Jewish students were physically blocked from sections of UCLA’s campus by anti-Israel protestors, many covering their faces with kaffiyehs in the Spring 2024 semester. Three students consequently sued to have the university ensure that they have equal rights to use and enjoy the campus facilities.
U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi agreed with the plaintiffs that UCLA knew students could not enter parts of campus because of their religious beliefs. His ruling ordered UCLA to stop “knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and campus areas, whether as a result of a de-escalation strategy or otherwise.”
UCLA strongly disagreed.
Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, said “the district court’s ruling would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community. We’re closely reviewing the Judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward.”
Thomas Harvey, the lawyer representing Faculty for Justice in Palestine, came up with the absurd notion that the ruling “paves the way for total removal of pro-Palestinian activity on campus. If the sincerely held religious belief being protected here is the belief in the Jewish state of Israel, any class, campus event or speaker that criticizes that nation’s legal or political decisions might be prohibited.”
Jewish student at UCLA denied entry to campus while police looked on
UCLA and the lawyer’s arguments aren’t just ridiculous but make one wonder if they are deeply antisemitic. The ruling doesn’t say anything about criticizing “political decisions” of any country; it is about free and fair access for all students to use every corner of the university campus.
In a strange bit of coincidence, on October 6, 2023, one day before the barbaric Palestinian massacre of Israelis, UCLA announced the UCLA Research Hub on Antisemitism, funded by a $600,000 gift by the Pritzker family. The hub is a joint effort between the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate and the Center for Jewish Studies. In announcing the new effort, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said “It is critical that we do more than condemn the recent surge in antisemitism — we must actively work against it.”
Chancellor Block was pushed to resign in May 2024 by anti-Israel protestors who also called for canceling the school’s Israel Studies Department and for boycotting all Israeli universities.
UCLA is tacking to the jihadi fringe to remove any tolerance of contrary points of view and freedom of access in an undemocratic purge of Zionists and Jews. It is displaying a frightful lack of basic civility and critical thinking.
UCLA is so infected with anti-Zionism, that it is fighting to ban pro-Zionist students from campus and an education. It says a great deal about California and the terrible state of education today.
Roman Vishniac (1897-1990) was a famous documentary photographer who captured images of what turned out to be the end of a thriving Eastern European Jewish community. His photographs and story are captured in film and several books, which serve as witness to Jewish life as it existed before being extinguished in the Holocaust.
Vishniac did not try to capture only old Jews or poor shtetl Jews, although his images do bring stories like Fiddler On The Roof to the real world. He captured all kinds of Jews who lived full lives in cities and towns, without the foreboding knowledge that death was coming as individuals and as a collective.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) captured Russian villages and Jews in his paintings in the decades before Vishniac. Jews had been relegated to live in the Pale of Settlement on the western ends of the Russian Empire for hundreds of years, and Chagall’s early paintings were somewhat peaceful despite the various pogroms which decimated much of the Jewish community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Vitebsk (1917)Russian Village (1929)
On October 7, 2023, roughly 3,500 people came to southern Israel near the Gaza Strip to celebrate life and music. The Tribe of Nova music festival was an annual all night electronic music experience which drew mostly secular people from around the world. They celebrated with friends and family near Jewish communities whose residents strove for coexistence with their neighbors in Jew-free Gaza nearby. No one knew that Palestinian terrorists were going to descend on the party and the kibbutzes to slaughter and torture as many people as the Arabs could find.
Nova festival party goers
In eastern Europe and Russia, Jews lived in confined areas at the edges of where host countries decided Jews may live. The Jews lived the best they could under the restrictions, until political powers decided that they didn’t want Jews anymore. The militaries either slaughtered the Jews or expelled them.
Vishniac in Berlin after WWIIChagall’s White Crucifixion (1938)
While Jews originated and always lived in the land of Israel, modern Zionism sought to give Jews autonomy in their homeland again. While the reestablished Jewish State was formed in 1948, the country fought many wars against neighbors which found a Jewish State an insult to Islam.
Believing that the Israeli army kept them secure, Israelis danced the night away on October 7, just three kilometers from where the Palestinian group Hamas governed the terrorist enclave of Gaza, with a well-publicized plan seeking the death of Jews and destruction of Israel. Thousands of Gazan terrorists invaded Israel and butchered and slaughtered more Jews on a single day than any day since the Holocaust.
Fleeing NovaDestruction at Nova
Jews danced and lived on the edges, on narrow slices of the world where they were informed they were entitled to live. In the end, whether from their own antisemitic governments or neighboring genocidal armies, they were targeted for annihilation.
The United States Now
What are the lessons for the largest diaspora community the world has ever known, with nearly 6 million Jews accounting for two-thirds of the global diaspora? Or other western democracies like Canada, the United Kingdom and France?
Jews have achieved financial success and attained leading positions at many global companies. They have built schools and hospitals, industries and factories. They have no restrictions on professions or where they can live, how they can pray or what they eat.
Yet the feeling for Jews post-October 7 feels tense. Unsafe.
The presidents of America’s leading universities came to Washington, D.C. and said that they would not combat Jew-hatred on their campuses. The best they could offer were chaperones to escort Jews to their classes or dorms as they confront open and approved intimidation and harassment.
Wayne State UniversityBirmingham, UK
Many American politicians in liberal cities are openly saying that they will not protect Jews. Jews living in the suburbs of New York and St. Louis fought aggressively to oust antisemitic politicians (Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush), with the defeated members of Congress then threatening to come after them.
Are these the new edges in the West in 2024, the straight line on campuses from dorms to classrooms, as well as suburban towns outside of liberal cities? Are universities and cities generally becoming off limits to Jews? Are Jews being told to simply accept that they can live happy lives on the edges?
Jews know history. They carry it in their DNA. They know that any restrictions form the contours of confinement. There is no safety in ghettos, only marked addresses for future annihilation.
Marker for location of massacre of the Jews of Lisbon on April 19, 1506
President George Washington penned a letter to the Jewish congregation of Newport, RI on August 18, 1790 which said “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Yet Jews are feeling a deep erosion of that sentiment, that they are part-and-parcel of the fabric of the great country, as leaders of both academia and government assist persecution and inflame bigotry against the most persecuted people in the world.
Excluding Jews in any form, place or time is against the foundational principles of the United States. It cannot be accepted for America to be America.
American Jews will not fight for a slice of land on the edges of society in which to live. They have seen the destruction of fellow Jews when they stay politely in the alloted corners. Whether traditional or secular. Whether in Israel or the diaspora.
Marker of location where 200+ Jews in Vienna who had refused to convert to Christianity were burned at the stake in 1421.
American Jews will fight for all of America and to continue to be integral part of the great nation, unafraid.
American Jews hold fast to Washington’s Newport letter, as he signed “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”
Alas, what make antisemites everlastingly happy is harassing Jews until they experience the pogroms and expulsions of Fiddler On The Roof today.
Left-wing radical incumbent Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO1) lost her Democratic primary yesterday to Wesley Bell, a more moderate progressive. The margin of victory was tighter than the massive rout suffered by fellow alt-left squad member Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) a few months ago.
Bell was able to overcome Bush’s incumbent advantage due to the turnout in the suburbs of St. Louis where he had a wide margin of victory. In the city of St. Louis, Bush had an 8.4% margin of victory where 48,886 people voted, but Bell had a 14.7% margin outside the city where 74,203 voters turned out.
The suburbs, which had 60.3% of the overall voters, voted for a more moderate progressive. This was true in New York’s 16th Congressional District as well. Bowman crushed the more moderate progressive George Latimer by 67% in New York City, while Latimer had a 27% advantage in the suburbs. As the suburbs accounted for 89.6% of the voters, Latimer sailed to a 17% margin of victory.
Both Bowman and Bush were deeply flawed candidates beyond their extreme political stances. They took their losses to further fight a war on Jews and the Jewish State, as Bush said in her concession speech “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!”
The media and antisemitic voices will paint the “squad” losses as a matter of the “powerful AIPAC lobby” coming for people of color in an attempt to inflame Jew-hatred among minorities much like Bush and Bowman are doing. But the critical factor was the contours of the districts being majority suburbia which do not embrace the fanatical woke extremism which is more popular in American cities.
Alt-left radical group Justice Democrats claim that Zionists are attempting to destroy democracy after loss of Cori Bush to another Black progressive, as posted on X, August 6, 2024
The pro-Palestinian movement in the United States has gone full jihadi, targeting JEWISH institutions, including synagogues. The instigators are not only anti-Israel but anti-Jews.
Squirrel Hill Synagogue, PA location of worst mass murder of Jews in the US, defaced with pro-Palestinian graffiti, July 2024Mercer Island, WA synagogue defaced, November 2023
Jewish houses of worship are not Israeli. They have nothing to do with the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, but were targeted by pro-Palestinian antisemites.
Synagogue in Los Angeles, CA spray painted with “Free Palestine” and “F*ck Israel” in May 2020Calgary, Canada synagogue defaced July 2024
The Palestineism movement specifically calls for finding and confronting Zionist organizations, which it has determined is every Jewish organization unless it specifically repudiates Zionism. They have created a “Mapping Project” to enable people to locate and harrass Jewish Americans, Jewish organizations, Jewish schools and synagogues.
The United States Holocaust Museum has written extensively about the Nazis use of intimidation as a tool to weaponize fear and “rationalize war, persecution, and genocide.” The “Free Palestine” graffiti on houses of worship – especially in the shadow of the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian Arabs – is a deliberate targeting of Jews, a marker for exclusion and persecution.
The Department of Justice needs to act against these hate crimes. The department knows that “Hate crimes have a devastating effect beyond the harm inflicted on any one victim. They reverberate through families, communities, and the entire nation, as others fear that they too could be threatened, attacked, or forced from their homes, because of what they look like, who they are, where they worship, whom they love, or whether they have a disability.”
Section 241 of the civil rights code makes it a felony to intimidate people to hinder the free exercise to a basic privilege like worship.
Yet in Pennsylvania, home to the largest mass murder of Jews in the United States and scene of recent graffiti on a synagogue, Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Josh Shapiro did not flag that the perpetrators of the antisemitic intimidation should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They only spoke of the symbolism of the vandalism and graffiti.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) made it an offense to use intimidation to prevent a person from going to a synagogue. A Tennessee woman was just sentenced to three years and five months for intimidating people from using an abortion clinic. Such action should be enforced quickly and broadly for vandalizing a synagogue, with long sentences when the language calls to eradicate the Jewish State.
Words of condemnation are appreciated but American Jewry needs and demands that politicians and law enforcement enforce laws to protect Jews from the onslaught of toxic antisemitic Palestineism that is sweeping the nation.
Vice President Kamala Harris moved quickly to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president after President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer run for re-election just weeks before the Democratic National Convention. Rather than let Democratic voters decide on their nominee, the Democratic establishment rallied behind Harris and shut down voter wishes for alternatives.
Immediately after the Democratic establishment rallied behind Harris, far-left Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) endorsed Harris. In her endorsement, Bush said “When we say trust Black women, we mean it. Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party and it is past time for us to lead our country forward.”
It’s not a surprise. While Harris served in the Senate, she was listed as one of the most partisan senators, scoring a -0.92670, ranking #93 out of 98 senators scored (majority and minority leaders are excluded), according to the Lugar Center Bipartisan Index. That scored her close to House squad member Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) who scored a -0.94183 during the same 2019 Congress.
People voted Joe Biden to the presidency in 2020 because he was a moderate. The Lugar Center scored Biden in the top 20% of bipartisan senators all-time, coming in at #47 out of #250 scored. When Biden selected Harris to join the ticket, it was widely viewed as a nod to rally the far-left wing of the party onboard which was upset that Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders did not secure the nomination.
It caused many people concern at the time. During a 60 Minutes interview in 2020, Harris was questioned about her extremist views and record. She cackled her way through the question, reluctantly responding that she is on board with Biden’s approaches to policy.
The powerful teachers unions have gone all-in on Harris, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The NEA is pushing to begin indoctrinating its members in several anti-Israel items including: the ‘Nakba’ narrative; teaching that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism; endorsing the BDS (boycott, divest and sanctioning) of Israel; call to stop funding Israel’s military; and call Israel’s operation in Gaza a “genocide.” AFT considered similar resolutions as the socialist teacher unions try to indoctrinate America’s future in a socialist-jihadi narrative
As president, Harris will become “unburdened by what has been,” meaning the more moderate and pro-Israel policies of Biden, and free to push an extremist socialist agenda.
Vice President Kamala Harris with Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, left, and Squad member Rep. Jamaal Bowman (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on July 24, 2024. He spoke of the strong ties between Israel and the U.S. and their mutual enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. He thanked Presidents Biden and Trump for being reliable allies, helping Israel fight its enemies and forge peace with those willing to coexist with the Jewish State.
The speech was addressed to a bipartisan audience of past, present and future Democratic and Republican presidents and members of Congress, and reflected the bipartisan and bicameral invitation to Netanyahu.
Yet only one party attended en masse. Only one party rose to their feet again and again during Netanyahu’s remarks. Only one party closed ranks with a strong ally in the middle of a horrific war.
The Republicans.
There was also one party which stood divided about Israel. One party who disrespected and disparaged the Israeli leader. One party whose shrill anti-Israel voices drowned out those who support Israel.
The Democrats.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was angry that Netanyahu came to address Congress as “bad faith efforts by Republicans to further politicize the U.S.-Israel relationship.” In truth, the bipartisan invitation did not politicize the relationship but laid bare the pro-Hamas and anti-Israel wing of woke politicians and Americans.
Nadler, a Jewish Congressman, insulted Netanyahu as “the worst leader in Jewish history.” He spent his time at Netanyahu’s speech reading from a book highly critical of Netanyahu that he brandished about like garlic before a vampire.
Rep. Jerry Nadler read highly critical biography of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while the prime minister addressed a joint session of Congress on July 24, 2024.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who had invited the Israeli Prime Minister, refused to shake the leader’s hand. Schumer had sharply criticized Netanyahu four months earlier in Congress, calling for new elections and meddling in foreign affairs of a democratic ally.
There were some Democrats who were supportive of Netanyahu and the Jewish State. Reps. Torres, Gottheimer, Hernandez, Manning, Franel and Wasserman-Schultz were clear about being proud Zionists, voicing full bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, calling for bringing home the hostages held by Palestinian Arabs, and blasting the antisemitic protests on the streets of Washington, D.C.
Yet few people took notice of their comments which were viewed only a few thousand times on X.
The anti-Israel and anti-Netanyahu politicians were much more popular.
Many far-left members of Congress boycotted the speech. According to Axios, roughly half of the Democrats in the Senate and the House did not attend the address, including Vice President Kamala Harris who chose to attend another event, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.), former House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). That’s over two times the number of Democrats who boycotted Netanyahu in 2015.
When the generals of wokedom Sanders and AOC posted about their feelings of “war criminal” Netanyahu and skipping the speech, MILLIONS of followers took in the bile. Even Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) who has already lost his seat in Congress for the next term, had nearly five times the number of views as Rep. Ritchie Torres.
The streets of Washington were filled with woke antisemites. Some held placards calling for the “final solution” in a reference to Hitler’s plan for a genocide of Jews. Some painted on governmental monuments that “Hamas is comin.”
The left-wing media joined the fray. The New Republic published an article about how horrible it would be for Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, to choose Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), an Orthodox Jew. Such a move would “ruin Democratic Unity” and “fracture the party” because Shapiro is a Zionist. Jacobin wants Harris to pick 82-year old Bernie Sanders as her Vice President, enjoying his vilification of Israel and capitalism.
According to a Gallup poll in March 2024, the favorability rating of Americans about Israel dropped below 60% for the first time since March 2004. It was mostly driven by young people 18-34 whose favorability ratings for Israel dropped in the last year to 38% from 64%, while their opinions barely budged for the Palestinian Authority. As it relates to the war, Democrats and the youth were the only segments to have a higher favorability rating for Palestinians more than Israelis.
By every measure, in just 75 years, Israel built a successful and thriving liberal democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Despite its success, the ongoing war against Gazan terrorists have sapped the support of the young and most left-leaning Americans, according to another poll by Gallup in late March 2024. Whether justified or not and fought minimizing harm to civilians or not, the anti-war movement amongst the young is not just drawing support from the Jewish State, but accelerating a movement to attack it and Zionists globally.
The messages of turning on Israel and Zionists continue to gain momentum, even among progressive Jews. Little known members of Congress like Rep. Sarah Jacobs’ (D-CA), not coincidentally the youngest Jew in Congress, post about boycotting Netanyahu got one million views on X, a platform more often used by young people.
Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress did not “politicize the U.S.-Israel relationship.” It exposed the deep rot of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in a growing segment of the Democratic Party, much like the Congressional hearings about antisemitism at universities shed light on the noxious Jew-hatred metastasizing in woke establishments.
ACTION ITEM
Contact Rep. Jerry Nadler and tell him he’s a vile and childish putz for insulting a leader of an American ally who was invited by a bipartisan and bicameral Congress. Call (202) 225-5635
Israel is the most liberal country in the entire Middle East by leaps and bounds. It has freedoms of religion, assembly and press which are not found amongst its neighbors. It has a diverse population and laws which protect minorities. The country’s western values make it an anomaly in the illiberal region.
Yet despite being a very liberal state, the Israeli people voted for a conservative and religious government to lead them, seemingly at odds with the pluralistic nation’s values. It begs the question as to what drives the disconnection.
Israel Is A Country At War
Israel is not like the United States with only two neighboring countries, each of which recognizes the USA. Israel is surrounded by hostile countries.
Israel is not like Norway which has been at peace for decades. Israel’s neighbors have repeatedly gone to war to destroy the country.
Israel is not like Slovenia, devoid of terrorist groups surrounding it. Israel is surrounded on all sides by terrorist groups and their sponsors.
Israel has been in a constant state of war with its neighbors since its founding, and still has dozens of terrorist groups alongside it sworn to the country’s destruction.
Israel Is Under Assault At The United Nations
Israel is not like Turkey with no standing resolutions at the U.N. about its occupation of Cyprus. There is a standing resolution against only one country: Israel.
Israel is not like Pakistan without a unique U.N. agency dedicated to descendants living in a neighboring land labeled “refugees” who are being pushed to move back. The UN created and maintains UNRWA, a unique refugee agency apart from the global refugee agency, which pushes to have all those descendants move into Israel.
Israel is not like the Vatican which allows full and open prayer for Catholics in the holy city. The U.N. has an official policy of denying Israeli Jews the right to pray at their holiest location on the Temple Mount.
Israel is not like Argentina which has no edicts about Argentinians living in disputed places like the Falkland Islands. Yet Israel has U.N. resolutions to ban Israeli Jews (but not Israeli Muslims) from living in disputed lands.
Israel is not like Cyprus whose capital Nicosia is deemed a united city under its control. Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem is not officially recognized by the global body, and it wishes to divide the city in two as it was during war.
Israel is not like India or the United States which labels products made in territories as made in the country. Yet the U.N. and European Union demand that products made in the Israeli territory of Area C in the West Bank be labeled distinctly, if produced by Jews.
United Nations “refugee” camp with a key on top to tell descendants of Arabs who left Israel while they waited for the Jewish State to be destroyed, that the U.N. is the portal to reclaim old homes inside of Israel.
Israel is perpetually treated as an offensive guest at the United Nations, and not a member state like other countries.
Israel Is On Active Defense
Israel is a liberal democracy at war with illiberal jihadi entities, and consequently elects right-wing governmental officials whom it believes will protect the country and its people, even though the populace strongly desires to elect new leadership.
American media that berates Israel’s right-wing government without simultaneously vilifying the antisemitic Palestinian jihadists, are effectively parroting hateful Hamas propaganda.
American politicians that boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress are essentially supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s mission to isolate and destroy the Jewish State.
We know how America, France and other liberal democracies address jihadi terrorism which has no existential threat to the survival of the country. We know how those countries’ liberal citizens vote in elections when their basic safety and human rights are compromised.
People demand safety first and foremost from their governments, and will elect leaders who provide such security, especially when under brutal attack. Demonizing those elected leaders for doing what their liberal citizens require for survival is a reward to terrorists. In Israel, such prize goes to the genocidal Palestinian maniacs who wish to ethnically cleanse the holy land of its Jews.
ACTION ITEM
Write Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler to stop condemning the Israeli government for fighting to protect its citizens from genocidal Palestinian Arabs.
Antisemitism on college campuses has been growing reality for several years. The explosion of Jew-hatred since the popular Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas‘s slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel has made many school environments toxic for Jews. Not Israelis; Jews. They’ve hidden in their dorm rooms and worked from home. They’ve transferred to different schools. They’ve sued their universities.
In the noxious wake of this antisemitic bilestorm, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) summoned the heads of major universities to investigate the situation on campuses.
The work revealed a systemic bias against Jewish students who were harassed, intimidated and attacked repeatedly. A dynamic which would never have been tolerated for majority-minority groups like Blacks and Hispanics had been given a passing grade.
When the public witnessed the testimony there was an uproar. When it read the subpoenaed texts circulated among college deans about the state of antisemitism, there was widespread disgust.
University presidents and deans lost their jobs. Lawsuits filed by Jewish students were filed and settled.
The revelations of the hearings were not only that Jew hatred had become embedded in universities from the students to professors through the administration, but that the concern was seemingly NOT bipartisan.
Several Democratic members of Congress like Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) used their time at the hearings to ponder why there was no investigation about Islamophobia rather than tackle the subject at hand. The media accused Republicans of holding a partisan spectacle and didn’t really care about Jews, such as The New York Times which wrote “The drubbing is part of a campaign by Republicans against what they view as double standards within elite education establishments — practices that they say favor some groups over others, and equity over meritocracy. Others see it as partisan attack.”
The framing is seemingly peculiar. There is no question that antisemitism on college campuses reached outrageous levels post-October 7. Why would Democratic politicians and liberal media not want to protect young Jews going to school, a community which historically always voted Democratic?
A compulsion to protect DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) which often prioritizes Blacks and Hispanics over Jews and Asians
It begs the question: should Democrats become the majority in Congress in the next election, will Jewish students be abandoned to be tormented at universities around the United States?
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) talking to gathering concerned about the state of antisemitism in universities, July 17, 2024 (Photo: First One Through)
It is both shocking and repulsive to imagine that Democrats would abandon young American Jews but the reactions of Democrats to the past hearings as well as Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) refusal to advance several bills in Congress (since Democrats control the Senate, he controls which bills come forward for a vote) like the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 and the DETERRENT Act make one believe it to be the case.
It would appear that not only is Israel now a partisan issue, but antisemitism has become one as well.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, Jewish Harvard graduate, speaking at Republican National Convention on July 17, 2024
In May 2021, President Biden’s Jewish Engagement Director Aaron Keyak posted on X “It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david (Jewish star),” in response to growing antisemitic attacks.
The government official did not state that governmental authorities would do whatever it can to protect Jews and prosecute those who harass, intimate and attack Jews. He told Jews to go undercover and erase their identity out of fear.
The situation for Jews has only worsened over the past three years as Jews are being forced from the public arena.
In September 2021, Hollywood opened a new museum, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. By design, the building exhibited a movie industry which was shaped by many Jews, showcasing virtually no Jews. Its desire to be “radically inclusive” of minorities’ contribution to the film industry stripped the minority-minority Jews of a place which they helped create.
Marvel Studios just announced that the introduction of the 1980s Jewish Israeli superhero Sabra in the upcoming movie Captain America: Brave New World, will be stripped of her identity and instead be recast with a Russian backstory.
Plays have been canceled because producers cannot pay the increased insurance premiums that arise out of fear that antisemitic protestors may attack the venue. It happens whether the production includes Israelis or it doesn’t. Jews have been declared the enemy, a too financially and morally expensive cohort to platform.
In April 2024, Columbia University opted to move its classes online after it concluded that it could not keep Jewish students safe on campus. After being sued, the Columbia administration said it would provide “walking escorts” and create a new position called a “Safe Passage Liaison” to help get Jewish students around the school campus, acknowledging that it could not/ would not control campus antisemitism.
Jewish fear of attacks is being met with a widespread canceling of Jews, not the perpetrators. It is reminiscent of the British response to the heinous slaughter of Jews in Hebron in 1929: rather than prosecute the Palestinian Arabs who committed the atrocities, they expelled the Palestinian Jews from their homes into other cities.
The explosion of antisemitism is not being confronted with forceful laws and actions to make Jews safe but a policy of abandonment. Few politicians and non-Jews have declared that this tsunami of antisemitism is un-American, the way Van Jones did in Washington D.C. in November 2023.
Worse, leading American Jews – Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in particular – have not defended Jews from antisemitism. As the most politically powerful Jew in America, Schumer has refused to advance the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 for a vote. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY17) introduced H.R. 6090 back in October 2023 which was passed by a wide bipartisan margin on May 1, 2024. It has been sitting idly on Schumer’s desk for two and one-half months without action.
Even the most powerful Jew in the United States is hiding, lest his advocacy for other Jews make him vulnerable.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
It has become institutionalized in the government.
Jews are being erased in the public sphere and being told to hide. As they do, they are vilified and slandered for hiding in the shadows and conspiring to harm people. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said “they do it from Gaza to Detroit, and it’s a way to control people, to oppress people… open the curtain andlook behind the curtain, it’s the same people who make money and—yes they do—off of racism.” Her comrade Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) said “Westchester is segregated. There’s certain places where the Jews live and concentrate,” vilifying Jews – and only Jews – for not living where he has determined they should buy homes.
The alt-left and alt-right are thrilled at the disappearing Jew. They painted the small minority as too powerful, too rich and too influential for many years. They want the American Jewish footprint to be as meager as their numbers, and the Jewish State eradicated from the global map.
Jews are left with two choices: to either 1) disappear as Jews, by concealing their identity or moving away, or 2) stand and fight for their basic human rights and dignity.
Astute western democratic leaders know those options.
After the killing of Jews in a Parisian kosher supermarket in 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that “if 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.”French President Francois Hollande made a similar statement a few days later: “French people of the Jewish faith, your place is here, in your home. France is your country.” Powerful statements from governmental officials to keep its Jewish citizens.
But where are such statements in America? How can Biden officials tell Jews to hide their religion and the leading Jewish politician refuse to bring laws to fight antisemitism?
Bret Stephens, said that the best ally for American Jewry is “America at her best.” Are we there or moving in the opposite direction?
Jews who refuse to disappear are fighting first-and-foremost for fundamental American principles, such as merit, free enterprise and creativity along with respect for tradition. America at her best will see a proud Jewish community thriving, while America unmoored will see its Jews disappear.
The fight against socialist, jihadi and alt-right antisemitism is to enact laws and elect politicians who want to see America focused on creating, not destroying; developing, not redistributing; respecting, not ripping down.
The disappearing Jew is a warning sign that western values are disintegrating, a dangerous omen for everyone.
This is from France, but it could be any Jewish community, anywhere in the world.
Anti-Israel protestors converged on a synagogue in Queens, NY, to protest an event promoting buying property in Israel. The scores of agitators were consumed “with rage,” looking for a fight against Jews whom they considered stealing “Palestinian land,” and abetting a “genocide” against Palestinian Arabs.
Not surprisingly, the mob – many with faces covered – came for a fight shouting “Free Palestine!”, “We don’t want no Zionists here!” and “We don’t want two states; we want ’48” (meaning all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea). In response, the Jews waved American and Israeli flags and chanted “USA! USA!,” “Am Yisrael Chai (the nation of Israel lives)”, “F*ck Hamas” and “Donald Trump!”
Rep. Grace Meng whose district includes the synagogue noted that people had a right to protest but that “harassing people outside of their house of worship is unacceptable.” She alerted the police to keep peace between the protestors but the event was disrupted by the incident.
Similar incidents have occurred in Los Angeles, CA and Teaneck, NJ. More are likely unless preventative action is taken and perpetrators face consequences.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), made it an offense to use intimidation or physical force – such as forming a blockade – in order to prevent a person from entering a facility which provides abortions and reproductive healthcare. That 1994 law also provides protection for people using a house of worship, specifically prohibiting:
Many states have added to the national law. Some have created new agencies like New York State’s Hate and Bias Prevention Unit which focuses on education about biases, early warning detection systems and rapid response units for bias incidents.
First, these laws should be enacted around the country and must be enforced. People who intimidate or interfere with people attending synagogues should be prosecuted.
Second, additional protections should be instituted around the country. Ideas include:
Banning the wearing of face coverings/ masks at events;
Banning loudspeakers and noisemakers;
Hold the organization which call for rallies outside of synagogues – especially when using inflammatory language like “rage” – accountable;
add “buffer zones” of hundred-plus feet in which protestors cannot approach a synagogue, Jewish school or community center, similar to perimeters for abortion clinics.
The United States protects free speech, as well as freedom of assembly and worship. It does not provide protection for people to threaten, intimidate or interfere with others, especially at a house of worship. Legal protections must be enhanced and enforced to address the alarming rise of antisemitism.
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