The Most Effective Action Jews Can Take to Fight Antisemitism
At last week’s Rosh Hashanah service, our rabbi, in her sermon, spoke about the current extremely dangerous time for the world’s Jewish people. Globally, antisemitism has surged. She said, “The Jewish story of the last century has collapsed.“ She noted that the esteemed historian, Yuval Harari, said, “These last two years since October 7th are possibly the biggest turning point in Jewish history since the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE.” The danger to our people globally certainly is related to both what is happening in Israel and the Middle East, as well as in our own country.
During the sermon and since, I began to wonder, what would be the most important variable that would serve to protect the Jewish people? Would it be the end of the war in Gaza? Would it be the defeat of Iran? Would it be a rise of a more democratic Israeli government in which the issue of a strong and peaceful Palestinian state would emerge?
Listening to the sermon, I had a thought, an epiphany, that the most effective defense from this spiraling antisemitism and for the Jewish people worldwide would be our defeating the fast-paced authoritarian movement in our own country.
Leading scholars of authoritarianism and tyranny, Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, agree that the United States has already slipped into being an autocracy. In a matter of a mere nine months, Donald Trump, a self-admitted wannabe dictator, and his administration, have acted in flagrant violation of our constitution and hollowed out the institutions that serve the public—education, environment, public health, national security, air safety, and more. They are weaponizing the Department of Justice to persecute and harass their political enemies while freeing their convicted and violent criminal friends. Trump has expanded ICE and made it his personal secret police. ICE has kidnapped thousands of innocent immigrants (separating families) without due process. And similar to most lawless authoritarians, Trump has corruptly and brazenly enriched himself, his cronies, and his family.
Meanwhile, this administration has abandoned not only Ukraine but most of our democratic allies worldwide, enabling authoritarianism and isolationism to flourish.
Straight out of the autocrat playbook that Jews know all too well, Trump and his administration use dehumanization, “othering,” and scapegoating to blame the country’s ills (currently—immigrants, transgender, “radical left-wing” Democratic Party). He has even used “antisemitism” as a tool to go after universities and other institutions. He uses fear to make our institutions comply, especially the GOP, universities, law firms, corporations, etc.
Historically, the American Jewish population has long supported human rights, social justice, and democratic principles. Politically, we have been at the forefront of fighting for these principles.
We are all aware that Jewish people are ultimately not safe under an autocratic regime. And yet the powerful lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), supported over 80 GOP candidates who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election in 2020, in the 2024 election. These GOP candidates voted just hours after insurrectionists violently attacked our capital to support the blatantly false premise that the “election was rigged, and yet AIPAC supported them for reelection.
As I wrote in my Times of Israel blog, “How can we give support to an organization which claims to support the only democracy in the Middle East, when this organization has backed those who have voted to undermine ours?” (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-a-jewish-lobby-undermining-our-democracy/)
Despite their claims of being bipartisan, AIPAC was the biggest source of donations to GOP candidates opposing Democrats in the 2024 elections, according to Politico.
Had Trump lost the 2024 election, our country’s government, our democracy, would not have been so defiled. Our global leadership would have remained strong. And we as Jews might not be as threatened.
After the rabbi’s sermon, I am clearer that the best feasible action we as Jews can take against the spiraling worldwide antisemitism is to fight against and defeat the fast-paced authoritarian movement in our country.
