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Why So Many People Still Don't Understand Anti-Semitism
(Atlantic) Yair Rosenberg - Most people do not realize that Jews make up just 2% of the U.S. population and 0.2% of the world's population. This means simply finding them takes a lot of effort. But every year in Western countries, including America, Jews are the No. 1 target of anti-religious hate crimes. The congregants at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, were attacked in the first place because Jews played a sinister symbolic role in the imagination of Malik Faisal Akram, who traversed an ocean from the UK to America to accomplish his task. The notion that such a minuscule minority secretly controls the world is comical, which may be why so many responsible people still do not take the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory seriously. The FBI made an official statement declaring that the actions of the assailant were "not specifically related to the Jewish community." But the gunman did not travel thousands of miles to terrorize some Mormons. He sought out a synagogue and took it hostage, believing that Jews alone could resolve his grievances. That's targeting Jews. Anti-Semitism is not merely a social prejudice; it is a conspiracy theory about how the world operates. Thanks to centuries of material blaming the world's ills on the world's Jews, conspiracy theorists inevitably discover that the invisible hand of their oppressor belongs to an invisible Jew. One attack on one synagogue is not just a hate-crime statistic. It is also a warning. We must find a way to confront the conspiratorial currents that threaten to overtake our society.