What's on Our Mind 10-29-2021

 

After four years of a president who stoked antisemitism subtly and overtly, there was a calming sigh of relief with Joe Biden’s election. However, the dangerous wave of antisemitism encouraged by his predecessor is proving difficult to contain. 

 

Antisemitism continues to rise. A third of Jewish college students say they have personally experienced antisemitism in the last year, according to a Hillel and ADL survey.

 

Issues like climate change and voting rights, which should be uniting us, have now become poisoned with antisemitism, just like what happened with the Women’s March a couple of years ago.

 

Recently a chapter of the environmentalist group Sunrise Movement said it wouldn’t march in a voting rights rally because pro-Israel groups were participating. Those “pro-Israel” groups included the National Council of Jewish Women and the Religious Action Center — organizations that have been working on these very issues.

 

The hatred has not ended. 

 

The GOP continues to welcome into its party candidates who embrace antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories,themes which will surely be the hallmark of their campaigns in the midterms.

 

The Jewish community is closely watching the VA gubernatorial race to see if antisemitic tropes used by the GOP candidate turn out or turn off voters. This can offer us a chilling preview of what we expect as we move closer to November.

 

In Congress, GOP members unabashedly embrace antisemitism and Holocaust imagery. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) held a fundraiser with a notorious white supremacist and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes. Gosar also attended a conference sponsored by Fuentes’ alt-right group because he wanted to speak to the young people there who “are becoming part of the election process and becoming a bigger force.”

 

We cannot stand idle. We must report incidents of antisemitism where and when we see them. During our zoom meeting today Rep. Elissa Slotkin - the first Jewish woman to represent Michigan in Congress - told us that we must be vigilant in our reporting, regardless of how small the incident.

 

It’s been three years this week since that horrific Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. The Jewish community has tried to rebuild itself proving that hate will not defeat us. 

 

But our country has not defeated the hate. To do so, we must elect and support candidates in 2022 who will lead us away from that dark path. 

 

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