A new fad called “Jew-hatred” is sweeping America. Jew-hatred is now accepted in America, being a Jew-hater is trendy, it’s cool, it’s fashionable.
A new Gallup poll finds that while a majority of Americans are proud to hate Jews, many more — a majority of Americans — consider hatred of Jews a “problem” — and for some, even a “very serious problem.”
Gallup conducted the telephone survey between May 30 and June 1. They surveyed 1,019 adults over the age of 18. And here are the findings:
For 9% of the population, Jew-hatred is a “very serious problem.”
48% answered that it was “somewhat of a problem.”
30% said it’s not a big deal.
And 9% thought that Jew-hatred in America was “not a problem at all.”
The exact wording of the Gallup poll question was, “Do you think anti-Semitism — prejudice against Jewish people — is currently a very serious problem in the United States, somewhat of a problem, not very much of a problem, or not at all a problem?”
Roughly speaking, their findings suggest that 60% of people consider Jew-hatred to be a problem, and, more importantly, 40% do not consider it a problem.
Given the Malthusian rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, 40% is far too high. It is difficult for me to understand why so many Americans (40%) cannot see that these attacks on Jews are harmful to the very foundations of American democracy and a sinister threat to a society that was once peaceful and secure.
Why can’t they connect the dots and understand that so many attacks being committed against fellow Americans in America are not just attacks on Jewish Americans, but attacks on America as a whole.
These attacks have resulted in everyone who watches television, reads the newspapers, or follows news sites and social media witnessing anti-Semitic hooligans invading Jewish neighborhoods and attacking synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jews themselves.
This is not free political speech or a protected right to protest. These are acts of violence and hate crimes as defined by federal and state law.
In 1919, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Schenck v. United States, used a phrase he borrowed from the prosecution’s closing argument in the lower court case against Schenck. He wrote about “falsely crying fire at the theater.” This was Holmes’ way of explaining to the public that free speech has its limits. Not all speech is free speech, especially speech that endangers others, causes riots, or gets people trampled.
Words can kill just as much as actions.
Of course, there are times when it is permissible to yell fire in a theater — that is, if there is truly a fire in the theater, or if you sincerely believe that the theater is on fire.
This oft-quoted line by Judge Holmes has become almost a cliché, but that’s because, like many clichés, it rings true. Interestingly, over time the cliché has come to include the word “crowded,” as in “a crowded theater.” The word “by mistake” is almost always omitted.
Going into a Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles wearing a kefir and waving Palestinian and Hamas flags is sedition, and sedition is illegal.
It is illegal to beat a Jewish-looking man or boy on the streets of Brooklyn.
Given the dramatic rise in Jew-hatred unfolding before our eyes, I was surprised and very pleased by the response to another Gallup poll question.
When asked whether they would vote for a Jewish candidate in the U.S. presidential election, 89% of people surveyed said they would vote for a Jewish candidate. That means that nearly 9 in 10 people would vote for a Jewish person for president if that person were nominated by their party. While 89% is a staggering figure, there is no reason to believe that it is exaggerated, unfounded, or false.
These figures offer great hope in the fight against Jew-hatred: in the end, those involved in attacks on Jews are merely statistical anomalies — meaning that all the hatred spewed and attacks perpetrated are the work of fringe, unrelated groups far removed from mainstream America.
Instigators of Jew-hatred must be told by their friends, family, politicians, police, educators, and society at large that inciting or acting on hatred of Jews is unacceptable. Massive social media campaigns must organize social movements to ostracize those who hate Jews and those who incite hatred against Jews. They must be made to feel that they are not welcome in our mainstream society.
A united front of honest and good people, Jews and non-Jews, who understand the danger and vulgarity of the oldest hatred in the world, can eliminate this evil from our society.
Not only is it the best way, it’s the only way.
The author is a social and political commentator. See his television program “Thinking Out Loud” on the Jewish Broadcasting Service.
