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Politicians and anti-Semitism — the ostrich factor

What did people think was going to happen?

For well over a year now, assaults — verbal and physical — against New York Jews have been increasing. Passersby have been cursed at. Strollers — with toddlers in them — have been kicked. Windows of shuls have been broken.

But nobody seemed to care. Not law enforcement. Not the municipality. Sadly, not even Jewish media. This newspaper reached out over the past year asking two major news services: Why aren’t you covering the growing violence against New York Jews? It took three assaults in one week in August — two of them with stones — for a story finally to be written.

Up until then, the only people telling the story were community members themselves. The information was out there for anyone to see — if one wanted to see.

The question is why? Why has this story been ignored for so long? Is it because the Jews being attacked were haredi Orthodox? Was it because the perpetrators were black?

When Pittsburgh happened the response was overwhelming in its universality. Subsequent attacks by white supremacists have similarly received wide media attention. But in New York? The silence has been deafening. It didn’t fit the narrative. Here’s the thing that so many seem to have forgotten: The only consistent narrative of anti-Semitism is Jew hatred, be it characterized as right-wing motivated, racially motivated, left-wing motivated, communist-motivated, Islamic-motivated, Christianity-motivated or anti-Israel-motivated. To privilege white supremacy as the primary cause of anti-Semitism is not to understand what anti-Semitism is, and therefore not to be able to devise a strategy to counter it.

After the murderous anti-Semitic attack in Jersey City, New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio dared to give a press conference where he stated: “There’s a crisis of anti-Semitism gripping this nation . . . Now we have seen this extraordinarily extreme form of violence reach the doorstep of New York City.” On your doorstep? Where have you been, Mr. Mayor? It has taken root in your own house! Do you care so little about a constituency minority group that you are not even aware of the violence being perpetrated against them? Your failure to address this disturbing trend has helped foment it. When Jews are being cursed at and beaten up in public, without any recourse, it is not surprising that gunfire and stabbings will follow.

Even now, how widely is this latest attack being covered?

Even now, how seriously is it taken? Bail reform in New York means that more arrestees are released on their own recognizance. The New York Post reports that Tiffany Harris verbally and profusely abused a Jewish women, was arrested and then released —with no requirement to post bail. We are not weighing in on New York’s proposed bail reform per se, but how could it wisely, conceivably, extend to anti-Semitism? Is New York, despite all the political blather, taking hate crimes against Jews seriously?

In the wake of Jersey City, footage was captured documenting the vile language used by some in the black community against the murdered Jews. As in, it was their fault. They brought the violence to the neighborhood. They caused the problems.

In the wake of Monsey, the same language is used by some. Jews control property. They’re just about money. They are benefit fraudsters.

This is not to say that all of New York’s black community is anti-Jewish any more than to say that all white, or leftist, or rightist, or Christian, or Muslim or anti-Israel people are anti-Jewish; or that all Jews are model citizens.

But if a pattern is not recognized — black violence against chasidic Jews — it cannot be addressed and it cannot be rectified.

To give him his due, over the summer, Mayor de Blasio announced the intention to open an Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. In the past week, the city has begun putting this office into action, and stepped up patrols and planned education and social programming in an attempt to address and counteract this violent rise in anti-Semitism.

Tragically, it took innocent Jews being murdered and knifed for this to happen.

Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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