Who Said ‘Never Again?’
The latest manifestations of Nazi-era gestures, symbols, and language occur regularly. Particularly frightening was Elon Musk’s “Roman salute” and his sophomoric jokes using a play on vocabulary from World War 2 Europe that should be anathema. Musk is Donald Trump’s latest “pet,” whom he considers valuable because Trump thinks people respect Musk’s wealth and influence. What is shocking is the lack of backlash to Musk’s rhetoric and support for Germany’s far-right political party, AfD. Musk proclaims that the world has to forget about Germany’s past and reclaim history. His revisionist ideas seem to have caught hold with the leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, who now supports the revisionist thinking about the Holocaust that Musk advocates.
Where is the outrage that should be heard from Jewish organizations? How is it that the Anti-Defamation League accepted Musk’s recent actions by dismissing them and not calling them what they are: antisemitic tropes? Netanyahu claimed that Musk was “falsely smeared,” while other Jewish organizations and leaders remained silent. We have been here before. We know where this language will lead. It is difficult to believe that Netanyahu, who proclaims that “never again” is what motivates him to save the Jewish state, does not condemn the latest outpouring of Nazi-era symbolism. It appears that the official Jewish world is falling into the same trap that German Jews fell into during Hitler’s rise to power. “It can’t happen here” is the phrase we hear again.
What has to happen before a full-throated attack on Jews changes from language, signs, and symbols to overt government policies? Trump’s silence and even tacit approval of Elon Musk’s pronouncements, influential Jewish organizations’ mealy-mouthed disapproval, and Jewish leaders’ silence in condemning Musk means we will be helpless against official government policies that encourage the antisemitism that we know exists. Cowardice in the face of what appears to be Trump’s power – that we are giving him by our silence–seems to ensure that the phrase “Never Again” will have lost its meaning.