacred more than 1,400 Israelis, there has been a dramatic and terrifying increase in antisemitism—and the silence from those criticizing Israel and “contextualizing” Hamas’ actions has been deafening. It has, for American Jews, become a disturbing and yet all too familiar reminder of the very real threats facing Diaspora Jews and the indifference of progressive allies toward antisemitism.
None of this is new. It follows a growing surge in antisemitic incidents well before Oct. 7. According to an April report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), there were more antisemitic incidents in 2022 than in any year since the ADL began compiling the data in 1979. In Arizona, a college professor was killed by a former student because he thought the man was Jewish. In February, two people were shot outside synagogues in Los Angeles by the same assailant.
But it’s the more low-profile incidents that are creating as much fear—the harassment of Jews and vandalism of Jewish community centers and temples. More than two-thirds of Jewish Americans report seeing antisemitic speech online and one in four have been targeted in an antisemitic incident. It’s small wonder that 80 percent also believe that antisemitism has gotten worse over the past five years.
In a telling indication of how little non-Jews are paying attention, less than half of the general U.S. population shares that view.
Things have gotten decidedly worse since Oct. 7. According to data compiled by the ADL, there was an astounding 388 percent increase in harassment, vandalism, and violence against Jews in the 16 days after the Hamas massacre, compared to the same period in 2022. That’s 312 recorded antisemitic incidents versus 64 a year ago.
According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, in testimony to Congress on Tuesday, threats against Jews have reached “historic levels.” And even though Jews account for less than 3 percent of the population, 60 percent of religious-based hate crimes are directed at them.
What is most stunning about this spasm of violence is that it is happening after the worst Jewish massacre since the Holocaust. Rather than building sympathy for Jews, Oct. 7 has bred even greater hatred.
While many consider anti-Jewish violence the province of the far right, since Oct. 7 antisemitism has been a largely left-wing phenomenon.
Posters depicting Israelis kidnapped by Hamas and held as hostages in Gaza are now regularly torn down by pro-Palestinian activists, decrying them as “propaganda.” As Nitzan Mintz, one of the Israeli artists responsible for the fliers, depressingly put it, “By accident, this campaign did more than bring an awareness of the kidnapped people. It brought awareness of how hated we are as a community.”
Eli Shmidman, Noa Fay, Yoni Kurtz and Jessica Brenner—Jewish students currently enrolled at Columbia University are pictured during press conference on October 30, 2023.
On college campuses, Jews are increasingly under siege.
On Monday, Jewish students at Cornell University were advised to stay away from the campus’s kosher dining room because of statements on a local message board threatening to harm Jewish students. At Cooper Union in Manhattan, Jewish students, fearing for their lives, barricaded themselves in a school library after pro-Palestinian demonstrators began banging on the doors and chanting “Free Palestine.” At Tulane University, several Jewish students were assaulted after attempting to stop pro-Palestinian protesters from setting an Israeli flag on fire.
At Columbia University, an Israeli student was attacked by a woman when he confronted her about tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis. In a telling indication of the attitudes confronting Jewish students on university campuses, more than a hundred Columbia professors recently signed an open letter about the crisis that never mentions Hamas or terrorism and refers to the events of Oct. 7 as a “military action.”
In fact, since Hamas’ terrorist attack, it’s increasingly difficult to keep track of all the pro-Hamas and antisemitic statements of college professors.
Here’s a smattering: Yale University Associate Professor Zareena Grewal called Oct. 7 “an extraordinary day.” An art professor in Chicago called Israelis “pig, savages, very, very bad people” and said, “May they all rot in hell.” (She apologized in a later post.) A Cornell professor, Russell Rickford, described the massacre—which included the decapitation of children and setting people on fire while still alive—as “exhilarating” and “energizing” (he also apologized).
A professor at the University of California Davis even called on her Twitter followers to identify “Zionist journalists” and, in a post decorated with dripping blood and a knife, warned that “they can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.” At George Washington University in Washington, D.C., pro-Palestinian demonstrators projected messages on a campus building that called for Palestine to be “free from the river to the sea,” a now popular chant on college campuses, which is euphemistically a call for eradicating a Jewish state and its residents.
The assaults, however, are hardly restricted to universities. On Oct. 15, a man punched a woman in the face on a 7 train at Grand Central Terminal in New York. When she asked why he hit her, the man responded, “You are Jewish.” Another assailant shoved a Jewish woman in Manhattan, screaming, “This pig has got to go.” In Los Angeles, a man was arrested after breaking into a Jewish family’s home, yelling “Free Palestine” and “Kill Jews.”
Countless Jewish communities have reported threats against Jewish community centers and temples and antisemitic graffiti. And it’s not all coming from the pro-Palestinian left. Antisemitism spans the political divide, and plenty of the anti-Jewish harassment in America of late has come from the racist right.
In Santa Monica, a man shouted antisemitic slogans and raised his arms in a Nazi salute outside a Jewish Sunday school. In Missoula, Montana, a White Lives Matter group marched outside a local synagogue displaying antisemitic signs. In Parkland, Florida, a group of bicyclists shouted “Kill the Jews” outside a synagogue during Shabbat services. In Macon, Georgia, Waco, Texas, and Traverse City, Michigan, individuals associated with the “Goyim Defense League” handed out leaflets blaming Jews for the “killing of Christ,” mass immigration, “every single aspect of the LGBTQ+ agenda” and even COVID-19.
The wave of anti-Jewish hatred is not limited to the United States. Germany saw a 240 percent rise in antisemitic incidents the week after the Hamas attack compared to the same period a year earlier. In the U.K., anti-Jewish hate crimes were up thirteenfold over last year.In Tunisia, a mob set an historic synagogue ablaze after false reports that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds. And over the weekend, in perhaps the most terrifying incident, a frenzied crowd in the Russian republic of Dagestan stormed an airport tarmac searching for Jewish passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv.
Posters distributed around the New York University campus of people kidnapped by Hamas on the October 7 raid of Israel are vandalized and covered with pro-Palestinian graffiti.
While some on the left have offered antiseptic and ritualistic condemnations of antisemitic violence, many others—including perhaps the most prominent Jewish politician in America—have said nothing or, even worse, blamed Jews for their plight.
While previous bouts of racist violence in America, including a recent spate of anti-Asian attacks, led to increased media and activist attention, a nearly 400 percent increase in antisemitic incidents hasn’t led to a similar groundswell of anger or mobilization. A progressive movement that has fervently embraced identity politics—and the idea that the “lived experience” of vulnerable minority populations with discrimination and prejudice should not be questioned—is making a notable exception for Jews.
Indeed, it is stunning to note that a MeToo movement that has long equated silence with violence—and said women must be believed—has been shockingly quiet about the stories of widespread rape by Hamas terrorists.
Again, even if one disagrees with Israel’s policies in the Middle East and even if they believe Israel is evil incarnate, that can’t justify silence or indifference when Jews in America and elsewhere are targeted. Speaking out against prejudicial acts is the lay-up of activist politics…and yet.
Among American Jews, the silence is heard. If you’re Jewish, you likely know what I mean. If you’re not, it’s hard to do justice to the intense feelings of betrayal and abandonment that many American Jews feel right now. Jews expect such indifference from the right but not from the same progressive allies with whom they once stood in solidarity in promoting civil rights and protesting racial and ethnic violence.
Diaspora Jews have long been told that they need to be hyper-vigilant to antisemitism.
“Do you have a bag packed?” was the question many Jews asked each other in case they needed to flee quickly. But in America, that question was far less likely to be posed.
Not since the days of the Pharaoh had a Diaspora community enjoyed such proximity to political power and relative safety from age-old antisemitism than in the United States. But in the three weeks since Oct. 7, that notion of safety and security has been turned upside down.
American Jews are rightfully afraid, not just because Jews have become a target, but because it seems no one has our back.
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