Jewish community centers across America are receiving bomb threats, and Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated. Although the media is reporting an increase in anti-Semitic acts, a piece in Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner claimed that 7,000 anti-Semitic incidents occurred under former President Barack Obama’s leadership, but were ignored. And Abraham Foxman, former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that although the recent wave of threats to the Jewish community is of significance, when put in perspective, “it is not a crisis.”
Many have blamed President Donald Trump for this rash of anti-Semitic acts. But The Federalist’s Bethany Mandel pointed out that anti-Semitism predated Trump, and that what has increased instead is a focus on it by the media because of its anti-Trump campaign. So all of this reporting has more to do with making Trump and his administration (and all Republicans, for that matter) look bad then it does genuine concern for Jews and their communities.
Maybe it’s because I was bullied as an immigrant that my soul grieves at anti-Semitic mistreatment. I am also an Iraqi, raised in an anti-Semitic subculture. I know full well the extent of anti-Semitism in the Arab culture. Staying quiet is not an option.
Retired Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse is a brave soul, willing to not only talk about anti-Semitism in the Arab world, but also to bring a powerful paradigm shift to the subject. In an articulate and insightful conversation with Bill Kristol, she said that at its core, anti-Semitism is a political movement against liberal democracy and emancipation.
In this two-part series, I want to flesh out what that looks like in the Arab world and circle around to what we’re experiencing here in America.
Read the rest of the article at The Philos Project