Monday, November 14, 2016

Anti-Semitism in America

Maybe I missed it, but when Jeremiah Wright’s protégé was elected president no one was worried about an increase in anti-Semitism. Heck, Wright’s protégé was supported by Louis Farrakhan and no one worried about having someone associated with anti-Semites in the White House.

Of course, the Obama years have seen an increase in anti-Semitism. That includes violently disrupting Jewish activities on campus. In some cases Israeli speakers are being uninvited because of the threat of violence. Just yesterday the Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick was uninvited from the University of Texas at Austin.

To be blunt about it, in the Age of Obama, no one cares.

On November 3 USA Today reported on the rising anti-Semitism on American college campuses:

Anti-Semitic activity on U.S. campuses continues to be on the rise. A 2016 study conducted by the AMCHA Initiative, an organization that seeks to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses, found the number of incidents involving “the suppression of Jewish students’ freedom of speech and assembly” doubled from last year.

“We’re really concerned for this new year,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, AMCHA’s cofounder and director. “(Anti-Semitic behavior) really tends to completely shut down and obliterate the presence, the opinion and the safe space for one particular group. It’s not a matter of incivility, it’s a matter of intolerance.”

As reported by Newsweek, more than a dozen Jewish student events were violently disrupted this year at schools coast to coast, including Boston University, University of Maryland and University of Florida. And on the University of California campuses, anti-Semitic graffiti reading,
“Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber” has appeared on the walls of buildings, and a UCLA student’s impartiality on a judicial board was questioned due to her involvement in the Jewish community.

The AMCHA study found campuses that have an active Students for Justice in Palestine chapter are seven times more likely to have incidents targeting Jewish students, Rossman-Benjamin said. A Brandeis University report also found that universities in New York and California are “hotspots” for this type of activity.

“Jewish students are marked as being Zionist unless they specifically stand up and say otherwise,” Rossman-Benjamin said. And when it comes to Jewish students, she says, “Nobody stands up for them.”

It’s the Age of Obama, my friends. I say good riddance.

3 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

Does Stephen Bannon cound as anti-Semitic?
https://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/13/white-nationalist-who-hates-jews-will-be-trumps-right-hand-man-white-house/214419
---
Bannon has been a key figure in leveraging this bigotry to aid Trump’s rise to power. Bannon bragged during the Republican Convention to nominate Trump that Breitbart News had become home to the “alt-right” -- which is just a racist code word for white nationalists. Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart News has featured racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and anti-LGBT rhetoric. The site recently made a “noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right.
---

I confess labeling people always confuses me. Like what do you have to do to be anti-X? If you're critical of Donald Trump for one single policy position are you anti-Trump?

Perhaps the whole anti-semitic label is just PC, trying to shut down debate on valid issues.

I don't know. I don't think I'm anti-semitic, only justified because I'm pro-intelligence, and most Jews seem pretty smart. Perhaps they're just highly motivated, but that works for me too.

On the other hand, I recall talking in 2008 to a Jewish friend and I was worried about the economic news, and he said not to worry because all the indicators were good. I didn't know what his indicators were, but it did make me feel good that he was wrong. Smart people can be wrong, not that I ever thought otherwise, but there's so much I don't know about, I have to trust someone to know more than me.

Sam L. said...

This is because colleges love Diversity, but only certain kinds, and Jews aren't their kind.

Bannon? I don't know. There's been so much tar and mud flung around. We'll see.

AesopFan said...

Even the PowerLine writers are divided about Bannon (see today's posts).
But we KNOW the Left is anti-Jews, anti-Judaism, and anti-Israel (are there any more categories of anti-Semitism?).
I will wait and see what Trump's administration does.