Anti-Semitism exists in the United States of America.
More to the point, anti-Semitism exists everywhere. Over the span of time it has spread its poison around the globe, sparing no one and no place from the ravages of the soul that it creates.
We have seen through the centuries how Jews around the world have been chased from one country to another, constantly in search of a place where they can live in peace and be secure from the racist tendencies of others. We have also witnessed – some of us in our lifetimes but certainly in the lifetimes of the generation before us, the ultimate manifestation of this hate-driven scourge —The Holocaust — and have grown up in a world where the words “never again” have a meaning all their own. Never again will Jews go to the slaughter while a world wrings its hands and frets and, for the most part, does nothing while Jewish men, women and children are gassed in the concentration camps and burned in the ovens of Hitler’s Third Reich. Never again will Jews allow themselves to fall victim to the violence of others who are driven by hate, not reason. Every Jewish person born in the 20th and 21st centuries has grown up with those two words — never again — somewhere close to their consciousness.
Anti-Semitism has been around since the beginning of time and, unfortunately, it will be around long after those of us alive today are gone. The question is, “What is America, what are we going to do about it?” Today!
We don’t need to hash out the multiple examples of anti-Semitism that have shocked the conscience, yet again, over the past couple of years where American leadership has been found both wanting and at the leading edge of encouraging the haters among us to act out their outrages. It is sufficient to focus on just the latest outburst of this centuries’ old slander that refuses to go away.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American Muslim woman from Minnesota, is the latest leader to speak the words that have for centuries caused pain, suffering and death to Jews across the globe. Not the words themselves, of course, but the call to action they impose on people who don’t know any better or, worse, know exactly what they are doing. I describe the congresswoman as I do because it is important to understand where the hate is coming from and who is spewing the latest version of the anti-Semitic tropes that are all too familiar. In this case it is a young woman who should know better. That she doesn’t is no excuse for her outrageous behavior, but it does suggest an opportunity that should not be missed.
It is easy for a fellow like me to look at the congresswoman, the way she is dressed, and read about her upbringing and make certain assumptions. I could be wrong but I believe that Ilhan Omar was not raised in any kind of society that was sensitive to the story of the Jewish people, the sins of anti-Semitism and outright horror of the Holocaust that led to the creation of the state of Israel as well as the strategic relationship between the United States and its most steadfast Middle Eastern ally.
And therein lies the opportunity. America and her colleagues need to educate her. We need to give her the opportunity to show that she can grow, that she is not an anti-Semite even though she uses the language of a hater. And that she can become the kind of leader she should be — one that understands the nature of an oppressed people because her own history is rife with such examples. A recent example is how the United States of America condemned in no uncertain terms the vilification of all Muslims because of the actions of a few. She should use that understanding to lead people less knowledgeable and more susceptible to being misdirected by the haters toward a more enlightened and civilized view of a world that can be.
That, by the way, is the immediate challenge of Omar’s Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives. Many of them want to give her the benefit of the doubt while many others, based on their personal experiences, know an anti-Semite when they see and hear one. Trying to live side-by-side in a big political tent ain’t easy, especially when ignorance, not necessarily intent, is the cause of disharmony.
So the House of Representatives has passed a resolution this week condemning hate-filled speech and action and acknowledging that the U.S. Congress is no place for hate. Good for them. It wasn’t a perfect resolution because it didn’t go quite far enough in condemning in unequivocal language the words of the individual who spoke them. So we will see if it changes Omar’s mind or redirects her mindset.
Meantime, the much broader issue maintains in the hallowed halls of Congress. For if you believe Omar’s explanation that she was just challenging America’s support for Israeli policies that don’t comport with her own worldview, you can see where our country is headed in a very short time.
In recent years, U.S. support of Israel — long a bipartisan matter taken without much dissension and of the broadest character — has been splitting along the political divide that separates Republicans and Democrats. Republicans, driven in part by long-held geopolitical considerations and, of late, the unwavering support of the evangelical community — have taken the high ground in its consistent commitment to the Jewish State.
Democrats, however, while still driven in part by the same geopolitical considerations of many of their Republican colleagues, have been watching support for Israel wane as more and more younger members of the party, who have little or no historical context, come to power. It is so much so that the very nature of American Jewish support for the Democrat Party may hang in the balance. By the way, losing Jewish support is not a good thing for the Democrats.
I am an American. I am Jewish. I love Israel and will do all that I can to make sure she survives, prospers and lives in peace with her Arab neighbors. That has been my position for my entire life, and I imagine it is similar to that of most Jewish Americans. Never again means something.
I am also — as of a few years ago — a Democrat because I believe the general tendencies of that party comport more with my views of life in and outside of America than does the Republican Party, of which I was a member for 40 years. But I cannot and will not support a party that condones anti-Semitism.
And that is the dilemma that some of these younger, undereducated on such matters, Democrats are creating for their party. And that is the challenge with which Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders must deal.
In the end, it will not come down to Israel or America. That has never been the issue.
The issue will resolve around whether the United States of America will be a country that abhors and condemns anti-Semitism or condones it.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.