Antisemitism in America and How We Got Here
For years, experts talked about the success of Jewish life in America, particularly in comparison to the long, sorry history of Jews in the diaspora.
At the same time, there were some who noted that things weren’t all that great and linked that perceived reality to a long history of antisemitism in America.
For the former, what has transpired in the last decade was a shocking development. There were many who assumed that the progress that had been made was so significant that going back didn’t seem possible. At ADL, I actually had colleagues who said to me that they didn’t think antisemitism was any longer a problem.
On the other hand, for those who focused on deeply entrenched Jew hatred despite the easing of it for many years, the surge of antisemitism was not a surprise, though the intensity and breadth of it may still have been beyond what even these folks anticipated.
There’s no clear answer as to which view was the correct one. There is historical evidence on both sides. What it points to is that a simplistic view of America and the Jews doesn’t wash. Neither the notion that antisemitism was no longer a problem nor the idea that the golden age of Jews in America was a fantasy holds up under scrutiny. The progress was real but its permanence was never guaranteed.
So what has changed? What should have been predicted from the long history of antisemitism in America, what could we have expected, and how in particular did it go beyond anything that was projected?
To address what has changed, one has to look at what were the positive factors that produced the golden age. Several factors immediately come to mind. America in the 1950s and 1960s opened up due to two major influences: that of World War II, in which like never before it was a war for freedom and against fascism and hate; and the Civil Rights Movement, which transformed America in many ways, setting a much higher standard for what was acceptable behavior and rhetoric. These two elements made it more difficult and unacceptable to engage in outright Jew hatred. It didn’t mean that antisemitic attitudes and incidents had disappeared – far from it – but they were more on the margins, and experienced pushback from mainstream society in a way that hadn’t existed before.
Added to these broad-based changes but related to them were the images of Auschwitz. It cannot be said that witnessing and learning about what happened in the Shoah did not reach all Americans, but recognition of the Holocaust played a significant role in diminishing the willingness to act out on antisemitic attitudes. Those attitudes themselves diminished over time, as surveys by ADL and others demonstrated, but even in the best of times, they never disappeared.
So it was this combination of broader openness in society together with unique understanding from the Shoah of the impact of antisemitism that brought America to that stage where Jews could even question whether antisemitism was any longer a problem in America, and Jews could express their identity openly, safely and comfortably in ways that had not been true before.
These and other factors have changed dramatically in recent years. While some claim that America is an even more open place today than decades ago, there are elements on both sides of the aisle that put that in question. On the left, many times under the banner of social justice, we see attacks on individuals who may disagree being cancelled for their views. There is a new authoritarianism in the guise of equality which is too often being imposed and allowing disagreements on issues to turn into all-or-nothing battles. For Jews that means that old criticisms of Israel, which always existed, now turn into warfare as represented by outlandish charges against the Jewish state of apartheid and genocide.
Meanwhile on the right, we see legitimate arguments about border security evolve into cases against immigration more broadly, with stereotypes often entering the picture.
And legitimate opposition to some steps by the left to institutionalize racial preferences can also devolve into justifications of racial stereotyping.
In sum, rather than broad agreement on how to make American society more just, which largely existed for years after the civil rights movement, every step along the way is contentious and politicized, opening up the path to extremists.
At the same time, the impact of the Holocaust has diminished as new generations, far removed from World War II, emerge without either Holocaust knowledge or a sense of Holocaust relevance. The result is a diminution of that sense of shame about the murder of six million Jews that inhibited the acting out of Jew hatred.
Added to all this was the emergence of social media as a primary source of information, particularly for young people, and the pouring in of millions of dollars to American campuses from Israel-hating countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. The ingredients were there for a transformation of attitudes toward Israel and, with it, American Jews, who are overwhelmingly supporters and proud of the Jewish state.
Social media is both a cause and a multiplier of these changes. It played a role by repeating and circulating views on Israel and their supporters that had not been widespread before. And once change was in the air, it continued to expand to the detriment of the Jewish community through social media repetition and influence.
Two elements reflect how difficult it has gotten. First is the huge increase of antisemitic incidents in recent years, multiplying eightfold from previous decades. This means that the average Jew is conscious about his or her safety and it affects how they act and where they go.
And secondly is the normalization of putting down Israel and, with it, supporters of the Jewish state, the vast majority of Jews. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is the classic example of this. He claims to have nothing against Jews and criticizes some forms of antisemitism, but he will have nothing to do with the State of Israel, which he labels as genocidal, or with supporters of Israel. In doing this, his comments on antisemitism are meaningless compared to the environment in the city that he creates legitimizing attacks on Jews.
And most significantly, none of this stopped him from being elected and having high popularity ratings. Normalization epitomized.
Finally, there is the question of the role of the Israeli government in this deterioration. It is reasonable to say that while the government was not the cause of these developments, its failure to pay sufficient attention to it and engage in proactive diplomacy with Americans, explaining the complexity of the challenges they have faced, has exacerbated the situation significantly. As important as the relationship with the U.S. is to so many things, this absence must be seen as another contributing factor.
In sum, the reemergence of antisemitism did not happen overnight and it won’t be solved overnight. What it will take to seriously address the emergency is a comprehensive approach focusing both on broad-based challenges in society at large and specific ones related to the Jewish community, such as a renewed look at Holocaust education.
And with that we need to refocus efforts of the Jewish community in expressing pride in our Jewish identity and support for Israel, and a determination to bring in non-Jewish supporters in our cause who realize not only the moral urgency to do so, but as well the importance for the future well-being of America itself.
