US Jews grapple with election-year eruption of anti-Semitism

[webfact]

US Jews grapple with election-year eruption of anti-Semitism

By RACHEL ZOLL

 

NEW YORK (AP) — American Jews gathered Thursday to wrestle with how they should confront an election-year surge in anti-Semitism, a level of bias not seen in the U.S. for decades.

 

At a national meeting of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights group, about 1,000 people listened to talks expressing shock at the hatred expressed during the presidential campaign and questioned what they thought was a high-level of acceptance by other Americans.

 

"I'm struggling right now in this American moment," said Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, an education and research organization, in his talk at the event. "I wonder whether I have been — and I think the answer is probably yes — a little bit naive."

 

During this past year, anti-Semitic imagery proliferated on social media, Jewish journalists were targeted and longstanding anti-Jewish conspiracy theories got a fresh airing. Much of the bias originated with the alt-right, or alternative right, a loose group espousing a provocative and reactionary strain of conservatism. It's often associated with far right efforts to preserve "white identity," oppose multiculturalism and defend "Western values."

 

In addition to the online intimidation, reports of anti-Semitic vandalism and other attacks have risen. Last week, the day after the election, a Philadelphia storefront was sprayed with a swastika and the words "Sieg Heil 2106," which means "Hail Victory," a common Nazi chant, and the word "Trump," with a swastika replacing the "T."

 

These developments have stunned U.S. Jewish leaders, who in recent years had been more focused on anti-Semitism in Europe and on addressing complaints of anti-Jewish bias on college campuses amid the debate over the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

 

In a sign of the depth of American Jewish anxiety about anti-Semitism, ADL officials said donations to their organization increased 50-fold in the days immediately after the election and a large majority of the money came from first-time donors. Every one of their regional offices reported an uptick in calls from people wanting to donate or volunteer, the ADL said.

 

"We must not be silent, we must raise our voices, we must act, and to act we must understand what we are up against," said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of ADL, opening the meeting in Manhattan.

 

As the presidential race intensified, Jews started seeing their names bracketed with a series of parentheses in harassing tweets, signaling that the person had been identified as a Jew. The image became known as the Jewish cowbell and its source was traced to neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

 

The ADL investigated the harassment and found more than 800 journalists had suffered anti-Semitic attacks on Twitter during the election, mostly from anonymous Twitter accounts, although some belonged to white supremacists. In a common example of the reporters' experiences, Jane Eisner, editor-in-chief of the Forward, an influential Jewish newspaper that extensively covered the election, said she received an email the morning after the second presidential debate with an image of a Nazi solder pointing a gun at her head, which was Photoshopped onto a concentration camp uniform.

 

Donald Trump's campaign came under scrutiny since much of the harassment came from accounts tied to his supporters.

Trump drew direct criticism last July when he tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton's face with a six-pointed star, a pile of hundred dollar bills and the words "most corrupt candidate ever." The star was in the shape of the Jewish Star of David and was widely condemned as anti-Semitic. Trump's campaign said it was a sheriff's badge.

 

Last month, Trump gave a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, in which he accused Clinton of holding secret meetings with bankers in a conspiracy to undermine U.S. sovereignty. The ADL said that whether intentional or not, Trump had reflected a classic anti-Semitic theme of Jewish control of banks.

 

The president-elect's daughter Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who is now one of his top advisers, are Orthodox Jews. Kushner has defended Trump against allegations of bias.

 

The issue erupted anew when Trump announced far-right publishing executive Stephen Bannon as his top White House Strategist. Bannon led the Breitbart website, considered by many to be the alt-right's platform that has been widely condemned as racist, sexist and anti-Semitic. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called the accusations against Bannon "very unfair."

 

Some Jewish groups have defended Bannon, including the hawkish Zionist Organization of America. Bernie Marcus, a founder of The Home Depot Inc. and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement that Bannon was "a passionate Zionist and supporter of Israel." Marcus called the condemnations of Bannon an attempt to undermine the incoming administration. Seventy-one percent of Jews voted for Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls. Greenblatt worked in the Obama administration.

 

Still, Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University professor and historian of American Judaism, said it would be wrong to attribute the criticisms of Trump appointments or his supporters to partisanship. "I don't know anybody who is looking at this in a serious way who says nothing has changed," in regard to the level of anti-Semitism, Sarna said.

 

"American Jews assumed that anti-Semitism had largely been overcome," he said. "And then all of a sudden, unexpectedly, anti-Semitism of a virulent kind came roaring back."

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-11-18

[coma]

If indeed there is a rise in Anti-Semitic behaviour, the ones they need to blame for it are the Israeli government and its foreign policies. Especially their treatment of the Palestinians. Sad but true. I myself have gone from disliking Israeli foreign policy to absolutely disgusted and appalled by it over the last 12 to 18 months.I am sure there are many others feeling the same.

[Ulysses G.]

Anti-Semites do not need Israel to feed their disease, but it does come in handy. They can hate a whole country, instead of just individual Jews. Too bad for them that the Jewish nation can easily defend themselves. They are not going anywhere.

[Kasset Tak]

I'm not antisemitic but I can see a pattern thru history:

* In the Venetian state the Jews were hated and forced in to the first ghetto, they were running the pawn shops and got even more hated by the people in Venice.

* After WWI most of the German people was angry as they lost everything to the banks because of the hyperinflation, at that time 80-90% of the German banks were controlled by Jews. So who did the Germans blame?! The Jews and eventually that lead to the WWII holocaust!

* We have seen several mayor financial crisis during the last 10-20 year's with people losing everything because of banks like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and even the Federal Reserve and all these banks was/are controlled by Jews.

And if you look thru history then you can see this pattern "People are in financial problems. - Jews are controlling the banks/cashflow. - Jews are being hated, harassed and killed." repeated over and over again!

 

 

[Ulysses G.]

You are not an anti-Semite? Those are all their talking points.

[JuanCarlos]

55 minutes ago, Ulysses G. said:

You are not an anti-Semite? Those are all their talking points.

Wait a sec, so when you answer the topic about racist and bigoted hate crimes  the media try to manipulate the public, but not in this post...?

 

[ddavidovsky]

2 hours ago, coma said:

If indeed there is a rise in Anti-Semitic behaviour, the ones they need to blame for it are the Israeli government and its foreign policies. Especially their treatment of the Palestinians. Sad but true. I myself have gone from disliking Israeli foreign policy to absolutely disgusted and appalled by it over the last 12 to 18 months.I am sure there are many others feeling the same.

 

Agreed. Jews had a huge store of sympathy and goodwill after WWII but they've blown it with their treatment of Palestine. The  deceit, ethnocentricity and aggression of the Israelis is not doing them any good at all. One would have expected them to tread a little more carefully, seeing as they've been generally hated around the world for thousands of years.

[Credo]

A lot of people will tell you that they aren't anti-Semitic, they just really don't like Jews.   I am not sure what the difference is, though.   

 

And as UG said, Israel is a convenient excuse and justification for continued hating.

 

Haters gonna hate.

 

[Scott]

I strongly suggest that people stay on topic.  

 

[simple1]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Donald Trump's campaign came under scrutiny since much of the harassment came from accounts tied to his supporters

 

What has this OP to do with Israeli policies, it's a US centric phenomenon. As has been mentioned in other topics and in the OP the Alt Right has been encouraging anti Jewish propaganda due to their general support of the Democrats.

 

Sorry don't recall the media outlet which reported that during the Trump campaign approx 2 million social media anti Semitic messages from sites / supporters of Trump.

 

For some reason some posters appear to dismiss the reality that the 'right of centre' has for decades stuck to an anti Semitic agenda and only relatively recently morphed to an alternate 'other' whilst never forgetting one of the their core platforms.

 

 

[RuamRudy]

3 hours ago, coma said:

If indeed there is a rise in Anti-Semitic behaviour, the ones they need to blame for it are the Israeli government and its foreign policies. Especially their treatment of the Palestinians. Sad but true. I myself have gone from disliking Israeli foreign policy to absolutely disgusted and appalled by it over the last 12 to 18 months.I am sure there are many others feeling the same.

 

How can a US Jew be expected to take responsibility for the actions of a foreign government? I have no love for the actions of the Israeli government, but that doesn't mean that Jews worldwide should bear the brunt of public consternation. Should all Catholics be held accountable for the child abuse perpetrated by their Church's priests?

[humqdpf]

7 hours ago, Ulysses G. said:

Anti-Semites do not need Israel to feed their disease, but it does come in handy. They can hate a whole country, instead of just individual Jews. Too bad for them that the Jewish nation can easily defend themselves. They are not going anywhere.

Yes it is terrible that such bigoted people as anti-semites can now feel free to give voice to their hatred.

My deeper concern is for those who do not have a strong lobby in their country of residence (in this case the USA) to speak up for them or for an entire country (State of Israel) to speak up for them whenever they are targeted internationally.

 

Also, there are few bigots who hate just one people, ethnicity or race. Generally, they feel that their own race is superior. Therefore, you generally find that bigots are against at least some of the following: Jews, Black people, foreigners, gays, people of certain religions, Latinos, Arabs etc etc

[JoePai]

49 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

How can a US Jew be expected to take responsibility for the actions of a foreign government? I have no love for the actions of the Israeli government, but that doesn't mean that Jews worldwide should bear the brunt of public consternation. Should all Catholics be held accountable for the child abuse perpetrated by their Church's priests?

The answer to your last question is yes - they kept quiet

[Honthy]

1 hour ago, ddavidovsky said:

 

Agreed. Jews had a huge store of sympathy and goodwill after WWII but they've blown it with their treatment of Palestine. The  deceit, ethnocentricity and aggression of the Israelis is not doing them any good at all. One would have expected them to tread a little more carefully, seeing as they've been generally hated around the world for thousands of years.

 

Europe paid compensation for Israel untill 1980 if i remember rightly. That is 30 years .... And a lot of Jew reportedly had died in a lager or lost in the war enjoyed good life in South-America, the USA and Australia.

 

 

[jimmyyy]

ah the republicans are better supporters of the Jewish state than any democrat ever thought of being.  They ought to be happy. 

[yardrunner]

3 hours ago, Ulysses G. said:

Anti-Semites do not need Israel to feed their disease, but it does come in handy. They can hate a whole country, instead of just individual Jews. Too bad for them that the Jewish nation can easily defend themselves. They are not going anywhere.

i wish that were true but unfortunately they are going on to Palestine land on the west bank

[abrahamzvi]

4 hours ago, coma said:

If indeed there is a rise in Anti-Semitic behaviour, the ones they need to blame for it are the Israeli government and its foreign policies. Especially their treatment of the Palestinians. Sad but true. I myself have gone from disliking Israeli foreign policy to absolutely disgusted and appalled by it over the last 12 to 18 months.I am sure there are many others feeling the same.

I do utterly disagree with the Israeli policies and attitude towards the Palestinians and refugees as a whole. However, to justify racial antisemitism with this is utterly wrong and even evil. However, it is unfortunately a fact that the Israeli right wingers have been considering the US and European parties who racially incite against Muslims, as their friends and favorites (Trump likes) not realizing that racialism could also be directed against Jews. A racialist is a racialist, one day against Muslims, the other against Asians and the other against Jews. I hope that my Israeli friends are learning the lesson now!

[abrahamzvi]

27 minutes ago, jimmyyy said:

ah the republicans are better supporters of the Jewish state than any democrat ever thought of being.  They ought to be happy. 

Unfortunately the Israeli right wing parties were very happy with the success of Trump, who sided with the Israeli unjust occupation of Palestinian lands and the Israeli illegal settlements. I hope that the Israelis will now realize what racialists are really up to, even if they seem to support racially motivated apartheid activities by Israel.

[jimmyyy]

I don't recall Israel starting any wars, lets keep the facts straight.  Israel has the right to defend itself and build settlements as they deem necessary in order to house and protect the citizens of Israel.  The Palestinian's don't have a state.  Or perhaps your map is different from mine.

[Cats4ever]

17 minutes ago, jimmyyy said:

I don't recall Israel starting any wars, lets keep the facts straight.  Israel has the right to defend itself and build settlements as they deem necessary in order to house and protect the citizens of Israel.  The Palestinian's don't have a state.  Or perhaps your map is different from mine.

1956 in cahoots with Britain & France.

[jimmyyy]

legitimate source please?  How many times have the Arabs invaded Israel?  I see we disagree here on what the facts are.  It matters not, the new administration with the congress will now secure Israel for years to come.  Thank you for the discussion.

[Ulysses G.]

5 minutes ago, Cats4ever said:

1956 in cahoots with Britain & France.

 

You mean when Egypt violated a treaty and took over the Suez canal? They are to blame for that one.

[Honthy]

The population of the USA in 2012 was 314.799.465 and the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term. This constitutes between 1.7% and 2.6% of the total U.S. population.

It seems as if they were minority ......

 

[Enoon]

4 hours ago, Kasset Tak said:

I'm not antisemitic but I can see a pattern thru history:

* In the Venetian state the Jews were hated and forced in to the first ghetto, they were running the pawn shops and got even more hated by the people in Venice.

* After WWI most of the German people was angry as they lost everything to the banks because of the hyperinflation, at that time 80-90% of the German banks were controlled by Jews. So who did the Germans blame?! The Jews and eventually that lead to the WWII holocaust!

* We have seen several mayor financial crisis during the last 10-20 year's with people losing everything because of banks like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and even the Federal Reserve and all these banks was/are controlled by Jews.

And if you look thru history then you can see this pattern "People are in financial problems. - Jews are controlling the banks/cashflow. - Jews are being hated, harassed and killed." repeated over and over again!

 

 

 

The Jewish influence in banking is the result of Christian doctrine in the Medieval period.

 

Usury (charging interest on lent money) was not allowed to Christians.

 

In order to borrow money one had to go to a non-christian lender (a Jew, no good going to a Muslim, usury also not allowed) which led, in time, to the establishment of many Jewish owned banks.

 

They were family business which, as usually happens with family businesses, were handed down from father to son through the generations.

 

Your "history", neglecting this vital fact in your "pattern", is precisely the sort of dissimulating anti-semitic propaganda that has also been handed down through generations.

 

The sort of thing that the poor, the ignorant, the disappointed, the envious, the xenophobic and the vicious, have eagerly fed on ever since those Venetians noticed that some Jews were wealthier than they were.

 

Really, as soon as one reads the words "I'm not......but", one knows where it's going.

 

 

 

 

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, Ulysses G. said:

Anti-Semites do not need Israel to feed their disease, but it does come in handy. They can hate a whole country, instead of just individual Jews. Too bad for them that the Jewish nation can easily defend themselves. They are not going anywhere.

 

You are correct. I was appalled that Celtic FC fans waved Palestinian flags in Scotland when playing an Israeli team; and the lack of condemnation. But it seems fashionable for socialist liberal nationalists to be anti-semitic in Europe, especially those with Catholic heritages or connections. 

I don't think Trump is anti-semitic, nor is he racist. But he does support law and order, change, and isn't PC. And those things are abhorrent to his opponents - many of whom really are anti-semitic, and think racism doesn't apply to when whites are abused.

 

Wonder what the Clinton attitude to Jewish people really is?

 

 

[RuamRudy]

4 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

You are correct. I was appalled that Celtic FC fans waved Palestinian flags in Scotland when playing an Israeli team; and the lack of condemnation. But it seems fashionable for socialist liberal nationalists to be anti-semitic in Europe, especially those with Catholic heritages or connections. 

I don't think Trump is anti-semitic, nor is he racist. But he does support law and order, change, and isn't PC. And those things are abhorrent to his opponents - many of whom really are anti-semitic, and think racism doesn't apply to when whites are abused.

 

Wonder what the Clinton attitude to Jewish people really is?

 

 

 

Can one not support Palestine without being called anti-semitic? This canard that a friend of Palestine is a Jew-hater is tired and insulting to all parties.

 

Scotland has a long and proud tradition of supporting the underdog, and Catholics in Scotland, especially as a result of their being significantly outnumbered by Protestants. 

[ilostmypassword]

5 hours ago, Kasset Tak said:

I'm not antisemitic but I can see a pattern thru history:

* In the Venetian state the Jews were hated and forced in to the first ghetto, they were running the pawn shops and got even more hated by the people in Venice.

* After WWI most of the German people was angry as they lost everything to the banks because of the hyperinflation, at that time 80-90% of the German banks were controlled by Jews. So who did the Germans blame?! The Jews and eventually that lead to the WWII holocaust!

* We have seen several mayor financial crisis during the last 10-20 year's with people losing everything because of banks like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and even the Federal Reserve and all these banks was/are controlled by Jews.

And if you look thru history then you can see this pattern "People are in financial problems. - Jews are controlling the banks/cashflow. - Jews are being hated, harassed and killed." repeated over and over again!

 

 

How exactly do you differ from being an anti-semite?  

Those who know anything about European history know that Jews were denied the the right to own land or enter most professions. Because the Catholic and Orthodox church prohibited its adherents from charging interest on loans, banking was one of the few professions Jews were allowed to pursue. I suspect you know this, too, but purposely overlook it to advance your obvious anti-semitism.

Interestingly enough, in Bulgaria, when those evil Muslim Turks ruled it, Jews were allowed to own land and pursue pretty much any profession.  They pretty much blended into the background.

[coma]

4 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

 

How can a US Jew be expected to take responsibility for the actions of a foreign government? I have no love for the actions of the Israeli government, but that doesn't mean that Jews worldwide should bear the brunt of public consternation. Should all Catholics be held accountable for the child abuse perpetrated by their Church's priests?

 

There is a flip side to every coin. Should all Muslims be held accountable for the actions of the radical elements of their faith ? No. But it does. It clearly influences large portions of non Muslim's opinions of Muslims the world over.

So my point is that Israel's actions do influence some people's perceptions of all Jews. Just as Islamic terrorism influences some people's view of all Muslims. That is human behaviour.

[coma]

3 hours ago, humqdpf said:

 

Also, there are few bigots who hate just one people, ethnicity or race. Generally, they feel that their own race is superior. Therefore, you generally find that bigots are against at least some of the following: Jews, Black people, foreigners, gays, people of certain religions, Latinos, Arabs etc etc

 

So you need to be a white Anglo Saxon to be a bigot ? 

[chilli42]

6 hours ago, coma said:

If indeed there is a rise in Anti-Semitic behaviour, the ones they need to blame for it are the Israeli government and its foreign policies. Especially their treatment of the Palestinians. Sad but true. I myself have gone from disliking Israeli foreign policy to absolutely disgusted and appalled by it over the last 12 to 18 months.I am sure there are many others feeling the same.

 

I wonder what Israeli state policy has to to do with people of Jewish faith in the US?