Anti-Semitism is one of those vicious maladies that ought to be close to eradication, like polio. But it turns out it’s more like crabgrass: You can never eliminate it entirely, and given half a chance, it will spread rapidly. ADVERTISING
Anti-Semitism is one of those vicious maladies that ought to be close to eradication, like polio. But it turns out it’s more like crabgrass: You can never eliminate it entirely, and given half a chance, it will spread rapidly.
The evidence of that depressing reality is abundant lately. “There’s a certain atmosphere in the country that’s disturbing,” says Ken Jacobson, deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which combats this and other types of bigotry. “There is a new legitimacy to saying things that were beyond the pale.”
Hmm. Where could that come from?
Well, Donald Trump recently accused Hillary Clinton of meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors” — language that echoes the perennial conspiracy theories of Nazis and other anti-Semites.
“Is it just me or is much of this Trump speech Jew-baiting?” tweeted Julia Ioffe, one of many Jewish journalists who have been the target of vicious anti-Semitic slurs and threats on Twitter.
Some may wonder if she’s picking up signals that aren’t there. But apparently not. Openly neo-Nazi groups are getting the same message. Andrew Anglin, editor of a far-right website, told the Los Angeles Times, “Virtually every alt-right Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign.”
Anti-Semitism fits comfortably within the anti-immigrant, Islamophobic appeal of a candidate who said an American-born judge couldn’t be fair to Trump because he is “of Mexican heritage.” And he’s fueled it, intentionally or not, with such antics as sharing tweets from neo-Nazi accounts, as well as one tweet of his own that called Clinton “the most corrupt candidate ever,” with that phrase embedded in a six-pointed star. Is anyone surprised when former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke exults, “Thank God Trump has emerged and embraced my issues”?
But this phenomenon is not a monopoly of the alt-right. It’s also detectable on the left, particularly on university campuses, where campaigns to get schools to disinvest from companies that operate in Israel often end up stimulating hostility toward Jews.
Last year, an undergraduate running for the Stanford student senate asked for the endorsement of the Students of Color Coalition. But when members of the group interviewed her, she said, they asked how her Jewish identity would affect her decisions — a question she interpreted as anti-Semitic. The Stanford Israel Association said some student groups have refused to co-sponsor events with it. A recent study by the Amcha Initiative found that anti-Semitic incidents on campus increased by 45 percent in the first six months of 2016 and seemed to be connected to the “boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign” against Israel.
The good news is that anti-Semitism is the toxic superstition of a shrinking minority. Since 1992, a 2013 poll found, the share of Americans expressing such attitudes has fallen from 20 percent to 12 percent, the lowest figure on record. Those younger than 39, it showed, are “remarkably free of prejudicial views.”
But anyone acquainted with history knows that prejudice can wax as well as wane. Modern social media gives more outlets to bigots who once had none.
So vigilance is needed now as much as ever. In the effort to combat anti-Semitism, no victory is permanent, and every generation has to take up the challenge.
— Chicago Tribune
