Sometimes couched as anti-Israel, we find supporters of discrimination in their spheres of influence, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), spouting prejudices with hubris while their party’s leadership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, remain mostly silent.
German Jews recognize they safely exist only through police protection, who park outside German synagogues to prevent anti-Semitic violence. In Poland, the home of Auschwitz, anti-Semitism has become so accepted it blatantly is part of the platform of the National Democratic Party, known as “Endeks.”
And they assert this bit of history as evidence:
From 1921 to 1935, there was a group named the Association of German National Jews (Verband national Deutsche Juden), whose goal was the total assimilation of Jews into German culture; the self-eradication of Jewish identity; the expulsion of all Eastern European Jews from Germany; and a radical hatred of Zionism. Sadly, these seem like the same goals of many Jews in America choosing to deny the faith and practices of their ancestors in favor of secularizing themselves. On some level — often unconscious — they believe if they deny their Judaism and go along with the anti-Semitic rhetoric, non-Jewish Americans will better accept them. Unfortunately, they are avoiding looking at history.
To me, it sounds like the argument is being framed as “us” Jews and “them” Jews making the mistake of trying to homogenize. That’s tremendously ironic, as this type of thinking is exactly what led them to support Nazi Germany. The exact kind of language Trump use, aggressive, bombastic pursuit of “agitators” as undesirables, of ignoring antisemites and bigots Trump associates himself with, of dismissing his speech as a “rhetorical tool,” is what German Jewish groups believed would protect them… Until Nazis came for them, too.
Maybe antisemetic violence should be curbed, but you should consider what’s actually causing it, and how that “curbing” will be done.
“The Jews are the cause of Antisemitism” yes, how novel, why didn’t anyone else think of that, oh, that’s right, literally every other band of Antisemites throughout all time have used that line of reasoning,“why can’t the Jews, you know, be less Jewish, we are absolutely within our rights to terrorize them until they see the light”. “Maybe antisemitic violence should be curbed” “Maybe”. Quite.
This position is interesting. It’s echoed in articles like:
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/first_person/300258/when-the-chicken-votes-for-colonel-sanders/
And they assert this bit of history as evidence:
To me, it sounds like the argument is being framed as “us” Jews and “them” Jews making the mistake of trying to homogenize. That’s tremendously ironic, as this type of thinking is exactly what led them to support Nazi Germany. The exact kind of language Trump use, aggressive, bombastic pursuit of “agitators” as undesirables, of ignoring antisemites and bigots Trump associates himself with, of dismissing his speech as a “rhetorical tool,” is what German Jewish groups believed would protect them… Until Nazis came for them, too.
Maybe antisemetic violence should be curbed, but you should consider what’s actually causing it, and how that “curbing” will be done.
“The Jews are the cause of Antisemitism” yes, how novel, why didn’t anyone else think of that, oh, that’s right, literally every other band of Antisemites throughout all time have used that line of reasoning,“why can’t the Jews, you know, be less Jewish, we are absolutely within our rights to terrorize them until they see the light”. “Maybe antisemitic violence should be curbed” “Maybe”. Quite.