These are uneasy times for American Jews. After Charlottesville and after the Pittsburgh and Poway, Calif., synagogue shootings, it seems like there has been some kind of resurgence of anti-Semitism. The degree of the resurgence remains unclear.
I never thought I would see armed guards screening worshipers as they enter American synagogues.
On Nov. 1, federal authorities arrested Richard Holzer, a self-described skinhead and former Ku Klux Klan member, who was accused of plotting to blow up a synagogue in Pueblo, Colo. On Facebook, Holzer had written that Jews “need to die” and that they were a “cancer.” He had previously posted a video of himself urinating on a temple.
Holzer’s plot was quickly followed by another story about alt-right leader Richard Spencer. Milo Yiannopolis, his alt-right colleague and apparently ex-comrade, leaked an audio recording of Spencer from the day after the Charlottesville march. The recording has Spencer ranting about “little f—ing kikes. They get ruled by people like me.”
The Anti-Defamation League recorded 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents nationally in 2018, with incidents ranging from vandalism to harassment. Of these anti-Semitic incidents, 1,794 were classified as “right wing (anti-government, white supremacist or other).”
In 2019, the main danger to Jewish people comes from the far right. It is not now nor has it ever come from the left. Certainly there have been episodes of insensitivity or wrong-headed comments on the left, but there is no comparability. The numbers alone are very clear.
The increasing anti-Semitism goes along with an international trend reflected in right-wing authoritarian governments and movements. Trump, Orban, Bolsanaro, Duterte and others of that ilk thrive on fear of the stranger, anti-intellectualism and hateful rhetoric. Anti-Semitism is one element in that toxic stew.
I think the shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway also persuasively show the role of online communities in radicalizing anti-Semitic bigots to engage in acts of violence. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites have generated and continue to generate a surprising amount of traffic.
With the most disturbed racists and anti-Semites, there is a pattern of the true believer authoring an online manifesto explaining and attempting to justify his actions before he goes on a deadly shooting rampage. Their ideology is a key factor in understanding why they murder. Over the last 10 years, white supremacists have been responsible for more homicides than any other extremist group in America.
The role of President Trump in all this must be considered. It is no accident that he is a favorite of neo-Nazis and the alt-right. They retweet him all the time and Trump returns the favor. Trump has served as an inspiration to far-right extremists. He has continuously messaged the far right that he is their guy.
Cesar Sayoc, the now-convicted Florida pipe bomber, illustrates the point. He was the guy who prepared pipe bombs for multiple Democratic leaders and people he considered political enemies. His bombs never went off and he was captured by police. Sayoc is a kind of fruit off a poisonous tree. You have to wonder how many other Sayocs are out there.
Consider Trump’s comments in August when he described Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats as showing “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” This was the second time this year that Trump invoked the anti-Semitic trope about dual loyalty. In April, before an audience of Jewish Republicans, he referred to Benjamin Netanyahu as “your prime minister.”
The dual loyalty trope has a long history. Trump is playing with the false association that the loyalty of American Jews is primarily to Israel. The anti-Semitic trope is that Jews are not loyal to their home countries; rather, they are infiltrators and outsiders.
I immediately thought of the Dreyfus Affair, when Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly accused of betraying France. The common thread in the trope is that Jews harbor secret loyalty to some other, not us at home. The accusations against George Soros are very much in this same vein. Anti-Semites call Soros a “globalist,” which effectively places him in the outsider category.
Trump’s attacks on Congressman Adam Schiff as “Shifty Schiff” are anti-Semitic. Schiff is Jewish. He is also chair of the House Intelligence Committee. In light of the impeachment probe, Trump has his reasons for fearing Schiff. Nevertheless, the way he has chosen to criticize Schiff is revealing. Trump has said: “We don’t call him Shifty Schiff for nothing. He’s a shifty, dishonest guy.”
Trump had previously called Schiff “little pencil-neck.” Here he is playing on stereotypes of Jews as shady and unscrupulous. Think Shylock.
On Oct. 2, Trump’s son Don Jr. tweeted: “And for those who don’t know who Adam Schiff is, he is not just a radical liberal, he is someone who has been hand-picked and supported by George Soros.”
Don Jr. went on to call Schiff a “Soros puppet.” While the Trump modus operandi is sliming opposition, Don Jr. has zero grounds to make the Soros accusation. Here Don Jr. is playing the anti-Semitic boogeyman card, throwing a bone to the irrational haters and conspiracy mongers in the Trump base.
Since 2016, the Trump campaign has played a cagey game with the use of anti-Semitism. Pepe the frog was a regular campaign meme. In July 2016, Trump tweeted out an image of the star of David, Hillary Clinton and piles of money. Shortly before the election, Trump used George Soros, Janet Yellen and Lloyd Blankfein in his closing campaign ad.
Clearly, if Trump thinks that anti-Semitism can advance his interests, he is using it. It takes major-league chutzpah to use anti-Semitism while accusing your opponents of being anti-Semites. Trump has certainly done this with the Squad, particularly Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all women of color.
Trump’s accusations, especially against Omar, have been hateful smears. The pattern is well-established: find a quote about Israel, cherry pick a phrase or a quote, and make blatantly false accusations of anti-Semitism. Then get pro-Trump media outlets to pile on.
The real reason for these accusations of anti-Semitism is that Trump and the Republicans have lost the Jewish vote so badly. In the 2018 mid-term elections, 79% of American Jews voted for Democratic candidates with just 17% voting for Trump’s Republican Party. Next to African Americans, American Jews have been the most loyal Democratic voting bloc.
Trump is weaponizing false accusations of anti-Semitism in an effort to peal away Jewish voters from the Democrats. Such political machinations minimize and trivialize real anti-Semitism.
Also, Trump absolutely refuses to call out the racism and anti-Semitism in his base. Witness the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, who were “very fine people.” If Trump wanted to be taken seriously as someone who genuinely opposes anti-Semitism and racism, he would denounce it among his own supporters. We will be waiting a long time for that to happen, because it won’t happen.
No nation state is beyond criticism. Like all nation states, Israel needs to be criticized. The Netanyahu government has been a disaster for Israel and for the Jewish people. Part of the problem has been Israel’s failure to recognize the human rights of the Palestinian people. Jewish racism against Palestinians has been a disgrace and a shame. Given the history of the Jewish people, we should know better about all kinds of racism.
As an American Jew, I find accusations of disloyalty offensive. In the United States and in Israel, there are Jewish people with a wide range of political views on every issue. People need to vote their conscience. The last thing we need is President Trump or any other authority acting as arbiter, dictating how we vote and passing judgment.
American anti-Semitism is coming from the same deep well that has long brought us racism, white supremacy and xenophobia. It is the same deep well that perpetrated the genocide against Native Americans, enslaved generations of African Americans and cursed our history.
(Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot and blogs at jonathanpbaird.com.)