Jews are feeling increasingly afraid and unwelcome.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Don't have an account? Create Account
Last week, girls on the basketball team of a Jewish private school in suburban Hartsdale, New York, were jabbed and hit with anti-Semitic slurs by players from Yonkers’ Roosevelt High School.
“I support Hamas,” a Roosevelt player snarled. The game had to be called off in the third quarter and the Jewish girls needed school security to help them leave.
Anti-Semitic incidents were already on the rise in 2021 and 2022. Now they are up nearly 400% year-over-year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt explains, “I am not talking about, you know, stores producing IDF T-shirts. I’m talking about a coffee shop on Long Island, an ice cream parlour in the Bay Area, a restaurant in Chicago.”
Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of The Winnipeg Sun's Daily Headline News will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
It reminds him of his grandparents’ barbershop, which was vandalized by the Nazis in Germany. “I can’t believe this is happening in our country today.”
Believe it.
Mainstream media choose to downplay it and the Democratic Party is, at best, divided. Anti-Semitism has often come from the Right, but it appears now to be coming from the Left.
When presidents of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania appeared at a congressional hearing in December, they were questioned about calls on campuses for Jewish genocide. They said those calls don’t necessarily violate campus policy; it depends on the context.” Democrats’ reactions were mixed.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) had no problem with moral clarity. “There is no ‘both sides-ism’ and it isn’t ‘free speech,’ it’s simply hate speech,” Fetterman said. It should be “reflexive” to “condemn anti-Semitism.”
But former president Barack Obama, the titular head of the party, had a different response. He reached out to Harvard and made a behind-the-scenes effort to save President Claudine Gay’s job.
On Dec. 13, the House of Representatives voted on a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism on campuses and demand the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and MIT for tolerating it. Democrats split, with 84 supporting the resolution and 125 opposing. If the discrimination had been against black students, the vote would have been unanimous and Democrats would have clamoured to pull federal funding from the colleges. But Jewish students can pound salt.
Jewish hostages, too. The public’s indifference to the eight American Jews captive in Gaza, the media’s silence and President Joe Biden’s tepid efforts to get them released, are telling.
Recall that during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 52 American diplomats and citizens were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and endured 444 days of captivity. During that ordeal, Americans tied yellow ribbons around trees and Walter Cronkite announced on the nightly CBS news how many days the hostages had been captive. Carter’s failure to get them out contributed to his landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
That’s unlikely to be a factor this November because this time, so few Americans care.
Granted, there are only eight hostages and they were not serving the U.S. in an official capacity when they were taken. Even so, the silence is troubling.
Over the centuries, hatred of Jews has come from many directions. The latest wave appears linked to progressive opposition to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, according to a study done by Arie Perliger, director of security studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. All Jews must bear the guilt, the thinking goes.
By failing to condemn anti-Semitism, politicians, academics and their media allies are doing our enemies’ bidding. One week ago, ISIS released a 67-minute diatribe calling for the destruction of Jews worldwide to avenge Israeli strikes against Gaza. The message was: “Kill them wherever you find them.”
Meanwhile, Jewish families privately talk at the dinner table about Anne Frank, hiding in attics and where this new wave of anti-Semitism could lead.
It’s time for all Americans to denounce it.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Michael Kwet
visit website
